Static History In A Mutable World

1984 by George Orwell describes a dystopian society in which Winston Smith, the main character, resides. The society, Oceania, is controlled by The Party, which maintains its regime by employing Thought Police that apprehend anyone with grievances against The Party, or its figure head, Big Brother. The story begins when Winston purchases a blank diary, in which he writes anything he finds necessary to document; this ranges from daily events to anti-Party messages. The first part of the novel describes the totalitarian nature of The Party through the daily experiences of Winston. When Winston bumps into a girl he until this point despised, he receives a note from her saying that she loves him. Upon reading this note, Winston is initially paranoid

Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most famous dystopian novels written by George Orwell in 1949. This novel depicts a desperate society where the public is manipulated by the government coercion. Although this novel is fictional, but we have seen many scenes depicted in the novel come true in some countries around the world. Under government coercion, the protagonist Winston lives a miserable life with no freedom even in his own thoughts, because everyone is forced to believe what the government told them instead of developing their own thoughts. However, Winston is different from the crowd because he has a rebel heart. He holds his independent thinking, and refuse to accept the party’s brainwashing procedures. Winston knows the potential

In a nation united by hate, filled with propaganda and controlled by the infamous “Big Brother,” Winston needed something to hold on to something as simple as a glass paperweight. George Orwell’s novel 1984 gave Winston a tangible object that ties in and incorporates both the recollection along with the pureness of Winston’s past and the obscure place of Oceania. This glass paperweight symbolizes security and freedom throughout Winston’s life in the unpleasant place under the control of the party.

In the novel 1984, George Orwell relates the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning by allowing the reader to see inside of the mind of Winston Smith. Orwell uses Winston’s rebellious thoughts to counteract his actions in order to show the reader how a dystopian society can control the citizens. Although Winston is in an obvious state of disbelief in the society, his actions still oppose his thoughts because of his fear of the government. Winston’s outward conformity and inward questioning relate to the meaning of the novel by showing Winston’s fight to truth being ended by the dystopian society’s government.

In 1984, the last and largest work of Orwell’s life, the oppression becomes even more sinister. Winston, a member of the “party,” decides to break away from the melancholy lifestyle in which “freedom is slavery” and rebel against the government that restrains him. The party even erases all of history and claims that reality is within the mind; “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” He becomes conscious of all the trickery and lies of the party and joins a secret organization to fight for freedom. The organization, however, is a lie and Winston is tortured until he learns to truly love Big Brother. 1984 makes prominent stabs at the

1984 has major themes of power and control. Orwell shows this power by making Winston have a hard time remembering his past. In 1984, the Party controls London and controls the past by manipulating people’s memories of the past. When Winston tries to remember his past, his memory is hazy. Due to the Party’s manipulation, Winston is losing his memories of the past. For example, in part 1, chapter 1 of the story, Winston tries to remember how London was before the Party came. The text states, “He tried to squeeze out some childhood memory that should tell him whether London had always been quite like this...But it was no use, he could not remember: nothing remained of his childhood except a series of bright lit tableaux occurring against no background and mostly unintelligible.” (Orwell 7) Winston is unable to remember anything that happened before the Party came. The Party had changed the past by removing everyone’s memories of the time before the Party. Additionally, in part 1, chapter 3, the text states “Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia...But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed...then the lie passed into history and became truth.” (Orwell 32) The Party changed people’s memories of the past and destroyed whatever people remembered of the past. The Party manipulated the past and made people

The quote from Winston’s diary in 1984 illustrates the acts of rebellion he has towards the “totalitarian” government in Oceania. Winston’s urge to challenge the political regime that rules the all of Airstrip One, as he sometimes, have the flash back from the past and through his fantasies, he envision the future without the totalitarian government. Winston, however, is craving for freedom of being in a world where people are not being watched, and where they can act, feel and do whatever they desire. As mentioned in the Sparknote Editors’ summary of 1984 that the history shows “Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia, but Winston knows that the records have been changed. Winston remembers that no one had heard of Big Brother, the leader of the Party, before 1960 …” (1; bk. 1). This past in Winston’s mind strengthens his mind to rebel and refuse to be convinced by the Big Brother. In reference to the future, Winston’s fantasies of having total control of his life, which then lead to “dreams of a place called The Golden Country, where the dark-haired girl takes off her clothes and runs toward him in an act of freedom that annihilates the whole Party” (1; bk. 1). The past and future in Winston’s quote contribute to the factor that strengthens his urge to rebel, which then lead to his journaling as a way to expressing his repressed emotions. In addition, Winston wishes a world where people could count on each other, provide support to each

The main character in George Orwell’s book 1984 is a thirty-nine year old man with the name of Winston Smith. Winston Smith creates thought crimes, he also has anti-Party views. The story “1984” tells about all of Winston Smith’s struggles. In an effort to avoid being monitored, Winston physically conforms to society, however mentally he does just the opposite. Winston is a thin, frail and intellectual thirty-nine year old. Winston hates totalitarian control and enforced repression that are characteristics of his government. Winston hates being watched by Big Brother. He always has revolutionary dreams, he feels like he would be protected. Julia is Winston’s lover, a beautiful dark- haired girl working in the

Antonio Vesselinov Daniel DeWolf Composition 101 4/27/15 Net Neutrality: Containing Censorship In George Orwell’s novel “1984,” in a futuristic society the main character Winston Smith has a prominent job of rewriting history for the outer party. What he does for his job is rewrite the history of the past, to form with the views of the present. In the novel everyone has TV screens with a cameras in them.

In the novel, the reader follows Winston Smith, an Outer Party member and a worker of the Ministry of Truth, where he alters and forges the past on a daily basis. Through his point of view, the reader navigates through the tyranny of Big Brother and the dilapidating society around him which is constantly at war with the two other nations in the world. The world as Winston knows it is controlled by four institutions: The Ministry of Love (which tortures people), The Ministry of Truth (which changes the past), The Ministry of Peace (which funds/supports the war), and The Ministry of Plenty (which is continually imposing ration systems). In Winston’s world, literature has been destroyed, most old artifacts have been seized, emotion has been squelched and abandoned, and language is shortened through a new language, Newspeak. In charge of all this is Big Brother, a figurehead who everyone is brainwashed into admiring. And just like Brave New World, many readers analyze and infer from 1984 that science has caused these problems, and that discoveries in computer science may cause the stone that past was written on to melt away. However, once again, science is only able to generate knowledge; what society chooses to do with the information must be monitored and limited by society itself. In 1984, society should have limited the alterations of history and usage of weapons in order to prevent such a disastrous dystopia from ever occurring

With changing one small word, it could corrupt the mind of millions. With the insight of the Party, it shows how a group of people could corrupt each other and the hundreds of others following them. Erasing the past is just one thing the government does within the story, there is so many other risks they do to ruin someone. In the novel Orwell writes “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” (pg. 37). It confuses people who know the truth of the forgotten and in return they oppose Big Brother. Winston is one of the few on the inside who knows and understands why he opposes the thought and words of the face of the Party. He witnesses firsthand how the government runs the society he lives in. It is proof a government can always be worse than it may seem

Throughout the novel, the reader can magnify the obsession Winston has with the past. Although the novel is written in third person, it is seen through Winston’s eyes and Winston wonders repeatedly about the past. The party constantly alters the future where the people can’t decipher the truth or the alterations. “People of my age don’t really know anything about those times. We can only read about them in books, and what it says in the books may not be true”(Orwell 93). Since Winston is not able to halt the alterations of the past, he attempts to find answers of the past before all is vanished. Winston approached the old man in the pub because he wanted to know how life was before the revolution. Due to the old man’s appearance, Winston acknowledges

Living in the dystopian era of 1984, Winston Smith is a kindred spirit longing for the past, in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is a simple man that goes to work at the Ministry of Truth and comes home promptly, but he has a secret. A secret so compromising that it could, no, will result in his death. Winston Smith is a rebel. He opposes the inhumane totalitarian government and bears strong hatred for Big Brother. Feeding off any fragment of hope that a better future awaits, luring himself deeper into this risky game, like a moth attracted to fire. From discovering love, pleasure, and forgotten

“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell is a dystopian novel that follows the life of the unconventional Winston Smith, in the cruel totalitarian superstate of Oceania. The English Socialist Party’s (INGSOC, government) extensive oligarchical nature is established in the opening scene through symbolism and personification, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” ‘Big Brother,’ an embodiment of the leader, evidently abuses power with omnipresent surveillance to perpetuate fear; thus, it reflects a dictatorial regime and the desire to remove any opposing persons. It obliterates any sense of privacy and safety. The paradoxical motif, issued by the Ministry of Truth, “WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH,” further denotes the overwhelming influence authority exercises to indoctrinate its constitutes to accept diametrically contrasting statements simultaneously as the truth. It is ironic that the Ministry of Truth exploits propaganda to coerce public devotion, subsequently, quashing any notion of reluctance of disobedience. To express his objective mind, Winston writes in his journal, “Freedom is freedom to say that two plus two make four.” The journal is a symbol of his fight against false philosophies imposed upon society and foreshadows the consequences of such

The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell expresses many important themes that provide an image of what society in the future would look like. The story is told through the eyes of Winston, a member of the Outer Party who disagrees with the government. Winston is under the assumption that everyone is corrupt. He thinks the government is enslaving the citizens of Oceania and taking away their basic rights.