Comparing and contrasting oneself to characters from fictional works is helpful for self reflection and understanding. As art is a reflection of reality, characters are reflections of society. There are lessons to be learned from art in all forms. All things considered, Orwell’s 1984 is an excellent piece for self reflection and where one would stand in the face of injustice. Winston’s character is very realistic and three dimensional, providing for an excellent opportunity for introspective analysis. In light of this, my personal analysis is that I am 1984’s Winston Smith in many ways. In the first part of the book, Winston is portrayed as a victim of poverty. Common issues among those with little wealth are drug use and poor mental health, …show more content…
It’s unhealthy and not a valuable way to live, not to mention that ignorance is what bigotry runs on and without proper education, injustice can continue to thrive. Distrust and social withdrawal are also taxing to someone’s mental health considering humans have many social needs. However, in this part, realization starts to occur and the mind begins to open. While the start of the book is full of ignorant gloom, there is certainly reflective thought starting to present itself near the end of the first part. To live in such an emotional reclusive way is damaging, but the value in this part lies in those first reflective …show more content…
He begins this part with the confidence that no one could ever completely break him, that he could never be forced to not love Julia. Winston’s life has suddenly become even worse than where he was at the start of the book. He was tortured endlessly every day for an incredible length of time, one that Winston couldn’t fathom in his battered state. He does his best to retract and to do everything he’s told but to no avail. He’s completely demoralized by the time O’Brien gets to him and then Winston is forced to adhere to the Party through more agonizing torture. Eventually, he’s forced to do the one thing he thought the Party could not accomplish: stop loving Julia. Winston in the final part of 1984 is the most defeated version of himself. Even after his last hope of loving Julia is yanked from his grasp, he he decides that the true way to defeat the Party is to die a traitor. However, he couldn’t even accomplish that, ending the story saying “he loved Big Brother,” signalling his final and absolute defeat (Orwell, 298). Winston’s end is what could be considered a fate worse than death, to completely betray yourself and those you
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 ...
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.
One reason for Winston's rebellion, and eventual downfall, is his knowledge that the party will ultimately capture and punish him. With constant surveillance of Party members, any sign of disloyalty could lead to an arrest; even a tiny facial twitch. As soon as he writes Down with BB' in his diary, Winston is positive that the Thought police will quickly capture him for committing thought crime. With this wisdom, he allows himself to take unnecessary risks, such as trusting O'Brien and renting the room in Mr. charington's shop to host his secret relationship with Julia. Because he has no doubt that he will be caught no matter what he does, he continues to rebel, and brings his own struggle to an end.
Throughout the book he tries to overcome the government, but in his heart, he knows he has no hope of thriving because “…was already dead” for committing ThoughtCrime and involving himself in acts worthy of death (Orwell 36). All of his character traits combined lead him to his ultimate death. His attraction to beauty makes him keep hold of objects and things considered suspicious, his rebelliousness causes him break nearly all of society’s rules, and his curiosity steers him toward people and places that eventually causes the Winston torture he endures in Ministry of Love. Winston could have had some false hope of a better world where he could get away from all of the harsh rules and regulations of the Party, but in reality, his personality traits dragged him through a life already pre-written and stamped with an early
The end for Winston starts when he begins writing in his journal and he knew that. Writing in it was viewed as Thoughtcrime and was an act of rebellion in the eyes of the Party. Especially when Winston wrote things such as, “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”(19). Winston also disobeys the rules of the
Especially if it means betraying the girl he claims to love in order to escape from the hands of O’Brien and the party. The love Winston has for Julia, as described in the book, is obviously real in his eyes. He, after fighting and fighting, eventually gave into the fact that he was going to die in such a horrendous way. The thought that it’d be one of his greatest fears made it even worse.
It is established early in the novel that Winston is conflicted of his beliefs and that he dislikes the oppressive system that is the Party, as such, Winston's passion had no place to be expressed. This was the case until the arrival of Julia, who showed Winston the freedom of not having the consequences of the supposed crimes that he was committing.When asked, “What are your true feelings to Big Brother?” Winston replies simply with, “I hate him.” (p.282) Later on, after Winston was captured and sent to the Ministry of Love, Orwell depicts Winston’s passion for Julia to be great, as it took many months to “break” Winston and make him “love Big Brother.”
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
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."
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.
The raw human nature is to not be controlled; no man or woman likes to be bossed around, especially when the person making all the decisions is treating those under them unfairly. Winston sees how the Party is doing the citizens of Oceania wrong and is the only citizen who has the gumption to try and do anything about it making him the odd man out (Goodman 5). History has proven that you can only hold people back for so long before they erupt with fury. He fights back against their constant knowing of every detail of every person’s life and against the Party’s iron grip over Oceania (“1984” 245). Another thing that can only be quenched for a short period of time is the desire for companionship amongst people. No matter how hard a person tries to prevent a man and a woman from being in love they are unable to stop it from happening. Actually trying to prevent companionship between two lovers only feeds the fire. Even when danger comes around, a man will be willing to do anything to have companionship with a woman. Winston knows that there is a high chance of him and Julia being arrested and even possibly killed, he still goes through with trying to continuously be in her presence (“1984” 238). With all the things and actions Winston does throughout the novel, it is very plain to see that he symbolizes rebellion and human desire in a crystal clear fashion. No matter
Despite Winston’s good intentions and desires, his physical and mental state wear down to a point of capitulation. On top of this, he begins to understand the absolute nature of the Party’s power, and as a result gives in slightly: “In the mind he had surrendered, but he had hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate” (250). Although Winston is conceding the right to his own mind, he was still keeping what is in the heart, which are his values and emotions. If he is able to keep his “inner heart inviolate,” then his hatred for the Party will still exist in a remote part of him. Even if the Party is able to convert him into a loyal slave, he will still have that part of him that is true to himself, which is heroic. However, his instinctual emotions
Both are taken into custody and tortured and beaten so that they can be rebuilt to obey the Party and to sell out each other. Winston takes many days of torture and pain before he is put into room 101 where he is encountered with his worst fear,which is rats. Winston the breaks down and yells, “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me” (Orwell 286). The only thing that kept Winston going was the fact that he hadn’t yet betrayed Julia, and he felt determined to never betray her. With Julia, O’Brien told Winston that she gave him away almost instantly. She was all about saving herself,and did not care about what could happen to Winston now that they were caught and their relationship would not continue.
...he views of the Party. "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" (Part 3, Chapter 5). Winston’s mind is considered cured the moment that he turns on the one person her truly loves.
Winston’s abhorrence of the Party grows more intensely. He writes a diary furtively for his illegal thoughts and he becomes a regime seceder. One day, he accidentally loves with Julia, who works in the Ministry of Truth. He receives the message that O’Brien, who is a member of the Inner Party, wants to see him. Winston believes that he is secretly a member of the Brotherhood.