ipl-logo

Free Will In 1984 By George Orwell

552 Words3 Pages

In 1984, George Orwell ridicules the judicial system and its punishments to display how people can lose personality and even lose their own controlled free will. Orwell implements irony and imagery to feed us a taste of what his hypothetical future would be like. Winston writes that “Two and two make five…God is Power…he accepted everything” (Orwell 290). This is an emblem of how ironic the story has turned. In the middle of the book, we can see how much he hates Big Brother, the party, his job, and his life. In the end, after the struggle, pain, and torture he has been through, he submits to the ideals he fought against. A complete switch is demonstrated by Winston’s behavior, which leads us to believe his free will was tampered with. The story was never meant to show how …show more content…

He states his surroundings, especially noting “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”(Orwell 310). Slogans like this and the reactions of the public to them imply the control the Party has over the general population. Winston quite literally believes that sign is just general logic that the whole world follows, that it’s something nothing out of the ordinary. In some ways which people may not realize, this is common with us in today’s society. Not quite at the extent of what was happening in the book, but we can see propaganda as such existent almost everywhere. If we were to explain to an alien right now how the system of government and law worked, it would be impossible to understand. It is entirely possible we were just built around a system we don’t question, or maybe we don’t as much as we should. In other literature, such as The Great Gatsby, an eyeglass sign that looks extremely similar to Big Brother's eyes signifies insight and enlightenment, something which plays a crucial role in the story. Even that story signifies free will/control of those with money and political

Show More
Related

1984 Dialectical Journal Analysis

965 Words | 4 Pages

Yash Patel Mrs. Choi AP Literature October 2015 1984 Dialectal Journals for Part 2 Text Response 1. “In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him; in front of him, also was a human creature… He had indistinctively started forward to help her,” (Orwell 106) This quote shows that even in this time where they live in a life where they are being manipulated, Winston is still living in a time where he is experiencing hatred, but still maintains what keeps him normal or humane, which keeps him separated from everyone else. This hate is showing that people still have hate for each other and still want to kill each other but it also shows the true human he is by helping her when she was threatened.

Read More

Tiananmen Square

1117 Words | 5 Pages

Basically everywhere the character Winston looks, there’s always a slogan saying “Big Brother is watching you”. Big Brother is the leader of 1984’s totalitarian society. By Winston seeing “Big Brother is watching you” everywhere he looks, it shows a common threat to him that he is always being watched and that he has little to no natural rights because of the government. If he were to break the rules, serious consequences would happen to him if he were

Read More

Examples Of Winston A Hero In 1984

1505 Words | 7 Pages

Winston has an imaginative mind and later in the book he claims that the “power that would one day overturn the world” lies “in the proles”. He feels that the fate of the Party would lie in their hands and “when their time came, the world they constructed would not be just as alien to him” since “at the least it would be a world of sanity” (220). Winston expresses one of his heroic qualities through displaying his vision for the good of

Read More

Comparing 1984 And The V For Vendetta And 1984

1481 Words | 6 Pages

At the beginning of the novel, Winston made it prominent that he dissented Big Brother and his party’s idea. He wrote in his diary, in Book 1 Chapter 1, “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER…” (Orwell 18). This shows that Winston dissented his country’s government and was willing to rebel for he knew deep inside that

Read More

Examples Of Free Will In 1984

502 Words | 3 Pages

In George Orwell’s lasting novel 1984, he creates a society where no free thought or free will is allowed. Even thoughts (Thoughtcrimes) or facial expressions (Facecrimes) can end in torture and eventually, disappearance. In this novel, Winston Smith’s fate is sealed from the beginning but he still tries to exercise his own free will. Winston often knows that his actions will get him caught, but he continues to make his own (bad) decisions: "Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or if he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference.

Read More

Examples Of Free Will In 1984

676 Words | 3 Pages

Another example of Winston’s thoughts demonstrating free will comes after he wonders why the Party controls so many aspects of his life and how no one else seems to take

Read More

1984 Winston's Desire For Change

748 Words | 3 Pages

In Winston’s believes, liberation is an entity hidden behind a mist of futility, an endless cycle of failed uprisings caused by the insolence of the general masses. The cycle also represents the situation that Winston finds himself within, regardless of his awareness he is still paralyzed by the irrational animalistic instinct to cower in fear of the party’s promised punishment. Resulting in his apathy towards revolution which causes him to abstain from any true revolutionary undertaking; as a result, the cycle of despair continues infinitely. Moreover, the paradox may highlight the extent of Winston’s indoctrination by the party. Winston views the revolution as fantastical due to the Proles oblivious nature, which is an assumption that is made by Winson as a result of party propaganda, which states that all “proles and animals are free”.

Read More

Examples Of Free Will In 1984 By George Orwell

1050 Words | 5 Pages

While we are being presented with thousands of decisions every day, we are being offered with very limited opportunities because those in power seek to limit the control we have of our lives and, on a wider scale, human existence is doomed to the same fate. In “1984”, the government strips away free will in order to maintain power and control over their citizens. Totalitarianism, as portrayed in George Orwell's 1984, and seen in real-life instances, has a profound effect on individuals' free will, often leading to the suppression of personal freedoms and the restriction of choice, ultimately resulting in the loss of autonomy and individuality. Systems, such as totalitarianism, the government employs various methods, such as propaganda, censorship, and surveillance, to suppress free will and manipulate individuals into conforming to the regime's ideals.

Read More

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984 Analysis

1243 Words | 5 Pages

This shows what a horrific world Winston lives in. Anything that someone thought of had to be in accordance with the party’s regime, anything else would be considered a thoughtcrime and would be punished severely. Considering the mechanisms of control and the possibilities of freedom that follow we will explore the extent to which George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a pessimistic and dystopian novel.

Read More

Freedom In George Orwell's 1984

991 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have no freedom, personality, or privacy? Probably not, it is not necessarily a way to live at all, to have everything monitored and controlled is just detrimental to a person’s ability to live. Freedom is the ability to do whatever you want that doesn’t involve hurting anyone else or involved in. This a massively dystopian society and there are many factors that contribute to the people not being able to be a free people. The characters in George Orwell’s 1984 do not experience freedom as evidenced by constantly being monitored, not being able to talk about anything that they want otherwise the Thought Police will arrest them, and they are also required to do what they are told constantly.

Read More

1984 Orwell Freedom Analysis

784 Words | 4 Pages

Winston didn’t conform, they broke him down and beat him to a point he was a shell of a man. He went from hatred toward big brother to a conformed zombie who, “won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” (PG 298

Read More

Individualism In 1984 By George Orwell

232 Words | 1 Pages

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, conflicting forces within the novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, illuminate the meaning of the novel. Two forces influence Winston: his desire to maintain his freedom and knowledge of the truth, and the Party’s effort to strip Winston of any rebellious thought and non-conformity. The Party’s efforts stem from their desire for totalitarian authority; they believe the key to controlling a nation is to control the citizens’ minds, bending the truth to assure the impossibility of any free thought. Winston, however, retains his memory and therefore his individuality; the novel follows his struggle to maintain integrity at the potential price of death. His personal conflict embodies the meaning of the novel as a whole,

Read More

The Importance Of Control In George Orwell's 1984

796 Words | 4 Pages

George Orwell’s 1984 is a precautionary tale of what happens when the government has too much control in our lives. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is at odds in a world in which he is not allowed to counter the government’s surveillance and control. Perhaps more striking is the noticeable relationship between the novel and modern society. In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the book predicts the surveillance of Big Brother in modern day societies.

Read More

1984 Doublethink Analysis

925 Words | 4 Pages

All Oceania is overseen by a metaphorical man called Big Brother which represents the “eyes” of the government. Even though there is not actually one person deemed Big Brother, he is the “embodiment of the

Read More

The Idea Of Freedom In George Orwell's 1984

1404 Words | 6 Pages

The idea of freedom in 1984 In modern politics, we are very accustomed to word such as “fake news.” Politicians use statistics and make statements that are not based in any facts, present them as hard evidence for their stances, and watch as people instantly believe what they say, simply because they are in a position of power. That is why George Orwell’s novel, 1984, is more relevant today than it ever has been before. In the past, people have viewed this novel as simply a story, a different look at how history could have been changed.

Read More

More about Free Will In 1984 By George Orwell

Related Topics

Open Document