1984 Flashcards
chicken houses
“sordid colonies of wooden dwellings like chicken-houses”
ESTABLISHES DYSTOPIAN SETTING, BLEAK SIMILE, ANIMALISTIC CONNOTATIONS
foregrounds view that man cannot avoid absolute dehumanisation in harsh environments that centre around a ubiquitous use of psychological control/dehumanisation of its populace
two desire
“Two Minutes of Hate”, and “a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in”
VISCERAL REPRESENTATION OF INDOCTRINATION, ACCUMULATED VIOLENT IMAGERY
exposes humanity’s loss of rational capacity to moderate emotions and effectively rebel against party manipulation
lost sharpness
“the outline of your own life lost its sharpness”
CHARACTERISATION, METAPHORICAL ASSERTION
characterises winston as a morally intellectual individual, revealing that individuals lose their ability to perceive themselves and consequently portray themselves when objective truths around them are crushed by the party
swallowed
“Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal”
CHARACTERISATION, ANTHROPOMORPHIC IMAGERY
emphasises dehumanising ability to think rationally in his unquestioning acceptance of party doctrine
reveals that by destryoing an individual’s rationality, tyrranies embed aligning ideologies with the subconscious desire of self preservation, forcing them to assume a subservient role to the state, essentially primitising their population and obliterating any potential resistance
rational capacity mnemonic
chicken-houses, two desire, sharpness, swallowed
same thing
“so long as human beings stay human, death and life are the same thing”
CHARACTERISATION, MODAL ASSERTION
depicts an individual who recognises that maintaining a sense of humanity is more important than preserving life
characterises winston as ordinary man capable of extraordinary things
emphasises the value in life is derived from our humanity
smell taste feeling
“the smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin… she had become a physical necessity”
HUMANISING ACCUMULATION OF SENSORY IMAGERY
- In this paradoxical representation of human frailty and moral strength, Orwell challenges readers to consider that a meaningful life is one grounded in maintaining personal integrity. For Winston, it is his personal conviction to remain human that drives him to rebel and seek a relationship with Julia.
exemplifies Winston’s dependence on physical and emotional fulfilment their intimacy provides
blow struck
“blow struck against the Party”.
METAPHORIC
represents that their love is also a source of moral validation for Winston in elevating it to an act of political resistance. Despite the politicising of what should be a natural emotion, they are able to derive value from it by viewing it as a form of moral reclamation
victory future
“that the only victory lay in the future”
FORESHADOWING
Orwell provides insight into how relationships provide a channel and motivation to oppose orthodoxy and ensure a better future, but is paradoxically juxtaposed by his previous statement that “the party controls the past, present and future”, bleakly foreshadowing Winston’s grim defeat in the third part.
relationships mnemonic
same thing, smell taste feeling, blow struck, victory future
pen
“his pen moving voluptuously over the paper”
TACTILE IMAGERY
conveys sensuous freedom in self expression, emphasises human experience of creativity having being deprived of it by party as an emotional release
clumsy capitals
“He wrote in clumsy capitals: FREEDOM is SLAVERY”
JUXTAPOSITION, CONTRAST
challenge our assumption that we possess the will to resist threats to our freedoms, paradoxical representation of how once humanity’s experiences have been deprived once, it is impossible to experience them the same way again
bag of filth
“a bag of filth”
METAPHOR
shifts emphasis to unequal power dynamics between Obrien and winston, characterising obrien as the embodiment of absolute immoral power of dehumanisation
boot stamp
“the boot stamping on a human face forever”
BLEAK IMAGERY
unequivocally affirms that unconstrained totalitarianism will triumph over individuals seeking liberty in the face of unremitting oppression. even in the absence of such oppression, one’s humanity will be tainted by such dehumanising experiences
do it to julia
“Do it to julia!”
TRAGIC EXCLAMATIONS IN NARRATIVE DENOUEMENT
he sacrifices his moral convictions to love Julia in the face of suffering. This is designed as a grim reminder that humanity will prioritise self-preservation over freedom under such stress, warning us that once tyranny gains absolute control, it is impossible to retain a capacity to rebel against it.
Oppression makes humans correlate survival with party doctrine, thus subconsciously embedding such subservient behaviour with it.
