The Resistance in relation to 1984

      The poem “The Resistance” is written by Bellamy, Matt, and it relates greatly to the novel 1984 by George Orwell. To begin with, a great theme in the novel was LOVE between Winston and Julia. As mentioned in the poem, “Love is our resistance”, implies that the emotions of love and faithfulness between Winston and Julia will allow them to keep resisting and breaking the rules of the world they live in. knowing of their crime, Winston and Julia are wondering when will the time be when they get caught. Every night, they are in danger because they were breaking the law by thinking, reading, socializing, having sex, going to the Proles, and loving each other. By “will our world come tumbling down” and “will the walls start caving in”, the writer of the poem describes this couple’s fear of the consequences of their actions when the thought police catches them.

     This relates to another theme in 1984 which is the nature of power. The Party focuses on implementing fear in its people so that they do not even think of disobeying the rules. But as Winston and Julia kept constantly breaking the laws, they were expecting anytime the thought police to come upon them. By saying, “Is our secret safe tonight, is this our last embrace?” again implies the huge risks they are taking, in order to be together. Fear is the greatest theme in the poem as well as the novel. By saying, “Quell your prayers for love and peace, You'll wake the thought police, We can hide the truth inside”, Winston is afraid of the thought-police as he rather keeping the “truth” inside his heart and brain than the great suffering that WILL occur to them WHEN they get caught. The poem also says, “it’s outta control”. “It” refers to the actions this couple was doing; they broke the law, but that didn’t stop them. It is like human extinct where they felt satisfaction & compensation in terms of what they were doing.

      “But it could have been right” means that the laws that prevented them from acting as human being should not exist, because loving, thinking and expressing oneself are all human rights. But in the totalitarian world and government, it was considered to be “wrong”. At the same time, the Big Brother in the novel wanted all people to believe that they were living in a Utopian world where everyone lives in harmony and everything done or NOT done is for the best. But in Winston’s opinion, the world he was living in was more like dystopian because it only appears to be a harmonious but in reality it is a suppression of people’s thoughts and emotions.

      In conclusion, this couple’s resistance is love. It is as if Love has finally conquered their fear of the Party. But at the same time, they know that sooner or later, the thought police will capture them so they must enjoy every second they have left together.

War is Peace

         War is not Peace, but in 1984 by George Orwell, it became peace. The word “war” itself lost its meaning and became misleading to refer to peace. To begin with, in the book there were 3 main dictatorships in control: Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceana. This means that there will always be 2 of them allied against the 3^rd, which leads to a state of continuous war. It could be said that this constant war implies that war itself ceased to exist and it became peace. That is because in the past, the purpose of wars was to gain new resources (land, oil, workers…) or for political gain. But in the created world in the novel, there was no need to fight for resources given that there were only 3 powers, each with enough resources. Also the purpose of war was to keep society united instead of fights of territory.

       The concept of Double-think in the novel is also related to “war is peace” although it is a paradox. Quoted from the novel about Goldstein referring to black & white: 

… But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. (Chapter 9)

This means that the Party follows a strategy which is focusing on a common enemy becomes a reason and a motive for peace and union in the society. This also distracted from the fact that they are in fact not living happily in their own society, which reduces rebellion and difficulty for the Big Brother. What the government did was exaggerate small victories for the people in order to convince them of the strong country they live in and give them a sense of satisfaction.

Basically, the result would be somehow similar if the 3 powers agreed to live peacefully, but that could give the people a bigger opportunity to wake up, express themselves and even rebel.

Taken from the Washington Post:

… It's a little reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, where the three slogans of the ruling party were "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength." Since the disclosures about Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program, Bush critics have been citing that other dominant slogan from Orwell's book: "Big Brother is Watching You." But there are plenty of potential Orwell analogies in Bush's use of language, and his historical revisionism, as well.

War Is Peace. The Washington Post, 20 Mar. 2006. Web. 7 Apr. 2010. .