Winston Smith In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

Can a hero still be a hero although he succumbs to his weakness? What if he becomes the very thing he was against or want to eradicate? In our modern world, we find many examples of heroes in stories, movies, and even the news that usually have a positive connotation related to them, and many of their story arcs usually have a positive resolution, similar to the classic romantic stories long ago. The author George Orwell completely flips the notion of the classic hero on its head, but does it well enough that it makes us question what is a true hero.

Winston Smith is probably the most important and complex character in George Orwell’s masterpiece, namely Nineteen Eighty-Four. Throughout this essay I will try to explain the different aspects of Winston’s role in the novel from the question of the narrative perspective through his rebellious tendencies to his psychological problems.

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.

During Joseph Stalin’s regime of the Soviet Union, 1984, the Classic Dystopian novel by George Orwell, was burned and banned, because the book shone a negative light on communism. The book, 1984, follows the life of Winston Smith, who lives in a country called Oceania. Oceania is a totalitarian society, ruled by a government known as The Party, whose leader is called Big Brother. In Oceania, every movement and sound every person makes is constantly surveillanced, and one wrong facial expression, statement, or action can cause the ‘Thought Police’ to take the person away to never be seen again. A small percentage of the population questions The Party’s dictatorship, and the novel follows Winston’s struggles to keep his hatred of The Party

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.

In Orwell’s 1984 we follow Winston Smith, a man who feels the oppressions of the

In the final section of the book, he admits ruefully that they got him a long time ago, and goes on to assert that “the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better.” The discourses of O’Brien in this last section strip bare not just the methods but the motives and the intentions of the totalitarian regime that seks power for its own sake. Winston is not just defeated and destroyed but completely metamorphosed in the ministry of Love. As O’Brien promises him, “ ‘Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.’ ”(p.206)

Winston Smith, a middle-aged man who works as a records editor in Records Department at the Ministry of Truth, is the novel 's protagonist. He is the character that the reader most identifies with, and the reader sees the world from his point of view. Winston is a kind of innocent in a world gone wrong, and it is through him that the reader is able to understand and feel the suffering that exists in the totalitarian society of Oceania. As a secretly rebellious free thinker, Winston challenges the societal norms placed in the story by the antagonistic government, known as the Party. Orwell wants the reader to be intrigued when vivid descriptions of advanced technology, such as telescreens and hidden microphones, are included in the text providing the feeling of familiarity and pleasure. On the contrary, constant mentions of the tyrannical rule of Big Brother keeps the reader anxious about what will happen to Winston. Furthermore, the Party, the omnipresent ruling system in Oceania, uses several techniques in order to control the minds of the citizens. By exploiting the need to fit in through the use of the Anti-Sex League, the Party is able to suppress resistance to new ideas. The Party also destroyed the ability of citizens to evaluate logically by eliminating any privacy through the form of telescreen surveillance. Finally, through the

Winston Smith is a thirdy-nine-year-old intellectual, fatalistic, frail and a thin man which is the minor member of the ruling Party in near-future London. We experience the nightmarish world that the writer envisions through his eyes. Winston is extremely pensive, curious and desperate to understand how and why the Party exercises has such absolute power in Oceania. He passionately hates the totalitarian control of his government and the Party. He has his own revolutionary dreams.He wants to test the limits of its power and he commits crimes, have an illegal love affair with Julia to get himself secretly into the anti-Party Brotherhood.

The main character in George Orwell’s book 1984 is a thirty-nine year old man with the name of Winston Smith. Winston Smith creates thought crimes, he also has anti-Party views. The story “1984” tells about all of Winston Smith’s struggles. In an effort to avoid being monitored, Winston physically conforms to society, however mentally he does just the opposite. Winston is a thin, frail and intellectual thirty-nine year old. Winston hates totalitarian control and enforced repression that are characteristics of his government. Winston hates being watched by Big Brother. He always has revolutionary dreams, he feels like he would be protected. Julia is Winston’s lover, a beautiful dark- haired girl working in the

Winston Smith, a worker for the Outer Party is dissatisfied with how his life is going. He decides to take up measures to rebel against the government by writing in a diary and even committing the sin of “thoughtcrime”. During the novel, he encounters Julia, another woman who wants to help stop The Party. Together they fall into love, or at least what they perceived as love, and met in secret contemplating the fact that they could be taken prisoner any day. They do get taken prisoner and are betrayed by Winston’s friends. Afterward the outcome of their efforts had been in vain. He is manipulated and eventually changes his outlook on Big Brother. Orwell relays that one must be wary of change; change should be looked upon as bad if it is thought

What is a hero? It can be anyone from a demigod in a myth to a parent who checks under the bed for monsters. Generally, a hero is someone who shows courage and moral goodness in the face of adversity. In the novel 1984, George Orwell depicts the life of Winston Smith, an everyman working for the Party as a historical revisionist who attempts to overthrow the oppressive government of Oceania. Despite his attempt, he could not easily be considered a hero with his unimpressive characteristics, the flaws in his behaviour and his eventual failure against Big Brother.

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

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.