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Meaning of being human
Meaning of being human
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Winston defines being human as having feelings, following sensory pleasures, and staying true to those two types of emotions because, “only feelings matter”(146). He also asserts that before the Party when people had individual relationships and “members of a family stood by one another” they were human (26). Winston’s deadened senses as well as his social disconnection, and the lack of import in his daily life after he leaves the Ministry of Love indicate that he has not achieved his goal of staying human.
Winston is very desensitized after he leaves the Ministry of Love, making him inhuman. In the Chestnut Tree Café Winston “took up his glass and sniffed it”(262). This action shows that he has lost the ability to be sensitive to smell. When Winston picks flowers for Julia, he notices “their faint sickly scent”, but when he sniffs his gin he doesn’t register any scent, he just “sniffed”(104, 262). Also Winston describes his gin as becoming “more horrible with every mouthful”(262). Although Winston registers and considers the taste of the gin, he doesn’t take pleasure in the taste, and doesn’t drink something he could enjoy more. One part of being human is following sensory pleasures and Winston is clearly not basing his meals or actions on pleasure.
Also, Winston’s extreme social disconnection proves that he is no longer human. Winston reflects, “no one cared what he did any longer”(262). Before his time in the Ministry of Love, people surrounded Winston all day long. He was forced to wake, stretch and go to work. He ate, worked, and talked to others. But now, “no whistle woke him, no telescreen admonished him” so his life is completely without even these connections. For example, In the Chestnut Tree Café, Winston sits alone at a table where no one else will ever sit. Winston wishes for social connection, but can’t find it, as he is no longer human. So instead, Winston reaches out for the closest thing he can when “as though for reassurance he looked up at the imperturbable face”(263). Some people may say that this action shows that Winston is still human because he is looking and longing for social connection. However, during work when Winston is faced with the chance to connect with other people, he and the others instead end up “looking at one another with extinct eyes”(263). Winston cannot connect to anyone else, through telescreens, work, or even just everyday life.
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
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
Winston is confronted with struggle throughout the entirety of George Orwell`s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Living within a totalitarian regime subsequently causes Winston to seek approaches for dealing with such abundant oppression; he finds liberation through self-awareness, understanding and ultimately rebellion. First, Winston realizes that “if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself”, alluding to the notion of thoughtcrime (162). This recognition exemplifies the complete cognizance that Winston has regarding the oppressive society displayed throughout the novel. Next, Syme states “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words”, alluding to the idea of Newspeak (28). This statement directly correlates to Winston speaking with other party members to gain knowledge about how others feels about policies deployed by the government. This information-seeking also connects with Winston`s rebellion, as he actively searched for others to join his uprising, which is shown when Winston tells O’Brien “We want to join [The Brotherhood]” (171). Winston’s attempt to join a rebellious organization exhibits his evident desire to release his suppressed emotions. Winston devises a very methodical approach to deal with the problematic society he resides in.
He started skipping nights at the Community Center, an unusual act, and starts going to Mr. Charrington’s shop, an extremely dangerous act. Winston then takes even larger risks such as buying a piece of glass with coral in it from Mr. Charrington. Since the Party considers items like the coral useless and believes people shouldn’t own useless items Winston would be severely punished if he is caught. He also goes up to a prole in a bar and starts asking about what was like before the Party took control. The whole time he is doing this he realizes that it is dangerous and the book says, “It was a queer thing, even a compromising thing, for a Party member to have in his possession,” while Winston was describing the coral. His ideals are also shown to be very different from the Party’s ideals when Winston says, “The thing was doubly attractive because of its apparent uselessness.” The Party doesn’t see the point in owning useless things and they want everyone to think the same was as
Winston finds a loophole to expressing his thoughts through writing in a journal. Since Big Brother is always watching everything that Winston does through telescreens, he cannot verbally express his feelings towards The Party without being caught. Living in a world full of mostly uniformity, Winston obviously stands out as a recalcitrant individual. Winston is fully exposed to The Party at all time, leaving him without any privacy. Winston uses his writing to express his individuality, but he does not even feel completely safe because “The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed--would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” (15) Even when he is not expressing any opinion verbally, Winston is still in danger of being caught by the Thought Police, leading him to have a hatred and conflict with The Party because they do not allow him to express his individuality. Winston is never alone, even when he is physically alone, which diminishes his sense of any privacy. Winston’s invasion of privacy by The Party does not end with the telescreens. In Oceania, “In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between
We feel the same emotions of the protagonist --> readers are never ahead of the narration and only know what Winston knows
The party interfered with the things that my client thought about and wrote. Winston was so infuriated with the government he once wrote, “DOWN WITH BIG BOTHER.”(Page 20) They interfered with the human rights that my client held. Even when the party tortured him he couldn’t do the things he did before. Only because he was so in fear of the party he didn’t act like he did before. It is not until his actions with Julia in the hidden apartment are discovered that the Thought Police search his home and also discover the diary which helps to incriminate my client. The diary symbolized his freedom and desires which he can’t share
Winston Smith follows the traditional path of a hero 's journey. O’Brien calls him to adventure calling to him in a dream. The threshold crossing is when Winston buys the little black journal from the old antique shop. It was his first secret act against the Party. His mentor is O’Brien, and Winston clings to the words from his dream for hope. He meets Julia who is of great help to motivate Winston and encourage his independent thinking. For too long, Winston had depended on the Party to do the thinking. He went through life almost without having to think, but since his journey he has learned to search for truth and question the doctrine of society. Winston discovered, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” (Orwell 81).”
... due to his unorthodoxy, such as maintaining a secret and promiscuous relationship with Julia, and the political ramifications of the sexual act; and lastly, the deconstruction of his individualism at the hands of the Party, due to its hunger for power over the mind. It is not surprising then, that among the imposing doctrines of the government of Big Brother, the character of Winston Smith was eventually wiped out. In conclusion, a passage from Winston’s diary:
“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity” (Nelson Mandela). Throughout the novel 1984, written by George Orwell, there is a severe lack of humanity. During the course of the novel, the level of humanity is tested through the challenges Winston and Julia face in their war against the Party. In 1984, humanity has been impacted by the Party’s control over its members, its lack of control over its members, and its war against love.
Bertrand Russell wrote, "There are two possibilities. Maybe we are alone. Maybe we are not. Both are equally frightening (Jakosky 1)." The question of life in the universe is one that leaves many in a state of bewilderment. It becomes even more interesting when it leads to another question -- that of intelligent life in the universe. Finding other intelligent civilizations among the interstellar space would greatly affect every aspect of our existence. Conversely, not finding such a civilization would force us to examine the purpose of our own existence.
At the end of the novel, Orwell describes Winston as a cured patient who has over come his metal disease. “He had won the victory over himself: he loved Big Brother” (Part 3, Chapter 6). Both Freud and Orwell break down the components of a person’s mind in the same way. Orwell’s character, Winston, depicts the different parts of the human mind so described by Freud. In Orwell’s 1984, he uncovers the same components of a human mind as seen by Freud, the instinctual drive of the id, the perceptions and actions of the ego, and the censorship imposed by the morality of the superego.
Winston Smith is the main character in George Orwell’s “1984”. He is a thirty-nine year old man, he commits thought crimes, and he has anti-party views. Winston, also, is not in the best of health. “1984” tells of Winston’s struggles as he tries to make a change in his society. He and every party member is constantly being watched and listened to by the telescreens. There are such things as the “Thought Police,” “Hate Week,” and the “Junior Anti-Sex League”. The party’s main goal is to control their people and sculpt them into feeling nothing unless it is love for the party and for the Brotherhood and Goldstein. The society is split up into four parts, the slaves, the proles, the outer party members, and the inner party members. Winston feels that everybody is against him and he desperately wants to find a member of the Brotherhood, if it exists. O’Brien had struck him as a man that was on his side during one of the Two Minutes Hate sessions when they had eye contact
The foundation of his new personality is his ability to effortlessly commit crimestop at a subconscious level. Thoughts that interfere with Party views are promptly erased from Winston’s mind. “False memories” such as when “his mother was sitting opposite of him and also laughing” (309, 308) were recollections of happiness, and thus, dangerous to Party ideologies. The ability to selectively believe which memories are true and which ones are false, using Party ideals as reference, is one of the main traits of a perfect Party member. Additionally, Winston’s primal feelings of lust and compassion are completely abolished, evidenced by his final encounter with Julia. Clearly, Winston no longer feels any love towards Julia, for when they meet again “He did not attempt to kiss her, nor did they speak.” (305) Furthermore, any thought of sex cause Winston’s “flesh [to freeze] with horror” (304). His inability to love or feel sexual desire renders him less likely to revolt against the Party, which makes him an ideal Party member. Finally, his unquestionable love for Big Brother is ultimately what makes him “perfect” from the Party’s perspective. Winston’s feeling of contempt towards Big Brother is completely altered into admiration and respect: “He looked up again at the portrait of Big Brother. The colossus that bestrode the world!” (310) Winston
In the world of 1984, the country of Oceania is run by a figure known as Big Brother, a dictator type leadership. A man that goes my Winston sees through all of the lies and tries to fight back against this Big Brother and the party. In Orwell’s novel 1984 a so called hero, ‘Winston’ is supposed to be the one person that fights back against the party and Big Brother and even defeat them. George Orwell tried to make us believe that Winston was the saviour, but like every good story there 's always a tragedy. I believe Winston does infact fit this role of hero 's being failures, that the important thing is to have uttered the cry of rebellion that confirms one’s humanity. I say this because of how he ended up loving Big brother, his trigger