1984 Part 2

Winston is having a hard time buying in to what The Party and Big Brother are selling because he is extremely paranoid about what they do, which makes him question what they do. His job emphasizes his viewpoint, since he himself witnesses the lies and forgery of The Party. I also think the people that are against The Party were born curious and suspicious. Winston has vague memories of the time before the Revolution and occasionally gets glimpses of his childhood, but this is not that case for all of those against The Party. Winston's acts of defiance are acts of protest, but they are also just acts of personal belief. When talking to O'Brien, it was made clear that Winston was protesting The Party and wanted their power to fall. However, his acts such as sneaking around with Julia also have a personal benefit and go along with his beliefs of personal rights.

There has been some controversy over the Tea Party Movement in our society. Members of the Tea Party want less government control and more personal freedom. This can be directly compared to the Brotherhood in 1984, which is a group that opposes The Party, wants The Party's control to cease, and wants more personal freedom and rights. This shows that we are shifting more towards Orwellian society in some aspects. The Occupy Wall Street protests can be contrasted with Winston's rebellion. The protesters want the government to control and take care of everything. This is exactly opposite of Winston's viewpoint, however it is very comparable to the viewpoint of those loyal to The Party. They are content with The Party's full control. I found an interesting article that compared texting lingo such as "LOL" and "OMG" to the language Newspeak in 1984. They both shorten words and having variations such as "ROFL" and "LMAO" for texts, and "ungood" and "double good" in Newspeak.

It seems to me that our society has some Orwellian elements that have developed and are still developing, however we are nowhere close to the unbearable, controlling society in 1984.