Merriam-Webster dictionary defines betrayal as wanting “to hurt (someone who trusts you, such as a friend or relative) by doing something morally wrong” and another definition it gives is “to give information about someone or something to an enemy.” “A way of thinking, feeling, and acting that are common to most people” is cited in the dictionary as human nature. George Orwell links betrayal with human nature in his novel 1984 as well as displaying acts of selfishness between the main protagonists to convey how betrayal and treachery are acts of human nature by using the elements of deception, the idea of saving yourself over another, and the constant search for freedom. In his novel, Orwell exposes the deceptive nature of humans through …show more content…
Orwell brings this to attention through specific scenes in his novel, such as when Winston sacrificed Julia, using the prisoner in the cell to sacrifice his children so he wouldn’t be sent to Room 101, and through the words spoken by a woman explaining how humans are susceptible to torture. At the end of the novel, to save himself the torture from Room 101, Winston screams, “Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia!” (Orwell 313). This is the most prevalent betrayal throughout the novel as people realize that the woman he once said he “loved,” he just sacrificed to save himself. One more obvious form of perfidy is when the prisoner in the cell with Winston sacrificed his children in order to save himself from going to Room 101. A direct quote from him is, “I’ve got a wife and three children…you can take the whole of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I’ll stand by and watch…but not Room 101!” (Orwell 236). In order to protect himself, he told the guard that he could kill his children in front of them, therefore sacrificing his children for his benefit. Although these two examples are prevalent in the text, one that is less obvious is when a woman was speaking about how humans are susceptible to torture and will attempt to diminish the pain from ourselves by betraying others as seen in this quote, “Sometimes, she …show more content…
The search of freedom simply means to make your own decisions and to focus on your own independent thoughts. However, in Orwell’s society he has created, the Party doesn’t allow that. They have strict rules, and they have a set of ideals that aren’t to be broken. That is why when Winston decided to believe that two plus two equals four, it had a big impact on Winston’s ideals and on his betrayal to Big Brother. The Party wanted everyone to believe that two plus two equals five, except Winston granted his own freedom because “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows” (Orwell 90). Another example of how Winston granted his own freedom and searched for it is when he was consorting with prostitutes. By consorting with prostitutes, he was being frowned upon and betraying the Party since prostitutes were for proles, if allowed at all, and definitely not for Outer or Inner Party members. Orwell explains this by saying, “If you kept the small rules you could break the big ones” (Orwell 129). Consorting with prostitutes was a big rule since an individual would spend five years in a forced labor camp for it. These two examples led to the search for freedom and ended with a main protagonist gaining freedom because by human sentiment, once one is released from chains, they
I strongly agree with Fromm’s viewpoints and interpretations of Orwell’s 1984 text. He warns that the future federal powers will dehumanize society and leave everyone alienated. Thus, I agree with Fromm to the extent that he acknowledges the fact that humanity can indeed cease to exist as a result of our own self-destruction as well as the effect of our actions. Many of his opinions and warnings expressed by Orwell to an extent appear in contemporary society.
Winston commits “thoughtcrime” leading to his arrest and questioning at the Ministry of Love, the communities jail center working with matters pertaining to war. His comrade O’Brien begins torturing him in an underground room and calls it the “learning stage”. He teaches Winston the truth about the Party and their slogan; eventually he explains that “Freedom is Slavery” is easily reversed as “Slavery is freedom. Alone- free- the human being is always defeated… if he can make complete, utter submission… [and] merge himself in the Party… then he is all-powerful and immortal” (264). The Party uses this statement to illustrate that when one acknowledges the collective will, they become free from danger and desire. Those who are surrendered to INGSOC, including O’Brien, assume that when an individual has freedom they become subjugated to their senses and emotions. Moreover, Winston continues to be starved and tortured until he appears to be nothing but skin and bones when his opinions transition to align with the governments. He now accepts everything that O’Brien has expressed to him including that he is crazy and two plus two equals five. While he thinks about what he has been taught he thinks about “How easy it all was! Only surrender, and everything else followed… he hardly knew why he had ever rebelled” (278). In a sense, Winston is now free, only in a
The way people act toward each other can cause betrayal to play a huge role in their actions toward one another, which is the first way in which betrayal is portrayed. For example, before they were born, “The twin argued inside of their mother’s stomach and fought about their birth.The right-handed twin wanted to be born the normal way, as most children are born, but the left-handed twin said no and said he saw light in another direction(Iroquois 41),” so the right-handed twin was born naturally while the left-handed twin ended up not being able to go the direction he saw light in was born through his mother’s armpit,
Throughout the section, the main character, Winston is constantly facing conflicts. Most of these conflicts are internal. In the society Winston lives in, he is being monitored 24/7, which prevents him from doing most things freely. The first sign of conflict is shown when he takes out the diary he bought, and starts writing things he remembers. Of course he is disobeying the law, but he is taking a risk. The “Two-minute hate” is literally a time where everyone hates on the traitors for two minutes. There, Winston faces some internal conflicts; they are internal because the other characters do not know what Winston is thinking. The girl with the dark hair is introduced. She is a bad impression to Winston, and he always feels uncomfortable around her. Later in the book, she intimidates him even more because it feels like she is watching him. Another character that Winston has an internal conflict is O’Brien. It is one of the most interesting encounters because it might have involved O’Brien himself. During the Two-minute Hate, their eyes meet together and Winston suddenly thinks that ...
Readers often find themselves constantly drawn back to the topic of George Orwell’s 1984 as it follows a dystopian community which is set in a world that has been in continuous war, has no privacy by means of surveillance and has complete mind control and is known by the name of Oceania. The story follows a man by the name of Winston who possesses the features of “A smallish, frail figure… his hair very fair, his face naturally sanguine [and] his skin roughened” (Orwell 2). The novel illustrates to readers what it would be like if under complete control of the government. As a result, this book poses a couple of motifs’, For instance part one tackles “Collectivism” which means the government controls you, while part two fights with “Romance” with Winston and Julia’s sexual tension as well the alteration of love in the community, and part three struggles with “Fear” and how it can control someone physically and mentally.
“He has finally learned to love big brother” was how George Orwell in his novel 1984 described Winston, conversion to the party are represented by big brother at the end of the novel. It is easy to believe that at this instance, after torturous reeducation that Winston has endured, he has lost free will and no longer be able to freely choose to love big brother but was forced to, against hiss will. Therefore Winston was never free to love big brother, and in fact not free at all after his “reeducation.” But if we are to accept a definition of free will that stipulates that we are able to produce and act on our own volitions we must accept that Winston has retained and has chosen to love big brother out of his own free will.
The novel, 1984, by George Orwell, depicts a dystopian society where no freedom exists; not even the freedom of thought. The scene takes place in Oceania, a society in which the ruling power called “the Party” strictly controls everything people do: from the way they speak, to how they move, to their very own thoughts. Winston Smith, the main character of 1984, struggles through the day to day life of having to blend into the brainwashed citizens of Oceania, where monitors called telescreens record and analyze every little movement. Anyone not showing signs of loyalty and homogeneity become vaporized, or in other words, cease to exist and become deleted from history. Tired of his constricted life, Winston decides
..., and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum.” The government must have complete and utter control of not only your liberty or freedom(s), but your thoughts as well because with them, you will always be free no matter how much you are tortured, etc. You will die as a free person. Winston states, “To die hating them, that was freedom.” Given too much power and control to the government(s) will destroy political freedom and intellectual freedom. In the appendix it states, “ It could not be used in its old sense of ‘politically free’ or ‘intellectually free’ since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed even as concepts, and were therefore of necessity nameless.” Basically, if we continue in our ways then eventually we will live a totalitarian life without even knowing it.
George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 follows the psychological journey of main character Winston. Winston lives in a utopian society called Oceania. There, the citizens are constantly monitored by their government coined “Big Brother” or “The Party”. In Oceania, there is no form of individuality or privacy. Citizens are also coerced to believe everything and anything the government tells them, even if it contradicts reality and memory. The goal of Big Brother is to destroy individual loyalties and make its citizenry only loyal to the government. In Orwell's novel 1984, he uses Winston's psychological journey to stress the dangers of individuality in a totalitarian regime because it can result in death. Winston’s overwhelming desire to rebel
According to dictionary.com betrayal means "an act of deliberate disloyalty,”. Betrayal is something that is very prevalent throughout the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini which is a story about the betrayal that a young boy named Amir does to his friend Hassan. Amir shows that he is a betrayer to Hassan when he belittles, plots, refuses to acknowledge their friendship, and walks away from Hassan. With each betrayal listed they progressively get worse and worse as Amir continues to show how little he really cares for Hassan.
The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external conflict between Winston Smith and Big Brother; and the internal conflict between the two ideas, democracy and totalitarianism. Orwell wrote the novel to show society what it could become if things kept getting worse: he sensed of the expansion of communism when he wrote the novel. The conflict between democracy and totalitarianism at the year of 1945 created two characters, Winston Smith and Big Brother, in orwell's mind. Big Brother is the embodiment of all the ideals of the totalitarian party. In contrast to Big Brother, Winston Smith keeps the idea of democracy emphasizes freedom, he has to hide his own thought because the Big Brother's party will punish him by death if the party finds it out. George orwell criticizes of Big Brother's society by describing it as a dark and a gloomy place. It warns that people might believe that everyone must become slaves to the government in order to have an orderly society, but at the expense of the freedom of the people.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell predicts the world’s future, when human rights, such as freedom of speech, do not exist anymore. Everyone has to obey the government. The government controls its citizens’ lives. No one speaks up against the government yet because they do not even have a chance to make up a thought about it. The government dominates the citizens’ thoughts by using technologies and the thought polices to make sure no one will have any thoughts, that is against the government. George Orwell wrote:“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows,” (Orwell.2.7.69) the government tries to control Winston knowledge and change it to fit into the purpose of the Party. To Winston, O’Brien said: “Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.” (Orwell.3.2.205). As a citizen, no one get to look at or tal...
Williams, Raymond (ed). Deutscher, Isaac: `1984 - The mysticism of cruelty' George Orwell: A collection of critical essays Prentice Hall Int. Inc. (1974)
Authors often use their works as a way to express their own opinions and ideologies. However, it is the skill of the author that determines whether these ideas are combined with the plot seamlessly, making a creative transition of ideas from the author’s mind, to the reader’s. There is no doubt that George Orwell is a masterful writer, and one of his most popular works, 1984, clearly expresses his negative views of the Totalitarian government. A common theme in the dystopian society in 1984 is betrayal: The Party is very intolerant towards any form of disloyalty, and anyone who plots against them or Big Brother will eventually either betray their own mind and accept Big Brother as their leader, or be betrayed and revealed to The Party by one of their so-called comrades. Overall, Orwell is using this constant theme of betrayal to show how alone and alienated the protagonist (Winston Smith) is in his quest against Totalitarianism, thus showing how flawed and hopeless the political system is.
George Orwell uses Winston to represent truth in a deceptive world in his novel 1984. In Oceania, Big Brother is the omnipotent and all powerful leader. Everything the government dictates is unquestionably true, regardless of prior knowledge. Even thinking of ideas that go against Big Brother’s regime, or thoughtcrime, is punishable by death. Winston serves as the dystopian hero, longing for freedom and change. Orwell uses Winston to emphasize the importance of individual freedoms, as they give us the ability to fulfillingly lead our respective lives.