Creatures of Habit Suppression has occurred numerous times throughout the history of the Earth. Almost every single time, a revolution was up-started because of it. Why does this happen? People were created with a nature inside that drives the need for freedom and companionship. No matter how much people are held back from the true human nature, it will find a way to come through to the light. So many novels have been written based off of suppression and rebellion. 1984 is a perfect example of one of these types of novels. In this novel the reader follows Winston Smith, a normal person, through his journey of becoming more and more rebellious and of finding out the truth behind the Party, the organization who suppresses all of Oceania where …show more content…
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 …show more content…
The raw human nature is to not be controlled; no man or woman likes to be bossed around, especially when the person making all the decisions is treating those under them unfairly. Winston sees how the Party is doing the citizens of Oceania wrong and is the only citizen who has the gumption to try and do anything about it making him the odd man out (Goodman 5). History has proven that you can only hold people back for so long before they erupt with fury. He fights back against their constant knowing of every detail of every person’s life and against the Party’s iron grip over Oceania (“1984” 245). Another thing that can only be quenched for a short period of time is the desire for companionship amongst people. No matter how hard a person tries to prevent a man and a woman from being in love they are unable to stop it from happening. Actually trying to prevent companionship between two lovers only feeds the fire. Even when danger comes around, a man will be willing to do anything to have companionship with a woman. Winston knows that there is a high chance of him and Julia being arrested and even possibly killed, he still goes through with trying to continuously be in her presence (“1984” 238). With all the things and actions Winston does throughout the novel, it is very plain to see that he symbolizes rebellion and human desire in a crystal clear fashion. No matter
He purchased a small journal from a shop and began to write in it out of view of the telescreen in his house, which allows anything in front of it to potentially be seen or heard. At first he had some difficulties as he could only manage to write jumbles of some of his memories, but then he began to write things like “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER (Orwell, page 18).” He later had an encounter with one of his fellow coworkers, O’Brien, which got him thinking that there might be others out in the world who see things the way he does, including O’Brien himself. Winston eventually decides that his diary will become a sort of letter to O’Brien, and to a future or past where things might have been different. In these diary entries he wrote things such as, “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…(Orwell, page 28).” This refers to how citizens think and act the same and previous events are not written as they happened, but altered to Big Brother’s benefit. He also wrote, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death (Orwell, page 28).” This can be further explained by Winston’s previous thought, “The consequences of every act are included in the act itself (Orwell, page 28).” Winston
In the 2nd part of 1984 Winston is meets a girl named Julia. At first Winston believes Julia will turn him in for committing Thought Crime. Then Julia passes Winston a note and they meet each other. The Party also does not allow association that is not goverernd. This is the start of an affair between the two, because they are not married and free love is not allowed. Winston is rebelling fully by his association with Julia. The 2nd section Winston fully rebels, he joins an underground resistance, and he believes that his life is better because The Party is no longer controlling him. At the end of this section Winston learns that he has been set-up and followed by the Thought Police the whole time. He and Julia believed that they were resisting and rebelling but had actually been entrapped by the Thought Police.
Winston expresses his feelings towards Julia in such an extraordinary way, “He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows.”(Orwell 15). When he is expressing these thoughts, he is actually talking about someone he was actrate to, Winston just had no way of expressing it besides anger. He sees this beautiful young girl, who has made this vow its remain pure and chaste and he just wants to kill her because of how frustrated about it. Although late in the book, who these same two people are alone in a place without worry, everything is different, for example “You are prepared, the two of you to separate and never see one another again. ‘No!’ broke in Julia….’No,’ he said finally.” (Orwell 173) This second moment gives us a definite second opinion about how he may actually feel towards Julia. When they are both in a safe place, and can freely state and do they things they wish to do, Winston does show that he cares for Julia, enough that he does not want to leave her. I believe that these two different feelings show us that even with the body trying to control how people feel, what they do, along with what they think they never get to have complete control of
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.
His primary one being his curiosity; as the Party essentially holds the control of the public’s knowledge, Winston repeatedly expresses his confusion and desire to know more. Which can be seen with him questioning how we truly “know that two and two make four” (7,80) and pondering “if the mind itself is controllable…what then?”(7,80). As can be seen Winston is confused by his own knowledge, especially living in a society where freethought is considered a crime. Therefore the thirst for knowledge or more so for the freedom of it is his primary motivation. His secondary motivation is his desire to reconnect with the past. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that Winston had a desire to reconnect with the past. Winston takes a risky measure by going into a prole pub to ask an elderly man who can “remember what it was like in the old days, before the Revolution”(8,89) for his memories. Through taking a risky action, Winston demonstrates his desperation for the past, part of this is likely rooted for his thirst for knowledge as well. Winston also has an affinity for old objects such as the paper weight or the diary he bought; which is his biggest crime of all. Lastly his third motivation was the want for individualism. Although this is not something Winston continually expresses his desires about; it is visible with his actions. For example the purchase of the diary; a place to document his inner thoughts.
One reason for Winston's rebellion, and eventual downfall, is his knowledge that the party will ultimately capture and punish him. With constant surveillance of Party members, any sign of disloyalty could lead to an arrest; even a tiny facial twitch. As soon as he writes Down with BB' in his diary, Winston is positive that the Thought police will quickly capture him for committing thought crime. With this wisdom, he allows himself to take unnecessary risks, such as trusting O'Brien and renting the room in Mr. charington's shop to host his secret relationship with Julia. Because he has no doubt that he will be caught no matter what he does, he continues to rebel, and brings his own struggle to an end.
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
Throughout the book 1984, by George Orwell, society was constantly being monitored and limited in their freedom. Orwell wrote this book to depict the most absolute and powerful totalitarian government. It showed people of his time how this could all be a possibility in the near future and the risks of accepting this form of control. He was able to create an extreme portrayal of the extent rulers would go to, to obtain total power over everyone. In the book, the government had set up a world of lies and deception, which people had to believe or else their life was at risk. However, there was Winston Smith, a unique man in this newly organized world that suppressed individualism. As the book progressed, the structure and plot of the story unveiled Orwells worry with the challenges Winston faced as he struggled to find the truth about the society he lived in.
When Winston first met Julia, he believed that she was fully into the Party because of her Anti-Sex League sash. On page 156 in the story, Winston states that Julia is “only a rebel from the waist downwards.” Julia had been with many other, older men before, which was her way of expressing her disliking of the Party. It was hard to tell from appearance of what Julia’s thoughts and gestures were. She wore the Anti-Sex League sash permanently and Winston thought she was fully for it, yet she actually disobeyed the Party’s rules many times. Winston found this motive attractive, for he knew he was not the only one against the Party. Julia was able to detect that Winston was anti-party, even though Winston thought he covered his thoughts well. Julia influenced Winston that not everyone who seems like they are with the Party’s ideals actually are. She explained to him that there are many small rules you can follow that allows you to break bigger
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 causes 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.
By writing to a time where Oceania is no longer repressed by the government, Winston demonstrates his interest in a large revolution that would overthrow the Party. While the simple act of writing in a diary is rebellious in itself, Winston’s hope of a revolution further exemplifies his wish to change society, even if he will not live to see the day when it happens. An ordinary man, Winston challenges the government by engaging in acts of resistance against the oppressive
Orwell's 1984, Winston is aware that his rebellious thoughts and actions will ultimately bring upon his
Winston had been born in 1945, a time when Big Brother ceased to exist. Because he did not grow up under Big Brother’s extreme, totalitarian control, Winston was able to spend his childhood experiencing freedom, which led to his development of a strong sense of humanity and worth within the world. As years passed by and Big Brother quickly gained control over Oceania, Winston dreadfully watched as the government dehumanized society and took away the personal freedoms as if the public was a bunch of wild animals. Although the rest of society had been easily tricked and corrupted by the government, Winston never once lost sight of his humanity, ultimately fueling his desire for rebellion and chance at maintaining his humanity. Winston’s first act of rebellion against the government was his decision to buy a diary, in which he wrote extreme anti-government sayings.
Winston felt like sex was a rebellion. He is drawn to his lover Julia because
Dystopian societies are often depicted as a totalitarian environment in which the general population suffers at the hands of the wealthy. Gregory Claeys writes in “The Origin of Dystopia” that the word dystopia “is often used interchangeably with 'anti-utopia ' or 'negative utopia ', by contrast to utopia or 'eutopia ' (good place), to describe a fictional portrayal of a society in which evil, or negative social and political developments, have the upper hand”. This elaborate description provides the backdrop for what kind of society “1984” takes place in. This also provides us with a good insight on the kind of environment that Winston’s mind has been exposed