The Ending of "1984"

I was actually very disappointed with the ending of the novel. Throughout the novel I was hopeful that Winston was a glimmer of hope in the horrid dystopia and that he would some how find a way to prevail against the evil that surrounded him constantly. When he met Julia it seemed as if going against the party may actually be a slight possibility, and in the least she at least brought meaning back to life for Winston. It was also extremely disappointing to find out O'Brien's true nature although he did seem questionable all along and it seemed to good to be true for Winston to have found an ally in him and a tie to the brotherhood.

Winston's initial strength at the beginning of part three of the novel was surprising and seemed as if it could be another slight glimmer of hope. Throughout the novel he did not seem like he would be able to take the beatings described in the last few chapters of the book. That bit of hope was ultimately diminished also when he surrender to the torturing by rats that occurred in room 101. I was disappointed to see him ultimately betray Julia and himself as well.

At the end Winston has lost himself and come to conform to everything that he once hated. He know believes that "two plus two equals five" and repeats the party sayings and goes along living life like any other naturally obeying citizen of the party. Earlier in part three Winston told himself that he would always hate big brother in his mind, he would just have to make it seem otherwise outwardly. He says in doing this, even if he dies he will have won because he will have died hating big brother which is more than many others could say. However, at the end Winston betrays himself yet again in admitting that he loves big brother. The book is a disappointment because at the end Winston has been converted into an ideal party member therefore diminishing the little hope that readers had throughout the novel.

"The Book"

"The Book" is given to Winston by O'Brien. It was written by Goldstein and is entitled: The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. The book essentially is a detailed and lengthy overview the party's history and how Oceania came to be. Two chapters of the book are entitled after party slogans, they are "war is peace" and ignorance is strength". Winston reads these two chapters while up in Mr. Charrington's shop in chapter nine. These chapters are described in detail by Orwell in 1984. First the social classes are traced as well as the Inner Party, the Outer Party and the proles. It described how Eurasia, Oceania, and Eastasia came to be what they are known as today. Goldstein says in the book that the war never progresses and will remain at a standstill since no one country has a leg up on another. In this way the book does reveal something, it reveals why there is constant war and why the enemy is constantly changing.

Orwell's purpose for the book seems to be to critique his current society, however in the context of the book it does not seem to be worth as much as Winton believes that it is. If anything the book just seems like a ploy to drag Winston increase Winston's curiosity and keep his interest. Although the book seems as if it is a glimmer of hope to Winston, in reality it just seems like it is repeating everything that he had already known and does not seem to have much real value to Winston although he makes himself believe that it does, even though it seems as if he may be disappointed by what little it had to offer him in his search for seemingly non-existent hope and answers to his many questions.

Explication of "The History Teacher"

Chapter Seven in sound in sense talks about irony. Irony is when something has a meaning that extends beyond its use as a figure of speech. In the poem irony of situation seems to play a large role, this is when a discrepancy exists between the actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate. The chapter also talks about euphemisms which are substitutions of less severe terms in place of those that might be offensive.

In Billy Collins' poem, The History Teacher, both situational irony and euphemisms are at play. The speaker of the poem is telling a story of a history teacher. This particular teacher is extremely concerned with protecting his seemingly young students from the harsh truth and maintaining their innocence. He does so by replacing the offensive truths of the past with euphemisms. One example is "he told them the Ice Age was really just / the Chilly Age, a period of millions of years / when everyone had to wear sweaters" (2-4). He uses a euphemism in changing  "Ice" to "Chilly" and feels as if he is protecting his students from the past in doing so.

The situational irony is not revealed until later in the poem. It is revealed that on the playground, the kids in the history class are actually the bullies: "The children would leave his classroom / for the playground to torment the weak and the smart, / mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses" (14-17). Although it seems as if protecting the kids from the violent nature of the world would make them more peaceful, it actually has the opposite affect on them. The teacher is naive to the effect that his lessons have on his students. The serious message of the poem is that we learn from our mistakes and that is why they are not repeated. By learning about the bad things in the world the kids are unable to take lessons away from what they learn. Learning the harsh truth is a necessity in maturing and learning right from wrong.

Julia from 1984

In our recent reading we have discovered that Julia is not an enemy but rather a love interest for Winston in a seemingly loveless society. Julia slipped a note to Winston saying that she loves him and since then they have met up multiple times. However so far it seems as if Julia is only interested in Winston for sexual purposes. Also, Winston had hoped that she may be a partner for him to talk about revolt against Big Brother and the Party. However Julia does not seem interested in a large scale revolt but rather isolating small problems within the society to show that it is not inevitable. It seems as if finding ways to outsmart the Party is Julia's only goal and sex is one way for her to do so.

It seems as if she takes pride in her previous sexual encounters with men of the party and also takes pride in the control seems to have obtained over Winston so quickly. Winston on the other hand seems to want to have a real relationship with Julia he even imagines living inside of the paperweight with her, because the paperweight is a link to the past. He also reveals his fantasies that Katherine will die so that he could marry Julia. Winston then shares his concern about the brotherhood and other aspects of the Party with Julia yet she seems to not be concerned which upsets Winston because it ruins his hopes for having her as a partner in rebellion.

Although in our previous reading we were led to believe that Julia would be an ally to Winston at this point it seems as though she is using Winston. She does not seem to actually love Winston even admitting that she does this often many different men. Her actions with Winston are Julia's own individual way of rebelling against the Party. It does not seem as though she will be an ally for Winston in his possible future rebellion against the Party. Winston has a bigger goal in mind than Julia does and therefore their characters are more different than it may have seemed at first.