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In "1984" George Orwell presents
a world subdued by the dictature of 'Big Brother' who controls
everything and everybody. The children, who are part of organizations
such as the 'spies', are completely indoctrinated. Even though
this book is meant to be anti-Stalin, it offers an image of what
would have been Hitler's 'ideal' youth.
A handsome, tough-looking
boy of nine had popped up from behind the table and was menacing
him with a toy automatic pistol, while his small sister, about
two years younger, made the same gesture with a fragment of wood.
Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, grey shirts, and
red neckerchiefs which were the uniform of the Spies. Winston
raised his hands above his head, but with an uneasy feeling,
so vicious was the boy's demeanour, that it was not altogether
a game.
'You're a traitor!' yelled the boy. 'You're a thought-criminal!
You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll vaporize you, I'll
send you to the salt mines!'
Suddenly they were both leaping round him, shouting 'Traitor!'
and 'Thought-criminal!' the little girl imitating her brother
in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like
the gambolling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters.
There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy's eye, a
quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a consciousness
of being very nearly big enough to do so. It was a good job it
was not a real pistol he was holding, Winston thought.
Mrs Parsons' eyes flitted nervously from Winston to the children,
and back again. In the better light of the living-room he noticed
with interest that there actually was dust in the creases of
her face.
'They do get so noisy,' she said. 'They're disappointed because
they couldn't go to see the hanging, that's what it is. I'm too
busy to take them. and Tom won't be back from work in time.'
'Why can't we go and see the hanging?' roared the boy in his
huge voice.
'Want to see the hanging ! Want to see the hanging!' chanted
the little girl, still capering round.
Some Eurasian prisoners, guilty of war crimes, were to be hanged
in the Park that evening, Winston remembered. This happened about
once a month, and was a popular spectacle. Children always clamoured
to be taken to see it. (...)
With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead
a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be
watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly
all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was
that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically
turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced
in them no tendency whatever to rebel
against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored
the Party and everything connected with it. The songs, the processions,
the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the
yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother -- it was all
a sort of glorious game to them. All their ferocity was turned
outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners,
traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal
for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children.
And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which The Times
did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little
sneak -- 'child hero' was the phrase generally used -- had overheard
some compromising remark and denounced its parents to the Thought
Police.
"1984", George Orwell, chapter
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