article follow up for Julia 1984

               She became famous when George Orwell decided that he was going to use her as a main character and his inspiration for his latest novel and screen play: 1984. It’s Julia.

                Former member of the Anti-sex league, brilliant rebel, and the woman that couldn’t stand by her man. We met up with Julia as she was attending a play for the local Catholic Church.

                Julia says a lot has changed in her life. She says that she sees what she did was wrong but she also recognizes that although her past was one big sin, it was she who gained the restoration of freedom for the citizens of Oceania.

                “It was a long road to get to where I am now,” said Julia, with the memories of her past traveling through her mind like a freight train. “But I’m glad I made the choices that I did.”

                Julia is now a nun who teaches math and history to the students of the biggest catholic church in the world, which is at the center of Oceania, St. Martins. The Church was restored after the, so-called, “revolution period” had passed.

                When asked about Winston Smith, Julia smiled and said he was just a friend. Although she did take an extended amount of time to think of her next comment: “The betrayal that happened in the Ministry of Love will never be forgotten but as a woman of God I found it in my heart to forgive Winston for his wrongs.”

                Throughout the interview I watched Julia very intently and it seems as though her emotions had taken over. Speaking about Winston made her smile, made her cry, and made her blush when the thought of their first rendezvous together was mentioned.

                That is all behind Sister Julia though. When Julia is not attending services at what she calls “the most beautiful church ever to be constructed” she says she finds herself praying, sitting in fields on the country side frolicking with Gods creations, wild animals, grocery shopping for the local food banks, and her favorite, volunteering to help young women find their ways away from prostitution.

                It seems as though Julia has taken a back seat to the crazy and wild life she used to live and had seen the good that can come to someone who devotes themselves to more than just countless numbers of meaningless encounters with rebels of the historical revolution.

                She says she was not only purchasing from the black market at that time but she was also part of the black market.

                “The best part of my new life has been not having to constantly hide. Yes the telescreens are still annoying as ever, but I have learned that since I am not doing anything illegal or wrong, I have nothing to hide, and since I have nothing to hide I can live in peace among God and his loyal followers,” Julia said with great passion in her voice.

                     It seems the girl we used to know and love has changed, for what she feels is, the better but what you can do when you have reached the all-time low of your life; there is only one thing and that is to turn it around and head up on life’s scales. It’s never a surprise to see Miss Julia out in her uniform of God recruiting for the man upstairs.

essay of symbolism for 1984

            Eric Blair, more famously known for the names he leaves with the titles of his novels: George Orwell. Born in the middle of 1903 he grew up watching the ways in which the world was conforming. In 1984 Orwell turns to symbols of what he feels he can connect most with the world he was living in. In the second paragraph of the novel Big Brother is mentioned - the ultimate ruler of Oceania and the one who knows every move each person makes. After Winston discovers that Mr. Charrington will allow him to rent the room above the junk shop for his and Julia’s rendezvous, he peers out the window to see a “fat Red-Armed prole woman” outside the window singing without a care in the world. The party works to erase everything a human knows of the past but throughout the novel Winston commissions ways to prove that the past is real by holding close to his heart the glass paperweight that he buys at Mr. Charringtons junk shop.

            In the mid nineteen forties when Orwell wrote 1984, Hitler’s reign to take over Europe and overthrow the government that was in place and turn all he could into the totalitarian government that Hitler viewed as perfect was dissolving. In the novel Big Brother is, in essence, equal to what Hitler was. He is the ultimate ruler that controls all thoughts and actions and watches your every move. With his loyal band of thought police and his Junior Spies and the loyalties to the party, Big Brother knows all that break the rules. The question then forms: who is the real ruler of Oceania? It is said to be Big brother but it is never truly know; one can only assume, that due to the rebellious Winston that Big Brother ultimately rules over all.

The Two Minutes Hate is a ritual in which everyone must participate; it is a daily ritual in which the citizens of Oceania show their devotion to Big Brother.  One Citizen participates more actively than Winston chooses too: “The little sandy-haired woman had flung herself forward over the back of the chair in front of her. With a tremulous murmur that sounded like ‘My Savior!’ she extended her arms toward the screen.” P.17

            The most apparent suggestions that Orwell makes about the party is how the citizens of Oceania have very limited freedoms and rights. Julia and Winston yearn to rebel against the party so that one day everyone can live without the constant fear of committing the norms that the party labels as wrongs.  Freedom is the last thing that any part of the population has, but as Julia and Winston sit in the room above Mr. Charrington’s junk shop, after their meetings become more frequent, they hear a prole outside the shop singing and hanging dippers without a care in the world. Winston thinks that this “fat, red-armed prole” is anything but attractive while Julia finds her beautiful. The song she sings begins to grow on Winston as he soon begins to see the loveliness that she carries. As Winston stirs in his mind the ways that freedom can be obtained the red-armed prole woman comes to face; Julia and Winston see her as a symbol of reproductive virility. Because of her size and her willingness to preserve a woman’s duties to her family they think that she would be able to give birth too many children and that, if taught properly, could rebel and eventually overthrow the party.

Winston says, early in the novel, “If there is hope it lies in the proles”. P. 60

            Throughout the novel Winston is constantly trying to find ways to prove that life has not always been the way of which people lived in the novel. Winston finds himself in the junk shop where he had purchased the diary where Winston writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” and where he also purchases the glass paperweight to which Winston holds a fascinating interest. The paperweight symbolizes much of what Winston strives to prove. Mr. Charrington himself says that the paperweight is an antique: “That wasn’t made less than a hundred years ago. More, by the look of it.” Charrington says to Winston as he notices the enthusiastic look Winston wears as he views the paperweight. Winston can’t remember what life was actually like before the revolution but he feels that the paperweight can connect him with the past in some way.

            Many people think that they are lost in a world of found. Winston feels alone in a world full of others. While Orwell works to prove that totalitarianism would ruin the sanity of all. He uses the main character Winston and his journey throughout the novel to symbolize ways that would have been unknown if the mighty rulers, like Hitler, had been successful. Big Brother symbolizes what Hitler and company could have become. The “fat, red-armed prole woman” symbolizes reproductive virility and ways that party could have been overthrown. And the paperweight that Winston has a mass fascination with symbolizes the past that he is unable to record.

explanations of the songs and how they fit 1984

1.       Every Breath You Take – The Police

“Every breath you take and every move you make; every bond you break ; every step you take, I’ll be watching you; every single day and every word you say; every game you play; every night you stay, I’ll be watching you”

-This song basically explains what the telescreens are used for. The citizens of Oceania have no privacy and the telescreens are used to make sure that the citizens do not commit a crime against the party. The party also sets up microphones throughout Oceania so that the party would be able to here if citizen were talking about anything that the party wouldn’t agree with.

2.       Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 – Pink Floyd

“We don't need no education; We don't need no thought control; No dark sarcasm in the classroom; Teachers leave them kids alone; Hey teacher leave them kids alone ; All in all it's just another brick in the wall; All in all you're just another brick in the wall”

-The party erases anything that has happened in the past, whereas most children have graduation requirements that they have to pass a certain number of history courses to graduate. The party works to control everything that people of Oceania do and thinking anything that the party doesn’t agree with is considered a “thoughtcrime”.  The party also works to make every person exactly as they would like them to be so in reference to bricks they could build a perfect society.

3.       Pigs in the Wing  Part 2 – Pink Floyd/Roger Waters

“If you didn't care what happened to me, and I didn't care for you, we would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain, occasionally glancing up through the rain wondering which of the buggers to blame and watching for pigs on the wing.

-This relates to Julia and Winston. They care for each other even though their affair started out as just rebelling against the party they soon fell in love. They don’t “zig zag” their way through the boredom and the pain, being what the party forces people to do they do everything they can to avoid conforming to the party. But in the end they find each other to blame/betray for the reasons that they rebel against the party: the party being “the buggers”.

4.       Talk Shows on Mute – Incubus

“Still and transfixed, the electric sheep are dreaming of your face. Enjoy you from the chemical, Comfort of America. Come one, come all, into nineteen-eighty-four

Yeah, three, two, one; lights, camera, transaction; Quick, your time is almost up. Make all forget that they're the moth; edging in towards the flame, burn into obscurity.”

-Julia and Wintson never know how much time they actually have together and while they are “spending time together” in Mr. Charrington’s shop they are being watched by the telescreens behind the photo of the church (hence the lights camera transaction part). The flame into obscurity is the party’s way of thinking that Julia and Winston are soon forced into.

5.     We are the Dead – David Bowie

“Always breaking in the new boys, deceive your next of kin; For you're dancing where the dogs decay, defecating ecstasy, you're just an ally of the leecher locator for the virgin King, but I love you in your fuck-me pumps and your nimble dress that trails
Oh, dress yourself, my urchin one, for I hear them on the rails because of all we've seen, because of all we've said: We are the dead”

-The party always finds the citizens who are rebellious and the party will not kill anyone until they love big brother. The ministry of love is the place where “dogs decay, defecating ecstasy”. Julia and Winston become “allies of the leecher” when they tell O’Brien that they want to be part of the brotherhood. Winston does not care that Julia wears the overalls that the party forces her to he still finds her attractive. And the party knows exactly what they’ve done and said because the room above the junk shop has a telescreens hidden behind the picture of St. Clemens Church.

6.       Spies – Coldplay

“Down here where I cannot see so clear. I said, what do I know? Show me the right way to go; and the spies came out of the water, but you're feeling so bad cos you know, but the spies hide out in every corner, but you can't touch them though, cos they're all spies, they're all spies. I awake to see that no one is free, we're all fugitives”

-When Winston is in the ministry of love he cannot think straight because he cannot see the outside world so he loses all track of time. When Julia and Winston get caught they were completely thrown off guard because they thought they were somewhere safe with someone safe, Mr. Charrington, helping them out. The children of many are part of the Junior Spies league and you never know when one will report you. In the end everyone will surrender and be a fugitive of the party.

7.       California Uber Alles – Dead Kennedys

“Carter Power will soon go away; I will be Fuhrer one day; I will command all of you; Your kids will meditate in school, Your kids will meditate in school!”

“Now it is 1984, knock-knock at your front door, It's the suede/denim secret police, They have come for your uncool niece “

-George Orwell relates this book to what would have happened if people like Hitler would have been able to keep the power they had once observed and how the control they held would mediate their lives. The police that are at your door are the thought police and they have not only come for your “uncool niece” but for anyone who commits a crime against the party. The reason they come to your door is because they know where you live due to the party being in such control over every citizen of Oceania.