Rebellion In The Novel 1984

In the novel 1984, written by George Orwell, there is a place called Oceania where the government is Big Brother. The government, the Party, and the Thought Police are constantly oppressing the citizens of Oceania. Most of the people don't know that they are being oppressed, but the two main characters, Julia and Winston, realize the oppression and don't stand for it. Winston and Julia absolutely hate the Party, and are constant breaking its “rules”. Julia is self-centered and resists the Party by doing rebellious acts that only affect her in a positive way. Similarly, Winston also does small acts of rebellion in the beginning of the book in ways that only relate to him. Later, Winston rebels for a greater cause, joining the Brotherhood to

take down Big Brother.
Winston and Julia’s resistance overlap in that they only do small-restricted things at first. Winston’s first acts of rebellion can be seen when he goes to the free market to purchase a book, which inner and outer party members are not supposed to do; “At the time he was not conscious of wanting it for any particular purpose. He had carried it guiltily home in his briefcase. Even with nothing written in it, it was a compromising possession.” Winston does not buy the book from the free market with a greater purpose than simply defying Oceania’s government. He meaninglessly purchases the book while knowing that he could easily be punished if caught. Winston is aware that the book is of little importance, and that the trouble that could be caused by the book is much more than it is actually worth. He buys it not because he needs the book, but because the act of buying it is worth something greater, it is the act of rebelling. He takes it a little further when he goes into a room, which does not contain a telescreen with full visual access, and writes, in his diary; “A tremor had gone through his bowels. To mark the paper was the decisive act.” Winston is nervous and begins to panic even before he starts writing in his diary. This is because he knows that the second he starts writing, he will be playing a part in resisting the Party. In Oceania you can get into serious trouble if you write in a diary. If caught by the Thought Police, Winston could be punished by death, or at the very least be sent to a forced-labor camp for twenty-five years. Knowingly, Winston proceeds and writes the words, “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” over and over again in his diary, displaying Winston’s hate for Big Brother and foreshadowing his thoughts of taking down Big Brother.
Julia also performs small acts of resistance, such as, having sexual intercourse for other purposes than making a baby.

This is a form of resistance, although it does not hurt the party, it does defy what they stand for. The Party strictly restricts sex and only permits it when it is used to create children. These acts of resistance from Julia and Winston are one of the reasons that they fall in love with each other. They love each other because of the fact that they have a mutual hatred for the Party. Their resistance to the Party is very similar to each other’s in the beginning of the book, but is very different later

on.
Winston is much older than Julia and was born during a time when Big Brother was not always watching. Winston cannot remember these times very well, but feels deeply curious whether people were better off before the Party’s existence; “But it was no use, he could not remember: nothing remained of his childhood except a series of bright-lit tableaux occurring against no background and mostly unintelligible.” Winston cannot remember the past but wonders if it was better or worse than it is now. He seeks out an older prole for the answer, but does not understand him. The prole mentions that he wore a top hat and Winston, not understanding much of what the prole is saying, responds; “It isn't very important about the top hats.” However, it is important because if the prole wore a top hat as a poor person, that proves there was not such a great divide between rich and poor and that it was not worse back then.
Julia on the other hand does not care about how life used to be, since she was born during Big Brother’s control and has seen nothing but oppression from the Party. Julia’s resistance is different from Winston’s because she does not connect with the issue of Big Brother having total control as passionately as Winston does. When Winston talks to Julia about taking down Big Brother she is usually uninterested and Winston finds himself having to ask, “Julia, are you awake?” Julia’s acts of rebellion are very self-centered and are only driven by the idea of having a good time, without getting caught by the Thought Police. Julia saw things as, “They’ should want to rob you of your pleasures as that you should want to avoid being caught”. Moreover, Winston’s idea of resisting the Party later on in the book becomes something much bigger than just self-driven acts. He ends up actually wanting to join the Brotherhood to take down Big Brother once and for all. Winston doesn't care about what happens to him because all he wants is for Big Brother to be taken down; “they always shoot you in the back of the neck I don’t care down with big brother”. Winston wants change and in order to change society, he must do bigger things than just self-centered resistance like having sex or writing in his diary. He believes that the party is oppressing them and that this needs to be fixed, while at the same time pessimistically thinking that this cannot actually happen in his lifetime.
I find Winston’s perspective and method of resistance to be most compelling.

Winston’s method of resistance is actually taking action and doing something to solve Oceania’s problem with Big Brother’s complete control. Winston does not like that the Party can just tell you that 2+2=5 and you would actually believe it, because that means that the Party has complete influence over you, and can make you change your ideas about basic facts and truths. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” In other words, Freedom is the ability to know unquestionable truths, and if you have that, you can have more freedom, but if your basic knowledge is taken away, then your freedom is doomed. Winston looks for solutions, while Julia just tries to wait it out and only cares about herself. Winston at one point gets fed up with this attitude and even tells Julia that she is only a rebel from the waist down, which Julia takes as a compliment, “She thought this brilliantly witty and flung her arms round him in delight.” Julia and Winston’s perspective on resisting the party are similar at first but end up being completely different. Winston’s perspective is more compelling because his ideas can actually make an impact and change society, whereas Julia’s rebellion is

self-centered.