1984: Critical Analysis 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. The life of Winston Smith followed the cycle perfectly, starting with denial. In the dystopian world Winston called his home, no one was safe. One could not think the wrong thoughts, one could not make the wrong movements, and one could most certainly not speak the wrong words. “Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system” (Orwell 56). Despite this fear of one’s own self, Winston chose to simply deny the unjustness. His first act of this was doing something sickeningly unforgivable and punishable by death, writing a diary. This was a deed of which was horribly forbidden yet he did so just the same. “For whom, it suddenly occurred to him to wonder, was he writing this diary? For the future, for the unborn?” (Orwell 6). Incidentally he was in fact writing this diary for the future and unborn readers. His unconscious denial that the world could truly be so corrupt led him to such a rogue act. He was already thinking the forbidden thoughts, thus he could not be any more at fault for simply putting these thoughts onto paper. The next step along his journey, was Winston’s anger. The burning hatred for the societal rules that were unfairly placed upon him. After a life of following the rules and being
Through his failure, Orwell portrays the dangers of a disunited society for the individual. Even though Winston willingly chose to oppose the Party and offered his life towards the eradication of his oppressors, his sacrifice proved futile without communal support to usurp the tyrannical regime. Despite the common suffering the people endured, their fear of the individual torment each would suffer motivated them to submit to the government. In Winston, Orwell highlights the frailty of an individual person in comparison to a mob. When imprisoned at the Ministry of Love, Winston’s will crumbled under torture and he even offered the life of the one individual he had earlier seemed hesitant to sacrifice, Julia. Hence, Orwell illustrates the need for a united social front for individuals to change the society in which they live in. Otherwise, self-preservation shall remain dominant within each individual, leaving them vulnerable to continuous manipulation through propaganda.
Failure, a concept most people are familiar of, often refers to the inability to perform a particular action or finish a certain task. In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the protagonist Winston Smith dreams to overthrow “The Party” and live in “the place without darkness”. However, he suffered the fate of being tortured and brainwashed eventually. Many readers perceive Winston as a tragic hero who valiantly tries but fails to rebel against the “Big Brother”. However, in fact, Winston Smith’s fate was set the moment he wrote his rebellious speech on the journal. Winston is doomed to be unsuccessful due to his weak willpower, unorganized planning style, and indulgent nature.
Only the brave ones are strong enough to accept that most things are not as one would like them to be. More than that, brave people are also the only ones willing to do something in order to change these negative situations. To prosper out of tragic realities one needs a very powerful weapon: hope. Hope moves humanity. It is what helps us when having to deal from the smallest hardships to the hardest battles. From getting out of bed every morning with motivation, to waiting for an almost magical miracle; hope is what holds us and pushes us forward. George Orwell in his novel 1984 writes about how the main character, Winston, decides not to let tragedy take over. Winston opposes Big Brother’s totalitarian government to defend what he believes in. He believes humanity deserves freedom in all aspects. In the dystopian environment where he lives in, Winston stands alone
In the book, 1984, the main character, Winston Smith, chooses to go completely against the grain of the accepted and enforced form of totalitarianism. Unlike most, Winston chooses to carry out rebellious thoughts and desires against the government. Though realizing his consequences, Winston pushes his thoughts even further into action. These thoughts and, later, actions eventually catch up to Winston and land him in jail. While in jail, Winston,
The main character in George Orwell’s 1948 novel, 1984, Winston Smith can be seen as many things. To some, he may be a hero, but to others he is a coward and a fool. Throughout the novel, Winston’s characteristics are explored, and readers are shown the reasoning behind Winston’s twisted mind. It is evident that although Winston thinks he had control over his own mind and body, this is an imagined factor. The world of 1984 is one of a totalitarian society, where no one can be trusted, and no one is safe, Winston being the primary example of one who trusted thoughtlessly.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell relates the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning by allowing the reader to see inside of the mind of Winston Smith. Orwell uses Winston’s rebellious thoughts to counteract his actions in order to show the reader how a dystopian society can control the citizens. Although Winston is in an obvious state of disbelief in the society, his actions still oppose his thoughts because of his fear of the government. Winston’s outward conformity and inward questioning relate to the meaning of the novel by showing Winston’s fight to truth being ended by the dystopian society’s government.
The novel I have chosen to write about that is set in a different time but is still relevant to this day is “1984” by George Orwell. Orwell effectively uses theme, characterisation, imagery and symbolism to help us appreciate the themes he runs throughout the book that have just as much relevance then as they do now. This is despite Orwells’ book being first published in 1948.
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” (part 1, pg 74) this not only foreshadows Winston, how he knew the truth about the party, rebelled, then chose to be ‘unconscious’ again, but also shows how one cannot be enlightened if they choose to be blind. In the first half of the book, Winston, in a way, was ‘free’, free in terms of understanding that the party was wrong. Once the party found out, they didn’t have a choice but to torture Winston into submission, instilling fear in him. This left him with the choice of having knowledge and death, or a twisted form of ‘happiness’ while being ignorant; “The choice of mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.” (pg.
Dystopias typically follow Anti-Heros, used as a plot device to create a depth of sympathy for the flawed character before having the character bend to the wills of their higher class in order to survive, depicting the inevitability of the obedience of the lower class to the higher class. In 1984, these notions are shown through O’Brien’s absolute control over the main protagonist, Winston Smith, and how his beliefs are of the highest class, created from the desire of power and nothing else.
Winston went about rebelling by furtively writing a diary, having a love affair and joining the brotherhood. When he was caught instead of just punishment they eventually succeeded in making him love Big Brother, the ultimate admission of defeat. The process of doublethink allows people to lie to themselves and believe the
At one time or another, there comes a point in everyone's life where they are propelled to question the implications of their surroundings. Such is the life-long warfare that characters Grendel and Winston, in John Gardner's Grendel, and George Orwell's 1984 engage in. "I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity … " (Gardner 27.) This internal struggle manifests itself in blatant isolation, a pro-active habit of seeking out allies, and the deterioration of their very lives that follows. In both texts, the hypocritical world that these personas are resident to renders their perception to be perpetually pitted against reality. This, in turn, is what facilitates their eventual downfall.
Totalitarianism, derived from a society which proceeds without cautiousness towards governmental power, can induce many limitations among citizens and every aspect of their lives including individualism. In George Orwell’s 1984, the artificiality of the dystopian country influenced the protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, to try and deceive the government in any way possible. Winston and many others view individuality as immensely important, but a large challenge to achieve due to the diminished hope evident in dystopia. Hope is prominent among Winston in his actions towards the totalitarian government, referred to as Big Brother, throughout the novel. From the beginning of the novel when readers are introduced to a dismal setting to
“They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself remained impregnable (Orwell, 174.)” There are some citizens who realize that the inner heart and innate essence of the society members are the only things that aren’t able to be damaged by the Party. In the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, the protagonist, Winston Smith, is one of the few citizens who knows it is difficult yet crucial and possible to “stay human,” by preserving the fundamental traits of humanity and resisting the Party’s abuse of those characteristics.
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
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.