1984 Post 5: Questions Answered

As I continued reading a few of my questions have been answered or at least recognized in the book. Music was gradually introduced by first talking about a song, which progressed to speaking of music. This means that the people of Oceania are aware of music and know what it is and have music just like we do. But we do not know how much of their perspective has differed from ours, or ours have differed from theirs. Music can easily be seen as a horrible thing instead of a form of self expression. They do not discuss the general public’s idea on music, but the author gives us an idea of how music is perceived when they introduce the nursery rhyme. Mr. Charrington first establishes the rhyme in the book when they were discussing the picture of St. Clements church. The nursery rhyme incorporated all the major churches in London, that were nearby anyways. This gave a nostalgic tone towards music, as if it was one of those songs everyone knew and the lyrics are on the tip of your tongue but it has been so long your brain can’t seem to function the way you want it to in order to remember the lyrics, but it was faintly familiar. Music seems to be some that is acknowledged but not used often because there seems to be no use for it, and it seems to be something the party cannot easily control, I am assuming. Besides the acknowledgement of music, the question raised about paying for telescreens to watch over citizens has been answered. The lack of telescreens in was a major plot twist that was vital to the story. The telescreen hid behind the picture of the church while Winston and Julia had their affair. They were caught by Mr. Charrington since he was part of the thought police, allowing for a smooth transition to the following part of the story.