1984 key quotes Flashcards
description of the Ministries (page 5/6)
“an enormous pyramid”
“glittering white”
hierarchical imagery, puritan, religious link with big brother, spectacle (enormous, glittering)
the purpose of war in Oceania quote
“a hierarchical society is only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance”
Julia about picture “i bet..”
“i bet that pictures got bugs behind it”
direct link to Stalins five year plans: “the telescreen was still babbling away about….”
“the over fulfilment of the ninth three-year plan”
Satirical reference
Parsons as a passive acceptor of the party’s propaganda
“the ministry of plenty’s certainly done a good job this year”
however, there is a shortage of razor blades = ‘Double think’
“all history was….”
“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary”
• the Party’s manipulation of historical records
O’Brien to Winston: “then where does the past exist, it at all?” …
“in records, it is written down”
…. and
“in the mind, in human memories”
“The past was erased…”
“the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth” (pp.74-75)
link to idoctrination since birth, like Hitler youth
“he picked up the children’s history book and looked at the portrait of Big Brother”
Quote which links to fahrenheit 451, power of books/ pen
“to mark the paper….”
“to mark the paper was the decisive act”
“A book is a loaded gun” (fahrenheit 451)
“the Golden Country” analysis
• ‘The golden years’ 1930s germany, foreshadowing that it won’t last (hitler takes over)
• ‘The Golden Age’ 1st age of man in Greek Mythology
“fragment of coral”
“fixed in a sort of eternity”
“fragment”= julia and winston’s relationship foreshadows death and breaking apart
“fixed” + “eternity” = as long as citizens perceive themselves as being small and trapped, the less likely they will be to rebel
“a hideous [………]” Two minutes hate
“a hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness”
juxtaposition embodies the internal conflict about the pleasure of conforming
describing taking children from parents
“as one takes eggs from a hen”
link to hatchery in ‘brave new world’
“he [……..]” last line of book
“he loved Big Brother”
past tense = alludes to death
declarative sentence = certainty
lack of hope
“the little girl imitating her brother in every movement”
• Orwell uses this moment to reveal a prominent theme of the novel.
• “imitating” suggest the bigger theme that no action is one’s own, the boy is mimicking the spies and his sister is following in suit.
“Winston woke up with the word ‘Shakespeare’ on his lips” (29) after dream about naked woman
• Orwell’s allusion to Shakespeare holds great meaning not only to winston’s dream but to the entire novel
• Shakespeare is known for using paradoxes to stimulate growth in both his characters and viewers
• those who understand both sides of the paradox simultaneously end satisfied.
• at first glance, this seems it may be an allusion to the Ingsoc principle of doublethink, since this requires the ability to accept two seemingly contradictory ideas at once.
• however due to the position of this in the novel, it appears to be a hint that there is a larger paradox between Oceania and Reality, it seems to be real but is a world where dreams foreshadow the future and the past can be changed by a single word.
