...Winston Smith, Hero in Disguise: In George Orwell's dystopian, modernistic world of 1984, there are no true heroes or villains. There are no white knights and even the book's antagonist, O'Brien, is not clearly the main source of immorality. Yet, through all this the reader is rooting for Winston Smith. We want him to succeed and even when he ultimately fails, we have sympathy for him. In spite of his failing mind and body, we still search for that glimmer of hope in a hopeless world which probably does not exist. Winston Smith is an unconventional hero, and despite his failures he retains this status for defiance against all odds. When Winston Smith is introduced to the reader Orwell makes a conscious effort not to present him as a hero in the usual sense. At the very opening of the book in the second paragraph Orwell points out the "varicose ulcer above his right ankle" (1), setting him apart from being a glamorous protagonist. Despite this, the audience is still drawn to Winston as the book continues along. So what earns Winston his deserved status as an unconventional hero? The answer lies in his ideology. Winston is a philosophically driven person and this allows the reader to see past his flaws. In Orwell's world of 1984 Winston is completely unique in this sense. No other character is driven in the same way as him. Take for example Julia; she is largely motivated by personal gain. Julia participates in public services only to avoid being caught breaking the law. When...
Words: 1043 - Pages: 5
...”Nineteen Eighty-Four” – Pages 1-40 If there is any doubt of the persistent power of literature it should be banished by the novel “1984” by George Orwell. There is much that reasonant for most of us in Orwell’s dystopia in the face of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA; the totalitarian State of Oceania, its menacing Big Brother, the history-erasing Ministry of Truth and the sinister Thought Police with their everpresent telescreens. Eventhough the novel “1984” was read by its readers in 1949, the novel was meant to represent a very real threat in near future: a totalitarian regime within the next thirty years. The threat against privacy is, in Orwell’s opinion, one to be fought against. Looking at “1984” while pondering over the ideological criticism, one would find traces of certain ideologies in the artifact and the artifact in this particular case being the literary work “1984” by George Orwell. The primary target when doing a ideological reading, is to discover or locate the dominant ideology or the ideologies embedded in the literary work and perhaps the ones that are muted in it. The political ideology of Big Brother in “1984” is shown through a third person narration that clearly understands what Winston experiences living under a totalitarian regime. The style that Orwell appropriates in relaying this political ideology is one of fear and control. The ‘telescreens’ are constantly watching you and listening in on your conversations; “The telescreen...
Words: 844 - Pages: 4
...George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four tells a story about a futuristic dystopian society that is ruled by the seemingly omniscient Big Brother. Winston Smith lives within this rule of Big Brother and the Party where all he does is strictly limited. As time progresses, Winston begins to make secret relationships without the Party’s knowing and begins to do what he wants to do. George Orwell’s use of intriguing characters, a strange, utopian social setting, and a riveting yet slow plot makes Nineteen Eighty-four a great piece of literary work. George Orwell’s use of fascinating and believable characters makes the story an interesting read. The story revolves around Winston Smith, an ordinary Party employee who works for the Ministry of Truth. Under the power of the Party, Winston does not have the freedom to think his own thoughts unless they...
Words: 630 - Pages: 3
...Two Views of Totalitarianism George Orwell’s 1984 and James McTeigue’s “V for Vendetta” are very similar, but have some distinct differences in the plot. “V for Vendetta”, a futuristic version of a totalitarian government is taken over and destroyed by a masked man named V. Orwell’s 1984 is similar in this respect except that Winston, the protagonist of 1984, doesn’t seem to be as successful as V. Orwell was one to speak of how he sees the battle to be. Orwell has written several novels on the idea of revolutions against a superior government; one example would be 1984. He has inspired others to write there ideas on the thought of the future revolution from a dictatorship of extreme power. The film V for Vendetta is one example of an Orwell inspired story. In both Orwell's novel 1984 and the film V for Vendetta the protagonists Winston Smith and V live in similar difficult lives with extreme and controlling governments where they try to fight against there governments for the greater cause of freedom. There are many similar events and people in these two pieces of literature. In 1984, propaganda is broadcasted via telescreens. Similar to this, false news is broadcasted throughout the city of Oceania in 1984 by way of televisions. Both scenes have posters. 1984 has the posters with the phrase “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” similar to “STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY, UNITY THROUGH FAITH” in “V for Vendetta”.1984’s Winston and “V for Vendetta’s” Evey both experience the loss of their...
Words: 521 - Pages: 3
...blindly follows a leader, there are bound to be problems. Where no thoughts are allowed, there is bound to be at least one that wants to rebel. In the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, all citizens of Oceania are kept under surveillance 24/7. There is no freedom in their world. However, not everyone is down with the party. Winston and Julia take a different route, and choose to rebel against Big Brother, thinking they have escaped the watchful eyes of the party. However, they were sadly mistaken. Big Brother sees all.Orwell’s character, Winston, is a quiet and critical thinker; Winston’s role is to overthrow the party in order to bring the past back; however, while on his journey, Winston is caught by Big Brother....
Words: 1157 - Pages: 5
...Technology through the eyes of George Orwell Summary of the story The novel 1984 published in 1949 takes a look at society of future in 1984. This society called Oceania is a totalitarian one, where state controls everything including the people’s thought. The government, which runs Oceania is called INGSOC (English Socialism). The controllers are known as “The Party”, whose leader is Big Brother. Winston Smith, the central character, a 39-year old man lives in London. He secretly hates Big Brother. He decides to rebel by keeping a diary in which he reveals his rebellious thought. He knows the crime he is committing and also that one day the thought police would discover his crime and probably kill him. The lowest class in the social hierarchy of Oceania are “proles”, who are relatively free of police surveillance. He befriends Mr. Charrington, the prole owner of a junk shop, who shares similar interest in the past life before the rule of Big Brother. A dark haired girl, in another department slips a piece of paper in Winston’s hand. It says, “I love you.” Winston is surprised and disturbed as any sexual relation between Party members is strictly forbidden. Nevertheless, he falls in love and they meet secretly. A love affair begins and the girl finally introduces herself as Julia. They are careful enough to meet in places unlikely to be watched. Winston and Julia eventually hire a room above Mr. Charrington’s junk-shop as a place for the two of them to...
Words: 1538 - Pages: 7
...People use rhetoric in many different ways to influence and change the audience’s opinion or perception of a specific topic. Rhetoric was used by George Orwell in the novel “1984” by representing what it is like to have your freedoms taken away. The main protagonist, Winston Smith, often finds himself struggling with himself and others to find the truth. In Plato’s “The Allegory of a Cave”, the character struggles to get his point across to his friends who refuse to accept the truth. Plato and George Orwell use rhetoric to explain the importance of freedom, whether the oppressor is someone else or yourself. George Orwell’s “1984” represents what life is like under a strict totalitarian government through the use of rhetoric. In his document, “Why I Write”, Orwell describes himself as “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for...
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
...February 13,2014 Born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bengal, India in 1903. He is famous for his two novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four (1984). A year later after he was born, his mother brought both him and his sister to England in which his father, a British civil servant stayed in India because he was stationed there. Even as early as a child, he was already battling with the flu and bronchitis although at an early age, he was already into writing. When he got older, he went to school but then was set back a few years for college because his family couldn’t afford it so he ended up joining the Imperial Police Force in 1922. After five years, he resigned and decided to continue his journey as a writer. He came up with his first book Down and Out in Paris and London which was about how life was living in the two cities. He didn’t want to embarrass his family’s name so he decided to use his pseudonym ‘George Orwell’ as the author for his future works. Orwell then wrote about his other experiences overseas, British Colonialism in Burma and part of the country’s Indian empire. In 1937 he married Eileen O'Shaughnessy and then later on went to Spain to battle in the Spanish Civil War. He got badly injured being shot at the neck and arm. After being partially healed, he later on battled another sickness-tuberculosis in 1938. Despite battling his sickness, he still decided to keep writing to support himself. Orwell found himself acting as a propagandist to advance the...
Words: 548 - Pages: 3
...attention, only to later reveal that Winston is an anti-hero causing the readers to come crashing back to reality. During the duration of the novel Winston actively rebels against the Party by writing bad thoughts, buying an apartment among the proles, and even joining the Brotherhood, a group that attacks the Party. This is typical of an anti-hero according to “The Anti-hero in Modernist Fiction”, “Weak, ineffectual, pale, humiliated, self-doubting, inept, occasionally abject characters — often afflicted with self-conscious and paralyzing irony, yet at times capable of unexpected resilience and fortitude”(Neimneh 78). The resilience shown by Winston keeps the reader rooting for him even when he is captured for his thought crime. This hope, further developed as Winston defies O’Brien as he is being tortured, is short lived when the reader is awakened to Winston’s failure in the end. According to Tim Adams, educator from TED Ed, “All too often though the anti-hero is killed or brainwashed to return to conformity with the masses”(TED Ed). In accordance with the anti-hero archetype, Winston is brainwashed and later killed. When Winston is caught for his thought crime, he is taken to the Ministry of Love, where he is tortured and brainwashed back into conformity. Orwell writes, “But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” (Winston 298). The brainwashing of Winston is a powerful statement created by...
Words: 1893 - Pages: 8
...George Orwell's novel from 1949 is a dark prediction on how the future might look like, with a totalitarian system with virtually no individual human rights. The book was written in the shadow of World War II, with inspiration from Germany under the National Socialist Party and Soviet Union at that time. The book revolves around Winston Smith, a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of Oceania. The story takes place in a dark and gloomy society, where the ruling Party watches every move of the people through «telescreens», even in their own home. Everywhere Winston turns he sees the face of the ruling Party's leader, only known as Big Brother. The Party has full control in Oceania. They control people's language, history, and they even have a «Thought Police» that watches over the citizens to make sure no one thinks rebellious thoughts, which is illegal. Thoughtcrimes is seen as the worst of all crimes in Oceania. For us in 2016, I would say that the most outstanding parallel from the book is «Big Brother is watching you». In the book the ruling Party watches the people through «telescreens», sort of a two-way TV. Today websites like Facebook and Google can save our every move online. They automatically track our likes and dislikes, all of our searches online and every website we enter. On our smartphones most of us carry with us every day and uses frequently, it is possible for hackers to get in a get access to private messages, phone numbers and...
Words: 609 - Pages: 3
...but history may have not actually happened that way. George Orwell explores this possibility in his novel 1984, where the main character Winston Smith questions this altered history. In Orwell’s world of 1984, the government changes history to fit their own purposes. This mutability of history is shown through the description of Winston’s job, the newspaper clipping and picture, and the Party’s policies. For a prime example, Winston Smith has a job within the government and his job description is to change history books, newspaper articles, and any other written records to fit the government’s new version of history. Orwell shows the true nature of Winston’s job when he writes, “It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened” (Orwell 34). This shows Winston rewriting a previously given speech to make it seem that Big Brother had correctly predicted what happened even though in reality he had been wrong. This is portraying the altering of history in order to fit the Party’s purposes. At one point Winston, who is questioning this alteration of history, finds proof of the history changing. He finds a newspaper clipping that tells of three Party officials betraying the party but Winston found a picture of the men with a caption that says these men were at a different place at the same time. This is shown in the scene where Winston is in his office, working, “It was a half-page torn...
Words: 547 - Pages: 3
...Writing has been in existence for thousands of years. Older pieces of writing hold insight into the past and carry messages the writers wanted to immortalize and save for future generations. Older pieces of writing may seem outdated and obsolete because humans now live in a new era; however, human nature does not change meaning that the messages of any piece of writing are important and relevant. The struggle against fate has been a theme in literature and storytelling for millenniums, from the Greek myths with their tragic heroes to 1984 and Nectar in a Sieve. These pieces of writing that contain such timeless messages are worthy of being known as literature and include works such as 1984, Nectar in a Sieve, and the Bible. The efforts people...
Words: 1558 - Pages: 7
...Love in George Orwell’s 1984 Love can play many roles in society. It can bring many people together happily or it can tear families apart so they will never speak to ach other again. Love can also be a political force. It can be an act of rebellion by individuals. It can also be a means to control individuals. This is what has occurred in George Orwell’s book 1984. George Orwell was born on June 25, 1903 as Eric Arthur Blair, in Bengal, India. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, was an administrator in the Opium Department of the Indian government. (Mullen 3) Eric, his mother, Ida Mabel Limouzin Blair, and his older sister left India for England in 1908. (Flynn 9) In England the family lived as a “shabby-genteel family,” in his own words, at Henley on Thames. This was a happy time in his life and an inspiration for some of his writing, such as the essay, “Such, Such Were the Joys.”(Mullen 3) Also at this time Eric first showed signs of poor health. His mother recorded in her diary her concern for his bronchitis and a weak chest. (Flynn 11-12) In 1911 Eric went to St. Cyprian’s prepatory school. He was eight. (Flynn 19) Eric’s family kept him there at a great sacrifice to his family but at reduced fee because the headmaster hoped Eric would be able to win a scholarship. At the age of thirteen Eric went to Eton College after winning two scholarships. Eric was at Eton from 1917 to 1921. (Hopkinson 276) Eric praised Eton by complimenting its tolerant and civilized atmosphere...
Words: 2250 - Pages: 9
...George Orwell’s 1984 was written to inform his audience of the dangers of totalitarian governments. The society George Orwell creates, can be very easily compared to that of Hitler’s time. In Oceania, the minority has absolute power just like the Nazi Party had absolute power in and Germany. The Nazi’s were there to make sure that no rebellions took place just as Big Brother is there to stop any acts of rebellion in Oceania. Control is necessary in society up to a specific point where the government takes control of every aspect of life; beyond that it is no longer effective. Winston Smith is in a society in which the people like himself are under complete control physically and psychologically through use of technology and senior party members. The Thought Police stop any citizens thinking about rebelling with telescreens, hidden microphones, and children spies. Firstly, Big Brother, the fictional character, is described to be the dictator of Oceania, has the most powerful role in society as head of the party. The people are constantly reminded that “Big Brother is Watching You (Orwell 3).” They persistently watch the people for any act of rebellion. Control is being achieved however, it is not effective as public and private life is diminished. Next, the telescreen plays another effective role in helping the party manipulate the people by blasting out propaganda. The information they provide the people with is all lies to make the party look good. Winston works...
Words: 830 - Pages: 4
...Income Inequality has created a country with economic despair. George Orwell’s novel 1984 displays a future dystopian world with a lot of warnings. Some of the warnings begin portrayed in the novel should not be taken for granted. The Novel talks about Party Members of INSCOG and the proles. The two characters presented in the book could be foreshadowing the heroes for our time. Emmanuel Goldstein and Winston Smith are the protagonists in the book. Many elements in the year 2016, are in 1984. Orwell predicted that a powerful few will control an entire population of inferior humans. Today, the powerful few are the businessmen, CEOs, and the wealthy. The media calls the wealthy the 1% and the rest is the 99%. In the real world, the financially unstable have tons of struggles. Some issues are but not limited to overwhelming debt, no good pay, and not having benefits. Poverty and Wealth in today’s world is the exact same concept in 1984. The poor and the rich live in two different universes. In the United States, the top 1% have more wealth than the rest of the country combined (Reich). The wealthy live in housing best suited...
Words: 705 - Pages: 3
