O’brien enters the cell. Winston thinks that O’brien has been captured too, but soon learns that O’brien is a member of the party. Winston is tortured in all kinds of ways. He is kicked, beaten, forced to tears, and a man in a white coat connects him to a dial that has levels of pain. Winston is tortured until he is humiliated and his power to argue or reason is destroyed.
"Who controls the present controls the past," said O'Brien, nodding his head with slow approval. "Is it your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?" (3.2.39-40)” This quote shows how O’ Brien changes winston by integrating him back into society using double think.
Award winning writer, George Orwell, in his dystopian novel, 1984, Winston and O’Brien debate the nature of reality. Winston and O’Brien’s purpose is to persuade each other to believe their own beliefs of truth and reality. They adopt an aggressive tone in order to convey their beliefs about what is real is true. In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston and O’Brien use a variety of different rhetorical strategies and appeals such as parallel structure, pathos, and logos in order to persuade each other about the validity of memories and doublethink; however, each character’s argument contains flaw in logic. Winston debates with O’Brien that truth and reality are individual and connected to our memories.
It could have just been a lie though, because while Winston is being interrogated, O’Brien brings up something that Winston threw in the hole so there was no way O’Brien could have known about that. The Party has flaws like this that are obvious to the reader, but everyone in Orwell’s novel is too afraid to speak up because of fear of being caught. Once again, the Party is in control. Moreover, this regulation shows that the government of Oceania can control the memory of the population by destroying evidence that could substantiate that
“The long-hoped for bullet was entering his brain” (Orwell). “Winston maintains, throughout the novel, two avenues of hope for a life outside the confines of the party and the watchful eyes of Big Brother, a life which may undermine or even overthrow the party’s hold on oceania” (British Novelist 15). Winston felt “peculiar reverence for O’Brien which nothing seemed able to destroy” (Orwell 273) although O’Brien
Later in the novel when Winston returns to the junk-shop that he bought the diary in. The fear Winston felt as he returned to the shop is described by Orwell. “A twinge of fear went through him. It had been a sufficiently rash act to buy the book in the beginning, and he had sworn never to come near the place again.” Winston’s feelings of fear are what define him because his reactions to the situation while similar to most is derived from the fear of getting caught by the Thought Police, but when he enters the shop again, his fear of not knowing the past is greater than the fear keeping him out of the shop.
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).”
Although Winston Smith strives to resist the Party, he fails, illustrating Orwell's warning that individuals should fight against a totalitarian government and society should resist unwavering obedience to power in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the first half of the novel, Winston attempts to find the truth about the past; however, he is unsuccessful due to the constant rewriting of history by the Party. Winston works at the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites history. Rewriting history makes him feel “as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster”. He was alone in the night.
Winston reflects back on how the party alters the history of the country: “the lie passed into history and became truth” (Orwell 34). Although Winston knows that Oceania and Eurasia were in alliance before, he also believes that they did not have an actual alliance because of what the Party imposes onto the citizens’ memories of the past. Orwell’s use of the word “passed” possibly shows that the lies they create can easily to history and be masked as the truth. It can be inferred that Winston now knows exactly how the party paralyzes anyone from actual thinking, which is by changing the history.
(Orwell 124). Once Winston is broken down, all of his individual beliefs prior to the psychological torture becomes dissipated. The only thing left to occupy Winston’s mind is the love for Big Brother that O’Brien has manifested within
O’Brien speaks in a kind and encouraging way; his words are encouraging in that he is pushing Winston to realize the how the Party has utter control over history and society itself. O’Brien explains that “[The Party controls] life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us” (Orwell 269). In reality, Winston is actually being unreasonable by not accepting that the Party has total control. O’Brien reveals his true identity as a friend by pushing Winston to accept this total control, justifying Winston’s torture to see five of O’Brien’s fingers instead of
One of the themes of 1984 by George Orwell is how it represents living in a dictatorship. There are many troubles that come with living in a dictatorship. In the book, everyone is ruled by a dictator called Big Brother. No one knows if he is real or not, but he makes all of the rules. An example from the book about dictatorship is, “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a dystopian totalitarian society and explores the interlinking concepts of time, memory and history through the examination of the ability to manipulate by censoring information and via propaganda. It also examines the power of memory and history in influencing and controlling people’s lives. This essay will explore these themes through the disillusioned protagonist Winston and his life under dictator rule. In the novel the Party controls every aspect of their citizen’s lives. They tell them what to think, how to behave and who to love all through the help of the Ministries of Truth, Peace and Love.
Fahad Alrebdi Mr. John Smallwood ENG4U September 6, 2014 Julia and Winston In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell presents the protagonist, Winston Smith and his lover Julia in Oceania, under the rule of Big Brother. Under this totalitarian regime, both characters are Party members. Winston works in the Records department of the Ministry of Truth while Julia works in the Fiction department of the Ministry of Truth.
One of the most important things Winston had learned, in O’Brien’s eyes, was that he began to change his mind towards the ideals of Big Brother. In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston is a man who is attempting to hold on to his humanity. He is found guilty of thoughtcrime by O’Brien, who is a member of the inner party. Big Brother believes this to be a crime against all humanity and that time is not a continuum. He wants this so people don’t think about their future, so that they will obey whatever Big Brother says.
