The Nature Of Man In George Orwell's Man

For four billion years the world has been evolving, organizing, and moving towards a form of organized complexity. Humans, being the result of these four billion years of evolutionary success embody these principles and possess the most advanced and complex tool in existence—the human brain. The human brain, as the manifestation of the emerging world, seeks progress at the root of everything. So invariably humanity is defined by its endless search for knowledge, meaning, and purpose. It is these things that propel and inspire man to go beyond himself, to create something that will make an impact and thus keep the progress in motion. Man is mind, mind is progress, and progress is humanity. In 1984, by George Orwell, O’Brien and The Party seek

As he sat and thought about what he was going to write in the blank book he illegally bought, he questioned. His mind covered the virtual landscape of past, present, and future. He was aware, and his mind was hyperactive. Winston questioned everything at that moment. He questioned the purpose of writing, his own mind, memory, time, and the overall nature of reality. And so as he sat down to write he thought to himself “for whom, it suddenly occurred to him to wonder, was he writing this diary? For the future, for the unborn” (Orwell, 7). In that moment it was apparent that all Winston’s mind wanted was to figure things out, essentially organize his thoughts on paper so that maybe it would help another human being later on. His brain was working at its highest level of mental functioning as he desperately sought to process information. Winston was alive. Winston sat, pen in hand, as the catalyst for

O’Brien took advantage of the neuroplasticity of the brain, which is the capacity of the brain to create new neural connections in response to thoughts and experiences. This can be seen at the end of the book when Winston is captured and mentally and physically tortured. O’Brien bombarded Winston with information with the purpose of reprograming the mind. From what has been seen before the brain has its natural functions that guide humanity in the way of progress for the greater good. However, inbuilt with so much flexibility for learning the mind can also learn things that would be deemed unfavorable. It is its downfall, and it was essentially the downfall of Winston. O’Brien clearly understood this when he said “we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable” (Orwell, 269). Just as the mind can shape it can be shaped, and man becomes the both the creator and the created. With that concept in mind O’Brien reworked Winston’s mind to think differently or better yet to not think at all. He changed his neural pathways with the use of torture and information. He did it so effectively that he seemingly suffocated the expansiveness of the mind and reduced Winston to a shell of a