Giroux1984QuoteReaction

Giroux1984Reactions

Amanda Giroux 2-16-10   Block 8 The quote from the book __1984__ by George Orwell that I didn’t quite understand was “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious” (pg 70). In this passage Winston is writing in his diary and he’s describing, to whatever readers that may be or may come to be, about how the proles don’t care about the important things in life, like freedom and unity, enough to come together, but they will when something as mundane as cooking pans comes along. What confused me was the fact that this saying is a contradiction. What I mean by this is that neither can happen; it’s impossible without the other. They can’t rebel until they are conscious of rebelling, but they can’t become conscious until they rebel. Another quote that I noticed was “Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s, You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martine’s” (pg 99). The sentence before this quote in the book was “…the half-remembered rhyme kept running through Winston’s head.” This small fragment of the sentence shows how the poem is in fact a memory, which means it is history. Winston is making more of an effort to remember the past that he helps destroy. In fact, the story tells of how Winston is trying to get the memories out of an old man so he’ll know what happened all those years ago too.