The world Winston lives in consists of a very paranoid government. Systems involved in the governance of Oceania is very paranoia including the new character introduced, Syme, who is accounted for cutting down words to the bone, erasing words that existed, and rewriting the Newspeak dictionary. The government is afraid that the existence of words like "independent" "freedom" and "rebellious" makes people seek to achieve it. Therefore, if they erase those words then people would not be able to feel that way and they will be under the government's control for eternity.In modern society, I believe that there is no such ideas that appears to be as paranoid as the one presented in the novel. The government in that time is deeply concerned about the power and authorities they hold until the point that they are paranoid. This fear can be considered as a mental disorder and results in a paranoid governance. I personally think this way because the governance in the society I live in promotes democracy and the public has freedom and rights. However, if I live in North Korea, then my viewpoints towards this paranoia would be different, I would probably think that the paranoia presented in the novel is common and usual. Not only that, the way I perceive things might also be influenced by my young age. Since I am still young in experience and work, I still have no idea of how reality is of governing people. For example, some adults own a private business and this involves governing massive number of employees. These adults would have a better idea of how it is and therefore, the hardships they faced is legit to lead them to be paranoid like the governance of Oceania.
On the other hand, I do not think that gender influences how I view the paranoia in this chapter. This might be because I consider that both genders are equal in status and is both capable of making decisions. Therefore, it would be the same as it is now if the government of Oceania is of women.
I believe that picture certainly depicts the idea of paranoia. In your response you mentioned how the democratic society we live in promotes freedom of thought, the freedom to express ideas. However in Oceania under the Party's oppression, the freedom of thought is considered an intolerable behavior. Whoever, displays such type of behavior will eventually be arrested by the Thought Police. I think you could have mentioned something about how war depicts the idea of paranoia in the contemporary society,
ReplyDeleteI really find the idea of how you talked about private businesses facing paranoia from governing a group of people very interesting. I believe that it is similar to the paranoia from the book that the governing people would want to produce efficient product and have control over the people, but also different in the way that in the book, the paranoia comes from Big Brother wanting to stay in power to the extent that they erase any idea of overthrowing, but in MODERN businesses there is no such idea of overthrowing the business owner.
ReplyDeleteI found her first sentence very interesting and very strong; "The world Winston lives in consists of a very paranoid government". It is very directed and absolute. In her last sentence, she stated her opinion as "I believe that there is no such ideas that appears to be as paranoid as the one presented in the novel", I kind of half disagree and agree with her. True that the situation in the novel is very extreme and the real world wouldn't be as extreme. However, I believe that the author got these ideas from the real world and simplified and absolute into these novel.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thought and I loved the way to clearly explained the impact and its affect on Winston's society. I strongly agree with the idea that paranoia is used to control the people. One additional point is that I believe that sometimes paranoia is used to control people in different cases around the world, but i agree that it is rare in modern society. Overall, it was a great response.
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