The idea of hate in the book "1984" is like nothing i have ever read or seen before. The society that Winston lives in has a period called the two minute hate where a image of a man named Goldstein comes up on the telescreens, and everybody for two minutes just hates. They scream and are angry and start freaking out at the image of this man. They society as a whole is supposed to hate him because he led a party against this style of society, which to most people would be a horrible way to live anyways so its not like he is a villain. He is only a villain to the leaders of the government. Most people would probably agree with him if there wasn't such dire consequences on hand. In my personal opinion, to have a period out of the day dedicated solely to hating somebody just because the government hates them, is wrong and weird. "As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the enemy of the people, had flashed onto the screen. There were hisses here and there among the audience." (Orwell 11). Then it goes on to say he was the enemy of long ago, before anybody can actually remember. This gives me the indication that they dont actually know why they hate him, but they just do because of the way they have been brought up in this society. Besides the two minute hate period, hate is shown immensely throughout the book so far. All the great things in life are looked down upon by the government, such as books. Winston has to sit in a corner of a room where the tele screen cannot see him, just so he can write in a book. This government is so controlling with hate and forceful ways to make people live their lives. I think it would be terrible to live this way and live under power that ruled this way.
To add to your topic Dmac I would like to talk about the two minute of hate in the beginning of the book that Winston experiences. During the hate there is a dark haired girl sitting in front of Winston. Winston hates this girl so he directs all of his anger during the hater towards her. Winston hates her because she has a chaity belt. Many could argue that he just hates her because he is jealous that he cant have. Agree or disagree?
ReplyDeletehmmm, I think you make a very nice argument there
ReplyDeleteI agree that his hatred for her is grown out of jealousy. When a person knows that they cant have something they start to want it even more. Also, when people want something but cant have it, they could chanel there high emotions towards it into hatred, like an ex-girlfriend.
ReplyDeleteYeah, i agree on the strangeness of the 2 minute hate, but what do you think is the deeper meaning for it? are they trying to keep the people angry at others so they wont be mad at the party? or are they trying to produce a hate for a war that they might not even be fighting? Is this all a ruse to try and mask the party's lies? its difficult to answer questions no one knows the answer to.
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