Chapters 7 & 8 Summary

In chapter seven, Winston writes in his diary that "any hope for revolution against the Party must come from the proles". He says this due to the fact that since the proles make up eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, they could easily gather the strength and manpower to overthrow the party. The thing is, the proles are ignorant and they don't even know or understand why the Party is oppressing them. Also in chapter seven, Winston tries to learn about the past through a children's history book. Lacking a reliable official record though, it seemed as if Winston didn't know what to think about the past. He does not believe that the party has done all of the things that it says it has done but he cannot know for sure since the history was written entirely by the Party.

In chapter eight, Winston decides to go for a walk through the prole district and he observes the simple lives of the common people. He walks into a bar and he sees an old man. Believing him to be a possible link to the past, Winston decides to ask him a couple questions but then realizes that the old man's memory seems to be quite vague. Winston laments that the past had been left to the proles since they will ultimately forget.

Communism vs. Socialism vs, Ingsoc

Communism is defined as a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. Its an economic theory favoring a classless society and the abolition of private property.

Socialism is defined as a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Ingsoc is the political ideology of the totalitarian government of Oceania in the book 1984.

Communism is related to socialism because of the fact that socialism is the back bone of communism. Socialism and communism are alike in that both are systems of production for use based on public ownership of the means of production and centralized planning. Socialism grows directly out of capitalism; it is the first form of the new society.

This relates to Ingsoc because everyone has to wear the same articles of clothing and they are not allowed to say anything bad about Big Brother. The way Ingsoc is set up, it is a mixture of communism and socialism. Everyone has a specific duty and has to abide by those rules.

Character analysis

This character analysis will be between the characters Winston and Parsons, who is Winston's neighbor. As far as physical characteristics goes, to put it bluntly, Parsons is fat and Winston isn't. Also Winston has an ulcer that he can't seem to get rid of even though he is taking pills for it. As far as personalities go, Winston is a thoughtful person as well as paranoid. Underneath all of that though,  Winston is a rebellious individual who wants to get rid of Big Brother. This is shown when Winston writes in his diary "Down with Big Brother" several times. Parsons on the other hand is a little bit different. Parsons is a man who knows almost nothing and he blindly follows what he is told to do and doesn't ever rebel. Since Parsons doesn't really think for himself, it's hard to determine what his personality is since he blindly follows. Winston on the other hand, as stated before, is a rebellious individual and it is seen all through out the chapters.  His anxiety and paranoia are understandable since he knows that at any given moment, someone from the government could be watching his every move. An example of his paranoia was when Mrs. Parsons knocked on Winston's door and he thought that it was the Thought Police. It surfaced again after Winston saw the children and they accused him of a thought crime. All throughout the chapters Winston gets more and more paranoid due to him not being obedient and following the rules like he is supposed to. This is very different from Parsons considering all Parsons ever did was promote Big Brother and follow orders to the letter.

Language and Truth

All throughout history, it has been shown that society dictates who is educated and who isn't. Those who speak using proper English (i.e. proper grammar, correct sentence structure, larger words), are more educated than those who do not speak properly. This is because throughout the ages, those who were a part of the upper class, namely the aristocrats and the wealthy, were the ones who had control of the country and they were the ones who made the rules.
In the book 1984, the government controls the way people speak  by using Newspeak. In this new "language", regular sentences are dumbed down to the most vague of levels. The reason for this is that the government in 1984 feel that if they control the language of the average joe, then they can control how they think. By controlling the way that the people think, the average Joe will have no choice but to just do as they are told.
Translating my article into Newspeak made it less reading but it also made me feel as if I needed to write more. Just writing one sentence that was dumbed down made me not actually want to read the rest of the article. I felt that there was no point. I think that this is what the government in the book 1984 was trying to accomplish.

Chapter Three

In Chapter Three, Winston dreams about him and his mother on a sinking ship. Although he doesn't know why, he feels responsible for her disappearance which was almost twenty years prior. He also dreams of a naked girl and then wakes up with the name "Shakespeare" on his lips but he doesn't know where it is from. He is then signaled that it is time to do Physical Jerks. While doing the exercises, Winston thinks about how not having any photographs or documents makes one's memory a little fuzzy. He then considers Oceania's relationship with other countries, namely being Eurasia and Eastasia. He remembered that according to official history, Big Brother hadn't been heard of before the 1960s but now Big Brother had supposedly been there since before the 1930s. But before Winston could continue thinking, a voice on the screen tells Winston that he isn't working hard enough and he loses his train of thought.

Now, I think this is a sign that Winston definitely feels that there isn't something right with this whole picture. But in this environment, he doesn't actually have the time to think about the information he has thoroughly because he keeps having interruptions and he always feels that he is being watched at all times. I feel that Winston should challenge the authority because in that environment, nobody ever gets challenged. Seeing as that is kind of an issue, and I myself am an outspoken individual, sometimes a challenge can lead to a revolution and you can figure out what is really going on. If you look back into the sixties, during the Vietnam War, you'll find that the government had been keeping secrets away from the people as far as advancements and what was happening on that side of the world. Just as they didn't like the government lying to them, neither should Winston. If he has a gut feeling that something is wrong, he should act upon it and try to find out what is going on.

Chapter Two

In the beginning of chapter two, Winston fears that the Thought Police were at the door since he wrote the phrase "Down With Big Brother". He was relieved to see that it was only his neighbor, Mrs. Parsons. He goes over to help with the sink plumbing but becomes fearful again when her kids, who happened to be Junior Spies, accused him of thought crime. Back in his apartment, Winston writes in his diary that thought crime made him a dead man and then he hid the book.

Now, since the setting of the book is one in which anything you say or do could be monitored, I didn't think that it was such a good idea for Winston to be writing that, especially where it could be found. I say this because he could have been seen writing that down and sooner or later, someone could show up to take him away. It was a wrong decision for him due to the fact that he is going to live in fear of someone knowing that he did that which isn't a healthy way for him to live.

George Orwell Time Line

June 25, 1903- George Orwell, originally named Eric Arthur Blair, was born

1927- Blair retires from the Indian Imperial Police and decides to become a writer

1933- "Down and Out in Paris and London" was published. Blair changes his name to George Orwell
This particular book was written in the time in which George Orwell wasn't receiving much luck in his writing career and all so he just wrote his experiences which became this book.

1934- "Burmese Days" is published; this is his first Novel

1936- Orwell was recruited to write about poverty among unemployed minors in Northern England; Orwell travels to Spain to fight for the Republicans against Franco's Nationalists

1937- "The Road to Wigan Pier"

1943- Orwell becomes the literary editor for the Tribune

1945- Orwell's "Animal Farm" gets Published
This book talks about Stalin's betrayal in the Russian Revolution. The reason that this book is such an important part of Orwell's life is that it is what first got Orwell's name out there. This also ensured that Orwell would be financially comfortable for the first time in his life.

1949- Orwell's "1984" gets published

January 21, 1950- George Orwell dies of tuberculosis
In this stage of his life, Orwell's health was starting to deteriorate after merely a year after his famous "1984" got published.