This is my brief theory [or rather it was supposed to be brief] explaining why the elevator in the apartment of Winston Smith from Nineteen Eighty-Four (by George Orwell) is always broken.
For those who have read the novel or know anything about it, you likely know that the Party (the government) reduces language, rewrites history, et cetera. If they declare 2 + 2 = 5, then it is so. I believe it is with these changes that the Party either intentionally (to keep technology and machines from the Outer Party and Proles) or unintentionally have changed enough of history, language or accepted physics standards that most mechanical objects for use by Proles and the Outer Party will not be built to last.
Exactly what fact or event was rewritten to cause this is unknown, but there are several possibilities. Changing something simple like 2 + 2 from four to five could have been the cause. Implementing the change and having all minds believe it would take more time than simply burning all copies of a news article. So when engineers (who are probably in or close to the Inner Party design an elevator to hold 2 people, each who weigh 2 units, the marked capacity would be 5. Then people in the Outer Party or Proles who are not yet indoctrinated with this change, will be overloading the elevator. Eventually it will break.
It is also possible for language alterations and eliminations to have caused machinery to be faulty. Similar to idea that removing words such as "hate" or "anger" will prevent people from thinking or feeling these emotions, if "brake" or some other similar key feature was removed from language, designers would not think or even know to construct those components. An elevator without brakes would just crash on its first run.
Often events occur that lead to the formation of standards or codes, especially for safety. If an engineer had built an elevator that malfunctioned resulting in death or injuries, after an investigation, laws may be created or amended regarding various things to ensure the safe operation of elevators in the future. If this engineer becomes an unperson, all articles involving them would be destroyed or modified. Say the investigation determined the engineer used the current safety factor (at the time) of 1.5 for the cables, which was then increased to 3 as a result of the malfunction. Obviously, if this incident and associated standards published from it are erased, elevators would continue to malfunction. One might argue that they would just modify the articles regarding the engineer to a different engineer. This is a valid point, but remember that the party members who work in Minitrue and the politicians of the Inner Party who are both involved in modifying the documents are not professional engineers qualified to change design details of machines. As an example, say, Winston received this document to "rectify" and as he is changing the "malreported" facts, he decides the investigation of this new engineer determined the safety factor should be increased from 1.5 to 2. To him this may seem perfectly fine, but it may not be enough to avoid malfunctioning elevators. He changed a small detail that was seemingly unimportant, but he was unqualified to make this change.
As various changes like those discussed above are repeated and all the changes compile, machines would no longer be designed to the quality standards they are today. These machines would break down and any persons who say they know how to fix the machine would be accused of thoughtcrime. Knowing how to fix the machine would mean they know things they shouldn't and it would also imply the Party was wrong, which they can never be.
In attempting to disprove my own theory, I thought about the fully functioning Telescreens that allow communication to Outer Party members and between them and Inner Party members (at Inner members' request). Surely this must have complex machinery that would have been affected by at least one change and so, should also be malfunctioning. Then I reminded myself that these machines are of no use to Outer Party members and only for spreading propaganda during "two minute hate" and as a surveillance system for the Party and Thought Police. Telescreens are used only for the will of the Party and as revealed in Part 2, Chapter 8 of the novel, Inner Party members have privileges available to no one else. O'Brien reveals their access to disabling the Telescreens and that they also get rare delicacies like wine (as opposed to awful Victory Gin). So, it is very possible the Inner Party has access to technology not available to anyone else and since the Telescreens are mostly used to counter resistance efforts, they can be visible to all citizens.
It is for these reasons that I think Winston's elevator is broken and never fixed. The literary meaning of the broken elevator is usually taken to be part of the dystopian atmosphere. This theory fits it in with the censorship theme in a literary analysis. The Party is depriving most citizens of technology and machines, many devices may not even be known to the public. And you might even argue that depriving the public of technology fits in with the sexual repression theme of the novel. A large portion of the internet is pornographic entertainment, and the Party believes sex should be for reproducing only, not enjoyment or pleasure. Therefore, repressing technology which promotes contradicting ideals would be in the Party's interests.
No comments:
Post a Comment