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Ambiguity In 1984

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George Orwell’s novel, 1984, thoroughly outlines the aspects of dystopian society, dictated by a totalitarian government of English Socialism. This novel preludes to a meaning much deeper than what is perceived from the events of the protagonist, Winston Smith, and his acquiesce against Big Brother. In order to decipher the uprooted meaning of this text, a formalist perspective can be used to analyze the literal aspects of a novel - particularly, in accordance to tension and ambiguity within a setting.

Winston Smith was soundly proficient at his job in the Ministry of Truth. The Records Department “is connected with the happenings of the story” as it is a crucial location for conflict to arise, ultimately adding to the plot of the story (Bloom, Edward. The Order of Fiction: An Introduction). Despite his job being unelaborate, it holds significant importance as he is in control of altering history, removing pieces of evidence indicating that Big Brother had made any erroneous presumptions.
In varying instances, Winston is put into a position where tension had become present. Upon receiving a bundle of documents out of the tube, Winston comes across a newspaper article containing information about three original leaders of the Revolution; …show more content…

There are two ways of interpreting his job; it can be perceived as evil, being in control of distorting and manipulating history. In contradiction to this point, he is simply doing what is required of him, his environment being what is compelling him to carry out this action. Another example of the moral ambiguity he lives in was whether or not he should of kept the article or was right to have disposed of it. Winston initially was tempted to keep the document, having it be the morally correct thing to do so, yet would be imposing punishment upon himself. Therefore, for this reason he decided that the states definition of morality was more important than his

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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).

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Many a literary critic claims that the strongest aspect of the book 1984 by George Orwell is its plot. Indeed, there is some merit in this conclusion, as the entire purpose of Orwell’s writing of this book was not to create a literary classic, but to warn the public about the dangers of communism if it got out of hand, and what better way to do this than to write an engaging plot? Others may claim that 1984’s greatest strength is in its character development. This aspect, too, is quite strong in the book, as not only are the minor characters effected in serving the dystopian theme, but the major characters are believable and very human in their failings. Winston’s transformation from an oppressed office worker to revolutionary and finally

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The final method that Big Brother uses in order to control “reality” is through the changing of history by getting rid of books and history. Winston worked as within the Ministry of Truth, and his job was to burn things in the newspaper that Big Brother does not want to be in the newspaper. By burning the real stories and how the events unfolded, Big Brother is able to construct a completely new story and change the outcome of an event to favor their need. This is an effective method of controlling reality because the public never saw the “real” events or read the actual story, but they are “fed” stories that Big Brother conjure up, which will lead the public to believe that is true. In addition, by getting rid of books, Big Brother is able to control reality because people would not know of the past and history.

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Whether it be true or not, O’Brien has him in exactly the right position. Winston becomes a follower of sorts underneath O’Brien, in which he can be fed any and all information that O’Brien deems necessary to further his master plan. Overall,

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George Orwell was an English novelist and journalist best known for his dystopian novel 1984 which was based on totalitarianism. Winston Smith, an employee in the Records Department for the Ministry of Truth and protagonist of this story, lives a life characterized by rebellion and hatred for the Party. His doubts for the Party’s actions and its control on truth begins to take a journey of discrete insurrection and the meeting of Julia, a young woman with cunning spirit and a worker at the Fiction Department. The plot rises as both of them have corresponding views on the Party; in this particular excerpt, George Orwell establishes antsy with this situation as Winston and Julia are caught by the Thought Police. Orwell’s use of repetition, details

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