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1984 Relationships Essay

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In the cold and calculated nation of 1984’s Oceania, a land of near non existent privacy and free speech, can relationships between people grow? If some of the main relationships shown through Book Two of the novel are to be examined, they will show that affection for others often leads to ruin. The love between Winston and Julia, the Parsons family, and Winston’s friendship with Mr. Charrington display the destructive nature of relationships in Oceania. The partnership between Winston and Julia was the focus of Book Two in the novel. While Orwell’s primary reason for adding the plotline was to provide a way to show another person’s perspective in Oceania, it also exhibits the difficulty and risk of starting and maintaining a romantic relationship …show more content…

The Parsons family, whom Winston interacted with in the beginning of the novel, effectively show how a typical family dynamic is plagued by Oceanic control. Each member of the family conflicts with another member in some way, in varying degrees of innocence. The father of the family is busy with work and must be away from the family for a large portion of the family. This leaves his wife at home, in charge of maintaining their household. She must put up with poor conditions in their home, and her troublesome children. While it is not stated in the novel, she probably feels lonely due to the regular absence of her husband. The two kids in the family probably are affected the least, but cause the most strife. Having been born several years after Oceania’s rise, they are raised in a completely Oceanic environment. As a result, they firmly believe in the ways of the Party, and wish the worst of fates to its enemies. They beg their mother to go to public hangings, and accuse strangers of being followers of the infamous Goldstein. Clearly, this family is torn apart by Oceania. A father swamped in work, a stressed and frightened mother, and two violent kids typically are part of an unusually troubled family in our society. Whether or not there is actual love between the Parsons is unclear. Despite the fact that the Parsons family is the only family in the novel shown through Book Two, it is

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