How Effective is the Ending of 1984 by George Orwell?

One of the most important structures for a story is the ending, and the question that always should be asked is “How effective is the ending?” The purpose of the ending is to try to clarify to the readers the message that was trying to be said throughout the book, and looking at how well this is done is answering the question “How effective is the ending?” In 1984, written by George Orwell, we will see how effective 1984s ending is, and how well it was written.

The beginning of the closing chapter (Chapter 6; part 3), starts off with imagery “A ray of sunlight slanting through a window” “A tinny music trickled from the telescreens” these terms of imagery make the reader imagine as if they were at the moment, which has a big effect on the reader. The term “a ray of sunlight” starts to confuse the readers because usually sunlight is associated with happiness, but throughout the description the readers notice that the environment is not happy. The events of the final chapter has great effect on the readers, the events that take place at the Chestnut tree café are very normal and calm, no one has reacted to Winston’s appearance after being tortured, this shows how the act of being tortured and beaten is normal, but having the waiter fill Winston’s glass unbidden shows the waiters sympathy to Winston. Winston not being able to think is a sign that points to the ending. Orwell’s uses symbolism, where he symbolizes Big Brother as the white chess peace, white symbolizes good, and this contradicts to the beginning of the book, where he shows Big Brother as a cruel, unjust person. There is a use of memory, where Orwell reminds the readers of what has happened before and how it is going to affect the ending, “They cant get inside she said” ...

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... gives in to Big Brother, and begins to praise and love him, “He loved Big Brother”. Orwells ending is very different than most novels, the ending leaves the readers questioning them selves, hoping that there is more to it, that there is hope for Winston, But no. Orwell finishes the novel with a dark and hopeless ending, to try to make it more realistic and relatable. 1984 is a dystopian novel, because Orwell wanted the readers to relate between the world of 1984 and real world, he wanted to try to make the message clearer to the readers, by making the readers think of the ending, and how relatable is it to the current world.

To conclude, 1984’s ending has a great effect on the readers, the ending achieves its purpose by giving the message through imagery, symbolism, memories and the readers thinking of the purpose of writing the ending in a dark, hopeless way.