The year 1984 has since passed but George Orwell's almost apocalyptic vision of the future could still very well happen in the near future. 1984 presents a society that has obscured all signs of individuality, love, opportunity, and critical thought. George Orwell's appointed the mood in a "Negative Utopia" which illustrates the despair of the future of society. He contrasts this mood with a popular philosophy of the Buddhist religion in that humanity has the ability to create peace and love. These contrasting views set up the premise for the life of Winston, who is the protagonist character caught in a society devoted to conformity. Winston Smith is a thin, frail, thoughtful, and intellectual, mid-age man who hates the totalitarian control and enforced power of his government. Orwell's warning message in his book is to display that if people cannot change the way things are going, our society will lose all human qualities. They will become soulless machines and not have a clue as to their new world they created for themselves. Winston is different from the rest of his society which is a civilization that does not approve of individuality of your true self. Being different in this world only means rebellion and that’s exactly what Winston sets out to do. He believes that although he must conform on the outside, that no one can take his individual thought away. Winston's individuality is the only hope for human nature for he questions the most basic principles of the regime, a thoughtcrime. One idea Winston questions about his society is the concept of freedom and why it doesn’t match its actual definition. "How could you have a slogan like 'freedom is slavery' when the concept of freedom has been abolished?" Winston goes on about ... ... middle of paper ... ...self suffer just to prove that he's not under the rule of the World Controllers. John becomes the main character of the novel because after being rejected both by the “savage” Indian culture and the “civilized” World State culture, he is the ultimate outsider, clear of all society. Disconnected, rejected, John is not truly a part of Malpais nor London. His only society is Shakespeare's imaginative world and the bibles religious philosophy, a field he inhabits with energy and misguided idealism. John is the true loner and his life, accordingly, is filled with confusion and pain. John refuses to ingest SOMA for it is the devil. He hates SOMA and comes to the conclusion it is the reason for the corruptness of the world state society. The moral of both stories is to not have have technology/drugs/chemicals rule society as it will take humanity and ravage its purity.
In “1984,” Orwell uses Winston to portray a single individual’s attempt to take action against a powerful government, culminating in his failure and subjugation. His individual efforts failed tremendously due to the overarching power of the Party to control every aspect of social life in Oceania. Orwell uses Winston’s deeply seated hatred of the Party to portray his views on power and social change. Winston’s actions show that even in the direst of situations ...
The adult John comes to civilized society as an experiment by Marx and Mond to see how a "savage" would adapt to civilization. Frankly, he does not adapt very well. He is appalled by the lifestyle and ideas of civilized people, and gets himself into a lot of trouble by denouncing civilization. He loves Lenina very much, but gets very upset at her when she wants to have sex with him. He physically attacks her, and from that point on does not want to have anything to do with her. When his mother dies, he interferes with the "death conditioning" of children by being sad. Finally, his frustrations with the civilized world become too much for him and he decides to take action. He tries to be a sort of a Messiah to a group of Deltas, trying to free them from the effect of soma. He tells them only the truth, but it is not the truth that the Deltas have been conditioned to believe, so to them it is a violent lie and they begin to cause a riot. When the riot is subdued, John is apprehended and taken to have a talk with Mustapha Mond.
When John was brought to the Brave New World, his inhibitions were happening by other people right in front of him. He saw sex as a common occurrence, and nobody really had any emotion toward it. Everyone enjoyed it, but not spiritually. In sense, sex did not light an eternal flame for the Brave New World like it did in the savage reservation. A piece of a mother and father could be put together for a child in the savage society, but in the Brave New World, everyone had their own life. There were no personal relationships, and there was no love. Also, drugs were looked down upon by the reservation, and yet, in the Brave New World, drugs, specifically soma, are the food for life. Instead of living through rough situations, society went on soma holidays for their problems.
The novel, 1984, by George Orwell, depicts a dystopian society where no freedom exists; not even the freedom of thought. The scene takes place in Oceania, a society in which the ruling power called “the Party” strictly controls everything people do: from the way they speak, to how they move, to their very own thoughts. Winston Smith, the main character of 1984, struggles through the day to day life of having to blend into the brainwashed citizens of Oceania, where monitors called telescreens record and analyze every little movement. Anyone not showing signs of loyalty and homogeneity become vaporized, or in other words, cease to exist and become deleted from history. Tired of his constricted life, Winston decides
Winston is confronted with struggle throughout the entirety of George Orwell`s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Living within a totalitarian regime subsequently causes Winston to seek approaches for dealing with such abundant oppression; he finds liberation through self-awareness, understanding and ultimately rebellion. First, Winston realizes that “if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself”, alluding to the notion of thoughtcrime (162). This recognition exemplifies the complete cognizance that Winston has regarding the oppressive society displayed throughout the novel. Next, Syme states “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words”, alluding to the idea of Newspeak (28). This statement directly correlates to Winston speaking with other party members to gain knowledge about how others feels about policies deployed by the government. This information-seeking also connects with Winston`s rebellion, as he actively searched for others to join his uprising, which is shown when Winston tells O’Brien “We want to join [The Brotherhood]” (171). Winston’s attempt to join a rebellious organization exhibits his evident desire to release his suppressed emotions. Winston devises a very methodical approach to deal with the problematic society he resides in.
Winston’s change and expressions were miniscule resistance towards the whole society, but it still provides an example of an individual who chooses not to conform to society standards. Orwell expresses how even with a miniscule resistance towards conformity, we cannot get rid of it without the help of an entire society.
The World State is filled with essentially clones; no one is truly a free thinker, which is why Huxley writes in John. John is the purest form of individual that is present in Brave New World. John Savage is viewed by the society as this sort of animal, untamed and different. John is enthralled by how the ‘civilized’ world views life. The simplicity of life sickens him.
Consider how the natural development of narrative techniques in George Orwell’s 1984 creates a theme of individualism verses state. What was the point in writing such an obvious theme, since a dystopia is the prime example of an imperfect world? He uses extremely well-developed techniques to demonstrate the dystopian society. Specifically, Orwell uses symbols as well as the setting to thoroughly contribute to the idea of a totalitarian state in his dystopian society; the ideas are in symbolic objects, themes, and characters. Orwell clearly suggests that are flaws in the world that he has created, and, more importantly, Orwell the possibility of the characteristics becoming reality.
George Orwell’s novel 1984 opens with the protagonist, Winston Smith, lounging around his grey depressing apartment in London. He is alone in the first scene, and throughout much of the novel remains that way. Essentially, everyone within the dystopian society within the book is separated from the society they are a part of. Winston lives in a dingy apartment where his government constantly monitors him.
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
He is the only one who truly understands the meaning of life and doesn’t let society alter his humanitarian values. In the end, John cannot change the society, not only because he is blocked within but he is also blocked without. Mustapha Mond makes it clear the power of the World can resist any destabilizing force, while John himself is held back by his own destructive tendencies toward violence and self-hatred. His death is the result of his own imperfect understanding as well as the inhuman forces of the brave new
John disagrees with Lenina about relationships, but is enriched by his own realization of what a relationship means. He defines true love as being permanent and an integral part of marriage, and explains that love meant a willingness to work through meaningless labor just because a loved one wishes for it (Pg. 191). Towards the end of the novel, John finds himself enriched by creating a life for himself in direct contrast to the lifestyles of others he experienced in the Brave New World. When buying basic needs for his new home, he swore to himself that “he would never eat” the processed foods of civilization, and thought to himself that his restraint against luxury would “teach them” and also “teach him” (Pg. 247). Ultimately, John creates enrichment from alienating experiences by defying the ideals he was presented
In the novel 1984, Orwell produced a social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia that made the world pause and think about our past, present and future. When reading this novel we all must take the time to think of the possibility that Orwell's world could come to pass. Orwell presents the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control of the people of Oceania. The reader experiences the emotional ride through the eyes of Winston Smith, who was born into the oppressive life under the rule of Ingsoc. Readers are encouraged through Winston to adopt a negative opinion on the idea of communist rule and the inherent dangers of totalitarianism. The psychological manipulation and physical control are explored through Winston's journey, and with Winston's resistance and ultimate downfall, the reader is able to fully appreciate O'Briens reasoning, "Power is not a means, it is an end."
John’s normality and everyday actions are not common to the civilized people and find his ways very wild like. They do not see John as proper as they believe he should be, instead he is ‘savage’. To the Indians in the reservation John is also seen as an outcast, he is seen as an outcast do to his mother’s actions and valuing the ways of “civilization”. The women in the reservation hated his mother do to her acting in the sense of a whore, while the kids did not like her values to “civilization”. For this John is an outcast for both “worlds” in the story.
At the end of the novel, Orwell describes Winston as a cured patient who has over come his metal disease. “He had won the victory over himself: he loved Big Brother” (Part 3, Chapter 6). Both Freud and Orwell break down the components of a person’s mind in the same way. Orwell’s character, Winston, depicts the different parts of the human mind so described by Freud. In Orwell’s 1984, he uncovers the same components of a human mind as seen by Freud, the instinctual drive of the id, the perceptions and actions of the ego, and the censorship imposed by the morality of the superego.