Picking the Weapon
Age plays a much bigger role in 1984 than it did in BNW. Sure, Brave New World had the child conditioning and weird erotic play, but the quality of age itself mattered even less. People looked the same age until they suddenly died at 60. Aging didn't even happen, so it was hard to even gauge how old someone actually was. But that definitely does play a role in our society AND that of 1984. Be honest, if you ran into someone looking like Mrs. Parson wouldn't you instinctively recoil?
Instead of having class divisions (yes, there's the proles, Outer, Inner party but other than that), the society in 1984 is much more based on age. As we increasingly see, the Orwellian government relies on young people to uphold their regime. They brainwash them to actively seek and destroy threats to the Party's power. This capitalizes on their naivety and energy. (Kids are also used in the armies, etc.) Then, the older people are less useful to the Party and are pretty much tossed aside.
Another threat that the aging population poses is knowledge and memory. The Party thrives upon rewriting and erasing history, so of someone remembers what actually happened the Party wants to get rid of them. Some of them get purged (like Winston's parents), but some survive, as we saw with the old man in the pub. At the same time, though, the guy seemed like a mere shadow of a person.
At this point I should probably out myself as being slightly ageist. I think it comes with being a young person among other young people who think we're so special and different from the previous generations. We are, of course, but it doesn't make us qualified to judge ourselves as better. Honestly, I think a lot of these age divisions already exist in our society. Winston's thoughts about the dark-haired girl, for instance, really struck me as an old guy complaining/being weird and horny? (and then he turned around and looked down on the old guy for being old).
What do you guys think? Are generations already separated by this? Does the government aggravate this? Do you think they could harness that power (or maybe they already do????)
In this passage I saw a really close parallel between the USSR, which is the regime that 1984 is largely based off of. Stalin's regime lasted from 1922 to 1953, which saw a whole new generation of children rise up who had no memory of what life was like living before the 1917 Revolution. Stalin's government brainwashed children to be loyal to the state and not their parents, and actively encouraged children to turn their parents in if they saw the slightest inkings of "subversive" activity. This is also similar to the scene where Winston's neighbor's children try to turn in Winston, as they are already molded into loyal servants of the dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you touched on age as a variable that could affect someone's experience in the world of 1984. I definitely do think the government aggravates this, as generations are kind of stereotyped based on possible differences in interests, politics, etc. I think this political parties probably take advantage of these divides to strengthen their respective voter bases via out-group biases related to age. Very interesting post!
ReplyDeleteAge is truly a defining attribute in society and it follows the new concept of big brother. Age and big brother move synchronously as he is constantly reaching out to the new generation and continuing to lessen the ability of thought until everyone is so brainwashed that they remain compliant.
ReplyDeleteThe way the Party divides people by age is probably driven (as you said) by the fear that older people remember life before the Party, and thus are a potential threat to the Party's narrative. Because our society has a better relationship with history than both 1984 and BNW, the government (thankfully) doesn't need to turn society against older generations, so the separation between generations, though present, isn't as prevalent or disturbing as it is in 1984.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I HATE how Winston reacts when he sees the girl with the dark hair. It's disgusting, immature, and reinforces the ideology that men are entitled to women's bodies. I honestly feel like the government today works in the opposite direction from 1984 in relation to age - government officials are disproportionately old people, because our society values experience (it also takes name recognition to succeed in politics, which can take a while to establish). I feel like we need to reclaim our government with more young politicians who care less about their financial well-being and more about the future.
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