Nineteen Eighty-Four is a compelling novel,
written in the period just after W.W.II. It details the life of one man, Winston Smith, and his struggles with an undoubtedly
fascist government. The book is set approximately in the year 1984, in which Winston's society is ruled by a governing force
known as "The Party". At the head of this government is a fictional figure known as Big Brother, to whom all citizens must love
and respect. In this society, privacy and freedom do not exist. People are constantly monitored by telescreens, and subjected
to a constant barrage of propaganda. Any devious thought or action is dealt with by cruel and deadly punishment. Winston is a
worker in one of the government agencies. His job: to rewrite the past so that The Party, specifically Big Brother, appears to
be omnipotent. From as long as he can remember, he has despised The Party and what it stood for, although he doesn't reveal
his true feelings to anyone around him. When Winston begins a torrid love affair with one of the young women in his agency
named Julia, he finds someone else who shares in his beliefs. The two have several meetings throughout the book, in which they
discuss their hatred for the government. They join a secret alliance called The Brotherhood, who's specific purpose is the end
of The Party. Through the literature of The Brotherhood, they learn about the inner workings of The Party and how it
accomplishes its stronghold on the people. The world as Winston knows it comes crashing down when he and Julia are
arrested by the thought police, a faction of the government which deals with those who do not agree and abide by the ways of
The Party. They are taken to a prison unlike any other. Winston is constantly tortured and beaten, until he confesses to crimes
which he didn't commit or never even happened. If the party just killed Winston right away, they might run the risk of making a
martyr out of him. Instead they re-educate him with the morals of The Party, using such techniques as pain, starvation, and
using Winston's greatest fear against him. Once re- educated, he is introduced back into society. But he is not the same person,
just a hollow shell. Winston had once said in the novel that if he could die hating Big Brother, then he would have won. But
when Winston is finally killed, the only thing he can think is that he love...
... middle of paper ...
...ten path in search of a greater truth. The novel also caused myself to reflect
upon how important it was that such tyrannical dictators such as Hitler have been stopped, sometimes with great costs, from
making life unbearable. Reading this novel gave me a great sense of hope for human kind, as we have been able to keep
totalitarian movements under control. Maybe sometimes people can get carried away with a lust for power, but it will always
come back to living in a society that is tolerable to everyone. It is safe to say that a Utopian society will never exist, but we
must make an effort to get as close as we can. Many disputes which occur today are because of petty differences between
people. Although there are some flaws in human nature, we have always been able to keep from digging a grave too deep to
climb out of. It is scary to think how close the world could have come to having a society like the one in Nineteen Eighty Four,
and know that we as humans have to gain a better understanding of one another. I enjoyed reading this book because not only
did it give the reader something exciting to read, but it also was able to put an interesting perspective on life itself.
Julia instructs Winston how to return to London. The two arranged meetings where and when they would meet again. Julia reveals that she is not interested in the revolt. Although, she is a personal rebel. Winston reveals information to Julia about his wife Katherine which he decided weather to not killer her or not. Winston returned to Mr. Charrington’s offer: he had rented the room above his shop in order to spend some private time with Julia. Winston reveals his fear of rats.
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 ...
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.
Every society uses mind control methods to achieve a certain goal. The societies mentioned used different severities of mind control to get the same thing, power. This power is produced from the conformity or uniformity that is being forced on people. When people conform, they need to spend money. In 1984, they had to give their money right back to the government by buying necessary items. In today's society, people pay money to get material possessions to fit in. This conformity makes money which is given to the rich. The rich get richer and the lower classes still strive to stay alive or stay hip. This is the cycle that is almost near impossible to change.
We feel the same emotions of the protagonist --> readers are never ahead of the narration and only know what Winston knows
Reconstruction did however have several accomplishments, including liberalized state constitutions, public schools systems in the South, and internal improvements. “Whatever laws protects the white man shall afford ‘equal’ protection to the black,” according to Thaddeus Stevens. But this was for the most part not true, and the failures of Reconstruction greatly outnumbered the accomplishments. Politically, the South remained the same as it had before, Democratic. The blacks did gain freedom but were far from equality. And the great amount of corruption during this time period marks Reconstruction as a failure. (American History: A Survey, Alan Brinkley)
Andrew Johnson, who became President of the U.S. in 1865, had his own Reconstruction plan, but it turned out to be unsuccessful largely because of the unfair ways in which blacks were treated. According to his plan, pardons would be offered to all southern whites except wealthy Confederate supporters and the main Confederate leaders. Conventions were to be held by the defeated southern states and new state governments were to be formed. These new governments had to make a vow of loyalty to the nation and abolish slavery in order to rejoin the Union. However, this plan did not offer the blacks a role in this process; he left the responsibility of determining the black people’s roles to the southern states. Under his plan, new state governments were organized throughout the South during the summer and fall of 1865. These states governments passed a series of laws known as the Black Codes. These codes allowed employees to whip black workers, allowed states to jail unemployed blacks and to hire out their children, and forced blacks to sign labor contracts that required them to work a job for a full year. The Republicans in Congress believed that Johnson’s plan was a failure, not only because of the Black Codes that were passed, but because when Congress reassembled in December of 1865, numerous newly ele...
Winston - The protagonist; one of the individuals who secretly neglect the way of the current state of the government - totalitarianism.
The arguments of the three men triggered something in Winston’s mind. As though a switch was flipped a memory began to come back to the surface of his thoughts. He was emerging his apartment building into a street ripe with tension. Winston was in a building he did not recognize with his sister nearby him, and his parents currently out of sight. Winston seemed to be in an apartment, but a different one form his other memories. This apartment was cleaner and bigger, as though it was truly meant to accommodate more than just two small children and his small mother. The environment was tense and dread hung in the air as Winston remembered that familiar feeling of hunger, twisting in his gut.
of history. Winston struggles to face the state of Oceania and ultimately loses everything in the end.
The social structure of George Orwell’s 1984 is based on Freud’s map of the mind and the struggles between the id, the ego and the super ego. The minds of these individuals living in this society are trained to think a certain way. Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis can be applied to Orwell’s 1984. Using Freud’s psychoanalytic approach, 1984’s main character Winston Smith is portrayed as the one who goes against the ideas of the Party. In a Freudian point of view, Winston’s character represents a mind where the id is the driving force and where the ego and superego are ill developed in the views of the Party. Freud describes the psychoanalytic process as something that is normally used to treat patients with metal disorders, and in the eyes of the party, Winston is seen as one that has a mental disorder. The procedure that Winston undergoes directly parallels Freud’s psychoanalytic process.
Winston felt like sex was a rebellion. He is drawn to his lover Julia because
In the play Julius Caesar, Caesar is becoming the most popular ruler in Rome for “replacement” of Sulla. However, this is not seen as a good thing by the entirety of Rome and a conspiracy arises that includes one of Caesar’s most trusted friends: Brutus. So as you can see, friendship from the beginning is an important attribute and factor throughout the play; however, when one of Caesar’s friends turns and kills him(Brutus), Caesar’s other friends(Marc Antony, Octavius, etc.) are naturally outraged and may have even used this opportune moment for their personal gain. This drives the play’s events towards war, outrage, and eventually death of many, showing how one’s words and actions can affect an entiret...
Art is not confined only to paintings or drawings. It can also be dancing, writing and music. Since, the range of art is very large, it brings up the question if anyone can be an artist. There are no restrictions on who can be an arti...