ipl-logo

1984 O Brien Character Analysis

1097 Words5 Pages

In a story how is it decided who the good and bad guys are? It all depends on your point of view. In George Orwell’s 1984, there is a totalitarian government ruling over its citizens with an iron grip. O’Brien’s duty is to catch anyone that is against the government he works for, this unfortunately means he is forced to backstab people, making many people see him as the antagonist. O’Brien is an older guy, who acts as a dynamic anti-hero: he strongly believes in the policies and government he supports, but he uses some unorthodox methods to keep people in line and loyal. O’Brien would be considered by most people to be an antagonist, for betraying the main character and torturing him, but he was only trying to keep his government strong. …show more content…

They begged to be shot quickly while their minds were still clean” (3.2. 105, O’Brien). O’Brien is a major character working to stamp out the disbelievers in the world, so when the disbelievers recant and ask for forgiveness, it makes O’Brien a kind of anti-hero to them. To the people of the party who have seen the error of their ways O’Brien is no longer the man who betrayed them, he has transformed into a complex character who saves and protects them. O’Brien works as an undercover government agent catching people who try to turn to him as an in to the Brotherhood. When O’Brien turns Winston in, he tells him that he always knew about O’Brien’s real …show more content…

O’Brien is an older man worn down by the stresses in his lifetime, “O’Brien’s face was strong, fleshy, and brutal, full of intelligence and controlled passion, but it was also tired and sagging” (3.3. Winston). O’Brien has lived a long life, trying to heal people but the methods he uses are taking their toll on him. It is his job to make sure people are pushed far enough they hurt but he must keep them from death and help them on their healing journey, he is referred to by Winston as his Protector even after what he is forced to do to Winston. 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

Show More
Related

Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried: Are They True?

474 Words | 2 Pages

Heroes are meant to be strong, powerful, and unbreakable. O’Brien shows us the opposite of that when he begins to breakdown after killing the boy with the grenade. He not only regrets it, but begins to imagine a life he had before his death. He couldn’t stop looking at his deformed face and even thought of him later in life when he figured the boy coming towards him as he once did before his death. Heroes aren’t supposed to regret what they’ve done or even be traumatized, they’re supposed to rise above that and show their spirit.

Read More

Similarities Between American Sniper And The Things They Carried

648 Words | 3 Pages

By using lucid imagery, the reader can easily place themselves in the scene with O’Brien. It is evident that O’Brien is enduring great guilt because of his spontaneous and involuntary action. O’Brien can remember the minor details of how he killed the young man, making it evident to the reader that O’Brien possibly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. O’Brien also states on page 118, “He had been born, maybe, in 1946 in the village of My Khe… He was not a Communist.

Read More

Legend Day Character Analysis

458 Words | 2 Pages

The novel Legend by Mari Lu stands out from others. Mari Lu uses a protagonist and antagonist to add a conflict in her novel. Doing this shows that “narratives contain a primary protagonist, who is the focus of the narration. In contrast, antagonists are usually portrayed in a negative fashion, and thus, viewers may feel a sense of counter empathy toward them”(Magliano 1). The antagonist should be at least the equal in strength of the protagonist, and preferably stronger.

Read More

Similarities Between 1984 And Fahrenheit 451

1130 Words | 5 Pages

O’Brien and Beatty are both trying to mold Winston and Montag into the ideal citizens of their societies. O’Brien first tries talking to Winston and tries to get Winston to understand reality. O’Brien said, “But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else… Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth.

Read More

Analysis Of If I Die In A Combat Zone, Box Me Home By Tim O Brien

1380 Words | 6 Pages

Sometimes, it was necessary for them to psych themselves out. This attitude is present throughout the whole novel. O’Brien also adds a bit of comic relief in some of the heavier scenes in this storyline. Towards the end of the book, when O’Brien is wanting to get a “rear”

Read More

Examples Of Thoughtcrime In 1984

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

The Things They Carried Silence Analysis

716 Words | 3 Pages

In chapter 61, O’brien goes off to work for a man named Elroy, later finding himself on a boat with him where he begin to sob uncontrollably. He explains that Elroy “was a witness, like God, or like the gods, who look on in absolute silence as we live our lives, as we make our choices or fail to make them.” (page 61). During this story, O’brien was trying to establish a contrast between him and Elroy similar to his experience with Mitchell Sanders. O’brien’s loud sob had created a silence in Elroy that he could only observe.

Read More

Why The Challenges At War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

757 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien feels extremely guilty for killing someone. He is not sure what to do or how to feel. O’Brien does not exactly say if he was the man who actually killed him, or if someone else did. He hints that if it was not him that killed the poor man. Death has a way of changing a

Read More

The Things They Carried Quote Analysis

532 Words | 3 Pages

On both sides, countless lives were cut short and wasted. They were denied their innocence by death. Several examples of this in The Things They Carried include Lavender, Kiowa, and the young communist man that O’Brien kills with a grenade. "He was not a fighter. His health was poor, his body small and frail.

Read More

Abigail Williams In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

923 Words | 4 Pages

An antagonist a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary. They often cause most of the dramatic events and the climax in a story. The antagonist in a story often feels no regret for the chaos they have caused. They usually display very selfish behavior only striving for what's best for them. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible many of the characters can be named antagonist but the prominent character is Abigail Williams.

Read More

1984 Betrayal Theme

594 Words | 3 Pages

The children are loyal to the party, and the party wants these children to betray adults or even their families. On page 16 of the novel, the children even accuse Winston of being a traitor by saying, “'You're a thought-criminal! You're a Eurasian spy!”(Orwell 16). Shortly after that incident in the book, Winston meets O’Brien.

Read More

Examples Of Villains In Fahrenheit 451

2654 Words | 11 Pages

It is essential for one to understand the nature of a character’s villainy before coming to a conclusion. For example, in Fahrenheit 451 our main villain is Captain John Beatty, the Fire Chief at the fire station at which Montag works. His villainy is not out of simple abhorrence for our protagonist, but out of experience with the same curiosity and the very same newfound indulgence in forbidden knowledge. His villainy is not to sabotage Montag, no, for it serves a far greater purpose to the story in its whole. Beatty is the alternative Montag, he may have ended up the same way had the circumstances been so.

Read More

Food Desert Communities Essay

640 Words | 3 Pages

Populations Affected Increasing the access to healthy food in low-income, food desert communities is a healthy step toward reducing the rate of chronic disease in our community. Many of the public health challenges and rising health care costs are directly related to chronic diseases and conditions like cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, low birth weight, obesity and anemia. Bad nutrition and poor food access plays a role in creating these diseases. This problem affects all age ranges and different demographic areas. Demographics Of Colorado’s 64 counties, 24 are designated as rural, 23 are designated as frontier (fewer than six people per square mile), and 17 are designated as urban (The Colorado Health Foundation,

Read More

1984 Rhetorical Analysis

912 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien attacks Winston and calls him a “lunatic…. a minority of one.” O’Brien uses ad hominem and attacks Winston’s character, which has nothing to do with the argument. Next, O’Brien asks questions and makes statements like “you are no metaphysician…does the past exist concretely in space…where the past is still happening.” O’Brien makes a statement about Winston not being a philosopher of what is true and real, and then goes on to ask him questions about what is real and true.

Read More

The Old Jest: Summary

1993 Words | 8 Pages

Antagonist-Angus Barrie. Nancy finds him in her beach hut. They talk, and he seems to be a nice man, but really mysterious. At first, he hasn’t told Nancy his name, and only at the end, when the police looked for him, his name was revealed, and Nancy finds out he works for the Irish and he and his friend, Joe Mulhare, were responsible for the death of 12 British soldiers. As I mentioned, at first he seemed to be kind, so you can 't notice he 's the antagonist in the story, but at the end, you find out he is a dangerous person.

Read More

More about 1984 O Brien Character Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document