1984 Identity Analysis

Despite Winston’s good intentions and desires, his physical and mental state wear down to a point of capitulation. On top of this, he begins to understand the absolute nature of the Party’s power, and as a result gives in slightly: “In the mind he had surrendered, but he had hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate” (250). Although Winston is conceding the right to his own mind, he was still keeping what is in the heart, which are his values and emotions. If he is able to keep his “inner heart inviolate,” then his hatred for the Party will still exist in a remote part of him. Even if the Party is able to convert him into a loyal slave, he will still have that part of him that is true to himself, which is heroic. However, his instinctual emotions

Even though at the end of the novel, he is content sipping his gin and playing chess, he has become a completely different person as a result of his experience in prison and Room 101. This novel does an amazing job at describing the effect the surrounding environment has on identity. Values help to construct our identity, and identity is formed by the environment one lives in. If Winston were to exist in a society unrestrained by the limiting boundaries of the Party, his identity would be very different from what it has become throughout the novel. Because his experiences all involved the Party, the Party itself plays a huge role in forming Winston’s identity. Furthermore, identity is not only established by one’s environment, but by the perception of that environment. While Winston may have perceived Oceania as fettering and prejudiced, a simple Party member may have seen it as liberating to not have to worry about job security or having enough to eat. By trying to distance himself from the Party, Winston rooted himself in the idea that there was something better, a system that worked better than that of the Party. However, if he had just changed his perspective earlier, like he did at the end of the book, he may have found that he actually liked the way the Party operated. Despite not being perfect, the Party made Winston content in the end. The firm belief that there is something better, while there very well may be, is unrealistic for Winston; him learning to understand that, while compromising the values that made him heroic, ended up making him happy. And heroism in general is an impossible standard to attain, because it does not allow for compromise. In order for Winston to truly be a hero, he would have had to die, and for him, dying was not something he is willing to do,