Government

Governments change overtime, as they should. People change, cultures change, ideals change and it is the governments job to evolve along with them. How the governments change vary. Some, like 1984, gain more power as time passes, moving towards the ultimate goal of complete power. In order to keep the government the way they want it they must control every aspect of the people's lives. They wish to control what they see, what they think, what they do. Anybody who thinks freely or acts freely or does something other than the governments ideal would be seen as a threat. They inspire fear in the people in order to scare them into doing things that will benefit the government.

Double Think

They way O'Brien uses double think reminds me of many religios people. They think that anything they believe is true no matter what any other evidence says. If you believe something to be true, then it is true for you and that is all that matters. The lines between reality and fiction are blurred so that you can hold on to your own beliefs. Of course, anybody that doesn't hold the same beliefs this that this is completely ridiculous.

The Party uses double think to their advantage. They convince people to believe things that obviously aren't true. They make people forget about the past wars or anybody who has ever been vaporized. They make people accept a lifestyle that they wouldn't never live if they hadn't been brainwashed.

Winston begins to see past double think. He begins to do thinks members of the Party "shouldn't" do according to the Party standards. Of course, these are things that the inner Party members have access to. Once Winston is caught he is tortured until he is forced to follow the double think thought process.

Make It Mine - Jason Mraz

Wake up everyone
How can you sleep at a time like this
Unless the dreamer is the real you
Listen to your voice
The one that tells you to taste past the tip of your tongue
Leap and the net will appear

I don't wanna wake before
The dream is over
I'm gonna make it mine
Yes i... I'll own it
I'm gonna make it mine
Yes I'll make it all mine

I keep my life on a heavy rotation
Requesting that it's lifting you up
Up up and away
And over to a table at the Gratitude Café

And I am finally there
And all the angels they'll be singing
Ah la la la ah la la la I la la la la love you

I don't wanna break before
The tour is over
I'm gonna make it mine
Yes i...I'll own it
I'm gonna make it mine
Yes I'll make it all mine

And timing's everything
And this time there's plenty
I am balancing
Careful and steady
And reveling in energy that everyone's emitting

I don't wanna wait no more
No I wanna celebrate the whole world
I'm gonna make it mine
Because I'm following your joy
I'm gonna make it mine
Because I... I am open
I'm gonna make it mine
that's why I will show it
I'm gonna make it all mine
It's mine...
Yes I will make it all mine

This song represents how people like Winston feel as they begin to realize what the government is doing to them. It is frustrating to them that nobody else realizes what the government is doing and what their eventual goal is. Nobody else realizes what their missing out on and what the government is taking away from them. You want to scream at everybody am make them see what you see but you can't because you know the government will punish you if you do so. You can't do anything to communicate your ideas and because of that you don't even know if anybody else is having the same ideas as you. The only choices you have are to continue living your life the way you always have or spread your thoughts and then be vaporized. You can hope that somebody would have heard your ideas and might spread them, but if that was the case they would probably be vaporized, too. Eventually Winston chooses the second option and starts taking more risks. He meets with Julia, acknowledges that Oceania has not been at war with the same country forever. Of course he ultimately pay the price for this.

Vaporized

The idea of vaporizing people is really a brilliant idea that the Party came up with.

It creates so much fear in the eyes of the people. Nobody really knows what happens. People just suddenly cease to exist. Maybe they are killed. Maybe they are sent to a far off land. Maybe they have surgery done to make them look like somebody else. Nobody knows. It's a complete shot in the dark to figure out what happens and nobody wants to know because there is always the possibility that being vaporized will be way worse than you could have ever guessed. People are going to avoid this mysterious fate at all costs. If you know you're going to be executed you at least have some control over you fate. You know what is going to happen to you. If you're vaporized you have no idea.

A person can't be a martyr. There is no glory in being vaporized. You can't say that somebody died for their cause. You can't honor them for being brave. You can't be praised for having courage. In fact, nobody will probably ever remember you because, according to the Party, you never even existed.

Forced Confessions

The idea of forced confessions is terrifying to me. The person being forced to confess is trapped. He can either be tortured indefinitely or he can confess to something he hasn't done and face punishments for it. Everybody knows that he's not telling the truth, but still they act as if he is telling the truth. This practice is so obviously something that is done to benefit the Party, but there is nothing anybody can do about.When this keeps going on for long periods of time, eventually the victim forgets what really happened and starts to believe his own confessions.

In the novel Winston knew that he would be unable to resist telling the Party what they wanted because of the physical and mental harm they were causing him. Still, he held out for as long as he could manage in order to hold on to some dignity. As the torture continued the lines began to blur between reality and what the Party wanted him to think. He slowly began to agree with the party more and more, not really accepting it on the inside but knowing he had to pretend to in order to save himself. The Party finally took complete control over him by threatening him with his greatest fear - rats.

F-Stop Blues - Jack Johnson

Hermit crabs and cowry shells crush beneath his feet as he comes towards
you,
he's waving a shoe
Lift him up to see what you can see, as he begins his focusing,
he’s aiming at you.
And now he has, gutterways for memories and closeups of anything
that he has seen or even dreamed, and now he’s finished focusing.
He’s imagining lightening striking, sea sickness away from here.

Look who’s laughing now that you’ve wasted,
how many years and you’ve barely even tasted,
anything remotely close to everything you’ve boasted about.
Look who’s crying now.

Driftwood floats after years of erosion.
Incoming tide touches roots to expose them.
Quicksand steals my shoes.
Clouds bring the F-stop blues.

Look who’s laughing now that you’ve wasted,
how many years and you’ve barely even tasted,
anything remotely close to everything you’ve boasted about.
Look who’s crying now.


This song shows how messed up everything in Animal Farm got. They had great plans with great potential, but everything fell though. They bragged about their farm to animals and people from all over. They believed they were going to be the most successful farm ever because they worked for their own benefit. They would only have to take care of themselves, there would be no humans to take their eggs or milk.
As the novel progressed the animals slowly began to realize things weren't going as they had plans. They barely had enough food and they were being forced to work harder than ever before. Anything good immediately went for the pigs to use. They got the house to live in, beds to sleep in, the beer and the milk to drink. Of course the animals were aware of these in justices, but they overlooked them or were convinced by the pigs that it was better this way.
The animals fully grasped what had happened to the farm when they looked through the window of the house to see the pigs and the humans playing cards together. At this moment they couldn't tell the difference between the two. They realized that everything Animal Farm represented was gone and that they were left in a worse situation then before.

Losing Hope - Jack Johnson

I got a faulty parachute
I got a stranger's friend
An exciting change in
My butchers blend
A symbol on the ceiling
With the flick of a switch
My new found hero
In the enemy's ditching

Well somebody's something was left in the room
And man now that its gone well of course we assume
That somebody else needed something so bad
That they took everything that somebody had

Losing hope is easy
When your only friend is gone
And every time you look around
Well, it all, it all just seems to change

The mark was left
Man it's never the same
Next time that you shoot
Make sure that you aim
Open windows with passing cars
A brand new night
With the same old stars

Losing hope is easy
When your only friend is gone
And every time you look around
Well, it all, it all just seems to change

Feed the fool
A piece of the pie
Make a fool of his system
Make a fool of his mind
Give him bottles of lies
And maybe he'll find
His place in heaven
Cause he might just die

Losing hope is easy
When your only friend is gone
And every time you look around
Well, it all, it all just seems to change
But hanging on is easy
When you've got a friend to call
When nothings making sense at all


This song describes the downfall of Animal Farm. Initially the animals thought the idea of running their own farm would benefit them all, but as the story progressed we saw the down fall of their plans.

The lines "That somebody else needed something so bad/ That they took everything that somebody had" can describes what the pigs did to the other animals. They were so desperate for power and control that they began to take advantage of the other animals. They abused the animals by making them work too hard with no enough food.
"And every time you look around/Well, it all, it all just seems to change" represents the commandments and the ideology of Animal Farm. The commandments that had been made to protect the rights of the animals were changed to benefit the pigs until they were gone completely. The motto had been "Four legs good, two legs bad" from the beginning, but then the pigs began to walk on only their hind legs. To accommodate this, the motto was changed to "Four legs good, two legs better"
"Losing hope is easy/When your only friend is gone" also describes this aspect of the story. The animals were supposed to stick together and help each other but instead they ended up worse than when they had been controlled by the humans. The animals thought they could trust each other because they were all equal, all animals.