“Knowledge may be power, but when it comes to self-knowledge, ignorance is bliss” (Why Peo…). One will deliberately search for ways to avoid the truth. Avoiding truth helps one to elude responsibility, pain, honesty towards one’s self, and swallowing of one’s pride. Characters in Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, 1984, and Heart of Darkness exemplify the concept of avoiding the truth.
In Lord of the Flies, Jack avoids the truth of killing his first pig. Killing his first pig was a step from an innocent childhood to an older, more savage life. “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink” (Golding 70). Jack was faced with accepting responsibility of his actions. However, Jacks actions and feelings of guilt were concealed by the excitement of having meat.
Emotional states like excitement are easily obtained with the perfect drug soma. In Brave New World, Linda uses soma to rid herself of the pain that comes from being different. Linda is ostracized from the rest of the village because she slept with multiple other men in the village. Nevertheless, Bernard and Lenina were able to introduce soma to Linda as a way to solve all her problems. “There’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering” (Huxley 228). But soma cannot take away the problems. After the soma wears off, the pain of the situation is still present. Soma is just another way to escape the truth of the situation.
Soma is nonexistent in 1984. Therefore, Winston uses rebellion as a shield against the truth that th...
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...fficult, acceptance is the only way to face hard situations. One must own up to his problems. Denial can cover up the hard situation, but it cannot fix or get rid of the problem. Ernest Hemingway said, “You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another” (Popular Quo…). Besides, in the end, one will only become stronger from the pain, responsibility, truth, and humility.
Works Cited
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Knopf, 1993. 32. Print.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. 70. Print.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. 228. Print.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York, NY: Published by Signet Classic, 1977. 204-05. Print.
"Popular Quotes." Popular Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
"Why People Avoid the Truth About Themselves." PsyBlog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23
Jan. 2014.
...t the war is peace, yet there always at war and nothing is ever peaceful. The party lies to cover up acts of war that are not peaceful anyhow. Freedom is not slavery. Freedom is the ability to think and act freely, yet the characters of 1984 are slaves to their governments rule. And ignorance is strength, because those who know the truth, like Winston, cannot act without going against the party. Yet, those who know nothing, like the paroles, have all of the power if only they’d recognize it. The paroles are the only ones who could have the freedom enough to say that “two plus two equals four” (81).
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.
Lack of knowledge created major conflicts for characters in the novel, proving that it is better to know the truth in order to make informative decisions.
However, because it is Winston's own government manipulating him, and the fact that it is them he is rebelling against, this makes 1984 more relevant to today’s society.
Pretend that you are class president. One day, you and your best friend since kindergarten have a huge fight, so as revenge, he releases one of your deepest, darkest secrets out into the world. The secret passes on all around and soon the whole school knows. Now it is too late to try and fix this because dark secrets are hard to forget. Ultimately, this causes all your peers to look at you in a different and bad way resulting in your reputation being ruined. You probably won’t be voted for class president ever again. This situation proves that “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” is not always true and can do the exact opposite and cause destruction. William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies shows that ignorance can become a vicious monster and destroy. This can also be seen in many other novels, such as Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 and in everyday life. Golding and Bradbury also provide characters that show knowledge, at times, is a good thing.
Winston’s change and expressions were miniscule resistance towards the whole society, but it still provides an example of an individual who chooses not to conform to society standards. Orwell expresses how even with a miniscule resistance towards conformity, we cannot get rid of it without the help of an entire society.
Orwell, Burgess, and Huxley present a metamorphosis for their protagonists to display that radicals are bound to emerge in authoritarian governments, but often eventually succumb to its command. In 1984, Winston 's insubordination escalates
Jack’s totalitarian ideals meant that due to his wild rampage of death and destruction, his bloodlust made him descend into savagery. His eventual fall into savagery begins with the sighting of a wild pig. He is fascinated but cannot bring himself to kill it due to “the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood”. This shows his innocence at the start of the novel, but his lust for blood soon overcomes the battle against his inner self. “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.” When he first killed the pig, Jack is ecstatic. Killing becomes an obsession to him. “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them
Jack has always been an ill-natued boy even from the start of the book when he told Piggy to "Shut up, Fatty." (p.23). Dispite Jack’s unpleasent personality, his lack of courage and his conscience preventing him from killing the first pig they encountered. "They knew very well why he hadn’t; because of the enormity of the knife decending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood." (p.34)
In the superstates of Oceania, ignorance is bliss. The story of Winston Smith’s struggle with being stuck in a factually incorrect world and the ignorance surrounding him and the entirety of 1984 provide a cautionary tale. This cautionary tale is what happens when human rights are violated on the most basic of all levels and no one is around to stop that defilation of these rights. There may be conscientious objectors to the many atrocities that the world throw at them but in a world of control, disagreement is akin to death. In a world where difference of opinion causes you to be tried for treason, that is a world that is truly corrupt to the highest of calibers. 1984 not only provides a cautionary tale of what could and would have happened if Stalinism would have gone unchecked, but also when the majority opinion stops listening to the majority of one. In this world of 1984, nothing is free, not even a
In the First section of 1984 Winston doesn’t openly rebel, he starts a journal in which he writes how he remember the history that has been re-written. This is called thought crime, because it goes against what the party tells you to know. The Thought Police are in charge of arresting people who commit Thought Crime. That is the start of Winston’s rebellion against Big Brother and The Party.
First, Jack is a cruel human being who says many sadistic and heartless things. This is first mentioned in the novel when Jack says, “There were lashings of blood… you should have seen it!” (69). This quote is evidence of Jack’s barbaric nature because it reveals that he enjoys the blood of the wild pigs. Also, his enjoyment of the blood leaves
Orwell's 1984, Winston is aware that his rebellious thoughts and actions will ultimately bring upon his
The future of the world is a place of thriving commerce and stability. Safety and happiness are at an all-time high, and no one suffers from depression or any other mental disorders. There are no more wars, as peace and harmony spread to almost every corner of the world. There is no sickness, and people are predestined to be happy and content in their social class. But if anything wrong accidentally occurs, there is a simple solution to the problem, which is soma. The use of soma totally shapes and controls the utopian society described in Huxley's novel Brave New World as well as symbolize Huxley's society as a whole. This pleasure drug is the answer to all of life's little mishaps and also serves as an escape as well as entertainment. The people of this futuristic society use it in every aspect of their lives and depend on it for very many reasons. Although this drug appears to be an escape on the surface, soma is truly a control device used by the government to keep everyone enslaved in set positions.
It is difficult for them to hope to succeed in an area where so many of them have failed. The constant theme of betrayal in 1984 is being used by George Orwell to show how hopeless Winston’s struggle against the Totalitarian system is, giving the reader an idea of how bad this type of government is. The reader is introduced to this dark time and given hope in the form of the rebellious protagonist, Winston. However, the reader soon realises how hopelessly alone Winston is in his silent battle when they see that the government is against him, he has no support or allies, and that even his own mind can be turned against him. The message is clear and makes readers who live in a democracy happier with what they have.