1984: Final Thoughts

The dystopian world that George Orwell creates in his novel 1984 is one where all citizens live their lives totally controlled by an oppressive, authoritarian government. All aspects of their lives are controlled, from their lives, their jobs, their relationships, even their thoughts.

The Party, as the group in control is called, enforces their way of living on its citizens through many methods. One is a police force called the Thought Police. Their job is as the name suggests, is to make sure that no party members have malicious thoughts against the government. To aid them, there are screens that are placed in nearly every room, called telescreens. These screens constantly feed propaganda to citizens, but also function as cameras to allow The Party to monitor their movements.

Aside from the citizens, there are also members of society called the proles. The proles are not monitored by The Party and in general, The Party pays little attention to them, even though they make up 85% of the population. They live in squalor and are generally ignorant, poor, and uneducated.

Imagine living in this world. Aside from what was just described, the government also constantly changes history to suit its needs, almost by the hour. They change language to become more simplified. They create youth groups, comparable to Hitler Youth, that spy on adults to make sure their actions are loyal to The Party. They constantly live in war with the two other countries that are left in the world. They force ideas and hate into the minds of their citizens. Every aspect of your life would be controlled.

Unfortunately, individuals don't fight against this political deceit and oppression, because if they do, they will either die or be tortured. As a reader, you see the general population that is part of the Party to simply accept everything the government tells them. You see the proles live in total ignorance and squalor, unable to effectively use their opportunity as the only members of society who have the information available to overthrow the oppressive government. You see Winston, who wants to fight back, but knows in the back of his mind when he does that he will get caught. Then, you see Julia, who simply does not care anymore. In the end, the two who showed any sign of resistance were tortured and brainwashed to become obedient. There was no resistance. There was only acceptance and defeat.

How would you respond?

1984: Newspeak

As I read 1984, the one aspect of the authoritarian government portrayed in the book that scared me the most was the idea of Newspeak, the new language instituted by the Party. In it, word variety would be removed and language would be stripped down to the basics to communicate. Language is extremely important not only for communication, but in terms of how we think. The language we speak is the language we think. If our language is limited, so are the thoughts we can form. It is the ultimate way to control people and stem thoughts of rebellion, and also a very scary thought.

The language itself is very limited, as you will see with the definitions of some Newspeak words I have provided below. It also is horrible English, and simplifies everything with almost childlike words, often combining two words in its vocabulary or using prefixes to change meanings of words.

Prefices
un - prefix used for negation; used to make the word negative (e.g. warm becomes uncold)
ante - prefix added to a word in place of using the word before (e.g. antefiling means before filing)
plus - prefix used in place of more or the suffix -er (e.g. great becomes plusgood)
doubleplus - superlative of plus- (e.g. doubleplusgood means best)

Suffices 
-ful - suffix used to turn another word into an adjective (e.g. rapid becomes speedful)
-ed - suffix used to make a non-auxiliary verb past tense (e.g. ran becomes runned)
-wise - suffix used to turn another word into an adverb (e.g. quickly becomes speedwise)

Words
artsem - artificial insemination
Big Brother - the leader of Oceania; also refered to as simply B.B.
bellyfeel - full emotional understanding; blind, enthusiastic acceptance of a concept
blackwhite- the ability to accept the "truth" the party puts out, no matter how absurd it may be.
crimestop - the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought
chocorat - chocolate ration
crimethink - to even consider any thought not in line with the principles of Ingsoc; doubting any of the principles of Ingsoc
crimethinker - one who engages in crimethink
dayorder - order of the day
doublethink - holding two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them
duckspeak - to speak without thinking (to quack like a duck)
equal - only in the sense of physically equal; it does not mean socially, politically or economically equal
facecrime - to wear an improper expression on your face was itself a punishable offence
FicDep - Fiction Department of the Ministry of Truth
free - in terms of lacking (e.g. he is free of emotion); the concept of political freedom has been replaced by the word crimethink
goodsex - sex for the purpose of producing children for the party
goodthinker - one who strongly adheres to all of the principles of Newspeak
Ingsoc - English Socialism
joycamp - forced-labor camp
malreported - a government reported fact the government later deems untrue
memory hole - a system of pipes, similar to pneumatic tubes, which were used to destroy documents
Miniluv - Ministry of Love
Minipax - Ministry of Peace
Miniplenty - Ministry of Plenty
Minitrue - Ministry of Truth
misprints - errors or mispredictions which need to be rectified in order to prove that the Party is always right
Newspeak - The official language of Oceania
Oldspeak - standard English; Newspeak is based on Oldspeak, with all words which represent unpopular ideas removed
oldthink - holding on to old ideas and patterns of thought not consistent with current government policy
oldthinkers - those who engage in oldthink; those who have not fully accepted the new Ingsoc way of thinking
ownlife - individualism and eccentricity; a desire to do something for your own benefit
physical jerks - morning exercises; participation was mandatory for all outer party members
Pornosec - Department of Minitrue; produces the "lowest-kind" of pornography for the proles
prole - proletarians
prolefeed - entertainment and spurious news which the Party handed out to the masses
Recdep - Records Department of the Ministry of Truth
Reclamation Centre - colony for children made homeless during the Atomic Wars
ref - reference
steamer - prole word for Rocket Bomb
sexcrime - having sex for enjoyment
speakwrite - Voice recognition machines
Teledep - Teleprograms Department of the Ministry of Truth
telescreen - two way television
Thinkpol - ThoughtPolice; police force in charge of eliminating crimethink
unperson - person that has been erased from existence by the government for breaking the law in some way
ungood - bad
upsub - get authorization from superiors (submit to "higher-ups" for approval)
vaporized - the act of being executed by the state, and having all records of your existence erased; becoming an unperson
versificator - a writing machine; produced "literature" and "music" for the masses

Animal Farm Soundtrack: Pig Brother is Watching You

The album cover of "Pig Brother is Always Watching"

The name of the album I've 'created' to accompany George Orwell's Animal Farm is called Pig Brother is Watching You. Clever, right? As I was choosing the tracks to be on the album, I wanted to find a variety of songs from different genres. I also decided to try and step a little bit out of my comfort zone - all of the songs I chose, Animal Farm by The Kinks, The Oppressed Song by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Police State by Dead Prez, and It Can Be Done! by The Redskins, aren't on my iPod and I had never heard of them before, except for Steve Vai's Bad Horsie.
My hope in choosing all of these songs is that one would be able to relate them in some way to the ideas in Animal Farm or to the characters. I was able to find connections with these songs and Animal Farm, but I know they aren't the only connections. I hope that as you were listening to this collection of songs I chose that you were able to make some connections of your own. If not that, I hope at least that you enjoy the songs. Viva Communism! (Not really).

1. Animal Farm - The Kinks


2. Bad Horsie - Steve Vai


3. The Oppressed Song - Bob Marley and the Wailers


4. Police State - Dead Prez


5. It Can Be Done - The Redskins