Today I am going to be writing an essay on the book, 1984 by George Orwell. This book is about Winston Smith and Big Brother where an external conflict arises between the two. The internal conflict that also takes place in this book was between the two ideas, democracy and totalitarianism. The reason this novel was written was to show society what it could and or would become if things continued to go down the worse of the paths: Orwell sensed of the expansion of the great communism when he was thinking of this novel. The conflict that took place between these two ideas in the year 1945 created the two characters, which were the two characters above Winston Smith and the Big Brother, in his mind. The Big Brother is head of the totalitarian …show more content…
party. Now from knowing that you can already tell that the leader of Democracy would be Winston Smith, who emphasizes freedom, but he must hide his beliefs from the totalitarian party because the punishment for his beliefs and ideas is death if they were to find out. The way that the totalitarian party is described is as a dark, gloomy and scary place. It is also described that people must be slaves of the government to have a government with order, but it’s at the expense of the freedom of the people. This conflict begins at the beginning of the novel between Winston and Big Brother, when Winston keeps a secret diary from Big Brother.
Winston Smith is a thirty-nine year old man who participates in a group of the “outer-party,” which is the lower part of the two classes. Smith works in one of the four main government buildings. This building is called the Ministry of Truth; his job is to rewrite history books so those that read them will not learn what the past used to be like. The occupation Winston is the major factor that allows him to realize that Big Brother is limiting people’s freedom. He keeps these thoughts to himself as secrets because the totalitarian party will not allow those of rebellious thoughts around. The tensions between the two grow throughout the book because the Big Brother becomes very suspicious of Winston. The Big Brother becomes so suspicious of Winston that he sends a person by the name O’Brien, to watch over him. Mr. O’Brien is a member of the “inner party,” which in this book is the upper-class. Winston doesn't know of the trap that Big Brother had set tells O’Brien of his own idea and plans. He tells Winston of a rebellious leader that has been rounding up those that want to go against the totalitarian government. But like the Big Brother had done, he set a trap and O’Brien betrayed Winston. During the story the conflict between Big Brother and Winston climaxes when Winston is caught. He is taken to some sort of bright underground prison type
thing where criminals are brought to be interrogated. He is tortured so badly, He has no more of the rebellious side to his real self and has no freedom of his own thoughts. By the end of the novel he loves Big Brother. The reasons for Winston’s reform are the long and slow ‘lecture’ from O’Brien kills his entire spirit. After this point he has no sense of freedom and he is for the party, not himself. The way that Big Brother has shaped his party by being three sentences that the totalitarian government stands for, those phrases are: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” The author George Orwell, who is for Democracy rather than the totalitarian party, he sees these phrases as non-logical. My opinion of the totalitarian party is it makes no sense. The reason I say this is the sentence they use, “Ignorance is Strength,” that makes no sense to me at all. I understand the Orwell used this in the story to keep the party's motto, “who controls the past, controls the future.” This is seen when Winston is stuck rewriting the history books so those do not know anything about the real past. The Big Brother’s party is basically changing the way history really was by erasing anything that had to do with a democratic system in the past. The reason for this is because he doesn’t was a rebellious side to people by them knowing of the rights to freedom and liberty. This also meant if those of the people found out of the true past that Big Brother would not be in control because he did not control it. So with that being said he couldn’t control the future. The sentence, “War is Peace.” There were three super states in the book that stood for the totalitarian government. These states consisted of Eurasia, East Asia, and Oceania. These states were always at constant war with each other. There was really no reason in the book that I could find that explained exactly why these states were at war, it was very vague. However though, Big Brother felt that as long as all the states was at constant war that the citizens would concentrate on the war effort. Those would not see a problem or have time to see the problems with their political system. The victory over Winston represents the concern that Orwell has about the threats of the totalitarian power. From the way he wrote his work, I feel that readers who live in the state of a democratic system can have a chance to see how different these government systems are.
Winston Smith - The protagonist of the story. Winston Smith works as a clerk in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents. This involves revising newspaper articles and doctoring photographs, mostly to remove "unpersons," people who have fallen foul of the party. Because of his proximity to the mechanics of rewriting history, Winston Smith nurses doubts about the Party and its monopoly on truth.
The theme of how pointless resistance is against powerful established totalitarian governments like Ingsoc is brought out most clearly through the use of the three literary elements of diction, point of view, and symbolism. Everything from the glass paperweight to the very words Winston speaks spells the letters of inevitable defeat. A thoroughly converted Winston Smith appears at the end of the novel, joining in the cheers and shouts of those celebrating the most recent military victory headed by Big Brother. Grimly realistic, and a literary warning to the political world during the mid-20th century, George Orwell uses 1984 to paint a clear picture of the unequivocal omnipotence a totalitarian government may wield if nothing is done to stop it immediately.
Winston Smith is the book’s main protagonist. He 's 39 years old, and works as a records editor in the Ministry of Truth. Winston is very intelligent and thoughtful, but also rebellious and fatalistic. He fights against the Party while being aware that there is only one end result for doing
The novel 1984 by George Orwell is a fictional future where The Party controls everything. The Party is lead by a larger than life figurehead named Big Brother. The main character is Winston Smith. The story is divided into 3 parts and chronicles Winston’s rebellion against and then re-entering of The Party.
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
The novel 1984 is one that has sparked much controversy over the last several decades. It harbors many key ideas that lie at the root of all skepticism towards the book. With the ideas of metaphysics, change, and control in mind, George Orwell wrote 1984 to provide an interesting story but also to express his ideas of where he believed the world was heading. His ideas were considered widely ahead of their time, and he was really able to drive home how bleak and colorless our society really is. Orwell wrote this piece as a futuristic, dystopian book which contained underlying tones of despair and deceit.
Through out the course of history there have been several events that have been a pivotal point which has molded the behaviors and thoughts of this century. A lot of notable activist and authors wrote stories and speeches about how they believed that this day and time would be like. A lot of these views were very accurate surprisingly. In the novel 1984 author George Orwell gives his vision on how he believed that the countries would be like if they kept going the way they were.This report will give you a brief rundown of the characters, theories and principles of this novel along with some of my personal insight of the novel.
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.
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.
In the novel 1984, Orwell produced a social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia that made the world pause and think about our past, present and future. When reading this novel we all must take the time to think of the possibility that Orwell's world could come to pass. Orwell presents the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control of the people of Oceania. The reader experiences the emotional ride through the eyes of Winston Smith, who was born into the oppressive life under the rule of Ingsoc. Readers are encouraged through Winston to adopt a negative opinion on the idea of communist rule and the inherent dangers of totalitarianism. The psychological manipulation and physical control are explored through Winston's journey, and with Winston's resistance and ultimate downfall, the reader is able to fully appreciate O'Briens reasoning, "Power is not a means, it is an end."
Told in third person limited, the reader is only allowed in-depth knowledge of the protagonist, Winston. Winston Smith, a thirty-nine year old man with a varicose ulcer, is a member of the Outer Party. He has “a smallish, frail figure, the meagerness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the Party. His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by course soap and blunt razor blades and the cold of the winter that had just ended.” Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, which is concerned with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. He is employed in the Records Department, where his tasks consist of writing and rewriting scripts to fit the present and past which unceasingly fluctuate and add to the dominion the Party had over its members, and the history they believe in.
Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel by George Orwell entitled, 1984, is that of modern tragic hero, notably influenced by the character, O’Brien, according to Arthur Miller and his essay entitled, Tragedy and the Common Man. Winston differentiates himself from the rest of society early on in the novel. We see this through his distaste towards the love and admiration the people of Oceania have towards Big Brother. He automatically feels something towards O’Brien as Winston sees O’Brien as a man, like himself, who secretly opposes the government in an act of rebellion, despite not taking action to instill this feeling. We see recurring dreams of his mother and sister where Winston is at fault for the death or disappearance of his family members. He feels guilt
The dystopian novel 1984, written by George Orwell, features an oppressive government system, The Party, which dictates and constantly monitors the everyday activities of its citizens. Suzanne Collins, author of the dystopian novel The Hunger Games, creates a similarly oppressive government system in the nation of Panem. The Capitol forces the people of Panem to work to produce what is needed for those who live in the Capitol to flourish, while those in the districts suffer from poverty. These two dystopias share many commonalities in their government systems and societies, corrupt higher levels of government covering up past rebellions, psychological manipulation, surveillance technology, and poverty.
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the protagonist, Winston Smith, finds himself questioning the reality that The Party paints for the citizens of Oceania. In Oceania, the past is mutable, and Party’s power enables them to distort the present through “doublethink” and “newspeak” (Orwell 35). The world that Salvador Dali creates in his painting, The Persistence of Memory (1931), and its literal, visual distortion, greatly resembles the metaphorical warped nature of Oceania. Not only did George Orwell and Salvador Dali craft distorted versions of the world in their respective mediums, within 1984, the Party exercises the same kind of control an artist has over their work through “Reality control” (Orwell 35). Compelling parallels can be
1984 by George Orwell is a novel that takes place in a dystopian society from which the main character, Winston Smith, attempts to break free from. Winston undergoes a significant change of character throughout the novel. In the beginning, the author portrays Winston as a character that is courageous, intelligent, and has the initiative to do his part to change the ways of Oceana’s society, with the government controlling the people and exhibiting dominance over all aspects of their lives. Winston attempts to challenge the ways of the Party by completing various acts that instill a sense of individuality and self-awareness in himself. The most important events in this story are when Winston buys a journal,