1984 Repression Essay

1984 follows the life of our protagonist, Winston, and his attempt to save humanity from the dystopian world they now inhabit, created by the new government called The Party. This new government is completely power-hungry and does whatever it can to keep its citizens working for them by repressing freedom of speech, emotion, and even thought. The Party also brainwashes citizens into believing that whatever the government says is the truth, no matter what the people think. This theme of repression is a pervasive element seen throughout the story and serves as a huge point of conflict in Winston's struggles, as well as the struggles that we see other people face. The Party manipulates and represses the people's feelings and instincts to control

them, and it is, in turn, detrimental to the entire society.
Throughout the story, we see the effects of repression on a person firsthand. Our protagonist, Winston, displays serious flaws caused by the rule of this totalitarian government. One of the first character development scenes we see is when Winston first writes down his thoughts in a diary(something deemed illegal by the Thought Police) he recently acquired on the black market. At first, we see Winston unable to write; "For weeks past he had been making ready for this moment, and it had never crossed his mind that anything would be needed except courage (Orwell Kindle Locations 174-175)," and now, the "interminable restless monologue that had been running inside his head, literally for years...had dried up, (Orwell Kindle Location 175)," After a while, however, "he (Winston) began writing in sheer panic, only imperfectly aware of what he was setting down (Orwell Kindle Location 179)." During this scene, Winston transcribes a viewing experience of a propaganda war film produced by the Party from his point-of-view, describing the unselleting, gruesome content of said film. In this rant, we see Winston's writing becomes less and less coherent, with his focus shifting from grammar to content, as he fears that he now has limited time and wants to get out content rather than focus on grammar. After he stops writing, it says, "He did not know what had made him pour out this stream of rubbish. But the curious thing was that while he was doing so, a totally different memory had clarified itself in his mind, to the point where he almost felt equal to writing it down (Orwell Kindle Location 195-197)," Here, we see the effects of the Party’s brainwashing, as the scene that Winston has transcribes is based on his active memory, but it is shown that he has an entirely different experience existent in his passive memory. We can see that Winston is almost incapable of expressing how he feels out of fear of the consequences the Party will impose on him.
The Party also oppresses its citizens by restricting their sexual freedoms.

In the book, we learn that the Party has repressed all sexual activity and even created something called the Junior Anti-Sex League to teach kids and young adults to refrain from acting upon sexual desires. This causes all sorts of issues for Winston, including severe trust issues paranoia. Before Winston gets to know Julia, one of our supporting characters whom he ends up having an affair with, he hated her, as the book says, "It was because of the atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about with her. He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. (Orwell Kindle Locations 206-208),” Later, however, the book says that “...he realized why it was that he hated her (Julia). He hated her because she was young and pretty and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her and would never do so, because round her sweep supple waist, which seemed to ask you to encircle it with your arm, there was only the odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of chastity (Kindle Locations 280-283),” This sexual repression imposed by the Party is clearly detrimental to its citizens, seen in Winston’s hatred of almost all women and the pent-up sexual desires that lead to said hatred. Furthermore, when Julia asks Winston what he thought of her before she confessed her feelings, he says, “I hated the sight of you...I

wanted to rape you and then murder you afterwards. Two weeks ago, I thought seriously of smashing your head in with a cobblestone. (Orwell Kindle Locations 1865-1867)” This is clearly someone who is struggling to be socially healthy with other people due to his sexual repression, as he is considering rape and murder as viable options due to his hatred of this person caused by his sexual repression. Later, Winston writes in his diary that he has used a prostitute in the past and that it constantly haunts his memory. When Winston is writing, he pauses several times thinking about how much he regrets this action;
“He shut his eyes and pressed his fingers against them, trying to squeeze out the vision that kept recurring...He wrote hurriedly, in scrabbling handwriting...He pressed his fingers against his eyelids again. He had written it down at last, but it made no difference. The therapy had not worked. The urge to shout filthy words at the top of his voice was as strong as ever. (Kindle Locations 1008-1092),”
Clearly, Winston is bothered by this event, as seen in his body language and internal dialogue, with the guilt that is likely caused by the constant spew of propaganda from the Junior Anti-Sex League, saying that sex only exists to make children that will serve the Party. This repression is causing Winston to live in regret of what he’s done and have the desire to resort to violence to sate his sexual desires.
In the few examples we see, many of the other citizens face other issues caused by this repression, some of them like Winston’s.

We see that there is a level of mistrust between family members caused by the propaganda that children have known for their whole lives. After the Party captures Winston after exposing him from his Thought Crimes and begins brainwashing him, the man responsible for his capture says that they will live in a world in which, “No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend... (Orwell Kindle Locations 4120-4121),” He also says “There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy (Orwell Kindle Locations 4123-4124),” This is, without a doubt, the Party controlling people by manipulating their feelings, instincts, and desires, all for the Party’s benefit. Manipulating people so that they cannot trust the people they live with and love is sure to cause many problems in the normal person’s day to day life. It's not only families that are constantly watched; everybody is constantly monitored. There is the constant reminder of this in the various billboard the Party puts up, with Winston describing it as “…one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. Big Brother Is Watching You, the caption beneath it ran, (Kindle Locations 86-88).” And with the Party’s invention of

and the mandatory installment of the telescreen, a television that fed live video and audio of the person directly to the Party, the Party was always watching.
“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound… above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. (Kindle Locations 101-104)”
Having a device that constantly watched your every move and heard every noise you make without the ability to prevent it is undoubtedly a huge invasion of privacy. It also proves problematic, as it completely prevents people from being able to vocalize how they feel without fear of being prosecuted. Permanently restricting people’s abilities to vocalize how they feel, especially in their own home, with the constant fear of possible death present is enough to make any person feel incredibly insecure and develop severe paranoia.
We have explored the negative behaviors of the people that we have encountered have exhibited, and how said behaviors negatively impacts the entire community. Seeing people lacking trust and empathy causes us to judge these people harshly, as emotions such as trust and empathy are normal to us. But the blame is not to be put on the people; the blame is to be put on the government, who enforces the oppression that changes these people. For example, Winston’s fleeting desires to rape and kill due to sexual repression is only because said sexual repression has been put so firmly into place by the Party. The issues discussed, along with many other problems in the community, are caused widely due to the way the Party rules, whether that be restricting supplies or restricting freedoms. The Party manipulates and represses the people's feelings and instincts to control them how they see fit, causing them to lose what makes them human, turning them into mind-controlled slaves, destroying all hope for mankind, with the only purpose being to rule over everyone.