Examples Of Individuality In George Orwell's '1984'

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.

For this, Orwell uses juxtaposition in 1984 to highlight the dissimilarity between Winston's own reality and Big Brother's reality. In a conversation with O'Brien talking to Winston, O'Brien stats, "'You are a flaw in the pattern, Winston. You are a stain that must be wiped out." (Orwell 147). This quote itself shows how controlling and messed up the society that they live in is. With Big Brother being so mind controlling and Winston being a free thinker- Winston has no chance to have it his own way while living within this

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.

Once caught, Orwell writes that Winston must undergo a form of drastic mental “treatment.” “You are mentally deranged. You suffer form a defective memory…fortunately it’s curable”(Part 3, Chapter 2). O’Brien describes Winston’s mind as the same way Freud would diagnose a patient with a disorder. Winston in fact goes under a similar process that closely relates to the psychoanalytic treatment. “We gather in detail what the peculiarities of the Unconscious are, and we may hope to learn still more about them by a profounder instigation of the processes…”(Freud 324). According to O’Brien, Winston seems to have developed a mental disease that causes him to have delusions. Winston’s dreams, which Freud considers “a highly valuable aid into psycho-analysis technique” and an “insight into the unconscious,” are put under inspection and further investigated by O’Brien to study and gain knowledge of how to “cure” Winston’s mind. It is then when Winston’s nightmares of rats gives O’Brien the key component to understand how he will strengthen Winston’s ego and superego according to the views of the Party.

George Orwell’s theme in 1984 is that an omnipotent and all-seeing government is dangerous and will demean individuality as well as free will. He portrays this through Winston’s failure to rebel while showing totalitarian governments cannot be stopped after they have been completely established. He also depicts his message through the citizens’ total belief in government propaganda no matter how absurd or inconstant as well as through the international solidarity and seemingly permanent nuclear cold war.

Famous philanthropist Stephen Hawking once stated, “We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.” In the world of George Orwell’s 1984, this shared human spirit is abused, neglected, and utterly destroyed. This is most apparent when O’Brien deconstructs the argument of Winston and, in turn, tears down his human spirit. While Winston clings to a persistent hope of the failure of The Party, O’Brien uses logos and pathos strategies to methodically tear apart this belief. This maniacal argument for The Party, the strong imagery involved in the interrogation, and the mental collapse of Winston produce one of the most thought-provoking, saddening, and terrifying scenes in 1984.

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.

The theme best presented in George Orwell’s 1984 is freedom is worth fighting for. According to the novel “1984” by George Orwell, the text states, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” This evidence supports the theme because it shows that freedom is being able to make decisions on your own without anyone telling you they are wrong. Orwell also states, “If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable-what then? But no! His courage seemed suddenly to stiffen of its own accord.” This evidence shows that Winston is ready to do whatever it takes to get the freedom he deserves because he is realizing how restricted the rules can really be. This therefore proves the theme is freedom is worth fighting for because in his world, the party is very controlling. This is what makes Winston want to fight for his freedom. The novel “1984” also states, “And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious,

The doctrines in the novel are presented formally, but Winston and Julia’s evasion of them makes them seem less formal. At various periods throughout the novel, Winston goes through monologues with himself to see whether or not he should accept a mandate or not. This shows the core of Winston’s personality. He is very speculative about society, and wants love more than anything. “ Life, if you looked around you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out if the telescreens, but even to the ideal that the Party was trying to achieve.”(73) Orwell’s use of “you “ and the persuasion he plunges urges one to follow contribute to the fact that this work is informal. Out of the three books I read, I found 1984 the most enjoyable because it was the most realistic and most applicable. It made me question totalitarianism, capitalism, the meaning hidden behind a government. One realizes that the government, (The Party) can have complete control because they can hide in a cloud of lies and deceit that they themselves procured. In today’s world, laws are viewed as more guidelines than rules, because some laws are mistaken or ignored. Jaywalking is against the law, but it is rampant everywhere. In this novel, laws serve as rules, so there is no escape from them, no loopholes that one can find. Also Orwell had withdrawn the appellate system in his novel, so that no opinions can be justified and what the Party says is always right and one should follow them without any questions. Also, 1984 showed insight that though capitalism is an effective system, it is flawed. The vivid descriptions of war-torn neighborhoods and the separation from the rich and the poor were the very reason that the revolution occurred in the first place. Orwell’s contrasting style subtly warns of awareness, and living in a more balanced

Her feelings were her own and could not be altered from the outside. It would not have occurred to her that an action which is ineffectual thereby becomes meaningless. If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.” (Orwell, 171-172) Winston’s mother is described as someone who embraces today’s most common aspects of love, but traits foreign to Ingsoc. The distinct human traits of unconditional love, internal morals, and unimpressionable code of ethics. Another group unassociated with oppressive Party also managed to stay human. “They [the people of only two generations prior to Winston] were governed by private loyalties they did not question. What mattered were individual relationships and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself.” (Orwell, 172.) In this specific area of the book, Orwell provides several groups that differ from the members of the Party with ideas inculcated within them by the government. These descriptions of the unique groups show some traits as

Imagine living in a world where you could not make your own choices, or be your own person. In the novel 1984, this is exactly what happened. In a place called Oceania where there is no such thing as privacy and personal freedom (Roelofs), the main character Winston Smith, is living a strict life under the demanding party known as Big Brother. Winston decides that he wants his life back to normal and tries to rebel against the Party. Meanwhile, he is thought to be a lunatic because he is living his life how a normal person would, but everyone else is now living under what is thought to be a utopia society. Throughout the book Winston strongly disagrees with the fact that every second he is being keep under surveillance. Though at some points he believes he is being discrete, in reality someone is always watching. In 1984, George Orwell depicts the lack of privacy and loss of individualism which affects the characters and the society as a whole.

The threats and pressures from the totalitarian government he lives under drive Winston to deceive those around him as an act of self-preservation. Early in the novel, Winston pretends to wholeheartedly agree with everyone around him during the Ten Minutes Hate. He yells and screams to give the appearance that he is compliant with the Party’s guidelines and principles, but inwardly he questions the existence of Goldstein and the rebels and wonders if they are truly as evil as the Party claims. Winston can sense that he is different from the others and he does not want to fall into robotic submission, so he uses his contradictory thoughts as a sort of quiet rebellion. He values his individuality and personal

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

     Tired of feeling the way he is, with the monotonous struggle of everyday life Winston decides to oppose the party in more real ways; and begins to deviate from certain set behaviors to free himself from this bondage of the party. “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone-to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone”(25-26). He has realized what the government does to people; how everyone is made to be the same, where no one is allowed to think on their own. The party is omnipotent in all affairs and he will not go along with it anymore. Winston has made up his mind; he is going to do everything he can to bring down the party. He and Julia go to O’Brien’s apartment one afternoon, and Winston’s true hatred is revealed. “We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some kind of secret organization working against the Party,

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.