When the government controls all aspects of one's life it can make it hard to believe what's true and to express it, and when one lacks freedom it can make them lose touch with reality and possibly get in trouble with the government therefore individual freedom needs to be valued. 1984 by George Orwell follows a man named Winston. The dystopian society that Winston lives in is completely controlled by the government called “The Party”. Winston knows that he doesn’t necessarily agree with what The Party says and throughout the book he defies them more and more until he gets to the point of no return where he must decide what he believes in and who he trusts. The first way that the government controls all aspects of freedom is through the characterization of Winston as …show more content…
Not me!” (286). Winston was in captivity for a long time where the Party would try to convince him that they were in the right and what he believed was wrong. The fact that in the end, Winston chose to betray Julia, shows his character development because of how quickly his values changed when he was in the hands of The Party. The Party took away his freedom and during that time he lost his sense of reality which changed him for good. Another way that the government controls all aspects of freedom is through the use of propaganda. Because 1984 is a dystopian society, there is obviously a lot of control and propaganda. An example of this is by recording the citizens of Oceania. There are technology items called “telescreens” that the government has access to that are able to record and watch citizens. Winston explains that “there was no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time” (3). This shows control for a number of reasons. One reason is because the citizens essentially have no privacy in fear of being
In “1984,” Orwell uses Winston to portray a single individual’s attempt to take action against a powerful government, culminating in his failure and subjugation. His individual efforts failed tremendously due to the overarching power of the Party to control every aspect of social life in Oceania. Orwell uses Winston’s deeply seated hatred of the Party to portray his views on power and social change. Winston’s actions show that even in the direst of situations ...
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.
...ptions to choose. Winston world is controlled by the party. By limiting his options to what he sees and what he does not see, the party is successful in controlling Winston’s free will in a direction that favors their ideals. Free will does not disappear in the ignorant nor does it disappear in the closed minded, therefore one cannot say that Winston has not lost free will simply because information is controlled and he suppresses idea contrary to the party. It would not be erroneous to say that if the circumstances were different, if Winston lived in a democratic society where the majority truly rules instead of a party and information truly flows freely, Winston would act different because the environment would be different; there is more information and thus more paths for his free will to take. But in the world of George Orwell’s distopia this is not the case.
In George Orwell’s novel, 1984 the theme is a totalitarian government has the capability to physically and mentally break down individuals and then rebuild them the way they want by using torture and the destruction of emotions and personal thought.
In 1984 by George Orwell, the government of Big Brother is overbearing and all knowing which crushes freedom of speech and free thought. Big Brother easily edits history and tries to convince people that reality is something different. The main character, Winston can remember what life was like before Big Brother and when he first comes into power. The memory of his father being vaporized also serves as a catalyst for his hatred of Big Brother and leads him...
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
1984 is a novel that reveals the fear of having a government that completely controls and manipulates everything single aspect of someone's life and their environment. Winston is a character that gains hope that maybe he may be able to change the way the government treats the citizens of Oceania. He gradually begins to become more and more rebellious because the government view Winston as a threat they decide to manipulate him to be like every other brainwashed citizen living in Oceania. Winston loses his battle against the Party which cause his search for justice to collapse. So in the end, a strong totalitarian government can destroy your state of mind from believing something that is truly necessary such as searching for justice to believing that a place that is controlling and manipulative to be the right thing.
Imagine living in a world where one’s whole life had been planned out for them by the Government; a life in which there were no surprises simply because everyday consisted of the same thing. 1984 written by George Orwell can be an archetype for this kind of world. Living in a totalitarian society, Winston Smith is a low ranked member of the ruling party in London. Winston is constantly watched by the party and had little to no privacy whatsoever. Everywhere he goes, Winston sees face of the party’s leader, called Big Brother. Winston goes through the same motions everyday, secretly hating the party and hoping that there are people around him that aren’t ignorant, but feel the same way as him. If people are ignorant and blindly follow what the
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
Orwell's sets the mood of the book as one of hopelessness for the future of humans. He contrasts this mood with a popular philosophy: belief in the progress of humanity and the ability of people to institute peace and justice in the world. These contrasting views set up the premise for the life of Winston Smith, who is one man caught in a society devoted to conformity. Orwell's warning to this is that if people cannot change the way things are going, our society will lose their human qualities. They will become soulless machines and not have a clue as to their new world they created. This is the world in which Winston Smith is caught in. He is different from the others and in a civilization which does not approve of individuality, Winston is targeted by the government from the beginning. Being different in this populace only means rebellion and that exactly is what Winston sets out to do. Winston believes that although he must conform on the outside, that no one can take his individual thought away. Winston's individuality is the only hope for human nature for he questions the most basic principles of the regime, a thoughcrime. One doctrine Winston questions is the concept of freedom-
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...
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.
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
To me, the government spends too much on things that are irrelevant to United States citizens. This country lacks funds for healthcare, education, housing, and other things that are truly needs for our people. Instead, I can see that new stadiums are being built in big cities all over the United States. Who is paying for these enormous structures? Are these stadiums being paid with stadium subsidies?