Essay Brainstorm/Related Notes
Topics
• love, society, humanity, individuality, freedom, control, obedience

! Themes
Possible

• It is easier to hate than to love (In Oceania, under the Party’s rule)
• Sanity is subjective (The Party and O’Brien’s view on it, Winston’s view on it)
• Totalitarian government can work (for the price of privacy and freedom - freedom is slavery)

!
Winston

• Hates Big Brother
• Has no one to talk to as he feels trapped - everyone is against him and with Big Brother
• “Winston’s hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the
Party and the Thought Police” (p.16)
• “…his heart went out to the lonely, derided heretic on the screen, sole guardian of truth and sanity in a world of lies” (p.16-17)
• Doesn’t like girls: “He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones… the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy” (p.12) Therefore, Winston doesn’t like the strongest supporters of the Party.
• Feels trapped; is trying to escape.
• When Winston bought the diary, he had chosen to go against the society. (Like Neo choosing the red pill) • Experiencing the constant pressure to conform.
• Everything - the movies, the 2 Minutes Hate - is working to make him conform
• “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” (p.29)
• “Always the eyes watching you, and the voice enveloping you.” (p.29)
• “It’s not by making yourself heard, but by staying sane that you carry on the human heritage.”
• Staying sane:
• keep human characteristics
• empathy, relationships
• At first

!
Oceania

• “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (p.4)
• This is everywhere
• “the telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.” (p.4)
• 4 ministries: Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Love, Ministry of Plenty
• Highly controlled, surveillance everywhere: “It was the police patrol, snooping into people’s windows” (p.4)
• “The sandy-haired woman had flung herself forward over the back of the chair in front of her. With a tremulous murmur that sounded like ‘My Saviour’, she extended her arms towards the screen.” (p.18)
• Language is controlled : “Newspeak” (p.6)
• ‘FREEDOM IS SLAVERY’ ‘WAR IS PEACE’ ‘IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH’ (p.6)
• Propaganda - posters everywhere
• Oceania is heavily run by the Party
• The Thought Police catch Thoughtcrime
• “It was always at night - the arrests invariably happened at night” (p.21)
• Two Minutes Hate
• Everyone required to hate on one person for 2 minutes
• Exercise of hate
• Impossible to not join in
• Mob mentality

!
Setting
•
•
•
•
•

Oppressed
Rotting 19th-century houses
All the buildings are run-down except the Ministry buildings
Ministry of Love is covered with barb-wired fences
Smelly hallways, cut-off electricity during the day

!
Relationships

• No sexual