TS/CD/CM

Post the information from the sheet we worked on in class. You should be posting the work of your classmate, not your own. If you did not trade with someone or if you were not prepared for this step, post your own!

TS: As the government in 1984 controls its people by making them fearful, it is also controlled by fear.

CD: The proles are animals.
CM: The government fears the most powerful group in its populace and is thus invested in dehumanizing them. They could overthrow the state, but if they are not even human, then surely they would not have the power to do so.

Thesis:
The Discussion between Winston & Syme about the new dictionary & the hanigings demonstrates that Syme is too intelligent & too perfect for the party.

CD:
"In an intellectual way, Syme was venomously orthodox."(49)

CM:
Syme is dangerously orthodox. Being too orthodox makes him a problem for the Party b/c he understands too much about how the Party is controlling everyone.

TS: Under the oceanian government, people say what the government says is right, not what they think is right.

CD: It was not the man's brain that was speaking it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not a speech in a true sense; it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness like the quaking of a duck.

CM: It seems like the man doesn't really think about what he is saying, he just says it because it it right and well accepted by the government

TS-->[Syme] is bent on destruction which is why Winston knows that he is going to be vaporized.

CD-->The hanging was "a good hanging. I think it spoils it when they tie their feet together. I like to see them kicking. And above all, at the end, the tongue sticking right out, and a blue-quite bright blue."

CM-->Syme is bent on destruction, and part of the reason that Winston thinks he is going to be vaporized is because he controls what the people say. He is becoming too smart so that he will eventually not be easy to control.

TS: The party must have a slogan because the party was founded on the concept that it would use the fighting of ever persistent enemies as part the party ethos.

CD: "How could you have a slogan like freedom is slavery when the concept of freedom has been abolished."

CM: This introduces many other questions that the reader can formulate. The most obvious one is: Why does the party keep the slogan if it has the power to get rid of ideas? Why does the party need a slogan? Are these ideas very important to the party? Are they being used for a purpose other than to rally the citizens of Oceania?

TS: Totalitarian governments do their best to destroy those intelectuals who understands the way the government works.

CD: "It was a good hanging. I think it spoils it when they tie their feet together"

CM:This shows a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the state than most people. Syme sees the hanging as entertainment, with actors trying to put on a good show. The state would prefer it to be seen as punishing enemies, but Syme sees through it.

TS:
When people stop asking questions, and just believe what they are told, they become orthodox, and lose an important part if being human: fre, independent thought.

CD:
Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

CM:
This means that when someone is orthodox they don't think for themselves. When you don't ask questions and just do what you are told, you lose free thought, and this is orthodoxy. Unconsciousness aka not living, not being awake, and if you're not living then you're not human.

TS: "It can control the past and it can control the present, but Big Brother can't control the future."

CD: It struck him as curious that Big Brother can create dead men but not living ones.

CM: This little idea shows that the Big Brother can control the past because they have the ability to create dead men. When Winston looks at the idea in a different perspective, he sees that Big Brother does not have infinite control because it cannot create living men in the past.

TS: The government of 1984 works to dehumanize its people.

CD: "It was a good hanging".

CM: Syme's commentary reveals that he's taken a liking to horrible sights of murder and execution.

ShaniquaStarquisha2717 wrote:

Thesis:
The Discussion between Winston & Syme about the new dictionary & the hanigings demonstrates that Syme is too intelligent & too perfect for the party.

CD:
"In an intellectual way, Syme was venomously orthodox."(49)

CM:
Syme is dangerously orthodox. Being too orthodox makes him a problem for the Party because he understands too much about how the Party is controlling everyone.

Careful! Your CM looks like a restating of the quote. Instead analyze language in this one.

the_cheese_king wrote:

TS: The government of 1984 works to dehumanize its people.

CD: "It was a good hanging".

CM: Syme's commentary reveals that he's taken a liking to horrible sights of murder and execution.

Good CD. Not quote worthy, however. Instead, embed it with context set up and discuss Syme's (note spelling) casual diction.

TS: Syme is a fairly misunderstood character, but there is still something sketchy and mysterious about this tiny creature; what is he hiding and why does he act the way he does?

CD: When Syme is conecting with Winston about his job, Winston believes that "Syme will be vaporize. He is too intelligent. The Party does not like such people."

CM: The Party's philosophy on smart people is that they should be vaporized so that they cannot think about and disobey the Party's laws. They believe that intellectuals should be killed because they could cause an uprising against the Party if they gathered enough supporters and used their wisdom about the Party.

Thesis:
Wisnton lying to the ppeople of Oceania for govermental purposes shows that his character has to somewere in his mind agree with the rules of oceania.
CD: " Winston's grater pleasure in life was his work."

CM: 1984 is all about the govermental control over the people of Oceania and Winston and his work are a classic example of this.

TS: The government plans to destroy things that can possibly discredit them.

CD: In order to support claims that they've bettered life, the Party paints a cruel picture of the past "where hardly anyone had enough to eat and where hundred of thousands of poor people had no boots on their feet and not even a roof to sleep under." (72)

CM:The government controls memory so that no one remembers anything about the past which can cause problems for their credibility. People also hear statistics that say life has improved and production has caused an overall betterment of lifestyles.

Thesis: People like to do things the easy way; to think for oneself requires work. By being orthodox, one accepts, often blindly and without thinking, what everyone around him believes like Parsons and other Party members.

CD: "Orthodoxy means not thinking- not needing to think. orthodoxy is unconsicousness."

CM: Eight after the war in Iraq started, there was a wave of patriotism in the US. It was unpatriotic and unorthodox to questionthe President's decision to go to war or the war itself. People didn't think about what they were actually supporting; now a few years later, many people disagree with the war. This idea of being orthodox and not straying from the norm is exactly what the Party wants in 1984. The members would not need to think; they could be spoon fed whatever the Party wanted them to believe and just accept it at face value.

TS: The government in the novel 1984 tries to keep the world bland and simple, which is the complete opposite of what our government is trying to do today.

CD: "It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."

CM: The Inner Party created a new language with the start of Big Brother to keep everything simple and lucid. Syme is helping to eliminate unnecessary words to help the citizens keep their vocabulary small, simple, and bland. This could also be looked at as a technique to dumb the citizens down. This way it will be easier for the government to do things without being questioned by the people.

Thesis>> Big Brother uses his power over the citizens' collective memory of the past to give him command over the citizens' present thoughts. Orwell talks about how easily people believe BB, how controlling the past will let BB control the future, and how Winston thinks he can escape the memory trap set by BB.

CD>> "It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank BB for raising the chocolate ration to 20 grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to 20 grams a week. Was it possible that they could all swallow that after only 24 hours? Yes, they swallowed it!"

CM>> This quote shows how brain washed most of the Oceania citizens are. Orwell's use of the word "swallow" suggests that they are willing and eager to take it in; it is like food to them; they must have it, and don't care to question what they are being fed.

TS- The government's gaol is to suppress thought from the minds of every citizen it governs. Syme is a minor character, but is a cruial example of what the government is fighting to eliminate.

CD- "The whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range of thought" (52)

CM- It is syme's job to create a whole new language that so simple, it will be impossible for one to have original thoughts. While Syme thinks he is narrowing the range of thought he is expanding his own mind. He is not mindlessly doing what the party tells him to do and he knows why he's doing it

Thesis:
The government rains fear upon the public and because of that, everything done by them is orthodoxy.

CD:
Newspeak is the language created by the government to prevent thought crime and make it impossible.

CM:
When there is no thought crime, there is no true though.

TS: In a world of brainless fools, Winston Smith observes that there are certain people who will be vaporized b/c of their intellect and free thinking.

CD:"Mrs. Parsons would be vaporised"(69).

CM:Winston thinks this b/c Big Brother does not allow the types of thoughts that Winston see's in her.

TS: The party has destroyed all memory and has re-written history, they create fear of thought and mind by doing this.

CD: "The past, he reflected, had not merely been erased, it had actually been destroyed"(36).

CM: The government has destroyed evidence of how the war started because no one remembers, but the government destroyed all memory because then people would find out that there is no war and then they would have nothing to fear.

Thesis~
Underneath their lustful idea of power and control, Big Brother and the Party are afraid of what might happen to them.

CD~
"Orthodoxy means not thinking- not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness (53)."

CM~
Basically, the Party feels that everyone shouldn't be aware of anything happening. That state of unconsciousness is what the Party wants because that creates less people they have to worry about getting doubtful ideas about the Party, which the Party is afraid of.

Thesis Statemen[b] The government produces amazing statistics of economic growth, and since nobody in the public know whether or not the stats are accurate, the government can have shortages that have no effect on them.

CD "You could only get hold of them [the items in artificially short supply] if at all, by scrounging more or less on the free market"

CM[b] Winston meants that the free market is the only way to get some certain things, which just helps the government catch and vaporize people who try to go on the free market