1984
question
The Two Minutes Hate
Rahul
Jul 27, 2019 11:12AM
Hi
When Orwell describes the "second minute" of the two minute hate i've noticed something quite interesting - he seems to use a lot of imagery related to water:
"drown out"
"landed fish"
"assault of a wave"
What is the effect on the reader of this and why on earth does Orwell do it?
I'm also struggling to analyse the choice of verbs and adjectives/other word choices and structure during the whole description of the two minutes hate - do people have any ideas?
But my main question is about the water imagery!!
Thanks everyone in advance and I hope this leads to fruitful discussion.
When Orwell describes the "second minute" of the two minute hate i've noticed something quite interesting - he seems to use a lot of imagery related to water:
"drown out"
"landed fish"
"assault of a wave"
What is the effect on the reader of this and why on earth does Orwell do it?
I'm also struggling to analyse the choice of verbs and adjectives/other word choices and structure during the whole description of the two minutes hate - do people have any ideas?
But my main question is about the water imagery!!
Thanks everyone in advance and I hope this leads to fruitful discussion.
I dont own a copy of 1984 so I can really only help with your main question oops
Water imagery is one of my faves because of the duality it represents. When it appears in literature, usually it's to emphasize how the core ideas of the text are a) essential to life/success/etc, or b) a cause of death/ruin/etc. But it all depends on the surrounding context & whether the author portrays the text's world in a good or bad light.
The examples you've given out combine a drowning/suffocating motif with the water imagery. Maybe Orwell's intention was to emphasize to the reader the oppressive nature of hatred & fear? Or how the government uses hatred & fear to snuff out any chance of resistence (i.e. "suffocating" said resistence).
Water imagery is one of my faves because of the duality it represents. When it appears in literature, usually it's to emphasize how the core ideas of the text are a) essential to life/success/etc, or b) a cause of death/ruin/etc. But it all depends on the surrounding context & whether the author portrays the text's world in a good or bad light.
The examples you've given out combine a drowning/suffocating motif with the water imagery. Maybe Orwell's intention was to emphasize to the reader the oppressive nature of hatred & fear? Or how the government uses hatred & fear to snuff out any chance of resistence (i.e. "suffocating" said resistence).
Aug 05, 2019 10:58AM · flag