1984 Winston A Hero Analysis

Winston and His Heroic Failure Every story that is written typically has a hero, or acts of heroism from the main or supporting characters. In the novel Nineteen Eighty Four, by George Orwell, the hero of the novel goes by the name of Winston. Winston fits Woodstock’s description of a hero. According to Woodstock, all heroes are failures, and it is their utter cry of rebellion that confirms their humanity. In the novel, Winston fits this description by not complying with the Party’s policies that are used to control people, such as, mutability of the past, the restrictions on love, and double think. This act of rebellion by Winston leads him to a tragic fate, and is tortured until he is in agreement with the party on their policies. In the novel, Winston works at the Ministry of Records. His job is quite simple, he receives letters from Big Brother in which he tells him to mutate the past, and Winston does so. Winston admits that he does not agree with mutability of the past, but he does love his job because he can be

This is one of his first acts of rebellion against the party, by not believing in them and doubting what it’s told to him. Winston also struggles with the new war. The party announced they are at war with Eastasia and not Eurasia, and they made sure the records say that the party was always at war with Eastasia and they are allies with Eurasia. “Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia…The work was overwhelming, all the more so because the processes that it involved could not be called by their true names.”(Orwell 182) From this point on, Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia, and Winston explains that the work was tedious because, it was not even true. In the end Winston was tortured until he accepted all these vents were true, but he proved his act of heroism by standing against the party, and not believing