Most Significant Events in 1984 1984 by George Orwell is a novel that takes place in a dystopian society from which the main character, Winston Smith, attempts to break free from. Winston undergoes a significant change of character throughout the novel. In the beginning, the author portrays Winston as a character that is courageous, intelligent, and has the initiative to do his part to change the ways of Oceana’s society, with the government controlling the people and exhibiting dominance over all aspects of their lives. Winston attempts to challenge the ways of the Party by completing various acts that instill a sense of individuality and self-awareness in himself. The most important events in this story are when Winston buys a journal, …show more content…
when Winston first meets Julia, and when Winston and Julia are caught sneaking around together. The first major event in the novel is Winston’s illegal purchase of a journal from a small shop.
Owning a journal is Winston's first act of rebellion against the government, otherwise known as the Party. Winston makes it known that “this was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp” (8). In Oceania, free thought is absolutely prohibited, therefore by owning a journal and writing in it, Winston constitutes an act of rebellion against the Party. By making the decision to write in this journal Winston shows his strong willpower and desire for change. The Party regulates all news and alters history to have it correlate with their own version of reality. Winston explains that “this process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, soundtracks, cartoons, photographs—to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance” (40). Keeping the journal is a way for Winston to resist the Party’s control, and to have his own thoughts and uninfluenced recollection of the past. His rebellious acts against the conformity the government is presenting begin to progress substantially with the start of his …show more content…
journal. The next major event is the beginning of Winston’s love affair with Julia; Winston meeting Julia sets in motion one of the most defiant actions in this novel: carnal interaction that is not for the sole purpose of reproduction.
Winston is aware of the situation that he has placed himself in, and the inevitable consequences that are to follow. In contrast to Winston, Julia remains optimistic about the perseverance of their affair. While speaking to Julia, Winston says, “‘I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones”’ (120). Voicing his detest for goodness and purity appears to be negative, but it actually represents the immense desire Winston has for individuality and realism in the world. Citizens are rarely capable of genuine emotion in Oceania, and even their private thoughts are monitored by the Thought Police. Since meeting Julia, “he had moved from thoughts to words, and now words to actions” (183). Winston is becoming increasingly convinced that he will make a change in his society. At this point, he considers his progress towards rebellion a success, and this influences him to continue pushing his
limits. The most climactic moment in 1984 is when is captured by a man he felt he could trust, O’Brien, and taken away from Julia and brought to the Ministry of Love. The Ministry of Love is where Winston is tortured for months by Party members who are not only striving to convince Winston to not only obey Big Brother, but to love and adore Big Brother. O’brien says to Winston, “‘It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party”’ (237). Instead of killing Winston, they attempt to persuade him to believe in the Party’s version of reality. The Party does not only impose physical torture on their prisoners, but psychological torture as well. Eventually, Winston is faced with his worst fear: rats. Winston is well aware that “there was one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the body of another human being, between himself and the rats” (273). Winston breaks inside and offers Julia as a sacrifice to save himself. By offering Julia as a sacrifice, he is ultimately betraying her and losing someone who he seemingly cares about. Winston buying a journal gives readers a glimpse into Winston’s reasons for rebelling. At the end of this novel, Winston is left broken and continues the rest of his life living in conformity and acceptance of the Party and Big Brother. Due to being caught and tortured by the Party, Winston loses his sense of individuality, and the love he once had for Julia. The government benefits for the better because they now have one less rebel to worry about and have added another man to their endless list of mindless, conformed victims of oppression that make up the population of their society. All things considered, Winston buying the journal, meeting Julia, and being captured by the Party are the most significant moments in 1984.
Returning to his diary, Winston then expresses his emotions against the Party, the Thought Police and Big Brother himself; he questions the unnecessary acts by the Party and continuously asserts rebellion. Winston soon realized he had committed the crime of having an individual thought, “thoughtcrime.” The chapter ends with a knock on Winston’s door. Significant Quotes “From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 7). “But there was a fraction of a second when their eyes met, and for as long as it took to happen Winston knew— yes, he knew!
In “1984,” Orwell uses Winston to portray a single individual’s attempt to take action against a powerful government, culminating in his failure and subjugation. His individual efforts failed tremendously due to the overarching power of the Party to control every aspect of social life in Oceania. Orwell uses Winston’s deeply seated hatred of the Party to portray his views on power and social change. Winston’s actions show that even in the direst of situations ...
1984, a dystopian novel, was written by George Orwell. Winston Smith, the protagonist, lives in a society where people have restrictions both mentally and physically. The story takes place in Oceania in the year 1984. Citizens of Oceania do not lead personal lives because the people are constantly being observed by telescreens. Thinking individually or thinking against the Party, which is the government of Oceania, is considered thoughtcrime. People are vaporized for doing such things.
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.
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “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, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
1984 is a dystopian novel set inn Airstrip One, which used to be Britian. Oceania is always at war with another superpower, and their main goal is to achieve the most power throughout their world. The main character is Winston Smith, a man who works for the party and is supposed to change history to match what the party has told him. Winston lives in a society where he is constantly listened to and watched by telescreens and microphones to make sure he is enthusiastic about hate, and to make sure he doesn’t commit any crimes. Everywhere Winston goes he always sees posters that say, “Big Brother is Watching You.” Big Brother is the party leader that may or may not be real. The official language of Oceania, the country where Airstrip one is located, is Newspeak. Newspeak is the only language in Oceania that lessens it’s words each year so that it is harder for people to commit thoughtcrime. Winston is a dedicated worker, but often thinks about rebellion against Big Brother. Winston idolizes a man named O'Brien that he thinks is part of the Brotherhood, a terrorist group who constantly sabotages the party. Winston begins to like a woman named Juli...
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
The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external conflict between Winston Smith and Big Brother; and the internal conflict between the two ideas, democracy and totalitarianism. Orwell wrote the novel to show society what it could become if things kept getting worse: he sensed of the expansion of communism when he wrote the novel. The conflict between democracy and totalitarianism at the year of 1945 created two characters, Winston Smith and Big Brother, in orwell's mind. Big Brother is the embodiment of all the ideals of the totalitarian party. In contrast to Big Brother, Winston Smith keeps the idea of democracy emphasizes freedom, he has to hide his own thought because the Big Brother's party will punish him by death if the party finds it out. George orwell criticizes of Big Brother's society by describing it as a dark and a gloomy place. It warns that people might believe that everyone must become slaves to the government in order to have an orderly society, but at the expense of the freedom of the people.
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,
In the novel 1984, Orwell produced a social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia that made the world pause and think about our past, present and future. When reading this novel we all must take the time to think of the possibility that Orwell's world could come to pass. Orwell presents the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control of the people of Oceania. The reader experiences the emotional ride through the eyes of Winston Smith, who was born into the oppressive life under the rule of Ingsoc. Readers are encouraged through Winston to adopt a negative opinion on the idea of communist rule and the inherent dangers of totalitarianism. The psychological manipulation and physical control are explored through Winston's journey, and with Winston's resistance and ultimate downfall, the reader is able to fully appreciate O'Briens reasoning, "Power is not a means, it is an end."
However, Orwell never gives a “clear motive for Winston’s rebellion” (Elkins 590). One of the reasons is so that Winston can warn the future generations of Oceania about the unbreakable grip the Party has over their nation. Winston ponders quietly for a few minutes pondering why and for whom he was writing this diary for, and then it suddenly hits him. The whole reason Winston begins to write this masterpiece of warning is for the future. Just like in most revolutions, Winston understands the need to sacrifice himself and the present generation in order for the future generations to come will not have to go through the same ordeals he has had to deal with. He even hints at the fact that he knows the Thought Police will find him sooner or later (“The Invincible Giant” 31). Another reason Winston feels it necessary to record these events is to continuously give himself a reality check. Whenever he forgets why he is rebelling all he has to do is open up his diary to fulfill his motivation to continue to do what must be done. Another possible reason is that Winston is against the Party’s principles of no sexual intercourse (“The Savage God” 58-59). This is also why he hates women, because he cannot make love with them. Winston also rebels for all the right reasons as well. He does not begin his mutiny “for the sake of power and glory”, but to break the iron grip of the deceitful Party (“1984” 238). Winston would much
George Orwell uses Winston to represent truth in a deceptive world in his novel 1984. In Oceania, Big Brother is the omnipotent and all powerful leader. Everything the government dictates is unquestionably true, regardless of prior knowledge. Even thinking of ideas that go against Big Brother’s regime, or thoughtcrime, is punishable by death. Winston serves as the dystopian hero, longing for freedom and change. Orwell uses Winston to emphasize the importance of individual freedoms, as they give us the ability to fulfillingly lead our respective lives.
The foundation of his new personality is his ability to effortlessly commit crimestop at a subconscious level. Thoughts that interfere with Party views are promptly erased from Winston’s mind. “False memories” such as when “his mother was sitting opposite of him and also laughing” (309, 308) were recollections of happiness, and thus, dangerous to Party ideologies. The ability to selectively believe which memories are true and which ones are false, using Party ideals as reference, is one of the main traits of a perfect Party member. 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 cause 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. Winston’s feeling of contempt towards Big Brother is completely altered into admiration and respect: “He looked up again at the portrait of Big Brother. The colossus that bestrode the world!” (310) Winston