1) The characters presented in the chapters 1-2

In these chapters the most relevant character is Winston, the protagonist of this dytopian novel. Around Winston an entire world is described by Orwell, and many people are used by the author just to characterise this world. We can’t define more key characters, because Orwell chooses to use specific people to symbolize the various aspects of this modern society. For example the role O’Brien, “...so important and remote that Wiston had only a dim idea of its nature.” , who represents the nonsense bureaucracy and the terrific hierarchy that rules this incredible and doomed world. Another character that represents something is Goldstein, the only hope that the people can’t get, because their govern forces them to believe in the Big Brother. Another relevant character is the woman of the Anti-Sex League, that embarrasses and makes the poor Wiston angry at the same time. This woman represents some aspects that the author tries to explain in the following chapters. The two kids that show some ferocity against Winston, follow the message coming from the Big Brother, and Orwell denounces the “mind control” by means of subliminal messages, while describing these two kids attacking Wiston. Every character has his/her role and represents a social pattern.

2) The settings

The settings presented in these two chapters are not various. We start in Wiston’s flat - a small space that may represent the doomed human condition. Then Wiston describes his meeting with O’Brien, Goldstein and the woman of the Anti-Sex League; finally we go to the Parsons’ flat, because Winston needs to repair the kitchen sink of his neighbours. In the middle there is just a mental trip that introduces us to this new world through Wiston’s events.

Focus on the environment

1.   Sense of smell: “The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats.”

The terrible smell on the street makes us feel that nobody cares about the environment around them. The party makes people think about only working for the party, and nobody cares about the quality of his or her life.

The details about the terrible smell shows us a dark and anormal society and makes us feel repressed so that we can follow the author to know Winston’s story.

2. Sense of sight:    “One each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.”

“There seemed to be no colour in anything, except the posters that were  plastered everywhere.”

3) Summary of the chapters

• Wiston in his flat. Dust, silence and thought police.

• The diary. The mirror of this society has a reflex on war, homicide and 20 kilo bomb.

• The 2 Minutes Hate report. Discomfort, fear and loathing. Nobody knows why and nobody wants to know that, just rage, hate… and sheep.

• The funny kids and their kitchen sink. An interesting trip in a average-family world that assimilate basic principles as the presence in the hanging shows, and a glimpse on the news of the telescreen. Who can release their chocolate ration?

• The last notes in Wiston’s diary. Anyone has courage to write and affirm his thoughts. Anyone except Wiston?

4) Personal comments on the events and the themes of the chapters

Big Brother

Big Brother is not a real person. All-present as he is, all-powerful and forever watching, he is only seen on TV. Although his picture glares out from huge posters that shout, BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, nobody sees Big Brother in person. Orwell had several things in mind when he created Big Brother. He was certainly thinking of Russian leader Joseph Stalin; the pictures of Big Brother even look like him. He was also thinking of Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Big Brother stands for dictators everywhere. Orwell may have been thinking about figures in certain religious faiths when he drew Big Brother. The mysterious, powerful, God-like figure who sees and knows everything - but never appears in person. To Inner Party members, Big Brother is a leader, a bogeyman they can use to scare the people, and their authorisation for doing whatever they want. If anybody asks, they can say they are under orders from Big Brother. For the unthinking proles, Big Brother is a distant authority figure. For Winston, Big Brother is an inspiration. Big Brother excites and energises Winston, who hates him. He is also fascinated by Big Brother and drawn to him in some of the same ways that he is drawn to O'Brien, developing a love-hate response to both of them that leads to his downfall.

(From http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/index.cgi/work/summaries/1984.html)

I agree with the comment that Winston is not a real person. He is just a symbol of power. He is used to scare the people. He is a leader, and he is also a tool.

There is a big plot hidden in the two big and dark eyes which are watching you all the time. If everyone has been controlled by the two big eyes and nobody asks, the authorization can do whatever they want. Not only Big Brother, but also the telescreen which can hear and see you in the same time. So freedom does no longer exist in the society.

“The Ministry of Truth - Minitrue was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 meters into the air. From where Winsto stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”

Obviously, the party confuses right and wrong.

Two Minutes Hate

Emmanuel Goldstein is one of the leading figures of the Party, almost on a level with BIG BROTHER.

The face of Goldstein was a lean Jewish face.

Goldstein was delivering an attack so exaggerated and perverse that a child should have been able to see through it, the habitual style of the orators of the Party, freedom of thought, advocating freedom of speech, freedom of the Press, freedom of assembly.

Goldstein's specious clap trap Goldstein's bleating voice. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators.

Goldstein melted into the face of BIG BROTHER... A terrible book, of which Goldstein was the author.

We think Two minutes hate is a tool for the party to wash everyone’s brain. But the party doesn’t tell people the truth, so people are crazy to something fabricated. And if people believe in the party and their lies, they will follow them crazily, so the dictators can do anything they want. Two minutes hate is a symbol of the dictatorial society.

Followers

There are two clear figures who are followers of the Party: Parsons and the children. Although they are all followers, they are not the same. 

Parsons is much older than his children, he is very cowardly though he is an active man. This is the same as his wife. We think he is used to love the Party, so we say he has a mass of imbecile enthusiasms.   

The children are so young, so they are really crazy but they do not realize they have been used by the Party. They are full of vices. From what they said and what they did, obviously, they are using their whole power against the people like Winston.

We think the Party’s most terrible crime is that it reforms the young’s natural instincts. The young are so naïve that they cannot distinguish truth from falsehood and good from evil. In our opinion, the followers are more or less blind but the young are much poorer, they  are  deprived of their love and freedom for politics.

5) Some relevant quotations from the chapters

“Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away with a helicopter after him, first you saw him wallowing along in the water like a porpoise, then you saw him through the helicopters gunsights, then he was full of holes and the sea round him turned pink and he sank as suddenly as though the holes had let in the water, audience shouting with laughter when he sank. then you saw a lifeboat full of children with a helicopter hovering over it.”

‘You’re a traitor!’ yelled the boy. ‘You’re a thought-criminal! You’re a Eurasian spy! I’ll shoot you, I’ll vaporize you, I’ll send you to the salt mines!’

 by  Jacopo, Zhuque, and Liuchang