1984 Literary Analysis Essay

Winston walked down the sidewalk, a sense of apathy after his encounter with O’Brian in room 101 on several occasions, a sense of love; apathetic, emotionless love, for Big Brother. Winston did not remember what had happened in Room 101, nor how long he had been there for. Winston headed towards the park where he would meet the dark-haired girl he knew as Julia. Winston had an unexplainable emotion trapped inside his conscious, wanting to break free.

By manipulating history and giving no opportunity for inquiry the government dehumanizes the people even more by destroying free thought. The Party knows that memories will lead to questions, and then to critical thought. So it implements Doublethink and Newspeak as tools to negate the urge to question the legitimacy of the Party’s history. “The Party tacitly acknowledges the limitation of its control of the material and by implication the circulation of stories and memories by the implementation of both Doublethink and Newspeak. Doublethink can only be thought of as an imperfect system of thought control most at

For example, when Winston sits down to write in his dairy, he writes “in sheer panic, only perfectly aware of what he was setting down” (Orwell, 11). In this instance, Winston is afraid of the act of writing in a dairy, but he decides to do so in sheer panic. This results as the effect of Oceania’s Party psychological manipulation of the mind. Every time a person decides to do something, they will have a sheer image of the poster and the caption “Big Brother Is Watching You” in the back of their heads. Hence, this action limits the person capability to act freely and express their inner sentiments. (Critical Reception, 11-23)

While it is implied that assimilating with a collective creates power, the true effect of this is not that the individual has power, but instead that those in charge of the collective. A slogan of the party, “freedom is slavery” is one of three ironic statements echoed throughout the novel. On his spiel about power, O’brien delves into the meaning:

Additionally, the portrayal of this dystopian society controlled by a totalitarian government might have been understood well by contemporary audiences, mirroring the rules of totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy- the citizens have no influence on the government and have no freedom of choosing the rules that govern and control every part of their lives. Therefore, Winston blames the misery in his life totally and completely on the government and on Big Brother. In Winston’s case, we can see that the propaganda, deprivation, and strict rules fail to make him concur with the party and accept Big Brother- in this situation, the party has to use extreme force and torture to make Winston love the party as well as Big Brother, in order for the party to maintain complete power.

Winston then goes to explain how he too was strung into a rage by the crowd.” In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair”. Winston seems to be too involved into the big brother thing to escape from it due to the fact that the thought police and Big Brother are influencing and controlling them. Winston try’s to express his thoughts down in his diary at page 19 paragraph 2 but it seems that his mind has been brain wash by the controlling big brother and ministries, “ He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was linger the same cramped awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”, this show you that the controlling government is influencing people and controlling the population by the big brother, this induces fear and hate towards the people who opposite big brother like

The dictionary pages are discreetly glued together and as Winston peels away the pages, it reveals “The Book” that is notably illegal to have possession of. This is an interesting twist that does stir excitement and curiosity. The mood when Winston peels apart the pages is borderline thrilling. The word “death” is chanted continuously in the background which adds to the mood immensely. This scene adds something exciting into the film and pushes the characters further into the main conflict.

Orwell establishes Winston’s character. At this point in the story, Winston recognizes that is was insane to become hostile with The Party alone. He writes out Party slogans to convince himself that The Party is always right. This allows the reader to see that Winston is trying to become a believer in The Party but cannot escape is own independent

First, the reader sees expressions of dissatisfaction from Winston toward his life as “a feeling that [he] had been cheated of something that [he] had a right to”. This implies that he believes he deserves and has some right to more than his environment has to offer him (Orwell 60). He proceeds to later describe his sense of entitlement as a “…mute protest in [his] own bones,” as well as, “the instinctive feeling that the conditions [he] lived in were intolerable…” (Orwell 73). With the establishment of an avaricious mindset, the reader is provided with a rationale for certain incidences, particularly those in which he physically displays

Invited by O’Brien to receive the new copy of the Newspeak dictionary, Winston and Julia arrive at O’Brien’s home (167). Inside, O’Brien explains what the Brotherhood is, the dangers, and what likely will happen as a result of conspiring against the party. Also, O’Brien arranges the coveted book Winston has always heard about to be delivered in the coming days (171-177).

Winston 's current situation working there is the major factor which lets him realize how Big brothers hold back the peoples opportunity to freedom. However, Winston keeps his thoughts and hate about Big Brother and the party for his own secret in his diary because the party will not allow anyone keeping a rebellious idea. After a while Big Brother realizes Winston’s suspicious behavior and has an individual named O’Brien sent to watch over Winston. O’Brien is a very smart man from the Ministry of truth, who is a member of the 'inner party '(the higher class). Winston comes to trust him and shares his inner secrets and ideas about the rebellion against Big Brother. O 'Brien tells Winston about a man named Emmanuel Goldstein whom claims to know the leader of the rebels against Big Brother. This also promises Winston to get a copy of the book he Longley desires. Suddenly O’Brien goes against Winston as Big Brother had already planned. Showing major secretive external conflict.

Also taking into considering that the Inner Party frequently uses psychological manipulation, as in for example when O’Brien uses Winston fear of rats to completely break him, “Have you ever seen a rat leap through the air? They will leap onto your face and bore straight into it. Sometimes they attack the eyes first. Sometimes they burrow through the cheeks and devour the tongue” (Orwell 285).

In George Orwell's 1984, a light is shining on the concept of a negative utopia, or "dystopia" caused by totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is, "a form of government in which political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life…" and any opposing political and/or cultural expressions are suppressed. Having lived in a time of totalitarianism regime, Orwell had a firsthand account of its horrific lengths and negative affects. Within 1984, Orwell derives aspects of the actual government of his time to create, "The Party", "Big Brother", and the "Thought Police". Using these fictional recreations of reality, Orwell's 1984

The Party naturalizes the dominance that it has in the way that it constantly conducts surveillance on its members. Through the use of devices called telescreens, the government is able to observe every movement and sound made in the homes of members, on the streets of Oceania, and in the workplace. These telescreens act as modern day webcams and make the government privy to all things going on in the city. The footage transmitted from these screens is monitored by the Thought Police, and it is this government body that determines whether or not one is guilty of a crime. Since the members of the Party are so accustomed to being constantly

The first sentences of the novel indicate that the story is not a light-hearted one, and that shows as topics such as totalitarianism, surveillance, psychological and even physical control. The narration follows Winston’s emotions, thoughts, dreams and actions throughout the plot. The novel’s storyline takes place in April 1984 in London. London is at the time the chief city of a province named Airstrip One. The province is in itself one of the most populous provinces in Oceania, the country. The matter of the geographical place and the setting of the story might not matter all that much. If one, however, would see the story as a story unfolding in an alternative universe where World War II ended differently, one might find the choice of setting more fitting rather than if it was anywhere else. The author is rather elaborate which is necessary if one is to understand and see things from Winston’s perspective. Winston is an intellectual man which requires an equally intellectual and elaborate language to match. Orwell uses a mix between plain descriptions and metaphors depending on what needs to be described; an example is on p.13 where Winston describes Goldstein as a “commander of a vast shadowy army”. Several symbols are present or can be found throughout the story. One is “Big Brother”, the face of the Party. The figure on the posters that every citizen can see is supposedly the leader and head