1984: A Summary As 1984 opens, Winston Smith is coming home from his job at the Ministry of Truth, providing the reader with a view of the world around him as he walks to his house. After his arrival, he reveals a diary he had brought from a small store and proceeds to write in it, though he knows that revealing his thoughts in such a manner was likely to get him killed. However, despite the heightened threat in his small betrayal, life proceeds as seems to be normal for Winston. He goes to his job, editing real history and replacing it with what the Party, the almighty power of this society, claims to be correct, and interacts with several of his coworkers, including a young woman with dark hair, Syme, Mr. Parsons, and O’Brien. Winston holds the vague idea that O’Brien may be a thought traitor like himself, but he is too afraid to admit anything. The workers gather to celebrate the Two Minute’s Hate, during which time they watch a video of a man called Emmanuel Goldstein, a traitor to the party, and shout hate at the screen. Winston also has a very inappropriate daydream about raping the dark-haired girl before Big Brother, their leader, comes on screen to calm them down. Life continues as normal...until the fateful day when everything changes—the day in which the dark-haired girl hands Winston a note that reads “I love you.” Winston burns the note as soon as he reads it, but the thought is ingrained in his head. He spends the next few days trying to catch the girl alone.
1984 by George Orwell describes a dystopian society in which Winston Smith, the main character, resides. The society, Oceania, is controlled by The Party, which maintains its regime by employing Thought Police that apprehend anyone with grievances against The Party, or its figure head, Big Brother. The story begins when Winston purchases a blank diary, in which he writes anything he finds necessary to document; this ranges from daily events to anti-Party messages. The first part of the novel describes the totalitarian nature of The Party through the daily experiences of Winston. When Winston bumps into a girl he until this point despised, he receives a note from her saying that she loves him. Upon reading this note, Winston is initially paranoid
To begin with, the main character of 1984, Winston Smith, hates Big Brother who is basically the most powerful ruler of Oceania, the area Winston lives in. In addition, Winston keeps a hidden diary in which he writes all his evil thoughts about how he hates the party and their laws. In chapter 1 part 1, it says, “His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals — DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over again, filling half a page.” This shows that Winston
One day, Winston attends a mandatory meeting. While there he sees a man he thinks is a friend. His name is O’Brien. He also sees a dark-haired girl from the fiction department whose name is Julia. Winston believes Julia is against him until a few days later when she hands him a note that says “I love you”. Winston and Julia take a trip to the countryside to plot against Big Brother and the Party. They confess their plans to O’Brien who they believe
Winston Smith is probably the most important and complex character in George Orwell’s masterpiece, namely Nineteen Eighty-Four. Throughout this essay I will try to explain the different aspects of Winston’s role in the novel from the question of the narrative perspective through his rebellious tendencies to his psychological problems.
The fictional novel, 1984 by George Orwell is about a world run by a totalitarian government, called the Party, which takes away all the freedoms of its citizens by watching over them with high surveillance technology. In addition, the Party uses dishonesty and betrayal to expose people’s true feelings of Oceania, the country where the story takes place. Betrayal is seen throughout society in Oceania through government manipulation and actions made by Winston, Julia and O’Brien, the main characters. Winston’s true self-betrayal comes when he realizes his new passionate love for Big Brother, the leader of the Party and Oceania. The Party fears a rebellion against them, as a result they use different methods to eliminate trust between
Society is moulded into its existence through history. The events, the people, the laws, and the beliefs encapsulate the atmosphere of a society and further its expansion of new ideas aimed towards success. Each society embraces different morals and function in ways applicable to what they aspire and to what history has manufactured. Society often influences the behaviours of those within it and encourage confidence in their leader and his or her commandments. However, there are those who refuse to comply with society’s rules, recognizing its faults and believing that a change must occur in order to live happily. In a world composed of the supreme, of watchful eyes, and of laws so extreme that even an immoral thought could have you arrested, one may find themselves struggling to live and attempting to test the rules by rebelling against their almighty sovereign. A character departing on such a journey can be defined as the archetypal hero. The archetypal hero described by Joseph Campbell is “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” The hero is typically the protagonist of a novel, and when analyzed deeply, possess great self-courage against his or her enemy. He or she will inspire various emotions within the reader and take them on an adventure, conveying significant universal truths.
Winston Smith, a worker for the Outer Party is dissatisfied with how his life is going. He decides to take up measures to rebel against the government by writing in a diary and even committing the sin of “thoughtcrime”. During the novel, he encounters Julia, another woman who wants to help stop The Party. Together they fall into love, or at least what they perceived as love, and met in secret contemplating the fact that they could be taken prisoner any day. They do get taken prisoner and are betrayed by Winston’s friends. Afterward the outcome of their efforts had been in vain. He is manipulated and eventually changes his outlook on Big Brother. Orwell relays that one must be wary of change; change should be looked upon as bad if it is thought
In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, a 39 year old frail man named Winston Smith lives in London, which is now known as Oceania. The ruler of Oceania has been Big Brother ever since the first World War ended, and anybody who would defy him would be “erased” from all records. People who are “erased” cease to exist and only lies in memories. Winston is a very integral part of this process since he works at the Ministry of Truth, which deals more with making up lies so that everything is in accordance to Big Brother. During one particular work day, a tradition called the Hate Week lead by Emmanuel Goldstein which encourages others to sabotage Big Brother is particularly eye-catching to Winston.
In the book 1984, the author makes me admire the character of Winston Smith. He is introduced to us as defiant towards the rules of society. Winston acted differently than everyone else who lived in his community. He had thoughts that the Party was all wrong and was feeding everyone lies about history and current events. He had trust issues towards the Party. Some other attributes Winston has is his fatalism and rebelliousness. He hates the Party, and throughout the novel, he commits various crimes in an attempt to test the Party’s power. An example of these crimes is when he wrote “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” in his journal and also his unlawful relationship with Julia. One of his biggest acts of rebellion was when he indoctrinated himself into the Brotherhood, an anti-Party group. After Winston’s interaction with O’Brien at his home, he comes to the realization that he will never be able to get out of his rebel stage and will end up dying a rebel because of his actions towards the Party. This is an important event that sets a mood for the rest of the story.
In April, 1984, Winston Smith returns to his apartment in Victory Mansions. Winston is an insignificant official in the Party, the totalitarian political regime that rules Oceania (this used to be England). In his apartment, an instrument called a telescreen spreads propaganda, and allows the Thought Police to monitor the actions of citizens. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical records to match the Party’s official version of past events. Winston pulls out a small diary he recently purchased and begins writing in it despite realizing that this constitutes an act of rebellion against the Party. He writes about his lust and hatred towards a dark-haired girl who works in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of
The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external and internal conflicts that take place between the two main characters, Winston and Big Brother and how the two government ideas of Democracy and totalitarianism take place within the novel. Orwell wrote the novel around the idea of communism/totalitarianism and how society would be like if it were to take place. In Orwell’s mind democracy and communism created two main characters, Winston and Big Brother. Big Brother represents the idea of the totalitarian party. In comparison to Big Brother, Winston gives and represents the main thought of freedom, in the novel Winston has to worry about the control of the thought police because he knows that the government with kill anyone who
As human beings, there are distinct characteristics that separate us from feral animals; the ability to create, to appreciate art, to curiously question the world and most importantly to sympathize for our kind. However, when that exact nature is stripped from us, we tend to become mindless, restricted, cold, and degraded as an entire race. This is the setting of George Orwell’s last book, 1984. A world where human thought is limited, war and poverty lie on every street corner, and one cannot trust nobody or nothing. It is all due to the one reigning political entity, the Ingsoc Party, who imposes complete power over all aspects of life for all citizens. There is no creative or intellectual thought, no art, culture or history, and no
Winston Smith lived in a world of lies, chaos, and disorder. His uniform was shabby and living space cold and dirty. Changing the past to suit the present was his job where he worked, the Ministry of Truth. One day, he encountered a beautiful young woman of about 26 years of age and instantly fell in love. Little did he know that she would be the one who would end his life. He dreams of sleeping with her but fears that he would be captured by the Thought Police because sex is illegal. During the Two Minutes Hate - a time when members of Ingsoc come together to despise Emmanuel Goldstein, a man who supported freedom and rights - the woman passes a note to Winston. It says for
The novel 1984 is a futuristic totalitarian society where everyone is kept under close surveillance and is forced to follow all rules and laws of the state. The novel 1984 was written by George Orwell and published in 1950. The main characters were Big Brother, Winston Smith, Julia, O’Brien, Syme and Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston Smith is a low man on the totem pole when it came to the ruling Party in London, Oceania. His every move is watched by the Party through devices called telescreens. Posted everywhere around the city is the face of their leader, “Big Brother” informing them that he is always watching. He works in the “Ministry of Truth” which is ironic seeing that they alter history to fit the liking of the Party. As this book continues Winston challenged the laws and skirts around the fact that he is always being watched. His shocking and rebellious act is “falling in love.” Throughout this novel George Orwell utilizes symbolism to further enhance the totalitarian features of the society. In many ways these symbols represent the things that this society hasn’t experienced and doesn’t understand.
Hopelessness, deep and gaping ever lasting hopelessness. If the course of humanity fails to change, to this everyone will succumb. That is the message that George Orwell has left for the future, and it would be in humanity's best interest to heed. Winston Smith of 1984 lived in a world that had been consumed by the everlasting abyss of injustice. Eventually this world became too much for our hopeful protagonist and thus, like the future that is bound to a horrific fate, he succumbed. “It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it” (Orwell 248). No one in this world is any different than Winston, they will follow his path like all of those before them, following the five stages of Kübler-Ross. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance make up the cycle that every feeble life will follow and that Winston grew to know all too well.