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Symbolism and Literary Techniques in George Orwell's
George Orwell 1984 as a political novel
George Orwell and political dystopia
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In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith sets a quest to defeat the totalitarian regime known as “The Party.” Headed by none other than the infamous “Big Brother.” On this quest, Winston learns that he has entered an unwinnable game that has been played far too many times by too many hopeful individuals. Along the way, Winston also learns what love is, an emotion the party has attempted to destroy. Although his efforts were futile from the onset of his campaign, Winston is able to come to terms with the simple fact that the party cannot and will not be beaten by the likes of one individual man. The game was never fair for Winston because in the end there was only going to be one winner, Big Brother. The reader learns of the power …show more content…
discrepancy through three main points, Winston’s sense of hope being crushed by O’Brien, The unfairness of the game itself, and the lack of awareness of the citizens of Oceana. Certain elements are needed to create a game that has the capability of being won by more than one opponent.
One of which is a common knowledge of the rules being used in a game. Imagine a soccer game with no boundaries, or an ultimate Frisbee game that one team wishes to play with a tennis ball. Using the same logic, it is understood that big brother has more power that Winston, but just because one team is better it doesn’t mean that the underdog cannot win. The issue arises when the reader learns of the capabilities of O’Brien and the defeating nature that the party uses to break Winston of his rebellious ideas. O’Brien takes Winston’s hope for change to new heights when he receives “Goldstein’s book” that entails the party secrets that Winston so desperately craves. When he comes to find out that the book was fraudulent book was more party propaganda claimed to be written by O’Brien himself and passed off as Goldstein’s to further demoralize …show more content…
Winston. Winston believes he is competition for Big Brother.
If he did not why would he attempt to take him down? Using the context clues the author has given, it is assumed that in reality Winston has no real chance of defeating him. There is no one single person in this book that has the capability of doing so, but “the proles” if in union with one another could defeat the party. “If there is hope [Wrote Winston] it lies in lies in the proles” (Orwell) The game being played by the party is its quest for power. Power over opposing nations, power over territory, and mostly power over people. “Power is power pursued entirely for its own sake.”(Patai) The party exists under the ideology that if the people who live in the society are too dumbed down by the simplicity of everyday life that they are unable to even fathom a rebellion of any sort. “That is the world we are preparing, Winston. A world of victory after victory, triumph after triumph: an endless pressing, pressing, pressing upon the nerve of power” (Orwell) Winston is one of the few exceptions who believes this rigged game can somehow be
won. Big Brother is a big bully when it comes to the rules of this so called game. They made the rules, they have a greater awareness of them, and they have the ability to collude with the ministries that make it up while no individual can do the same. The book concludes by depicting a scene in which Winston is sitting in a quaint tavern, The Chestnut Tree. He proved to us that big brothers capabilities were incredibly strong when the book’s protagonist begins tracing the numbers, “2+2=5” (Orwell) into the murky dust that lie on the table. The Purpose of this mental defeat by Big Brother was not just to stop Winston, but to turn him into a loyal member of the party again having never doubted Big Brother to begin with. The last phrase uttered in the book, “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” Has a resounding irony that can only be related back into the book’s entirety. Throughout the whole book the reader experiences irony. Whether it’s Winston’s inability to stay happily married, but become happy all of the sudden with his mistress. Or his obsession with Goldstein’s book which he comes to find out was written by someone else. The greatest irony of all is that Winston entered a game he was unprepared for, did not know the rules to, or ever had a chance to win.
Every part of life is regimented and controlled, but the only crime is ‘thought crime’: independent thinking and individualism. Big Brother is the figurehead of the Inner Party, and throughout the book, it is heavily implied that he may not really exist. The people are divided into Inner Party members, who control the government, Outer Party members, who make up the middle class, and Proletarians, or Proles, who make up the uneducated lower class. He utilizes strong but vague descriptions of the world around Winston to hint at the state of the world without directly saying it. He describes a bright cold day, which seems to perfectly depict the world's bleak state in a sort of indirect way (Orwell, 1948).
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.
...ptions to choose. Winston world is controlled by the party. By limiting his options to what he sees and what he does not see, the party is successful in controlling Winston’s free will in a direction that favors their ideals. Free will does not disappear in the ignorant nor does it disappear in the closed minded, therefore one cannot say that Winston has not lost free will simply because information is controlled and he suppresses idea contrary to the party. It would not be erroneous to say that if the circumstances were different, if Winston lived in a democratic society where the majority truly rules instead of a party and information truly flows freely, Winston would act different because the environment would be different; there is more information and thus more paths for his free will to take. But in the world of George Orwell’s distopia this is not the case.
Every person has their own motivations, or in other words, their own reasons for their desires, actions, and needs. People such as serial killers are often motivated to commit their crimes by the desire to hurt people, which often can be traced back to a rough childhood. On the other hand there’s people such as doctors and lawyers who came from similar circumstances; yet they were motivated by a desire to escape their past, particularly through the means of success. However often, we might not even know the motivation behind our own actions, which hinders our self control. Perhaps this is why people often make rash decisions. This can be seen in the case of Winston Smith in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Throughout the book Winston continually
In George Orwell’s 1984, where strictly regulated rules is what generates this society, and any disregard for these rules ends in unimaginable punishment. Winston and Julia’s love for each other, however unconventional it is, is greatly beneficial for not only the participants, but also for O’Brien, and particularly for Big Brother itself. This passion for each other, seemingly inextinguishable, is later on taken into account by the Inner Party, finally resulting in not only complete obedience and conformity from Winston and Julia, but also in a peace of mind for these two characters.
Throughout the book he tries to overcome the government, but in his heart, he knows he has no hope of thriving because “…was already dead” for committing ThoughtCrime and involving himself in acts worthy of death (Orwell 36). All of his character traits combined lead him to his ultimate death. His attraction to beauty makes him keep hold of objects and things considered suspicious, his rebelliousness causes him break nearly all of society’s rules, and his curiosity steers him toward people and places that eventually causes the Winston torture he endures in Ministry of Love. Winston could have had some false hope of a better world where he could get away from all of the harsh rules and regulations of the Party, but in reality, his personality traits dragged him through a life already pre-written and stamped with an early
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.
loss, it's to do with futility. For all he did, for all the rules he
Throughout the world, failures seem to occur all around. Whether it be in the form of losing oneself or losing the people around the individual, many failures commonly occurs with the accumulation of power. In George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, Winston Smith is a low-ranking government official under the oppressive reign of his leaders, Big Brother. He is just one example of the many characters in written works that will eventually be defeated in one way or another. In British literature, it has become evident that characters affected by tyrannies have ultimately experienced loneliness, paranoia, and defeat.
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.
In 1984, George Orwell presents an overly controlled society that is run by Big Brother. The protagonist, Winston, attempts to “stay human” in the face of a dehumanizing, totalitarian regime. Big Brother possesses so much control over these people that even the most natural thoughts such as love and sex are considered taboo and are punishable. Big Brother has taken this society and turned each individual against one another. Parents distrust their own offspring, husband and wife turn on one another, and some people turn on their own selves entirely. The people of Oceania become brainwashed by Big Brother. Punishment for any uprising rebellions is punishable harshly.
His actions did not shy away from the fact that the outcome might not be a success. This is a key characteristic a hero should have according to Orwell’s definition. In order to look at Winston Smith as a hero you have to dismiss the perspective of a traditional hero like Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon hero. This is because this novel is set in a modernist era and a traditional hero cannot be necessarily found in this time period. A hero like Winston Smith can be found because he does have flaws and has a tragic ending influenced by modernism. A hero is labeled due to his courageous acts of bravery as they fight for what is right. Their actions cannot be diminished and looked down upon just because of a tragic ending. Winston Smith is a hero of the
The book 1984 takes place in a dystopian society where Winston Smith lives. Winston, an Outer Party member; He has been manipulated for twenty-seven years to follow Big Brother, but somehow Winston is not on the same page as the other members. During the end, Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love. Winston is torture and brainwashing to love Big Brother. While there, he has a conversation with O’Brien an inner party member. “We are the priest of power,” he said “God is power. But at present power is only a word so far as you are concerned… Power over matter---external reality, as you could call it---is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute.” “But how can you control matter?” he burst out. “You don’t even control the
Many works of literature have the main character’s downfall caused by one of their main traits. In 1984 by George Orwell the main character, Winston, displays envy many times throughout the novel. From the first chapter when he starts to rebel against the Party in small ways to the middle and end of the book when he says he will do anything to destroy the Party. Winston’s envy leads to many good things for him, such as finding Mr. Charrington’s shop and meeting Julia, however it also leads to his downfall.
At the end of the novel, Orwell describes Winston as a cured patient who has over come his metal disease. “He had won the victory over himself: he loved Big Brother” (Part 3, Chapter 6). Both Freud and Orwell break down the components of a person’s mind in the same way. Orwell’s character, Winston, depicts the different parts of the human mind so described by Freud. In Orwell’s 1984, he uncovers the same components of a human mind as seen by Freud, the instinctual drive of the id, the perceptions and actions of the ego, and the censorship imposed by the morality of the superego.