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What Does The Telescreens Symbolize In 1984

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“[Symbolism] is about allowing [the author] to say something more effectively.” (Chapman). Symbolism is important in a novel in order to get a point across to the reader. In 1984 by George Orwell, many symbols are used as a creative way to portray the themes of the novel. Orwell uses the telescreens, the red armed prole woman, and the glass paperweight to symbolize freedom or lack thereof in Oceania. The telescreens are everywhere in Oceania and symbolize how the people have no freedom anywhere. The Party could always be watching any person at anytime through the telescreen. “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away.” (Orwell, 65) The people of Oceania are being watched all the time so they cannot do anything without fear that the Party could arrest them for it. The telescreens also display propaganda that promotes Big Brother throughout the day. This takes away the citizens freedom to …show more content…

Winston immediately notices that the woman is singing a song made for the proles. Singing is something that Party members are not allowed to do, so Winston sees the woman as free. The woman is big and strong which gives Winston hope for freedom in the future. He hopes that the proles would all rise up and overthrow the Party. He thinks that the fact that she looks solid means she is capable of defeating the party, with help, when in reality the proles are not smart enough to get together and do something so drastic. Winston notices that the woman has children which also gives him hope for the future. She is hanging up children’s diapers which means that she is able to reproduce. Winston hopes that she will give birth to many strong children who will overthrow the Party. The prole woman is a strong woman who Winston sees as free and has the power to make the rest of Oceania

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This is another connection to the ideology found in “1984”. It is the concept that Winston happens upon while reading the manifesto of the Brotherhood; “…the key lies in the proles.” This is the response the Winston finds after reading the book, and it is an answer that he believes unequivocally. However, Winston also considers that there is a strong unlikeliness of the proles ever rebelling, (potentially due to the instilling of “doublethink”). The proles are distracted by the everyday struggle to survive; they can never be bothered or take the necessary time to organize.

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Entry 2 In the third chapter, I began to learn a little bit about Winston’s past and the past of this whole crazy place called Oceania in which he lives. In the beginning of this book, Winston talks about how one can’t control what they dream so they are left vulnerable when they sleep. This vulnerability is clearly a theme because Winston has a meaningful dream about his mother and young sister, “Winston was dreaming of his mother. He must, he thought have been ten or twelve years old when his mother had disappeared.

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In both 1984 by George Orwell, and The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, the themes presented are both able to present a clear warning to the readers of the power of technology, and the damaging power it can have on our lives. In Part 1 of 1984, The Inner Party establishes a facade of protection to gain control over Oceania and the citizens. This is mainly achieved through the technological advances that gives The Party authority over people 's actions because of the 24/7 surveillance of their every move. At the beginning of the novel, protagonist Wilson says “the instrument (telescreens) could be dimmed but there was no way of shutting it off altogether” (8). These telescreens are used to minimise the amount of Thoughtcrime, which, in Oceania, violates

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The Party seeks to remove all emotion from people’s lives, save hatred, fear, and triumph. When Winston falls in love and starts to feel empathy and care for Julia, he himself admits that he has lost the need for drinking. He has another avenue to relieve the pressure of living in such a society. Along with love for Julia, Winston becomes passionate about his hatred of the Party and his desire for change. With the stupor of alcohol being lifted, he is becoming more and more aware of the evil that the government spreads and instead of trying to tune it out, he tries to fight against it.

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In the book, the proles are seen as the hope that has the power to overthrow the Party. An example of this is “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could force to destroy the Party ever be generated” (Orwell 69). This evidence shows that this disregarded minority that is seen as subhuman is the hope to change their society as they know it. To further emphasize this, Winston follows up by saying that the party wouldn’t have the chance to build themselves against the vast majority of the proles. In contrast to this, a dark reality kills this hope and this is shown in the quote, “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious” (70).

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From Orwell’s novel, “1984”, it can be determined that his opinion on the most powerful means of control by the government would be the government’s use of fear to instill paranoia among the people. One powerful piece of corroboration for fear to paranoia would be Oceania’s obvious, and constant, use of technology to fulfill this goal. Take, for instance, the telescreens. Because of their existence in every buildings’ rooms and corners, they can be easily used to keep an eye on party members, and if need be, used to track their location and arrest them. Winston experiences the surveillance inflicted by the government during one of his daily workouts,as right when he stopped trying in order to ponder the conspiracies surrounding the party,

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Winston creates the dream vision of the future through his fantasy of the Party being overthrown to result in a fair government. Winston believes the government is rotten and rigorous, which helps bring out his heroic characteristic of being an inspiring man. He has a vision for what he wants Oceania to become and Winston feels that the proles need “only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies” and if they want, they can “blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning” and be “conscious of their own strength” (69). Winston indicates that “If there is hope” he continues in his diary, “it lies in the proles” (82). The proles take up about 85% of the population, and in Winston’s eyes, if they all work together they would be able to come against the Party and create a revolution against them.

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Telescreens are used within 1984 in order to constantly display propaganda, as well as for the government to gain insight into the private lives of the public. In several manners, the citizens of London are unknowingly subject to manipulation through the telescreen. For example, excluding the Inner Party, the telescreen is required to stay on constantly, projecting false information to every citizen, as well as awaking them in the morning to exercise. Also, telescreens feature both a camera and a microphone. These allow the Thought Police to monitor every action and sound of party citizens, and hence prosecute them if they are believed to be rebelling or not loving Big Brother.

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1984 Compare and Contrast Essay Being watched 24/7 and controlled is what Big Brother did to Oceania in the 1984 book. People have no freedom like we do today, they are being brainwashed and monitored by thought police. Their police did not serve and protect like modern-day police. They monitored and made sure no one thought negatively about the party.

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Demonstrating how the party’s ideals have caused Winston to automatically make the assumption that all proles are subhuman. In the text, Winston never actively challenges this presumption; consequently, displaying his unconscious superiority complex caused by the government's orthodoxical ideals. Correspondingly, the use of the third-person in the second quotation serves to distance Winston from the proles; further empathizing the class division between Winston and the proles, which distinguishes the likelihood of insurgency to

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This part not only foreshadows Winston and Julia’s meet up in the real life Golden Country, it is also symbolic of Winston’s inner desire to crush the party and his lack of interest in the girl after she had removed her clothes displays his suppressed desire for the girl. He is, however, greatly interested in the gesture the girl made as if the gesture itself, in Winston’s eyes, “seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid gesture of the arm” (Orwell 31). Winston has a few other prolific dreams throughout the

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As mentioned in the text, “the Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals...”, Winston along with other members of the party were embedded with the idea that it’s conventional for the members of the party to treat the proles in a degrading manner similar to the ways in which they would treat animals. This idea is reiterated as Winston remembers the party slogan that states: ‘Proles and animals are free’ and compares the behaviors of the proles with words like ‘work’ and ‘breed’. These words and phrases signify that Party members simply view the proles as a mere source of entertainment and a place in which it is justified for the party members to further contaminate and sabotage for its already

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Winston also acknowledges the fact that the proles will remain ignorant to their power until they rebel but they will not rebel until they are aware of their power. This cyclic contradiction proves that the proles will never be able to overthrow the government. This ignorance of the people gives strength to the Party. The Ministry of Truth, where Winston works, has a big part in keeping the people ignorant. Winston’s job is to change the past.

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