Macy Mitchell Mr. Schneider Honors British Literature 17 August 2016 Purposeful Paradoxes “The way of paradoxes is the way of truth.” Oscar Wilde, Irish novelist and poet, was a man of many paradoxes, a statement that may initially imply contradiction, yet can bear immense meaning and purposes when pondered. He, along with many others, believes that through their use much truth can be told. For example, George Orwell, the author of 1984, creates an intricate, well developed society living in alignment with an all-important slogan consisting purely of paradox. The novel, set in a 1980s dystopian society, focuses on Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party who consistently disobeys the totalitarian government known as INGSOC ruled by Big Brother. …show more content…
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 …show more content…
Throughout the rising action, Winston recalls his memories and fails to remember a period after the revolution when Oceania has not been at war. He relives a season about four years from modern times when Oceania had been at war with Eastasia rather than Eurasia; that has been wiped from the memories of the people due to their current circumstances. Winston deviates with what the government claims has happened in the past, yet “… the Party [can] thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened, that, surely, [is] more terrifying than mere torture and death” (34). In order for the people to believe that the past as they remember it is inaccurate they must have a sense of ignorance about them. The Party favors naive members of society because it makes it much easier to change the past; therefore, increasing their strength. Furthermore, Winston has become accustomed to living in the type of environment where he pretends to trust everything the party expresses. Many characters in the novel are ignorant enough to forever be oblivious to reality; meanwhile, those possessing intelligence will inevitably catch on sooner or later. Winston has lunch with his comrade Syme when he realizes that “…Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like
Returning to his diary, Winston then expresses his emotions against the Party, the Thought Police and Big Brother himself; he questions the unnecessary acts by the Party and continuously asserts rebellion. Winston soon realized he had committed the crime of having an individual thought, “thoughtcrime.” The chapter ends with a knock on Winston’s door. Significant Quotes “From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 7). “But there was a fraction of a second when their eyes met, and for as long as it took to happen Winston knew— yes, he knew!
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.
George Orwell once wrote, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” In Orwell’s 1984, he establishes a government centered on universal deceit to expose the impact of such controls on the citizens, specifically, the revolutionary, Winston. Winston Smith is introduced as a worker of the Ministry of Truth, where he, as well as many others, work to alter or destroy any pictures, pieces of written work, art work etc. that may cause citizens to question the power or truthfulness of their government. Although Smith performs proficiently at his job and complies with the rules of this society, he, unlike most others, sees the lies and manipulation imposed on the citizens of Oceania by Big Brother and attempts to deceive
The party controls every source of information, and doesn't allow people to keep records of their past, such as photographs and documents. As a result, memories become fuzzy and citizens become perfectly will to swallow anything the Party tells them. The ministry of truth where Winston works destroys old documents so BB can never be wrong. The past is constantly falsified and brought up to date. By controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the Party can justify all its actions in the present. The party has the power to make it as if Winston never existed, so he was never going to make a difference, because no one would hear of his struggle. The ministry of truth would destroy any evidence of his existence, just as Winston himself did to comrade withers.
Winston is trapped in a society where he cannot express his individualism because the Party has control over him. Winston buys a diary to express his individualism and thoughts. In the diary, he writes, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” (Orwell 81) Winston holds onto reality at the beginning of the book. By holding onto this reality, he believes that he can overthrow the government and stop the lies that the Party tells. However, towards the end of the book, the Party takes control over Winston’s mind and Winston conforms to the Party declaring that two plus two equals five. Furthermore, Winston goes to Mr. Charringtons shop and purchases a glass paperweight. “Winston immediately
Paradoxes are an important part of George Orwell’s 1984 because the story revolves a lot around The Party and The Party uses three slogans which are paradoxes. Although the Party’s paradoxes are a main part of the story one can believe that Katherine’s paradox is more important than The Party and it shouldn’t be overlooked. Katherine’s paradox is with her husband because they’re basically forced to be married because of The Party. One can believe this is a more important paradox than The Party’s slogans because it shows an actual relationship that isn’t following The Party’s specific rules and The Party’s slogans are for the common people so it’s not as specific as Katherine and Winston’s relationship.
Knowledge and Truth is a major factor in the plot behind 1984 by George Orwell. In this dystopian society that Orwell created no one knows what life was like before the Party rose to power. The Party takes total control over this aspect of the people. When Winston says “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth.”(1.3.34-35). This means that the Party decides what is right and what is wrong. They choose what part of history to fabricate or erase and what lie that the Party wants the people to believe. Since there is no other evidence of life before the Revolution the people only believe what the Party informs the people on what happened before
Especially in 1984, corruption within the political regime runs rampant to a point where only Winston, along with a select handful of others, have the skill to identify governmental manipulation of history and facts. Although objectively correct in his observations against the government’s teachings, Winston’s skill makes him a target for powerful Party men like O’Brian, Winston’s torturer, who have thoroughly conformed to the preachings of Big Brother. When met with the question of why O’Brian is torturing Winston, he replies, “Not merely to extract your confession, not to punish you… To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?” (261). Throughout his numerous torture sessions with Winston, O’Brian makes clear that the Inner Party is almost as corrupted and manipulated by the creation of Big Brother as the remainder of the citizens of Oceania; conformity to the wishes of the highly ranked is the only plausible way for the Party’s
Dreams, as vivid and realistic they might be, are not real. No matter how many times a person has the same dream, it does not become real. However, dreams do have meaning. If a person has nightmares consistently, it might mean the person is suffering from anxiety or depression. If a person dreams about a foreign vacation spot, it might mean they want to travel there. While dreams themselves are not real, they do have a role in determining what is real. The same thing could be said for paradoxes. A paradox might not seem real, but by closely comparing the way something is intended to be and the way it truly is, reality can be defined.
The life that Winston knows prior to his time at the Ministry of Love becomes tainted due to the effects of psychological torture. The pure terror and helplessness that Winston begins to feel during the process of interrogation overwhelms his mental defenses, prompting the complete destruction and reconfiguring of his belief system; the result is the absolute alteration of Winston’s personality. This is due to the fact that once one undergoes a traumatic experience, everything previously known to him or her becomes an unattainable warped reality (Robinnet). This immense pressure takes a momentous toll on Winston, leading him to foster and produce a lifestyle composed of beliefs that are entirely contradictory to his former views. Along with this newly refined ideology, O’Brien effectively strips down Winston’s unique persona, severely fracturing it in the process. A common effect seen in victims of psychological torture is the disintegration of his or her personality (Reyes 600). In Winston’s case, O’Brien provokes feelings of extreme self-condemnation, causing Winston to crave acceptance in the disciplinary society distinguished in 1984. Ultimately, the aftermath in Winston’s mind displays the crucial outcome of psychological torture and its effects. “He remembered contrary things, but those were false memories, products of self-deception (Orwell
Throughout history deception has been one key factor into killing democracies. For example, in 1984 a book written by George Orwell describes what the world would be like if people lived without democracy and what kills democracy. In 1984 deception has blinded the people of Oceania to the truth. As people live in fear and deception their minds start to believe it's true. The deception being the propaganda, hate rallies, and forced beliefs that Big Brother is right in what they are doing. Another example would be social media today. This is one of the greatest examples of the truth being lost in the purpose of views and likes. While all choices involve costs in a democracy, the main cause to the corruption of democracy is the truth is expendable
Most novels read, require rereading certain passages and sentences because of perplexing ideas that do not match up. This would be considered a paradox. In the novel 1984 many paradoxes significantly transforms the entirety of the literature as it contradicts many ideas at hand. Although some would believe the most central paradox in Orwell’s 1984 is the Ministry of Love, it is clearly the Ministry of Truth, as evidenced by the amount of control it gives the party.
Winston expresses the pessimistic aspects of their society when he retorts, "The terrible thing that the Party had done was to persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were of no account, while at the same time robbing you of all power over the material world. When once you were in the grip of the Party, what you felt or did not feel, what you did or refrained from doing, made literally no difference” (136). Winston analyzes that even though asylum may come from ignorance, ignorant citizens give away the rights of freedom of speech and even freedom of thinking unconsciously. Some may inquire themselves is the destruction of freedom genuinely worth prosperity or safety and that revolting will devise a solution quicker than
In 1984 by George Orwell, the world is described as a desolate, bleak result of humanity where the land is governed by a totalitarian regime who rules the hindering the societal progress. The face of Oceania is Big Brother, an omniscient figure who is widely worshiped by its people. The Inner Party enforces a new language known as Newspeak that prevents anyone from committing political rebellion. The control that this Party has over the entire population unveils the theme of the novel, that intimidation by a higher up can lead to psychological manipulation. There are several paradoxes within the text that reveal this theme to be true due to the party’s way with words. A paradox is something that contradicts reason or expectation and Orwell
... essential quote to the novel is “She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war on the Party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse.” Winston comes to the realisation that this war over the Party would never be won in their lifetime, the final words, foreshadow the future. Again, the party is constantly taking away any sense of amazement or free thinking, so in a way it can be seen as a forced innocence to the citizens.