ipl-logo

1984 George Orwell Analysis

1512 Words7 Pages

A writer’s work does more than just give information about what the particular piece is about. It also gives insight to the writer himself. For example, a narration does not just tell a story. A narration also conveys to the reader what the writer is like through the style of writing and themes in the narration. A writer’s work can communicate what he cares about and what his outlook on life is. George Orwell is such a writer whose outlook may be determined through analyzation of his works. Orwell’s works reveal that his outlook on life is that everyone should be able to fully hold onto their humanity. They should be allowed to think for themselves, express themselves, and make decisions knowing that they are completely their own. This outlook …show more content…

The aim of this new language was to “narrow the range of thought” by restraining the speakers from any words that could be used to express themselves fully (52). Newspeak was able to manipulate the truth into something not as harsh through its vague phrases and ambiguity. It withheld speakers from the whole truth, and in doing so, withheld them from full freedom of expression and ability to be fully …show more content…

Both those with power and without power were changed by the threat of the “Ministry of Love”, which was in charge of torturing those who rebelled against the Party. Those with power had dealt the torture to prisoners that they may have not dealt if not under the tyranny of Oceania’s system. O’Brien is an example of one who dealt such torture. He had pretended to be part of the Brotherhood, a vigilante group against the Party, in order to trick Winston. He captured Winston and tortured him to mold him into a compliant Party member. When Winston exclaimed that the Party had “got [O’Brien] too”, O’Brien replied that they had “got [him] a long time ago”, implying that O’Brien was once against the Party as well (238). He was most likely previously against the Party but had faced a similar situation that Winston was facing: being physically and psychologically tortured to the point of fully submitting to the Party’s wishes. It was a vicious cycle; someone rebels and is then tortured by someone who had rebelled and then either submits to the Party by becoming the torturer or turning a blind eye when someone else is tortured. If the victim did not submit then he simply endured gradually worsening pain, but it was far more likely that the victim submitted to and was brainwashed by the Party through the Ministry of Love. It happened to O’Brien, and it

Show More
Related
510 Words | 3 Pages

Winston reacts by, “[looking] up gratefully at O’Brien... his heart [seeming] to turn over” as Winston begins realizing that “he had never loved [O’Brien] so deeply as in this moment”(Orwell 252). What Orwell means when he writes that Winston looks up at O’Brien “gratefully” is that he was appreciative that O’Brien stopped making him feel the pain and torture that he was enduring and that he ended up making him feel better. Unfortunately for Winston, he is exhibiting signs that he is experiencing Stockholm Syndrome. It is clear that Winston is experiencing Stockholm Syndrome, because normally when someone is being tortured they don't feel this type of affection towards their abuser, they are scarred by them and mainly want nothing to do with them.

Read More
1034 Words | 5 Pages

O’Brien uses fear, scaring Winston into loving his government, Big Brother, and pushes him to break. In Orwell’s book, he states, “‘Room 101’ he said”... “‘Comrade! Officer!’ he cried.

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

Winston was never a devoted follower, constantly questioning the world around him. Even when in custody, Winston continued questioning motives and denouncing the Party and Big Brother, despite the futility. He knew no societal changes would result from his actions, but desperately wanted to share his ideas with someone, and since he was already being tortured, he was capable of speaking freely in the jail area. The purpose was to rid him of his rebellious mindset, and to do so, O’Brien needed to know everything Winston honestly thought in order to ‘correct’ it fully. For example, O’Brien forced Winston to recognize that whatever the Party said was true by holding up four fingers and saying there were five, “But there had been a moment- of luminous certainty, where each new suggestion of O’Brien’s had filled up a patch of emptiness and had become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been three as easily five, if that were what was needed (Orwell 258).

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

As a result of Winston’s neglect of the rules, he was able to maintain his own perspective, as he attempted to defeat Big Brother’s ‘sinister plan’. “You’re a flaw in the pattern, Winston. You are a stain that must be wiped out….when finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will,” stated O’Brien (page 255). In the book, free will depicted the Ministry’s truthful judgments of the state of mind, which happened to correspond to Winston’s freedom of beliefs. When O’Brien was torturing Winston, he revealed Big Brother’s notions of simply destroying the rebelling mind of any person who had dared to testify against The Party’s core values.

Read More
68 Words | 1 Pages

Winston is eager to learn and be apart of the Brotherhood and is blinded by the information that O’Brien is giving him. O’Brien sees that Winston is weak to the thought of this “Brotherhood” and directs his attention to him. This could foreshadow that, since is Winston blinded by the thought of the Brotherhood, he is willing to put his whole life in the his trust with O’Brien.

Read More
1343 Words | 6 Pages

The story follows our protagonist, Winston, as he rejects and rebels against the Party, a system that mind-controls individuals and whose primary goal is total tyranny and dominance. O’Brien, Winston's friend and ultimate betrayer, is the head of the thought police at the party. Though seemingly different, especially considering the social status in the book and where they are at, Winston and O’Brien in the novel 1984 think the same way.

Read More
632 Words | 3 Pages

When Winston and Julia are arrested and tortured, O’Brien finally reveals his true identity. “‘Don’t worry Winston; you are in my keeping. For seven years I have watched over you. Now the turning point has come. I shall save you, I shall make you perfect’ (Orwell 244).”

Read More
1097 Words | 5 Pages

O’Brien is a kind guy who has seen more than his share of terror in life and it has taken a toll on his physique. O’Brien strongly believes in what he is doing, he is a fanatic for the idea of what the future holds for their government. Their idea of a perfect future is the opposite of what former civilizations have strived for, “a world which will grow not less but more merciless, progress will be towards more pain, ….ours is founded upon hatred,” Winston could see a maniacal look in O’Brien’s eyes as he talked ( 3.3. 34, O’Brien). O’Brien is one of the leaders of the party, he lives by these ideals, and because these ideals are so important to him he sees anything done in their name justifiable. When Winston looks upon this vision of society with horror O’Brien looks upon it with happiness because it has been instilled into

Read More
734 Words | 3 Pages

Threat of forced labor and torture is constant and looming, displayed in the literal looming of the Ministry of Love: “[The Ministry of Love] was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, three hundred meters into the air” (4). The citizens fall in line out of fear, shifting even their subconscious. Orwell demonstrates that the threat of physical pain will make humans change their very nature. However, Winston defies this rejecting the Party and refusing to change his nature. But, when enough physical pain is applied, he breaks,conversely rejecting his humanity in devotion to the party: “Do it to Julia!

Read More
1109 Words | 5 Pages

O’Brien’s use of starvation, the electric chair, and mental bullying serves as a crucial motivator for intelligent, problem causing citizens such as Winston to confess and repent willingly eventually. Finally, the use of cruelty by Big Brother reveals the inner and destructive conscience of the party in order to ensure that society is orderly and continually worshipping Big Brother. The suffering and eventual destruction of citizens such as Winston reveals that a free-thinking society is still intact, however, any government’s use of torture could and did destroy the will of a majority of those that were so horribly imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps across Europe. Therefore, the cruelty used throughout the novel “1984” functions in the work as an effective scare tactic that is able to exterminate an entire society while simultaneously creating a new master race that is intellectually void and completely subservient to Big

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

Winston knows this, and he believes that society will grow tired of constant suppression and unfair laws and turn into one large rebellion against big brother, much like how societies have in the near or distant past. O Brien however comes back with a common party belief that intoxication of power and the thrill of victory would serve as plentiful motivation for people to live on without either friendship or love for one another. If what O Brien said was true, this mindset would eventually diminish. People in their society would grow weary of constant battle with the other countries. Whether their own country would be winning the war

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

When they aren’t living up to Party standards, like the main character Winston, they are arrested and tortured in order to be controlled. People’s lives are controlled in as many ways as possible. The Party controls its people mainly through direct government interference, propaganda, and thought control. The most obvious way the government controls

Read More
1445 Words | 6 Pages

The novel 1984 written by George Orwell encapsulates the life of a said party member, Winston Smith, who attempted to break free from the dystopian society’s order. The Party demands total power and control over everything no matter how minuscule it may be in correlation to the entire entity. Through small acts of rebellion Winston starts going against the Party, but that is not enough for him. Once he commits himself to O’brien and the Brotherhood it is the downfall of Winston. From there he is brought to the Ministry of Love and tortured until he sees the truth of the Party and come to accept the ideology that O’brien knows, the ideology of Ingsoc.

Read More
623 Words | 3 Pages

Once he begins to believe that O'Brien is a member of the Brotherhood, Winston starts interpreting reality in such a way as to keep this impression. Orwell writes “There was a link of understanding between them [Winston and O’Brien], more important than affection or partisanship. ‘We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness’ he [O’Brien] had said. Winston did not know what it meant, only that in some way or another it would come true. ”(Orwell 27).

Read More
1420 Words | 6 Pages

The struggle between O'Brien and Winston at the end. O'Brien is attempting to condition Winston into loving big brother but Winston's resistance lies in the fact that big brother may be able to control people but they cannot control his thoughts. For Example “He sat back in his chair, slightly ashamed of himself, and laid down the pen. The next moment he started violently.

Read More

More about 1984 George Orwell Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document