When I first looked up 1984 i was interested in seeing how a man from 1948 envisioned the world in the year 1984. In todays age we think of the future with hope and picture new technologies and space travel. Form someone in 1948, World war II had only been over for three years and was still fresh in the minds of people in that day. George Orwell must have taken this into account when writing this as in the book there is continuous war between the three great powers. I speculate that he must have thought that this peace could not last forever and eventually war would consume humanity.
Orwell's writing style is very different from what i am used to seeing as there are several changes in speaker throughout the book and each character is totally different from one person to the next. Take for example the character Winston. He doesn't say much but when he does say something he is straight to the point and shows no emotion in his tone. His tone is usually journalistic and unfeeling, due to his short sentences. Even though he loves Julia, his word choice describing her implies no deep love of her. He puts off the feeling that she is just someone to have sex with and to share a common hatred of Big Brother.
In the book Winston describes Julia as she sleeps " Her breast rose and fell slowly and regularly." She is naked from the waist up and yet Winston has no sexual drive in him as implied by his diction. Julia's diction is different depending on the people around her. When she is in public she keeps to herself and like Winston is to the point in what she says. But when it is just them alone she becomes more emotional using words such as "darling" and "my love" to describe Winston. The one of the first times they talk to each other her dialogue goes something like this," What time do you get off work?", "Where can we meet?", "Nineteen hours". To the point. But when she talks with Winston alone for the first time she is more relaxed and uses longer sentences. When Winston asks her name she replies " Julia, I know yours. It's Winston- Winston Smith." By repeating his first name with his last name she puts off the feeling that she knows him dearly and wants to know more about him. The character O'brien goes from being intellectually humble to didactic to arrogant megalomaniac all from the changes in the length of his sentences.
Ethos, pathos and Logos are all present in this book and each is carefully placed to achieve the greatest success. An example of Ethos would be Winston's restrained speech and his to the point style of speaking. An example of Logos would be including the definitions of Newspeak and Newspeak words, explaining the state of the world through Goldstein's book, and describing the way history is foraged. Pathos would be describing in little to great detail the torture he suffered through in the ministry of love. You feel for his suffering and wish that he pulls through.
I enjoyed the fact that this was to take place in the future but i disliked how he ended the book. He sets up this whole idea that hope lies in the proles and never goes beyond that. Winston gets tortured , then rehabilitated , then loves the party. The writer could have had him come to some sort of revelation after meeting Julia again after the torture and they somehow overthrow Big Brother but i guess the writer thought the ending was good enough. i just think more could have been added to give a more satisfying ending
