Just as Orwell’s style of writing kills Winston’s freedom, he chooses to write in the first person to show Winston’s psychological breakdown. Throughout the novel, Winston’s view of himself deteriorates as the Party becomes more involved in his life. After being half-starved and beaten for weeks by the Party, Winston takes a look at himself through a mirror: “A bowed, gray-colored, skeleton like thing was coming towards him. . . It was his own face.. “You did it,” cried Winston” (Orwell 223-225). Through the mirror, Winston acknowledges that he is a grotesque creature and a former shell of himself. Furthermore, he blames the Party for the state of his body. By writing in the first person, Orwell demonstrates that Winston’s transformation fuels his self-hate as the Party worsens his life. …show more content…
While being imprisoned by the Party, Winston asks a member of the Party whether their leader is real: “ ‘Does Big Brother exist?’ Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party.’ ‘Does he exist in the same way as I exist?’ ‘You do not exist’ ” (Orwell 214). Big Brother is a figure that never physically appears in the novel. Since Winston never sees Big Brother, he believes that he is a fictional character. However, Winston is given an abstract answer when asking about Big Brother’s existence. As a result, Winston is left as confused as a three-year-old taking calculus. Orwell uses this vague explanation of Big Brother to show Winston’s confusion and eventual psychological breakdown to the reader. Furthermore, oppression in the form of prejudice or discrimination changes the psychology of those affected. Prejudice is so dangerous it can change humans into
The protagonist in Orwell’s 1984 is Winston Smith. In the novel the reader experiences the dangers of a totalitarian world through the eyes of Winston Smith. He, unlike the other citizens of Oceania, is aware of the illusions that the Party, Big Brother, and the Thought Police institute. Winston’s personality is extremely pensive and curious; he is desperate to understand the reasons why the Party exercises absolute power in Oceania. Winston tests the limits of the Party’s power through his secret journal, committing an illegal affair, and being indicted into an Anti-Party Brotherhood. He does all his in hopes to achieve freedom and independence, yet in the end it only leads to physical and psychological torture, transforming him into a loyal subject of Big Brother.
In the novel “1984” by George Orwell, Winston undergoes a metamorphosis of character, which changes his life forever. At first Winston is just like everyone else, a dull drone of the party. Then he changes his ideals and becomes true to himself with obvious rebellion towards party principles and standards. Finally, Winston is brainwashed and is turned against himself and his feelings and is made to love the party. This is a story of perception, and how different it can be from one person to the next.
Big Brother symbolizes The Party, he symbolizes the control The Party has over people, he is a threat. He also symbolizes how little is known about The Party. There is a very high possibility Big Brother isn’t one particular person, just a number of people rotating in to operate as him. Another symbol would be the ulcer that Winston has and the instances in which it throbs the most. His ulcer always throbs and iches the most when he most wants to make love and be free of the constraints of The Party. His ulcer also acts up after he has done something which might be suspicious. For example, it was acting up after he was wandering the streets, which one should not do. A third symbol is the Place of No Darkness. Winston had a dream that is where O’Brien wanted to meet with him, and he did end up with him there are the Ministry of Love. It is ironic that they call the Ministry of Love the Place of No Darkness, since it is an especially dark and gloomy place for most people who walk in
The juxtaposition of Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984 with our present day government and social media presence in the United States demonstrates the imminent danger of imposing figures who control both the actions and thoughts of its citizens. Throughout the novel, the narrator depicts Big Brother as a controlling force that takes technology and surveillance of the citizens of Oceania too far. Similarly, in today’s society, we are constantly bombarded with new technology by the government and social media that demands and records our actions as well as our inner thoughts. As Winston navigates his dangerous and dilapidated world, one can uncover parallels between his relationship with Big Brother and our relationship with the government
Big Brother desires power and complete control and gains this through repeated acts of cruelty. After Winston is captured by the Thought Police, he is held captive under government control in the Ministry of Love. After being tortured for many days, “there were times when the mere sight of a fist drawn back for a blow was enough to make him pour forth a confession of real and imaginary crimes” (254). Big Brother tortures Winston until he is conditioned to say whatever they
Orwell successfully manipulates Winston physiologically through his use of technology and advancements in telescreens, control of history, and control of language. Within the society, Winston is among few who have memories of the past world. While Winston feels
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.
Winston 's current situation working there is the major factor which lets him realize how Big brothers hold back the peoples opportunity to freedom. However, Winston keeps his thoughts and hate about Big Brother and the party for his own secret in his diary because the party will not allow anyone keeping a rebellious idea. After a while Big Brother realizes Winston’s suspicious behavior and has an individual named O’Brien sent to watch over Winston. O’Brien is a very smart man from the Ministry of truth, who is a member of the 'inner party '(the higher class). Winston comes to trust him and shares his inner secrets and ideas about the rebellion against Big Brother. O 'Brien tells Winston about a man named Emmanuel Goldstein whom claims to know the leader of the rebels against Big Brother. This also promises Winston to get a copy of the book he Longley desires. Suddenly O’Brien goes against Winston as Big Brother had already planned. Showing major secretive external conflict.
In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, there is a constant overshadowing entity referred to as Big Brother which is their government. Throughout this novel the citizens of this society are reminded that, “Big Brother is watching you” (2). This puts the fear of God in most of the characters, especially Winston. Although he is rebellious, he is so paranoid when he is doing something Big Brother has told them not to do. He is so paranoid that at one point in the novel he believes that they have placed microphones in the bushes in the woods when he meets with his mistress, Julia. According to Winston, “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull” (27).
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.
Once a citizen is convinced through the constant presence of Big Brother, there is no need for proof of his existence, leaving no room for epistemology. Conversely, Winston Smith begins to explore the metaphysical question of whether Big Brother truly exists in the same way that he himself exists. Unlike the majority of the citizens, Winston is equipped with the tools and intelligence that are required to question the aims of the party. This intelligence, when combined with his constant questioning and need to find the answers leads to Winston's capture and reintegration, (brainwashing) after which he is made to believe that Big Brother exists. He does not know that Big Brother exists; he has no epistemological proof, just a manufactured belief. As O'Brien states, "Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party" (214). It is never explicitly expressed that Big Brother exists in the flesh to Winston or to the reader. Rather Winston falls victim to the efforts of the party, believing with no solid proof that Big Brother exists. And the reader deduces from the text that Big Brother does not exist as a living being, but rather a character, an icon, "the embodiment of the Party." The reader knows in a metaphysical sense that Big Brother does not exist as a person, but rather as a character or a tool of propaganda.
In 1984, George Orwell demonstrates Big Brother's power through their ability to unknowingly harm Winston, the protagonist, physically. For instance, Winston’s varicose ulcer acts as a physical representation of his rebellious thoughts. Because Winston cannot openly contain or act on his resentment for Big Brother, it manifests itself in his body. The progression and eventual destruction of the relationship between Winston and his varicose ulcer by Big Brother shows that Big Brother’s power end is the ability to indirectly physically harm its citizens.
Winston’s life is replete with misery and pain, but has been give brief moments of happiness and love by Orwell to create a sense of hope for Winston, and subsequently, hope for a future free of the imprisonment of totalitarianism, although Orwell makes clear throughout the novel that there is no happy ending. Totalitarianism does not allow the possibility of such an ending to thrive in the minds of people; If Winston were to escape this fate, Orwell’s definition of totalitarianism and everything that encompasses it would have been lost. Orwell has written the book in a way that the readers become so attached with Winstons character that he gains a form of individuality that can only be given by the reader. Winston is a symbol of the values democracy, love, peace, freedom, and decency which are found within a civilized society. When the character of Winston is destroyed, these values and connection to the reader are also destroyed with him as Winston Smith is a representation of the struggle faced between bad and good in every aspect of
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, written by George Orwell, “Big Brother” is the face of the party in control of the dystopian society of Oceania. Big Brother plays the role of what might be considered the most important character in the novel; without this character, the government would have much less control over the public. It is because of Big Brother that Winston and Julia get themselves a private apartment, and it is also because of Big Brother that they get caught later in the novel. He is shown to be “larger than life” as Winston Smith is told that Big Brother exists as the embodiment of the party, and can never die. In a sense, Big Brother symbolizes the party