1984: Book 2 Chapters 7-10

Passage:

"Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. A large part of the political literature of five years was now completely obsolete. Reports and records of all kinds, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks, photographs -- all had to be rectified at lightning speed. Although no directive was ever issued, it was known that the chiefs of the Department intended that within one week no reference to the war with Eurasia, or the alliance with Eastasia, should remain in existence anywhere. The work was overwhelming, all the more so because the processes that it involved could not be called by their true names. Everyone in the Records Department worked eighteen hours in the twenty-four, with two three-hour snatches of sleep. Mattresses were brought up from the cellars and pitched all over the corridors: meals consisted of sandwiches and Victory Coffee wheeled round on trolleys by attendants from the canteen. Each time that Winston broke off for one of his spells of sleep he tried to leave his desk clear of work, and each time that he crawled back sticky-eyed and aching, it was to find that another shower of paper cylinders had covered the desk like a snowdrift, half burying the speakwrite and overflowing on to the floor, so that the first job was always to stack them into a neat enough pile to give him room to work. What was worst of all was that the work was by no means purely mechanical. Often it was enough merely to substitute one name for another, but any detailed report of events demanded care and imagination. Even the geographical knowledge that one needed in transferring the war from one part of the world to another was considerable." (Book 2 Chapter 9 Page 182)

Response:

I chose this quote due to the fact that it shows how much work is being done when the government wants past history to be rewritten. This quote is a small snippet of the actual stress and tension it takes for the Records Department to be able to change all the "obsolete" history and change it with present history that aligns with their initial claims. I particularly stopped at this quote due to the fact that it showed how much work must be put on the employees of the Record Department to obey the governments' policy to change whatever data that contradicts their own current claims regarding the issue. Also, this description that Winston establishes is just after Hate Week in which the citizens of Oceania just realized that the government made Eurasia the scapegoat to have the citizens blame them for the war, but in reality Oceania is really in war with Eastasia, and Eurasia is just an ally. 

From this quote as well, Winston describes that the employees of the Records Department in this time of switching up history, has to stay at the Records Department for 24 hours a day, and work 18 hours total throughout the day. The 6 hours of not working consists of 2 three hour breaks that are used to rest by trying to sleep. However, Winston describes that in the Records Department it is tough to sleep during this hectic and chaotic time of working since the employees desks are full of paperwork. So, the only way to sleep is to make enough space to lay your head on the desk, or to sleep on top of all the paperwork. However, the Records Department did provide some mattresses that were laid around the building for the employees to sleep for their 3 hours break. These 3 hour breaks may seem to be luxurious for the employees, but in reality the 2 three hour breaks is just not enough for the employees to be able to properly rest. Also, it is discouraging to go to sleep since the employees already know that once they come back to their desk, paperworks would fill their desks. This working situation in my case is not ideal since in our modern times, it is illegal for an employee to stay at work for 24 hours each day and work 18 hours of that day. It is a job that I would never want to do due to the chaos involved with the history, the citizens, and the government. Also, this job is very demanding since it makes the employees of the Records Department use their own imagination and thought to rewrite the history that the government wants to revert. This job is not ideal for me and I would never want to work in a situation like this. This job in my opinion is dehumanizing since it makes the employees stay at work, and work tirelessly so history can be written at the fastest rate possible. This job to me is a way of suffocation for the citizens since they are entitled to work countless hours for the governments' own good and the government however is still watching over them that they do their work sufficiently and also for them to not tell others of the previous history.

Another reason why this quote was a special part to the plot of the story is that it shows how that the food that they were given while at the job were just sandwiches and victory coffee. These sandwiches and victory coffee are not enough for what the employees of the Records Department is doing for the government. It does not quite cut it for food since this is Oceania, and the citizens don't get the same common luxuries as the Party members. Everything that the citizens get is a complete downgrade to luxuries that today we take for granted. For example, they don't really get the same sugar that we take for granted and this is a common luxury that most of us can't live without. Sugar is sort of peoples ways of life since it brings out sweetest which spikes up our tastebuds. In the case of the employees, it is quite disturbing to realize that the victory coffee that they are getting is a poor accommodation since anything that involves victory is a complete downgrade of what we have in modern times. For example, victory cigarettes are seen to be completely poor in quality and the tobacco just falls out if tipped in one way. By this, the coffee that they are getting is very poor and it is even more poor since they can't drink it with the commonality of sugar inside our coffee. Also, this poor quality goes along with the sandwiches as well since we would only expect that the government would give only the poorest quality to their citizens. 

Questions to ask Winston: 
1) Are you able to quit your job?
2) If you were able to quit your job, would you?
3) How do handle being controlled by such controlling employers?
4) How was the food provided in your own opinion?
5) By the way you always rebel, did you input any rebellion material while rewriting the history books?

Questions to ask the government:
1) Do you realize that in today's world, your putting yourselves in an illegal situation as an employer?
2) Why do make your employees work such long hours, couldn't they just gradually change history?
3) Do you realize that they don't get sufficient food and sleep while on the job?
4) Why did you want people to hate of Eurasia when in reality they are your allies?
5) Do you realize that any employee may rebel through the manipulation of history?