At the end of Chapter 1, Winston is abruptly interrupted by a knock on the door. He panics and leaves his diary open on the desk in the corner. The reader is left with a cliffhanger built up by the suspense and terror of the thought police watching our every move. At the start of the 2nd chapter, Winston throws caution to the wind as he glances back at his open diary and realized the error. He knew if it was really the thought police, there was nothing he could do at that point. It was almost ironic that he preferred to let the ink dry properly on the page. But of course, the knock was just his bumbling neighbor. I thought this was quite amusing because his heightened reaction to the knocking and his brief panic that followed was timed to give readers a shared sense of anxiety.
“Comrade!”
A very clear reference to the fears of communism takeover and the bleak future that awaits if such a thing were happen in the western world. The Parsons family reflect the reality of family structures if soviet communism had taken over the nation. Children brainwashed into spying and conspiring against their parents, while their mothers fidget wearily as they lose control of their children. Mr. Parsons is given an almost typical caricature of a thoughtless working class man in communist soviet. He is the model citizen, working solely for the party without question or complaint. His wife, on the other hand, hints at something more. Her tired expression and sad hesitation in speaking out seems to tell us that there may be something more to her.
This doesn’t necessarily relate to today’s climate, but the fears and the attempts to label people have not changed. There’s been rises in radical ideologies and fears surrounding them have been fueled by politics and charged leadership.
The Hanging
Another example of normalizing something absurd to prove a point. The control brainwashing of the Parson’s children have been so influential that what we consider heinous and disturbing is considered entertainment. The children want to go see the hanging because they truly believe the government are protecting them and heroic.
Annihilation of the Eurasian Army
The final scene as Winston stands looking out the window, listening to the report on the destruction of the Eurasian army feels disconnected but… almost familiar. Mass media constantly pushing out content that alarm or invoke fear and panic. With CNN on in my house, I’m constantly bombarded with news about the ongoing pandemic, and a few weeks ago the protests and police violence. I think Orwell hit something very real here with the stream of news and information out of the telescreens. Even though information being freely available is great… we have reached a point where we are trying to limit the information and protect ourselves from the over influence of mass media. I think this scene felt particularly powerful to me and I tried to capture that in the splash screen for this piece…
Until tomorrow for chapter 3!
Read along with me and my siblings as we go deeper and deeper into the literary analysis of 1984 and follow my commentary on the relevance of the novel in today’s almost dystopian society. If you’re a sucker for physical copies like me, click the affiliate link below to help support these post.
