1984 George Orwell Identity Analysis

The novel 1984, written by George Orwell, asks whether people should hide their true identity to remain safe, or if people should live the way they wish regardless of the consequences. It may seem that if Winston had not rebelled against the party he would have been better off, but this is not true. Keeping your true feelings to yourself and living how other people want you, is torture in-of-itself. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “imitation is suicide” and this quote is true. Every day lived like someone else and spent hiding your true self is soul-crushing death. Although The Party beat and tortured Winston, keeping his thoughts of rebellion to himself would not have made him better off. #

# Secrets often cause irrational acts. Often times

Simply holding the idea to rebel ensured Winston’s capture. Secrets can never just exist in the mind, they always cause physical manifestations. Winston states, “Your worst enemy… was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom” (Orwell 36). He vividly remembers walking down the street and seeing “the left side of the man’s face was suddenly contorted by a sort of spasm… it was only a twitch, a quiver, rapid as the clicking of a camera shutter, but obviously habitual” (Orwell 36). These small tics will be the cause of the man’s capture. The Thought Police use small unconscious movements to determine when people are hiding

When Winston questions Parsons he says “Do you know how it got hold of me? In my sleep! Yes, that’s a fact… never knew I had any bad stuff in my mind at all. And then I started talking in my sleep. Do you know what they heard me saying?... ‘Down with Big Brother!’ Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again” (Orwell 135). The Party trained children to spy on their parents and then awarded the children’s courage. Parsons says his own daughter turned him in for talking in his sleep, but she most likely made up the story to gain the respect of the Thought Police. The Party did not care whether accusations were true or false. They detained anyone who seemed suspicious. Winston stood no chance of avoiding capture if the Thought Police apprehended a perfect man like