Recently our PLP class completed the reading of “1984” by George Orwell. This novel depicts a futuristic time period where an authoritative, communist government called “Big Brother” is in power, and the world only exists of three massive super states that are constantly at war with each other. The characters in the novel are extremely oppressed to the point where they have no freedom of thought or expression, and they’re forced to live a dull life of solitude as nobody can be trusted under the watchful eye of the thought police, and the ruthless control of Big Brother. This book, written in 1949, is meant to depict a futuristic communist dystopia, and Orwell wrote it shortly after World War Two to expose the democratic western world to the potential dangers of an oppressive communist society, similar to the USSR throughout the Cold War. Today, 1984 is known as one of the most famous and influential dystopian novels to ever be published.

As an assignment in class we were put into small groups and tasked to pick any character from 1984 to cut out and draw character symbols on. My group consisted of Nolan, Marley and Michael, and we had the unlucky disadvantage of picking last, so we wound up with a stock character by the name of Syme.

In George Orwell’s “1984” the intellectual character of Syme appears very little throughout the plot line of the book. However, nevertheless, Syme plays a very significant role as a flat character in the novel because he represents the very constitution of Big Brother, which contrasts greatly with Winston’s controversial ideals of individual freedom and democracy against the party.

In our video it’s a little hard to distinguish the different symbols on our cut out of Syme, so I imbedded the list below:

Syme Symbols:

– Hand cuffs
– Chains
– Spectacle
– New Speak List of Words
– 11
– New Speak dictionary
– Weights on feet
– Bullet hole in neck
– Tape over mouth
– Big Brother Badge
– Telescreen
– Pen

In our Do Ink video we added an eye spectacle and chose to animate a brain onto Syme to establish the fact that he’s an intellectual genius, who’s constantly thinking, and examining his surroundings. As for the background, we chose to incorporate moving shots of a large city to represent Syme’s close connection to the technologically advanced, large and powerful Big Brother corporation.

When discussing the symbols on Symes body, we incorporated a list of destroyed words, a pen, and the 11th edition of the New Speak dictionary in his waist band, to establish his close connection to his career, and his duties to the Big Brother party. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.” (Syme, Chapter 5). Syme’s work is his life, and he devotes every waking minute of his time worshipping the power of Big Brother and denouncing thought criminals through narrowing the range of human thought. To further support this thesis, we also incorporated a Big Brother badge on Syme’s right chest, as well as a telescreen on his left chest. Syme is very smart, and he’s constantly judging and observing his surroundings, similar to Big Brother, and similar to the telescreens that are constantly watching and listening to everything. “[Syme’s] mocking eyes roved over Winston’s face. ‘I know you,’ the eyes seemed to say, ‘I see through you. I know very well why you didn’t go to see those prisoners hanged.'” (Chapter 5). He embodies the slogan “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength,” as well as the face of the party, as he silently judges his friend Winston to be a thought criminal over a casual meal.

Though Syme has endless support for the Big Brother party, the 2 minutes hate, and the denouncing of thought criminals, he himself, along with everyone else living in Oceana, are completely blind to the fact that they’re being widely oppressed by the government. The handcuffs on his right arm, the weights at his feet, the chains wrapped around his legs, and the tape over his mouth represent this oppression. Winston experienced the world before the widespread rein of corrupt communism. He experienced a time where freedom of speech, thought, and expression were all part of a constitution. A time where individual freedom and choice existed among the masses. And a time where privacy still existed and sexual relationships weren’t ban by law. Syme did not, and the only way of life he’s ever known is under the oppression and ruthless control of Big Brother. Under the watchful eye of Big Brother, “The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself,” and because of this Syme, innocent as he was, was a danger to himself without even knowing it: “Syme had vanished. A morning came, and he was missing from work: a few thoughtless people commented on his absence. On the next day nobody mentioned him. On the third day Winston went into the vestibule of the Records Department to look at the notice-board. One of the notices carried a printed list of the members of the Chess Committee, of whom Syme had been one. It looked almost exactly as it had looked before – nothing had been crossed out – but it was one name shorter. It was enough. Syme had ceased to exist: he had never existed.” (Winston, Part 2, Chapter 5). The government that he devoted his life to serving vaporized him with no question of a fair trial. The irony in it is almost too much, and this is where the last symbol of the bloody bullet hole comes in. Syme spent his entire life destroying words and developing the 11th edition of New Speak to essentially eliminate thought crime, yet he himself, loyal to Big Brother as he was, was denounced as a thought criminal under the slightest amount of suspicion and zero credible evidence. Syme was killed for no reason by the people he spent his life serving. However, to Big Brother, and the people who work under the party, Syme never even existed in the first place, only to be forgotten as an invisible figure of the past.