Say a freak scientific accident caused Joseph Stalin and Kim Jong-un to merge into one, forming Joseph Un. Ruling as far as the eye can see…. well if you have a strong imagination you probably just recreated 1984 by George Orwell, the most documented Dystopian novel of all time.

 

Guess what? As lucky as I am, I got to read this very uplifting novel which I so throughly enjoyed… Now with only 2 weeks to finish this book I decided to not read it till the last few days just to make it extra challenging for myself. At a glance the book slightly resembles the Soviet Union. In 1984 the world map consists of three super continents/countries, United Oceania States, Eurasian Union and People’s federation of Eastasia.

These countries are constantly at war with one another resulting in oppression, I mean unfathomable amounts of oppression. Too the point were “thoughtcrime” is used to describe an illegal thought that opposes the ruling party, Ingsoc. The reason those book was written and published by George Orwell was to express his hatred for totalitarianism and attempts to steer society away from political authority.

Now i had a sliver of hope in me that all we had to do was read the book. But once against my sliver of belief was shattered like a glass tube. And the class was assigned into small groups of 4 to cut out a person and lather it with symbols that represents our chosen character. My group consisted of Jackson, Teva, Matthew and me, our chosen character was Goldstein, Emmanuel Goldstein.

In the beginning of the novel Goldstein is a mysterious character that has little explanation or backstory. My group and I utilized our artistic skills and put them to the test trying our best to depict Goldstein through our cutout. We first off thought as Goldstein being a rebel “He was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party”(Chapter 1). Our attempt to emphasize this trait was through the symbolism of the snake wrapped around his neck and the clenched fist. The snake symbolizes Goldstein leaving “Big Brother” and starting “the Brotherhood” and the clenched fist represents unity or solidarity amongst oppressed people. Whilst also representing his book “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical collectivism”. A strongly recognized part of the book is the “two minutes of hate”. At 11:00 every day, every party member of the society of Oceania come together and express their hatred towards Goldstein. And that is why we chose to put an alarm clock set at 11:00 for his heart as it represents the driving force of “the Brotherhood”. Throughout the novel Goldstein is described as a jarring figure that has a voice of “some monstrous machine running without oil”(chapter 1). His face was discordant and ugly “somehow inherently despicable” (Chapter 1). This is symbolized by the jarred musical notes represented as his voice and the frowning eyebrows as frowning is seen as “ugly”. Goldstein rebellious aura is only but false hope created by “Ingsoc” to allow more control over oceanian’s population. Even if this accusation is false “Ingsoc” still uses Goldstein to further their goal on making sure “Goldstein and his heresies will live for ever”(part 3 chapter 3). To show how little control Goldstein has and how he is being played like a marionette, we symbolized it through a ball and chain locked around his ankle whilst locking his brain in a cage.

 

 

 

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