1984 Blog #2

To begin, think about why Winston is writing in his diary and why this is a crime. In what way is writing things down a threat to the Party? Why is Winston drawn to this activity? Now consider Syme’s job of destroying words. Discuss the control of language as a method of controlling individuality.

At first, we really don't know Winston all that much at the beginning of the book. But, for some reason, he decides to buy a diary for himself. The reason why Winston buys a diary is because he has a lot of things he's thinking about and it might help by writing them out. By writing in a diary, it's considered a crime to the Party. In fact, just buying a diary is considered a crime. This is because a diary leads the consumer to write individual, original thoughts, which doesn't work with the Party. The Party wants to the past so that they can control the future. And, the way they control the past is to rewrite history. But, if there are people writing things in the privacy of their homes, then it causes problems for the party to take complete control of history because other people could see the stuff written in the diary and it can show that the party is lying, which could cause disloyalty and rebellion. Now, the deal with Syme is that he wants to get rid of as many words as possible (Newspeak). His goal to get rid of as much words as possible so it would be almost impossible for people to think of a "thoughtcrime". And, this can be achieved by the lack of vocabulary. And, with less words... comes less individuality. If there are less words to express themselves, then it draws away the aspect of individuality. They wouldn't know how to say how they truly feel. So, with less words... comes and more common people.