Staying True to Yourself

1535 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: importance of political socialization to political behaviour

Losing who one really is, is very easy when one is constantly being manipulated and tricked into believing false facts. In George Orwell’s 1984, the whole mission the party is trying to accomplish is to gain complete and total control over its people. They will do whatever needed to fulfill this goal. Everything from changing records in books to threatening them with flesh hungry rats. There are many ways to gain control over somebody’s mind and body and Big Brother does a very good job at it. Most people in Oceania will do whatever Big Brother or the party says. If people do not listen they are punished in such horrible ways; eventually they just agree to what the party says. Winston does not agree with what the party is doing and secretly retaliates against them in certain ways. He does this because it makes him feel alive and feel things the party says he should not. Naturally feeling something you should not makes you feel emotions you do not typically feel. That is a feeling some humans crave and strive for. Winston would be a perfect example of this. Throughout the book you learn more about him and why he does the things he does toward the party. Also you learn why the party tries to control the normal life styles and thoughts of its people. This all would be relatable to one’s government today. The people of today are so consumed with just the lives they live, that one does not know what is going on around them. People do not know what is really going on with the government. Some just listen to what it has to stay and obey whatever is said. Some things the government does and tells one to do is not always the right thing to do. People are so caught up in stuff that concerns or effects just oneself. That one does not know wh... ... middle of paper ... ... much to handle. They manipulate his brain into thinking they are good. He does not love Big Brother like he did Julia though. That is a love that is forbidden. The love for her was real. The love he feels for Big Brother is more an acceptance of the life he has to live. It is also more of a forced love that he has to just deal with because he obeys the party. Winston is just another domino being placed for the party. Eventually the party will have enough power to send a domino effect and accomplish whatever they please too. He lost himself in what he was forced to believe (Orwell 297-298). Works Cited Khouri, Nadia. "Reaction and Nihilism: The Political Genealogy of Orwell's 1984." Science Fiction Studies (1985): 136-147. Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 1949. Roelofs, H. Mark. "George Orwell's Obscured Utopia." Religion & Literature (1987): 11-33.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing 1984, The Long Watch and The Ones Walk Away from Omelas

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

  • 1984

    1981 Words  | 4 Pages

    From the beginning of the novel, it was inevitable that Big brother would eventually win, and Winston would be caught by the thought police. He could never have an immediate affect on the Party. His long and pointless struggle achieved no result in the end, and finally was brainwashed and lost any freedom of thought he once had.

    Read More

  • The Dystopian Society In The Novel 1984, By George Orwell

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the government of Oceania, most acts Winston engages in represent signs of rebellion. For example, within the first few pages of the novel, Winston wrote down the words “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” several times in his journal (Orwell 16). “Big Brother” stands as the leader of the Party who supposedly watches over everybody. When Winston writes down the phrase “down with big brother,” he participates in ThoughtCrime. Committing ThoughtCrime requires having thoughts displaying hate or defiance towards the Party. Participating in ThoughtCrime always leads to death, so someone had seen Winston’s journal, then he would immediately go The Ministry of Love, a place of torture, horror, and death. Furthermore, Winston also rebels against the party by becoming lovers with Julia and secretly meeting up with her multiple times. In this society, no two people can love, show affection, or have pleasurable sex without major consequences. Winston breaks both of these rules with Julia because he loves destroying the “pureness”and “virtue” of the Party. He strives for corruption, and says he will do “anything to rot, weaken, [and] to undermine” the Party (Orwell 111). He enjoys “the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire,” and thinks the force of desire he feels will “tear the Party to pieces” (Orwell 111). Due to his beliefs, he repeats his actions over and

    Read More

  • 1984

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    Firstly, O’Brien, a member of the inner party, uses technology to accomplish complete control over the public through the means of telescreens, hidden microphones and torture machines, ‘Any sound that Winston made… could be picked up by [the telescreen]. [Winston] could be seen as well as heard’. This emphasises to the reader the extent of control that the party can exercise over the public, enabling them to eliminate any potential rebels. Furthermore, this loss of freedom and individuality exterminates any real friendship, family or love forcing the public to turn to Big Brother for companionship. This in turn minimises the chance of rebellion as everyone views Big Brother as a figure of comfort and security, ‘As he seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector…’ O’Brien also uses a torture machine on Winston, ‘[He] had never loved [O’Brien] so deeply as at this moment’. This machine enables O’Brien to manipulate Winston’s views, personal opinions and even feelings. O’Brien is able to make Winston view the world as he wants him to, even to the extent of making Winston love him, his tormentor, the person inflicting the pain. ...

    Read More

  • Geroge Orwell

    1876 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lewis, Peter. George Orwell: The Road to 1984. New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981.

    Read More

  • Winston’s Struggle in 1984

    1726 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Free Essay on George Orwell's 1984

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    Winston works for 1 of the 4 government agency’s, The Ministry of Truth. In his job he re-writes old news articles so they show that The Party has always been and will be in control. By re-writing everything in print, The Party effectively changes history. The only proof of actual history is in the minds of the people who were there. Winston realizes that there is something wrong with this, yet he doesn’t know what. The re-writing of history is all he has ever known. It is most likely Winston’s job that leads him to rebel against The Party.

    Read More

  • 1984 Big Brother Is Watching You

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    The people of Oceania are divided into two classes, the members of the Party and the proletariat. The Party members are like machines that do the jobs of the government. In this world, never has anyone thought any different of his or her place in society. Due to this authority that attempts to control the human train of thought, paranoia among the people became common. Nobody would talk to each other. Bonds between one another were broken, and it was never thought to be any different than before. To hold on to what makes you human - emotions and the ability to speak freely - was considered a crime against Big Brother. Of course, with authority comes punishment. To break from traditional views essentially asks for some form of retribution. For Winston, this resulted

    Read More

  • 1984: Oppression Of Truth

    1571 Words  | 4 Pages

    Howe, Irving, and George Orwell. 1984 Revisited Totalitarianism in Our Century. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Personal Identity In George Orwell's 1984

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this case, the government has to use severe actions to ensure they will never act in this way again. Winston Smith, is a minor member of the ruling Party and is aware of some of these extreme tactics. Since Winston is not completely brainwashed by the propaganda like all the other citizens, he hates Big Brother passionately. Winston is one of the only who realize that Big Brother is wiping individual identity and is forcing collective identity. He is “conscious of [his] own identity”(40-41) . Winston continues to hold onto the concept of an independent external reality by constantly referring to his own existence. Aware of being watched, Winston still writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”(21) in his diary. Winston believes whether he writes in his diary or not, it is all the same because the Thought Police will get him either way. Orwell uses this as a foreshadow for Winston's capture later on in the novel. Fed up with the Party, Winston seeks out a man named O’Brien, who he believes is a member of the ‘Brotherhood’, a group of anti-Party rebels. When Winston is arrested for thought crime by his landlord, Mr.Charrington, who is a member of the Thought Police. Big Brother takes Winston to a dark holding cell, to use their extreme torture strategy to erase any signs of personal identity. Winston's torturer is O’Brien, the man he thought to be apart of the brotherhood. Winston asks

    Read More

  • Discuss Orwell's treatment of individualism in 1984

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    Williams, Raymond (ed). Deutscher, Isaac: `1984 - The mysticism of cruelty' George Orwell: A collection of critical essays Prentice Hall Int. Inc. (1974)

    Read More

  • 1984 Argument

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Winston Smith is the main character in George Orwell’s “1984”. He is a thirty-nine year old man, he commits thought crimes, and he has anti-party views. Winston, also, is not in the best of health. “1984” tells of Winston’s struggles as he tries to make a change in his society. He and every party member is constantly being watched and listened to by the telescreens. There are such things as the “Thought Police,” “Hate Week,” and the “Junior Anti-Sex League”. The party’s main goal is to control their people and sculpt them into feeling nothing unless it is love for the party and for the Brotherhood and Goldstein. The society is split up into four parts, the slaves, the proles, the outer party members, and the inner party members. Winston feels that everybody is against him and he desperately wants to find a member of the Brotherhood, if it exists. O’Brien had struck him as a man that was on his side during one of the Two Minutes Hate sessions when they had eye contact

    Read More

  • Betrayal In George Orwell's 1984

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    Works Cited for: Orwell, George. 1984. The 'Standard' of the ' London: Penguin Books, 2008. Print. The.

    Read More

  • George Orwell’s 1984 and Stalin’s Russia

    2134 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Orwell, George. A. A. 1984. The. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 1977. Print.

    Read More

  • Be true to Yourself

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    The question, “What is involved in being true to your self?” is very complicated. There are many aspects to this question. First you would need to know what is meant by being true. Being true is the act of putting forth sincerity, or being genuinely faithful. It is honesty, seriousness, and earnestness. Next you would need to realize what it means to be a self. In class we discussed the difference between animals, rational animals, and people. This topic also came up in the reading about the concentration camps. Frankl quotes,

    Read More

More about Staying True to Yourself

Open Document