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Sadie Baker
English 3
1984

Big Brother and Emmanuel Goldstein are the two heads of opposing political groups in 1984. Big Brother is the head of the Party, and Goldstien of the ironically named Brotherhood. To the citizens of Oceania, the two factions are polar opposties, but the two leaders are in fact as similar as they are different.

Ninteen Eighty Four never gives a defenitive answer to whether Big Brother exists in the material world. When Winston asks O'Brien, who torturers Winstion and "reducates" him, if Big Brother exists in 3 demensional space, O'Brien replies, " It is of no importance. He exists." This does not answer Winston's question or our own. It does not even imply one or the other. He does, however, conceed that he is "the embodiement of the Party" and that he can not die.
One striking characteristic of Big Brother is his name. To his subjects, the name is reminiscent of family ties and loyalty, of sibling bonding. Ideally, an older brother should look out for and protect his siblings, which, as far as the majority of Oceania is concerned, he does. But on the other hand, a brother is not always a warm, loving individual. To some, including Winston, the name implies treachery and bullying, as was the role he played to his younger sister. Winston admits to Julia what a horrible brother he was. He constantly stealing his sister's food, although he knew she was sick, and dying slowly from malnutrion. When a chocolate ration was issued, his mother intended on dividing it equally between the three of them. Eventually, he stole his baby sister's chocolate for himself, and left his mother with none at all. This draws a clear parallel with Big Brother. He takes the little food that is produced and distributes the best of it to his favorites, the Inner Party. While the higher-ups get wine, the Outer Party, even with all their loyalty, get only cheap synthesized gin.

Emmanuel Goldstein, as well as Big Brother, is never specifed as being alive, dead, or having never existed. O'Brien refuses to say whether Goldstein's organization exists. It should be noted, though, that while Winstion phrases his questions the same: "Does Big Brother exist?" and "Does the Brotherhood exist?", the answers are incositent. Big Brother clearly exists in the minds of Oceanian citizens, as does Emmanuel Goldstein. If Big Brother exists only in the people's minds, and the answer to Winston's question is yes, and Goldstein exists only in the people's minds, then the answer to Winston's second question should also be yes. This, of course, assumes Goldstien leads the Brotherhood.
Goldstein has a name reminisint of days past. In a world where most have good, "normal" names, like Tom and Julia, Emmanuel means "God". Beleivng in a higher power in Oceania is thoughtcrime. A modern reader might recognize his name as sterotypically Jewish. Also, Orwell describes him as having "a lean Jewish face". Orwell named and described him thus too evoke memories of World War Two in his readers. Goldstein is a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong in Oceania. "All treacheries, acts of sabatoge, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching," Orwell says. In WWII, the Jews were the scapegoats. Removal of them was absolutely nessecary for the sucess of the Nazi Party. It is nessecary, too, for the sucess of the Party

Let's prompt...

Piano, always look on the bright side, rusted car.

She sat in the car, head lolling back on the bloodied seat. Even waiting in a car for the firemen to force the door open, the summer camp ditty ran through her head:

Stay on the sunny side always on the sunny side stay on the sunny side of life
You will feel no pain as we drive you insane if you stay on the sunny side of life

The sheer ironicness of the song made her grin, her mouth of broken teeth giving the errie impression of a jack o lantern left out too long after Haloween. She turned her head slowly towards the passenger's seat.

Her hope was confirmed. His eyes were closed, neck contorted in a way inconsistent with life. She purposely hadn't buckled him into his car seat properly. There, finally the last vestige of that awful summer was done away with. She would walk away from the accident, but Danny would be rolled away into the ambulance with a sheet over his little 2 year old head. MAybe she would even sue the car seat company. Say they were the reason her sweet little son was gone from her life.

Emma had only been 16 that summer. Her fifth year at sleep away camp, she knew all the counslors and her cabinmates. She knew the camp's layout by heart, too, so no one objected when she slipped away from the evening campfire to get a sweatshirt from her cabin. Younger kids had to use the buddy system everywhere they went, but as you got older, the rules were a bit more relaxed. So she was alone outside her cabin when a tall man, much heavier than herself, had dragged her behind the cabin, knocked her out, and raped her. She was found a few hours later by her counseler, but because she couldn't remember anything, and there was no physical evidence other than the lump on her head, the camp nurse simply gave her an ice pack and told her to be more careful on the trails.

It wasn't until after camp ended that she missed her period. And by then, her ultra Catholic parents assumed the had gotten herself knocked up in the back seat of her boyfriend's car. Emma was quite sure this was not the case. Her parents, at a loss for what to do with their wayward daughter, put her in therapy. After a few sessions, the suppressed memories of the night at summer camp emerged, but with no physical evidence, Emma had no way to prove to her parents she wasn't simply making up a story to get out of trouble.

So now, nearly 19, she had tried, alone, to raise a son she never wanted. Stuggling after being kicked out of the house, everytime she looked at the boy, her parent's furious faces were still all she could see. After two years of being constantly made to feel guilty for something she knew was not her fault, she resented Danny and all he represented.

I never asked for this. He wasn't my fault, this wasn't my fault. A cheaply made carseat, an icy road. They can't prove otherwise.

A firefighter finally wrenched open the door.
"You alright?"
"Fine now. I'm fine."

Dreyer leaned against the cement wall. He watched the other Peacekeepers as they got their lunch on the dull steel trays. Dreyer and his pod, Zade and Nyro, had already eaten, after they got back from their assignement. They other Peacers looked exauhausted. Nyro grinned at him and tilted his head in the direction of a young man, not really more than a boy. He was limping and his forearms were bruised. The podmates all chuckled slightly, recalling their basic training. After 50 days of drills and practice, the new recruits would be assigned to a pod. In fact, Dreyer's pod, 162, was due to get one of the trainees. Dreyer always dreaded this. Frsh trainees were always the first to mess up in the field, and messing up an assingment was unacceptable. Dreyer's pod was assigned to the task tracking and bagging the Traitors. If you came for the Traitors once and failed to bag them, they would have warning, and disappear into the city's depths. Once assigned to a certain group of Traitors, you had to bag them in the given time, or you would face the same punisment they did. This was the Cause's way of keeping the Peacers in line. No one knew exactly what the punishment was, but everone could clearly see Traitors going into the gated area, as well as the unbroken electric fence around it.

Dreyer shook himself out of his reverie. Daydreams, especially in full view of other Peacers, would not do. He was a member of Pod 162, the only pod whose assignement to bagged record was 100%.