Week 1: 1984

                I am reading 1984 by George Orwell. It begins with Winston, the main character, going home to the Victory Mansions. So far I think it is very interesting. I find it odd that the television watches Winston, and everyone else. And that it controls itself. It is brainwashing the whole population! No one knows when they are being watched. They do know why they are being watched, and that is so they do not go against “Big Brother”. I am not quite sure what exactly the Ministries are all about yet. I know there are four ministries: Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty. Each Ministry has a purpose. The Ministry of Truth concerns itself with news, school, and entertainment. The Ministry of Peace is about war. The Ministry of Love maintains law and order. The Ministry of Plenty is responsible for economic affairs. (page 8)

                Winston is contemplating starting a diary. It is insane, to me, that he cannot start a diary. It is illegal. He will be killed if anyone finds out, he may be killed for even thinking about starting one. But he does decide to go through with it. He starts to write but then stops and starts thinking back to a memory. In his memory it talks about some people. One of them was a dark haired woman; it says that he does not like her. He doesn’t like any woman at all, especially the young and pretty ones. Then he goes off thinking about a man named O’Brien. In the next paragraph it says “he felt deeply drawn to him” I am not sure if he likes woman or men? Later I find out why he hates the dark haired woman, it is because she was young and pretty and sexless. She wore a chastity belt. I do not know why that would make him hate her. Maybe he is sad because she is so much controlled by “Big Brother”.  It starts to tell me about a time when O’Brien and Winston’s eyes met for a brief moment. Winston believed that both their minds had opened up to each other and they shared thoughts. That is weird. How could you figure that out from a second of eye contact?

                From what I understand, the government is called Big Brother and he controls everything. No one can think anything bad about them, or do anything against their rules. They have to much power. There is this group called the Thought Police. They kill people at night for thinking and doing things against Big Brother. And when you die or get killed, they wipe out your whole life, nothing is left behind. No record, nothing. Winston doesn’t remember his family very much. That would be terrible I can’t imagine. He doesn’t know why they died or how. But he thinks they might have sacrificed their lives so he could have the chance of living. If anyone did that for me I would feel as if I needed to fulfill my life by making a difference and taking a stand for what I believe in. To foreshadow, I’m thinking he is going to do so.