"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death." (28)
There is nothing worse in the life of Oceania that Orwell created than betrayal of thought, much like many believe in the world today that nothing is worse than death. However, as people commonly say and believe that there really are things worse than death, there are not many things worse in Oceania than being a criminal of thoughts, because that is all the system of government runs on. Winston does not believe in the government system, but pieces together that if there is thoughtcrime, it is eminent that there is death. Not only death, but elimination from existence of ever being alive. And that, Winston believes, is greater than death, which seems to be a major theme in the story, that everyone is trying to avoid death and the ThoughtPolice.
That first sentence is a mouthful -- how might you say the same thing in fewer words? (do you see a trend in my comments? we should sit down together and just look at some wording); is this really a theme? "that everyone is trying to avoid death and the ThoughtPolice." How can you be a little more universal -- what is the big idea Orwell wants us to think about?
ReplyDelete"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death." (28)
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing worse in the life of Oceania that Orwell created than betrayal of thought. This is similar to how some people today believe that nothing is worse than death. However, as people commonly say and believe that there really are things worse than death, there are not many things worse in Oceania than being a criminal of thoughts, because that is all the system of government runs on. Winston does not believe in the government system, but pieces together that if there is thoughtcrime, it is eminent that there is death. Not only death, but elimination from existence of ever being alive. And that, Winston believes, is greater than death, even though it is death, and not the act of being forgotten or erased, that most citizens in Oceania fear. In doing so, Orwell challenges his readers to think about whether they are mostly scared of death itself, or of being forgotten as well.