Dehumanization In 1984

It is the year 1984 and you awake to the sweet, pure sound of birds humming as warm, iridescent sunshine pours through your window. Slipping out of bed, you arrive in the kitchen, where you find your wife making breakfast. As she takes a bite into a fresh, juicy orange, you admire her youthfulness and beauty, illuminated by her slight rebellion. She calls for the children, who immediately storm into the room like a group of Thought Police. Unaware of the reality going on around them, they crash into their mom, causing her to accidentally slice herself with the knife that she had been using. Dark, red blood immediately begins to pool on her hand and you rush over to keep her from fainting. An overwhelming wave of sadness immediately cloaks

Winston had been born in 1945, a time when Big Brother ceased to exist. Because he did not grow up under Big Brother’s extreme, totalitarian control, Winston was able to spend his childhood experiencing freedom, which led to his development of a strong sense of humanity and worth within the world. As years passed by and Big Brother quickly gained control over Oceania, Winston dreadfully watched as the government dehumanized society and took away the personal freedoms as if the public was a bunch of wild animals. Although the rest of society had been easily tricked and corrupted by the government, Winston never once lost sight of his humanity, ultimately fueling his desire for rebellion and chance at maintaining his humanity. Winston’s first act of rebellion against the government was his decision to buy a diary, in which he wrote extreme anti-government sayings. Although he knew that writing in this journal would lead to his death, Winston continued to express his thoughts in order to warn the “future” and the “unborn” generations of the dehumanization that the government was thrusting upon society (Orwell 7). This diary was not only important because it was the gateway into Winston’s life of rebellion, but also because it was the first object that Orwell used to symbolize the generation born before the Revolution in this cause and effect relationship. By describing the diary as being “yellowed by age” and “at least forty years” old, Orwell was able to symbolize the slowly disappearing generation of people “whose ideas had been formed before the Revolution”(Orwell 86). In this quote, Orwell also mentioned the color yellow for the first time, which he continuously used throughout the book in order to represent humanity and life before the Revolution. Due to his upbringing in a world where freedom and humanity