The setting of the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, is set in London, England during a time of war and turmoil. London is a colony in the country of Oceania during the year 1984. London at this time is a very dark and gloomy place. The mood is like this because Big Brother is very controlling about what people think. So there is no creativity or freedom of thought. Winston is a middle aged man who works for the records department for the Ministry of Truth. He is mentally weak for most of the book. Towards the end of the book he starts becoming stable and strong after he meets Julia. After he becomes strong he loses control again and ends up being worse than he started. Physically Winston is unfit but not obese. “Winston, who was thirty-nine, …show more content…
The importance in Winston buying the journal is that this is the first instance of Winston rebelling. The second event is the note that Julia gives Winston and herself and Winston getting together. This event gives him hope and drive for what he thinks is right. It also gives him lots of emotion that he has never felt or lived through before. All of the drive and emotion promote him to revolt and try to go against the party. The last main event goes on when Winston and Julia are arrested. Winston was arrested by the people who he thought he could trust. After getting arrested Winston finally gives himself up to Big …show more content…
society Winston being man. A quote said by Winston, “We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some kind of secret organization working against the Party… We want to join it and work for it. We are enemies of the Party” (170). In this quote Winston is telling O’Brien that he is against the Party and wants to join the Brotherhood against the Party. Throughout the novel Winston is going against the Thought Police because they can hear and see everything you do everything you say and everything you think. When Winston is thinking about revolting and committing crime the Thought Police hear it in his mind. They are a huge part of the society Winston is going against. “It was not till twenty-three hours, when he was home and in bed-in the darkness, where you were safe from the telescreen so long as you kept silent-that he was able to think continuously” (109). At the end of the novel Winston is arrested and taken to the Ministry of Love. He is tortured and beaten while he was there. Winston was mentally strong until they threatened him with his worst fear rats. The Ministry of Love played a big part in the conflict by making Winston fight them and their
Arnold Mendoza Mrs.Leite H English 10-4 April 17, 2016. Dialectical Journal: 1984 by George Orwell. Entry 1: Book 1, Chapter 1; 5-20 Summary. The book is set in Airstrip One (current day London), Oceania, dated 1984. The main protagonist, Winston Smith, is introduced as a middle aged worker in the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth.
1984 takes place in an alternate-reality future where after World War 2, the world was divided into three main nations: Eastasia, Eurasia, and the super-country, Oceania. The book is set in Oceania in the year 1984, in the city of London, Airstrip One. Oceania is in a constant state of war against the two other countries, with bombings occurring daily and the living conditions extremely poor – very little food, very little clothing, and broken down housing. The Party rules over Oceania, with telescreens in almost every room that monitor every move a person makes, as well as anything they say. Posters hang everywhere with the phrase – BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
He purchased a small journal from a shop and began to write in it out of view of the telescreen in his house, which allows anything in front of it to potentially be seen or heard. At first he had some difficulties as he could only manage to write jumbles of some of his memories, but then he began to write things like “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER (Orwell, page 18).” He later had an encounter with one of his fellow coworkers, O’Brien, which got him thinking that there might be others out in the world who see things the way he does, including O’Brien himself. Winston eventually decides that his diary will become a sort of letter to O’Brien, and to a future or past where things might have been different. In these diary entries he wrote things such as, “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone…(Orwell, page 28).” This refers to how citizens think and act the same and previous events are not written as they happened, but altered to Big Brother’s benefit. He also wrote, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death (Orwell, page 28).” This can be further explained by Winston’s previous thought, “The consequences of every act are included in the act itself (Orwell, page 28).” Winston
Winston works for 1 of the 4 government agency’s, The Ministry of Truth. In his job he re-writes old news articles so they show that The Party has always been and will be in control. By re-writing everything in print, The Party effectively changes history. The only proof of actual history is in the minds of the people who were there. Winston realizes that there is something wrong with this, yet he doesn’t know what. The re-writing of history is all he has ever known. It is most likely Winston’s job that leads him to rebel against The Party.
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
Winston’s rebellion continues when he falls in love with Julia, a woman he actually used to loathe. Nevertheless, they both share the hatred against the Party and thus they rent a room where they meet and talk about joining the Brotherhood, a secret organisation that intends to destroy the Party. This wish can be fulfilled after Winston receives a copy of the Book that reveals and describes the truth about the world they live in. O’Brien is the man who gives him ...
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.
According to the government of Oceania, most acts Winston engages in represent signs of rebellion. For example, within the first few pages of the novel, Winston wrote down the words “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” several times in his journal (Orwell 16). “Big Brother” stands as the leader of the Party who supposedly watches over everybody. When Winston writes down the phrase “down with big brother,” he participates in ThoughtCrime. Committing ThoughtCrime requires having thoughts displaying hate or defiance towards the Party. Participating in ThoughtCrime always leads to death, so someone had seen Winston’s journal, then he would immediately go The Ministry of Love, a place of torture, horror, and death. Furthermore, Winston also rebels against the party by becoming lovers with Julia and secretly meeting up with her multiple times. In this society, no two people can love, show affection, or have pleasurable sex without major consequences. Winston breaks both of these rules with Julia because he loves destroying the “pureness”and “virtue” of the Party. He strives for corruption, and says he will do “anything to rot, weaken, [and] to undermine” the Party (Orwell 111). He enjoys “the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire,” and thinks the force of desire he feels will “tear the Party to pieces” (Orwell 111). Due to his beliefs, he repeats his actions over and
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.
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
accomplishes its stronghold on the people. The world as Winston knows it comes crashing down when he and Julia are
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
Winston even states when contemplating whether he should write in his diary that, “To mark the paper was the decisive act (Orwell, 5).” To Winston, his diary is the only recorded history that he remembers and believes as true and not altered by Big Brother. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth where his job is to rewrite historical documents to align with ever changing beliefs of the Party. Therefore, his diary would be the only accurate account of history of his time. Also, it would only contain the personal thoughts, descriptions, feelings, and narratives of Winston- not the Party's. Unfortunately, this a dangerous act in this totalitarian ruled regime wherein any form of individuality is outlawed. The Party wants its members to function as slaves abiding by the Party’s law. Any form of individuality or personal expression is a threat to the Party’s uniformity. Even, the mere thought of rebellion is enough to get someone killed by the thought police. The Party wants to control a person’s thoughts and mind, their most personal possessions. Hence why, the Party has a Thought Police because in the human brain ideas form, and those ideas can form into actions, and those actions can form into rebellion- this is the Party’s greatest fear. The Party wants the totality of an individual and wants to turn him into a “comrade.” Winston understands this; yet, he does not care,
Winston’s first rebellion act is the diary where he writes over and over again “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, “They were both breathing fast. But the smile had reappeared round the corners of her mouth. She stood looking at him for an instant, then felt at the zipper of her overalls. And, yes!
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 causes 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.