1984 Essay “It doesn’t take a majority to start a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.” This quotation by H.L. Mencken avidly supports one of the critical themes of George Orwell’s 1984. Orwell’s novel is one that depicts a dystopian government based on strict propaganda. With the call of, “Big Brother is watching you”, there are bound to be calls of rebellion in the crowd of prosecuted citizens under a presumed tyranny. However, although it is an inevitable part of human nature, is rebellion truly the best option under a strict form of government such as the one found in 1984? Using the experiences of Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel, one can determine if the “noble” act of rebellion is truly the …show more content…
In the first section of the book, readers can watch as Winston silently commits one of the most heinous crimes of Oceania, thoughtcrime. Readers are informed that Winston has a small corner of his apartment which cannot be seen, in which he writes in a diary, an act forbidden by the government. Although a simple act of rebellion against “Big Brother”, Smith commits the act in silence. He takes care to know that he is being completely secretive in his law-breaking. As he goes through his daily life, harboring his dangerous secret, Winston must face the numerous punishments that the government hefts onto its citizens, including vaporization. As evident in this section, Winston can face away from the heinous acts of the government to remain safe. However, how do his rebellious behaviors progress and evolve throughout the …show more content…
However, part three further shows the consequences against him for his rebellious actions. Winston is confined to a solitary cell to await torture, and he even contemplates suicide to avoid his inevitable, painful torture. Winston is continually and savagely tortured both physically and psychologically. Following this prolonged torturing, Winston is forced to betray Julia to save himself. Following this, Winston is reconditioned to put his loyalty back to the party. This section of the novel shows readers how rebellion truly affects the mind, and how rash action can provoke a swift judgment by a higher
Julia instructs Winston how to return to London. The two arranged meetings where and when they would meet again. Julia reveals that she is not interested in the revolt. Although, she is a personal rebel. Winston reveals information to Julia about his wife Katherine which he decided weather to not killer her or not. Winston returned to Mr. Charrington’s offer: he had rented the room above his shop in order to spend some private time with Julia. Winston reveals his fear of rats.
He purchased a small journal from a shop and began to write in it out of view of the telescreen in his house, which allows anything in front of it to potentially be seen or heard. At first he had some difficulties as he could only manage to write jumbles of some of his memories, but then he began to write things like “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER (Orwell, page 18).” He later had an encounter with one of his fellow coworkers, O’Brien, which got him thinking that there might be others out in the world who see things the way he does, including O’Brien himself. Winston eventually decides that his diary will become a sort of letter to O’Brien, and to a future or past where things might have been different. In these diary entries he wrote things such as, “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone…(Orwell, page 28).” This refers to how citizens think and act the same and previous events are not written as they happened, but altered to Big Brother’s benefit. He also wrote, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death (Orwell, page 28).” This can be further explained by Winston’s previous thought, “The consequences of every act are included in the act itself (Orwell, page 28).” Winston
Winston commits “thoughtcrime” leading to his arrest and questioning at the Ministry of Love, the communities jail center working with matters pertaining to war. His comrade O’Brien begins torturing him in an underground room and calls it the “learning stage”. He teaches Winston the truth about the Party and their slogan; eventually he explains that “Freedom is Slavery” is easily reversed as “Slavery is freedom. Alone- free- the human being is always defeated… if he can make complete, utter submission… [and] merge himself in the Party… then he is all-powerful and immortal” (264). The Party uses this statement to illustrate that when one acknowledges the collective will, they become free from danger and desire. Those who are surrendered to INGSOC, including O’Brien, assume that when an individual has freedom they become subjugated to their senses and emotions. Moreover, Winston continues to be starved and tortured until he appears to be nothing but skin and bones when his opinions transition to align with the governments. He now accepts everything that O’Brien has expressed to him including that he is crazy and two plus two equals five. While he thinks about what he has been taught he thinks about “How easy it all was! Only surrender, and everything else followed… he hardly knew why he had ever rebelled” (278). In a sense, Winston is now free, only in a
Winston Smith is a thirty-nine year old man who participates in a group of the “outer-party,” which is the lower part of the two classes. Smith works in one of the four main government buildings. This building is called the Ministry of Truth; his job is to rewrite history books so those that read them will not learn what the past used to be like. The occupation Winston is the major factor that allows him to realize that Big Brother is limiting people’s freedom. He keeps these thoughts to himself as secrets because the totalitarian party will not allow those of rebellious thoughts around. The tensions between the two grow throughout the book because the Big Brother becomes very suspicious of Winston. The Big Brother becomes so suspicious of Winston that he sends a person by the name O’Brien, to watch over him. Mr. O’Brien is a member of the “inner party,” which in this book is the upper-class. Winston doesn't know of the trap that Big Brother had set tells O’Brien of his own idea and plans. He tells Winston of a rebellious leader that has been rounding up those that want to go against the totalitarian government. But like the Big Brother had done, he set a trap and O’Brien betrayed Winston. During the story the conflict between Big Brother and Winston climaxes when Winston is caught. He is taken to some sort of bright underground prison type
One reason for Winston's rebellion, and eventual downfall, is his knowledge that the party will ultimately capture and punish him. With constant surveillance of Party members, any sign of disloyalty could lead to an arrest; even a tiny facial twitch. As soon as he writes Down with BB' in his diary, Winston is positive that the Thought police will quickly capture him for committing thought crime. With this wisdom, he allows himself to take unnecessary risks, such as trusting O'Brien and renting the room in Mr. charington's shop to host his secret relationship with Julia. Because he has no doubt that he will be caught no matter what he does, he continues to rebel, and brings his own struggle to an end.
In George Orwell’s novel 1984, he illustrates how those who are being oppressed by totalitarian power, soon become isolated and emotionally modified by society, resulting in their loss of individuality and personal expression. Overall, Big Brother was the largest oppressive power of the society, and all of the citizens’ right’s were taken from them, due to this overwhelming government. Orwell’s warning was to alert those that if we are not careful with our decisions of who runs our country, then this terrifying event could have possibly occurred during 1984. War, is not peace, and freedom, is not slavery.
O’Brien tortures Winston due to his acts of thoughtcrime, Winston is told that the Party will be satisfied with nothing less than Winston completely giving in. O’Brien explains, “We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him” (210). Winston is tortured for the goal of eradicating the cause of Winston’s fight, to consider himself happy and free. O’Brien wants to destroy any possibility of Winston becoming a martyr for his cause. The use of the telescreens, microphones, and all other sources of the government spying on its people ensures a lack of freedom: “Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull” (26). The members of this society are monitored at all times for the sole purpose of government control, with constant monitoring they are able to discover the most they can about individuals and later use it against them to gain an upper hand in controlling any possible uprising. Fear is used as another tactic to gain control. Winston is aware of the fact that “More
The book “1984” by George Orwell is a fictional work that was penned as a discourse on Orwell’s views of what it would be like to live in a totalitarianism society. It is my belief that his views were based on his personal life experiences as he witnessed first hand many of the violent crimes perpetuated by those in positions of authority. Often, these crimes against one segment of society were carried out by other members of the same society in the name of political advancement or at other times out of fear for one’s life. Due to his experiences, Orwell began to write of his hatred of political power and the concept of a totalitarianism society. “1984” serves as a warning to readers of how a government can become abusive when seeking total control of it’s population. Furthermore, it showcases in great detail how a society can allow itself to be controlled through a series of psychological abuses and manipulation of historical information.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell elaborates on the idea of an autocratic government. This novel describes Orwell’s views on the dark, twisted form of government that he believes will develop in future years. The culture he created for this story was the most horrifying, troubling place a person could reside. The goals of the Party consisted of keeping the citizens squared away and oblivious to the unethical actions taking place around them. This unrealistic society gave Orwell the opportunity to create a vision of what a future communist nation might resemble. The purpose of this work is believed to be informative to citizens of how the government impacts our way of thinking, living, and believing. Fear from the citizens is used as manipulation by the government; this means the government shapes the citizens that will not conform to their society. Throughout this writing, the author remains in a dark, cold mood; thus, creating the feeling of negativity and opposition to the government. Ethical appeal is revealed in this
Throughout the novel, the government is notorious for torturing citizens of Oceania in the Ministry of Love. In order to exact true conversion to the Party, various forms of torture, both physical and psychological, are used. During the initial period of conditioning, fear, unpredictable bursts of pain, and repetition are used to destroy Winston's rebellious mindset. It begins with the beatings. At first they are every day, then the frequency wanes and they serve as more of a threat against thoughts of insolence. After this initial humiliation, a dial with numbers is introduced to Winston as a new mode of torture. O’Brien questions Winston and with each stupid answer or lie, the dial is turned to thirty, forty, or even eighty. The random occurrences of bursts of pain train him to be constantly aware of his thoughts in a way that he did not have...
The effect the Party has had on Winston’s humanity can be seen in his mental deterioration shown through his thought process and his physical being. Orwell uses a great deal of figurative language to further evidence the appalling situation Winston has found himself in. “His mind sagged round and round on the same track, like a ball falling again and again into the same series of slots.” The simile comparing Winston’s mind to a ball on a pointless journey into the same slots is used to show the futility of Winston’s thoughts against the party; no matter how hard he may try to plot against the Party he will always end up imprisoned, having no effect on the world. This forced inaction by the Party is one way Winston is robbed of his humanity, as it is a human right to voice one’s opinions in a
Friendship is one of the most important things in life and in order to have a strong friendship there must be trust. Winston experiences the loss of trust and the feeling of betrayal from his supposed “friends”, O’brien and Mr. Charrington. Winston feels that Mr. Charrington was trustworthy because he has always been kind to Winston in his times of need. Winston assumes that Mr. Charrington has his best interest at heart and cares about his well being, when in reality Mr. Charrington is studying Winston’s every move. “ It occurred to Winston that for the first time in his life he was looking, with knowledge, at a member of the Thought Police,”. ( Orwell 224). Winston experiences his second betrayal from O’brien. O’brien convinces Winston and Julia that he was a member of a secret rebellion group known as “ The Brotherhood”. He feeds them false information, convincing the two that he was loyal to them. In reality, O’brien is an Inner-party member who is collecting information on the two rebels (with reasonable suspicion). “ It was O’brien who was deciding everything. It was he who set the guards onto Winston… He was the tormentor, he was the prosecutor, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend,” (Orwell 243-244)
Authors often use their works as a way to express their own opinions and ideologies. However, it is the skill of the author that determines whether these ideas are combined with the plot seamlessly, making a creative transition of ideas from the author’s mind, to the reader’s. There is no doubt that George Orwell is a masterful writer, and one of his most popular works, 1984, clearly expresses his negative views of the Totalitarian government. A common theme in the dystopian society in 1984 is betrayal: The Party is very intolerant towards any form of disloyalty, and anyone who plots against them or Big Brother will eventually either betray their own mind and accept Big Brother as their leader, or be betrayed and revealed to The Party by one of their so-called comrades. Overall, Orwell is using this constant theme of betrayal to show how alone and alienated the protagonist (Winston Smith) is in his quest against Totalitarianism, thus showing how flawed and hopeless the political system is.
George Orwell’s novel 1984, is the most powerful warnings ever released about the dangers and the controls of living under a totalitarian government. The main character, Winston Smith is at war, trying to control the Inner Party and rebelling against Big Brother, the dictator of Oceania. The author gives us readers an image of inhumanity and the impacts it has in the citizens, physically and mentally. Orwell uses literary elements such as imagery, foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to demonstrate the theme of indestructible of a totalitarism.
His daily life consists of going to his job as an alternator of history in the Ministry of Truth, participating in ‘two-minutes of hate’ rallies and completing government mandated activities. Harbouring vague memories of what society was like before the establishment of Big Brother’s dictatorship, Winston finds himself withholding rebellious thoughts that cannot be acted upon without consequence. Winston illustrates a moral struggle between what is he believes to be right and what the government enforces. This is clearly reflective of the novel’s main themes of truth and power, Big Brother’s inescapable regime influencing Winston’s perception of what is true. His participation in the alteration of history also revels truth as a motif, this modification of facts physicalising the theme. This is evident when he rebels against the powers that survey his every