1. There are many things I would like to discuss about this book. I would like to talk about the main character, Winston Smith. I liked Winston because he was just an average guy. He wasn’t your typical super strong and attractive hero. And although I am not a 39 year old man with a varicose ulcer on my leg, I could relate to the way he felt. I liked that he wasn’t afraid to do something to even try to help overthrow the party, even though he completely knew he would be caught. He joins the Brotherhood, which is a secret organization working against the party. O’Brien, the man who brings Winston into the Brotherhood, tells him how his life will play out. “‘You will work for a while, you will be caught, you will confess, and then you will …show more content…
The most important message I took from this book is that when your individuality is compromised, you lose all power over your life and life choices. In the novel, the party, which is the group running the government is able to brainwash the people so they don’t have their own unique thoughts, and will believe anything they say. To the people of London, the truth becomes what the party says. “In the end the party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.”(Orwell, 80) The people are brainwashed enough that if told that two plus two is five, which seems clearly untrue, they will believe it. The party is able to alter the past by changing legal documents, articles, and so on. They can basically change what happened in the past and make tons and tons of people believe it. Since they are so brainwashed to believe whatever the party says they lose their individuality. They are unable to create their own thoughts or carry out their own actions. This allows the party to have complete control over them. The party can place thoughts into their mind. Without their individuality, the people have no power over themselves, and they don’t even realize it. The reader can see this can know to always have their own thoughts to not just follow
Science fiction is often a commentary on our society. When the society in a science
Speaker: The speaker of this piece would be the main character Winston Smith. According to the text it states, “‘Would you believe, he said, ‘that till this moment I didn’t know what color your eyes were’” (Orwell, 119). By analyzing the quote above, one could see that Winston is the speaker. Winston Smith is a 39 year old man who works as a record editor at the Ministry of Truth. He makes his points because he hates how the party lies to society and manipulates their minds. Based on the text states, “The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion, Desire was thoughtcrime” (Orwell, 68). Citizens were made to believe that intercourse was not natural, but an act of disobedient against the party and should only between two who doesn’t have any attraction
In this excerpt from 1984, by George Orwell, Winston Smith, a worker for the ministry of truth, has been caught for committing a thought crime and is being taken to room 101 for punishment. During the passage, Smith desperately tries to escape his punishment. Through the use of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, and details, the tone of urgency is revealed
These contradictions throughout the society serve as a confusion of what is right compared to what is wrong throughout their society. The people don’t know whether to believe in the things their government says or not due to everything being a contradiction. For example when Winston starts writing his diary of thoughts against the government, it is due to the fact that he doesn’t know what is right or what he should do if he doesn’t agree with the government's opinions on different ideas. Therefore, he feels that the only thing he can do is what his mind tells him to do, and that is to write his thoughts down against the government in the form of his diary. The doublethink philosophy makes the people question what is right
1. “He thought of her naked, youthful body, as he had seen it in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her belly full of ice. A kind of fever seized him at the thought that he might lose her, the white youthful body might slip away from him! What he feared more than anything else was that she would simply change her mind if he did not get in touch with her quickly (Orwell 109)”
Loneliness is something everyone experiences. However, nobody should have to go through the degree of loneliness of being unable to confide in one person. Everybody needs a person. At the start of 1984 by George Orwell, Winston is completely alone and cannot open up about his feelings towards Big Brother to anyone. He is unable to conform to his natural human nature due to a government in total control. George Orwell’s 1984 communicates the threat on society of a totalitarian government by using literary devices such as irony, foreshadowing, as well as characterization.
1984 by George Orwell, published in 1948. Orwell uses the dystopian genre to conceive an exemplification of life in the future based on conformity, dependence of technology, and the absolute control of the state over the people, their rights, and their history. The dystopian genre has been classified to have constraints upon the structure of the storyline; variations of such plots come through in different ideas, but all adhere to: conformity, surveillance / invasion of privacy, a terrible / unnamable past which lead to the dystopia’s creation, a futuristic setting, lack of rights / freedom / expression for the people, and a distinct segregation of the higher and lower classes.How
When George Orwell wrote his novel, 1984, Hitler and Mussolini had recently been defeated in World War II, the nuclear arms race was warming up and the Soviet Union was a threat to the world. Although these are not problems in today's society, 1984 is still very relevant in current time, "The twentieth century will soon be over, but political terror still survives and this is why Nineteen Eighty-four remains valid today” (Ricks 5). In the novel 1984 the main character Winston is faced with challenges when he meets a woman named Julia. Julia makes him question his loyalty to the government. They are living under a totalitarian government that sees everything you do, hears everything you say, and knows everything you think. George Orwell’s novel 1984 is still relevant in today’s society.
In Katie Chopin 's, The Awakening, the protagonist states possessing “[the] outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions”. In summary, Edna Pontellier divides herself into two distinct personalities: the outer Edna, which holds proper social values, and the inner Edna, who questions her actions. A product of an environment that has strict rules and regulation. This distinction is taken to the extreme with George Orwell’s, 1984, whose protagonist, Winston Smith has a similar distinction but the consequences are death and torture.
In the midst of a world completely blind to the truth, there was a man who’s seditious thoughts opened our eyes to a destructive future. Eric Blair, most commonly known as George Orwell, was born in Bengal and brought up in a society divided by social classes. Orwell graduated from Eton and decided to drop out of college to join the Indian Imperial police in Burma, where he experienced the cruelty of the world. He had an epiphany after returning back to England and was suddenly consumed in translating his fervent emotions of hatred and anger into words. World War II has just ended after a long period of constant war over land, minerals and weapons when Orwell began
Relationship between thought and language is not something you consider or contemplate in your everyday life. Nevertheless, the answer to this seemingly useless philosophical question might spell the difference between totalitarian control of our minds achieved through manipulation of language and a world of freedom, where human ideas cannot be subjected to blatant perversions as they resonate through intelligent minds, bound only by the power of our imagination. This dilemma has captivated my attention ever since I read Orwell’s “1984” as well as his “Politics and English Language.” In both pieces, Orwell implies a direct correlation between the two notions and paints a horrifying picture of disastrous consequences that a language manipulation can usher in. Orwell’s claim that “if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought” clashed with my own perception of those concepts somewhere deep on a subconscious level. “Language could not possibly alter a thought,” I thought, “How could it? After all, language merely describes my thoughts, whereas thoughts are generally spontaneous ideas, sounds, pictures that flash though my mind’s eye, sometimes so fast, that I fail to grasp them before they fleet away.” Even though in his article Orwell was referring specifically to bad practices that are common in the use of language, the question persisted. Can a language influence thinking in the same manner as thinking influences the words being uttered or does it have
George Orwell’s 1984 presents Winston Smith, a figure estranged from society due to his resistance against the stifling of his individuality and his intellectual ability to reason about his resistance. Through the eyes of Smith, the reader is able to experience the nightmarish reality of a totalitarian rule by the Party, Big Brother, and the Thought Police.
Winston Smith walked home\surrounded by posters proclaiming “Big Brother is Watching You”. Smith does not like the Party but expressing his opinion would mean certain death. Thought crime means death or vaporization, it meant a person’s existence was never there; they were born. This story is composed in three parts; the world of 1984 as he (Smith) sees it, Smith’s rebellion and affair with Julia and Smith’s interrogation, torture, most importantly, his re-education at Miniluv. Winston Smith live in the now ruined London, “chief city of Airstrip One” as quoted in the
War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. The party slogan of Ingsoc illustrates the sense of contradiction which characterizes the novel 1984. That the book was taken by many as a condemnation of socialism would have troubled Orwell greatly, had he lived to see the aftermath of his work. 1984 was a warning against totalitarianism and state sponsored brutality driven by excess technology. Socialist idealism in 1984 had turned to a total loss of individual freedom in exchange for false security and obedience to a totalitarian government, a dysutopia. 1984 was more than a simple warning to the socialists of Orwell's time. There are many complex philosophical issues buried deep within
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.