The Individual vs. Big Brother in 1984

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The Individual vs. Big Brother in 1984

“That is what has brought you here. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. […] Reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.” This is how O’Brien, a high-ranking official of the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, describes the worldview forced into the minds of its citizens. Demonstrated by Winston Smith’s nonconformist thinking, his unorthodox actions, and the deconstruction of his individuality, it is this world of O’Brien’s with which the concept of the individual is incompatible.

Eccentric thought is the beginning of the irreconcilable coexistence between the individual and the Party. As the novel unfolds, it is learned that Winston has been carrying these kinds of thoughts in his head for years. He could not hold them in any longer however, and perhaps as a subconscious act, had purchased a diary from a junk-shop on the free market. This was not illegal, as nothing truly was, but instinctively something to be reprimanded. Winston starts putting his thoughts to paper, out of reach from the snooping eye of the telescreens. It is this act which sets in motion the irreversible spiral into oblivion. The nature of this ac is explained this way after Winston had written a shocking sentence in his new diary:

Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or wh...

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... due to his unorthodoxy, such as maintaining a secret and promiscuous relationship with Julia, and the political ramifications of the sexual act; and lastly, the deconstruction of his individualism at the hands of the Party, due to its hunger for power over the mind. It is not surprising then, that among the imposing doctrines of the government of Big Brother, the character of Winston Smith was eventually wiped out. In conclusion, a passage from Winston’s diary:

To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another, and do not live alone — to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone:

From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublething — greetings!

Bibliography:

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four; Penguin Books 1990

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