Imagine living in a society where the government rules every aspect of an individual’s life to the degree that their personal liberties are nonexistent and they are deprived of indulging in simple primal activities. Winston Smith lives in a dystopian world where he finds himself trapped in a society where individuality does not exist. The government controls every aspect of its citizens lives for the purpose of retaining power. It maintains its power by using fear tactics like the threat of perpetual war and the manipulation of its citizens’ minds by limiting expression and speech and controlling the narrative of history. This results in a loss of self, but the Party’s control over its citizens is multifaceted. George Orwell uses Victory …show more content…
“Alcohol is a depressant because it slows down the functions of the central nervous system,” so the Party has essentially assigned Winston an additive which affects his cognitive skills, which serves as a ploy to push the Party’s agenda (Stephen 3). The gin serves as a treatment the Party gives to its members to make them less conscious of the conditions of reality and to stimulate sanguineness, which serves the purpose of inevitably eliminating independent thought. Unfortunately, to the Party’s dismay, the efficacy of the gin is completely dependent on the user’s need to consume it.
Although the Party exercises much of its power through intimidation, psychological manipulation, and other indirect methods of control, the Victory Gin’s effect on Winston’s mental state of mind is limited. As Winston begins to completely reject social expectations and rebel against the Party, he “had dropped his habit of drinking gin at all hours. He seemed to have lost the need for it,” the more time he spent with Julia, and the “process of life had ceased to be intolerable… [now] that they had a secure hiding-place, almost a home,” (Orwell 153). When the Party’s vice to control Winston, the Victory Gin, is being consumed less, Winston brazenly uses sexuality as a weapon of an insurgency, and life becomes
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.
5.”Four, five, six – seven times they met during the month of June. Winston had dropped his habit of drinking gin at all hours. He seemed to have lost the need for it. He had grown fatter, his varicose ulcer had subsided, leaving only a brown stain on the skin above his ankle, his fits of coughing in the early morning had stopped” (Orwell
Winston Smith is a hero. Despite his anticipated and inevitable failure at the end of 1984, he personifies humanity’s nature to resist subjugation and repression. Actions and intentions are the true measure of a hero and Winston Smith is not found lacking in either. His failure does not diminish his status as a hero. On the contrary, he is the precise representation of Orwell’s definition of heroism: an ordinary man doing whatever he can to change a system that is devoid of decency; in spite of the obvious futility of such an endeavor.
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,
In 1984, a classic novel by George Orwell, Winston Smith struggles to learn and become independent in a society that bans individual thought and shared relationships. Winston Smith exists in a world where government control is so strong and encompassing that not even the personal space in
Thirty-three years ago, the unpleasantry that novelist George Orwell dreamt of never became the reality he predicted it would in 1949. The year 1984 was supposed to take society on an absolute turn for the worst, becoming a global dystopia in which everyone lived under the regulation and dominance of one of three totalitarian superstates. Orwell wrote of this future in his book 1984, creating the fictional universe of Oceania in which the lives of Winston Smith and the other characters in Oceania seemed genuinely real, especially by use of various literary devices. Motifs such as the linguistic concept of Newspeak and the majority of society’s convergence of feelings towards the Party and Big Brother appear multiple times throughout the pages of the novel. Through such recurring ideas, a major theme stands out - the lack of self-expression. Living under an authoritarian and oppressive government, party members such as Winston are forced to follow the socialist policies of Ingsoc. In the book it is written that, “The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of dependent thought” (Orwell 193). If everyone were to give into the Party, self-expression would be entirely eliminated because everyone and everything would be censored. With such motives made clear, Winston along with a minority realize the absurdity in the Party’s ways. Nevertheless, many more others do not, loving Big Brother and embracing
In Orwell’s 1984 we follow Winston Smith, a man who feels the oppressions of the
In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston Smith is a prime example of the oppressed fighting against the oppressor by his actions of minute resistance, giving his love to another, and joining a secret activists group.
Other than Winston’s weak characteristic and his lack of planning, the main cause that contributes to Winston’s downfall is his indulgence. Winston lacks the ability to control himself from anything addictive in life. This personal flaw makes Winston lost in his cause to the destruction of “Big Brother”. In the novel, Winston constantly drinks and smokes to distract himself instead of focusing on a plan to take down “Big Brother”. Winston’s dream is to have a love affair: “Almost as swiftly as he had imagined it, she had torn her clothes off, and when she flung them aside it was with that same magnificent gesture by which a whole civilization seemed to be annihilated” (Book 2, Chapter 1). His illegal love affair with Julia does no good to his objective of bringing down “Big Brother”. The only result that the love affair accomplishes is Winston’s
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
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
Societies subject to totalitarian reign experience a complete degradation of both civil and natural born rights. Entire populations are forced to follow a strict regimen, often against their free will and good judgement. In 1984, George Orwell warns of such corrupted power of a totalitarian regime. Big Brother instills a looming fear that agitates the people of Oceania, which, in the hearts of some, ignites a cry of rebellion. Those trying to peacefully challenge the system, much like Winston and Julia, are met with a cruel fate of reassimilation. Under totalitarian rule of Big Brother, such actions of civil disobedience are not effective because of the government's disinterest of citizen acceptance, unrelenting power, and a complete control
Imagine having your body being overthrown by the power of your own mind. Anxiety disorders make you feel this way, and The Party in 1984 by George Orwell makes Winston Smith feel the same way. The Party controls and watches everything Smith does, and makes sure he keeps his mind clear of impure thoughts, and he is growing fed up with it. He decides to attempt to overthrow them, as I have with my anxiety disorder. Smith meets a girl named Julia that helps him plan to overthrow The Party. There are things that The Party doesn’t approve of that Smith still wants to do. George Orwell’s book talks about how overthrowing things that trouble you is important, and overcoming anxiety disorders is an issue with me personally.
George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, examines a society in which the overwhelming domination of Oceania’s leading party of the totalitarian government, Ingsoc, causes its citizens to become automatons—except for one citizen: the protagonist, Winston Smith. Like the masses, Winston is subjected to the regime’s use of constant surveillance, alteration of historical records and memories, psychological and ideological manipulation, and torture. Although Winston is subjected to the regime’s various manipulations, which have the final goal of eliminating all individualism, Winston stands out from the masses. Throughout the novel, Winston actively rebels against the regime primarily by having independent thought and by forming a meaningful relationship with another citizen, a relationship that is restricted by the regime. As Orwell depicts Winston’s strong desire for individuality, he compels readers to pay attention to the totalitarian regime’s deliberate restraint of distinctiveness. By using Winston’s role to demonstrate the importance of individual thought and meaningful relationships in the identity of a human being, Orwell suggests that a totalitarian regime demands the loss of individuality in order to have and preserve total control.
George Orwell’s work of fiction 1984 is a futuristic, dystopian novel about citizens living in a totalitarian London. In this society, the government maintains power by controlling as many aspects of its citizens’ lives as it possibly can. The protagonist, Winston Smith, attempts to fight against the government’s controlling ways. For some time, critics have argued that this book was intended as a warning of the scenarios that could emerge if citizens traded freedom for security and allowed governments to take away too many of their rights. 1984 is a powerful warning against the risk of allowing governments to control too many aspects of the lives of their citizens through propaganda and the acquisition of personal information. These methods