It’s no surprise that books 1984 and A Thousand Splendid Suns have each graced the New York Times bestsellers’ list. Both books have a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude, which keep the reader enagaged and eager to find out what happens next. Often times the source of this healthy mix of happy and sad, is the characters’ relationships and overall well-being. Great authors do an excellent job of injecting pathos into their novels to evoke feelings of pity or anxiety in the reader. In the society of Oceania, where marriages between people physically attracted to each other is strictly forbidden, it’s rare when a couple such as Winston and Julia appear. When Julia runs into Winston and passes a note for him to read, both Winston and the reader are anxious to know what the note entails, as this quote displays. “His heart bumped in his breast with frightening loudness.” (Pg. 135) When it’s revealed that Julia does in fact have feelings for Winston, the reader automatically gets a sense that they’re star-crossed lovers. While it’s pleasing that Julia has expressed her love without getting caught, it’s simultaneously concerning that there is a high chance of getting caught if the utmost caution isn’t used. After Winston receives the note, he faces an internal struggle of promptly responding to Julia so she does not think he is rebuffing her, while not compromising himself. Winston realizes this as detailed in this quote, “Obviously the kind of encounter that had
In “1984,” Orwell portrays Winston’s secret struggle to undermine the totalitarian rule of Big Brother and the Party in Oceania. The different government agencies, such as the Thought Police and Ministry of Love, exercise unrestricted totalitarian rule over people. Winston actively seeks to join the rebellion and acquire the freedoms undermined by the Party. On the other hand, Heinlein’s brief narrative, “The Long Watch,” depicts a contrasting struggle championed by Dahlquist against the power hungry Colonel Towers and the Patrol. In his struggle to prevent the total domination of the world by the Patrol, Dahlquist chooses to sacrifice his life. Le Guin’s “The
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orewell’s 1984 were both composed surrounding times of war in the twentieth century. The authors were alarmed by what they saw in society and began to write novels depicting the severe outcomes and possiblities of civilizaton if it continued down its path. Although the two books are very different, they both address many of the same issues and principles.
George Orwell's 1984 and the movie V for Vendetta both have similar views on how society is being run. Since The book 1984 was written before V for Vendetta, so perhaps V for Vendetta may have based some of its ideas on this book. Both 1984 and V for Vendetta have similarities like the way the themes and how the male protagonists are the one in charge of overturning the government.
The effort the two lovers must put in to see each other is unthinkable, as they must avoid telescreens and microphones almost everywhere they turn. When Mr. Charrington allows them to use his room without a telescreen, they take full advantage of it. Seeing as Winston is still married to his wife and sexual acts are illegal, Julia and Winston defy the Party in more ways than one. Winston has changed from full obedience to the Party to defying it due to his outsized amount of hatred for Big Brother. Julia and Winston engage in negative talk about the Party, which puts them subject to arrest.
Even though he is married, he and Julia have an affair that combines their personal desires as well as their desire to fight against the Party as it is explicitly stated in the novel. Winston and Julia both willingly participate in the affair because they are both moved to action by the Party’s acts of injustice. Winston is aware that the Party has blatantly outlawed “love” and Winston wants to feel romance in order to spite the Party. Both Julia and Winston would do anything to spite Big Brother. In addition to the love factor, Winston isn’t just participating because Julia is youthful, more so because he is drawn to the act of power. Winston isn’t just resisting power, he feels the need to hold
Having a passionate relationship is no longer a foreign concept to Winston, he now loathes it. When having a conversation with Julia he thinks, “. With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality." As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness.”. Winston does, in fact, enjoy the sex, but after seeing Julia for months at this point, he realizes their differences. Julia is focused on having a sexual relationship with people, but not committing anything that would affect the integrity of the party’s rule. When Winston thinks, “ With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality”, it is showing the signs of a disconnect. While the love for Julia has not changed in this passage, his quest for anti-Big brother actions is not fully satisfied. The physical relations between Julia and Winston only scratches the surface on what Winston desires.
Julia is first shown as a sexless figure since she is a member of the Anti-Sex League. When Winston first sees Julia, he does not know her name. He only knows that she works in the Fiction Department. Winston “disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy” (10). This demonstrates that at the beginning of the novel, he does not like Julia. He thinks that she is dangerous, and wants to get him in trouble. He thinks that she is a member of the thought police and that she will turn him in. This proves the assumptions of men and how Winston just assumes that Julia is dangerous. According to Meia, a writer for Medium, “Winston started out hating Julia simply because he wanted to have sex with her. In knowing, or assuming, that that would never happen, Winston finds himself cheated out of something that he feels he ought to have” (Meia). Winston does not like Julia because he feels like she will get him in trouble, but he has an attraction toward her. With her Anti-sex League sash, he thinks that she will follow the rules of the Party. He feels like if he would have sex with the young and beautiful Julia without getting caught, then that would be the ultimate rebel and they will defeat Big Brother. Winston thinks that all women in Oceania are all complete followers of the Party and will not disobey the laws. However, Julia's appearance deceives Winston, and he finds out that she is unorthodox and has the same intention as he
Even before Winston meets Julia, he had dreams about her. Orwell wrote, “ What overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown her clothes aside… as though Big Brother and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single movement”(27). Even dreaming about such thing can get Winston killed. Later on in the book, the dream becomes a reality. Winston meets Julia during book two and they soon start to have a relationship. Having a relationship with someone that is not their spouse, is a crime. Having sex for reasons other than just reproducing, is also a crime. On page 111, Winston and Julia have sex for the first time. He loved the feeling of corruption and wrongness, he says, “I hate purity, I hate goodness. I don’t want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones”(Orwell 111). Winston gets tired of living in a society where acting wrong is prohibited so, he wants to be the exact opposite. Thats why he says that he loves the feeling of
Highlighting the authority Winston obtains from the sexual relationship with Julia, due to his mental separation from the tyranny of the party. Winston as a result, temporarily gives into his human instinctive desires and satisfies his yearning for individual power.
“I love you” would be said to Winston by a girl he did not know at all. His impression of her had been one of uneasiness and animosity; he questioned why she seemed to follow him around and believed her to be a member of the Thought Police or an “amateur spy.” Though he lacked any actual knowledge about the girl, Julia, he immediately accepted her initiation of a relationship. This relationship looked to be one of physical intimacy rather than any sort of emotional dependency; Winston’s fornication with Julia seemed to be his personal way of rebelling against the anti-sex policies. He would feel as though he were revolting against the Party and Big Brother and this appeared to be the only rebelling Winston would do. This type of sudden acceptance of an anti-Party offer, regardless of any evidence from the character, would not be Winston’s first. He had made eye contact with a member of the Inner Party, O’Brien, and decided “he knew...that O’Brien was thinking the same thing as himself. An unmistakable message had passed. It was as though their two minds had opened and the thoughts were flowing from one into the other through their eyes. ‘I am with you,’ O’Brien seemed to be saying to [Winston]. ‘I know precisely what [Winston is] feeling. I know all about
It seems that War has found a home in Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan have
The novel 1984 and the graphic novel V for Vendetta have similar views on how society is being run. However V for Vendetta was based on 1984 since 1984 was written before V for Vendetta. Both of these novels are similar in a way like the themes and how the male protagonists are the one in charge of overturning the government.
1984 and The Hunger Games are two brilliant novels written by two award winning authors. They contain many characteristics that typical dystopian novels possess; however, they’re presented differently to create the fictitious environments, where both characters live. Which is why they make such great pieces of Literature to compare.
Truly talented writers critique societies foolish actions whilst warning them of their impending future. However, few manage to genuinely depict the origin of these foolish acts. George Orwell’s 1984 and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner critique both political and social oppression to demonstrate that blind loyalty and the surrendering of free will is the demise of modern society.
Both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 predict a dystopian future where information is tightly controlled and the populace seems to care little for the fact that they are being lied to and manipulated into working for the ambitions of their government. Both governments in the story have taken control of the media and this the population, and both characters are apart of agencies that help keep the government in control of the people. In Fahrenheit 451 the man is a fireman and burns all of the books that he can find, this keeps the population dumb and easily controllable. In 1984 Winston works for the Ministry of Truth, its job is to help edit news and entertainment in order to keep the party in line and be able to misinform the prolls. Both of these characters unknowingly worked for the party and political establishment.