1984 Ch 8 Blog

2/10/2012

Danielle

2/10/2012 02:40:57

"To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one's lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available." (126)
This is a really sad way to live if everyone is just focused on what is happening right as it does and then soon forget it once it becomes past and gone. No one ever can dream about the future either because it was just an inevitable death that came from it. At the same time this mindset of always thinking in the present helps the Party keep everyone focused.

Danielle

2/10/2012 02:42:33

The posters are for Hate Week which in the book is in a few weeks. The Party hopes that by seeing the posters it will give members of the Party and even the proles sense of nationalism because they know they can defeat whatever hated figure was on the poster, either a Eurasian soldier or Goldstein.

Emily

2/12/2012 01:38:58

"O'Brien had turned himself a little in his chair so that he was facing Winston. He almost ignored Julia, seeming to take it for granted that Winston could speak for her. For a moment the lids flitted down over his eyes." (142)

Well, then. This is like when the narrator said 'Winston's neighbor's wife.'

Gabby

2/13/2012 04:33:26

"In so far as he had time to remember it, he was not troubled by the fact that every word he murmured into the speakwrite, every stroke of his ink pencil, was a deliberate lie."

Philip

2/13/2012 05:40:14

"The little man sat down, quite at his ease, and yet still with a servantlike air, the air of a valet enjoying a privelege. Winston regarded him out of the corner of his eye. It struck him that the man's whole life was playing a part, and that he felt it dangerous to drop his assumed personality even for a moment."

All people who are against the Party must feel like this. They're always afraid of being caught, so they actually become a new person. They're not playing a part, they become the part.

Kara

2/13/2012 11:29:41

I agree. It struck me how Winston came to this conclusion about the servant but couldn't realize that he is talking about himself... and almost everyone else for that matter. They are all a different person than who they are in front of the telescreens.

Leandra

2/13/2012 06:10:28

"A wave of admiration almost of worship flowed out from Winston toward O'Brien. For the moment he had forgotten the shadowy figure of Goldstein. When you look at O'Brien's powerful shoulders and his blunt featured face,so ugly yet so civilized, it was impossible to believe that he could be defeated." pg. 144

Dana

2/13/2012 10:34:44

'Items one comma five comma seven approved fullwise stop suggestion contained item six doubleplus ridiculous verging crimethink cancel stop unproceed constructionwise antegetting plusfull estimates machinery overheads stop end message.'

Does anyone understand what that means? It made me curious because the book said he was staring intently at it... Maybe it's important?

Nate

2/13/2012 10:39:46

I think it's supposed to show how their vocabulary is deteriorating.

Nate

2/13/2012 11:04:24

"It is almost time for you to leave, comrade." (145)

Why does O'Brien refer to them as comrades even though the telescreen is off?

Kara

2/13/2012 11:33:12

Maybe, in this situation, it's less of a formal thing and more of a friend thing. Also, it could mean that he recognizes Winston is on his side.

Katherine

2/13/2012 12:17:09

"You will have to get used to living without results and without hope. You will work for a while, you will be caught, you will confess, and then you will die. Those are the only results that you will ever see. There is no possibility that any perceptible change will happen within our own lifetime. We are the dead."
It's depressing how we sometimes see this in the real world as well. Reading this book has already changed our thoughts a bit about the government and the people, but listening to someone admit that there is no ongoing hope and that they'll never become more than what they are now is just despairing. If anything, it looks like suicide seems to be an option now.

1984 Ch 8 Blog

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