Setting

Setting

1. FACILITIES

   • 'Coffee... real coffee' 'chocolate ration will be reduced'
     • Admiration for everyday household items we have- reseeding society.
     • After war- imaginied a brighter future- more accessable plentiful food supplies
   • Coarse soap... blunt razor blades' burst.....pipes burstroof leaked'
     • Basic necessities= poor quality- inefficient- their wellbeing is not given priority. Home is decaying- neglection of basic needs-can't complain- oppressive.
     • Socialism is supposed to improve life for everyone.
   • 'Even at the best of times... seldom working'
     • Elevator supposed to make life easier- Instead nuisance- contrast with 'Victory Mansions'
   • 'Probably she had crushed her hand while swinging...big kaleidescope.
     • Normal to get hurt at owrk- no rights or protection- suggests people are often hurt and expected to put up with it as it was a 'common accident'
   • ‘dark, close smelloing room...shelf where food was kept ...brown earthenware sink
     • Very basic claustrophobic living space- shows conditions have not changed much despite POarty’s claims- Orwell is showing that conditions have not improved- and we know from following Winstons life they are only getting worse.
   • 'He remembered..periodical panics about air raids ...sheltering in tube stations..rubble everywhere..never enough to eat’
     • Speak more to readers in Orweells time who would have experienced this first hand – memories of he war -links to rationing

2. GOLDEN COUNTRY

   • 'Golden Country'
     • Connotations of heavenly, desirable, valuable but also negative ones of too rich and unatainable
   • 'rabbit bitten pasture, a foot track wondering .. molehill here and there'
     • Very sporadic surroundings- contrasting with strict military societies ways- things are as they please- no uniformity. Such life and utopian setting- too good to be true
   • 'air semed to kiss one's skin'
     • PERSONIFIES air-Makes everything more human and gentle- Stark contrast to 'vile wind' before.
   • 'Bluebells have cascaded onto the ground .. seem to have fallen off their own accord'
     • Even though bluebells are dead- trying to rgain control of their life- symbollic of them both already dead from thought crime but still hope anyway. Bluebells are also very short-lived flowers- and even though they are 'thick underfoot' it symbolises the shortlived nature of their rebellion.

3. OCEANIA

   • 'In the walls of the office there were three orifices'
     • idea of future technology- extreme- everything is built into the wall, and so is very mechanical and industrialised- really easy to duplicate- just like workers
   • 'The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats'
     • Citizens live in bad conditions
     • Incorparating all senses to build a clear, vivid image. All encompassing it is.
   • 'Maze of barbed wire .. steel doors .. hidden machine gun nests
     • Shows efforts to keep people out- heavy- secure- prison like - nest- new life/cosy juxta with machine gun
   • 'rotting nineteenth century houses..windows patched.. crazy garden walls sagging'
     • Vivid description of a broken home is both physical and metaphorical- scale at which people are living in poverty -regressing, decaying society.
   • 'Battle of Airstrip One' 'Victory Square'
     • Instead of Battle of Trafalgar- makes manipulation of history evident - more anger for Orwell's readers
   • 'glittering white concrete..soaring up terrace after terrace' 'three other buildings of similar appearance and size'
     • Stark contrasts in description represents the class divide- greed of the party. Symmetry of the buildings emphasises the conformity idealized and enforced by the Party.

4. NATURE

   • 'World looked cold' 'Bright cold day in April'
     • PATHETIC FALLACY- adds to the dreary description- In thhis instance Orwell is referring to cold as a feeling- absence of warmth-isolation- unwelcome. April should be spring- not cold= unusual. Spring should bring new life- hope and happiness- contrast with harsh and forboding environment.
   • 'bombed site where plaster dust swirled in the air'
     • Dsolate- uncard for land- in ruin from ongiong war- plaster dust replaces leaves/ nature replaced- emphasises incomplete and unfinished nature of buildings.
     • Landscape bears a strong resembleance to London in 1940's which was repeatedly bombed by Germany during WW2. Orwell intends the reader to see a parallel between the decaying world of 1984 and the devestation wreaked by the nazi's.
   • 'Sunshine made him feel dirty and etoiled... sooty dust of london in the pores of his skin'
     • Against party- indoctrinated - Even if he tries to escape- part of him feels like he belongs there- almost as though it is too late- now he is incompatable with nature.