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How Does Orwell Keep Secrets In 1984

632 Words3 Pages

In the novel 1984, Secrets are the basis of Big Brother and how he watches the citizens of his nation, Oceania. These secrets are something that is very important to the government of Oceania, even though the people of Oceania aren’t allowed to keep secrets. Nobody really knows what is true and what isn’t. Secrets are the basis of this society. The Party keeps everyone in line by banning freethought, which is the ability to have your own thoughts and ideas. The Party also doesn’t like when people have sex for pleasure. Sex should only be for procreating. Secrets are kept by the government, and by a few citizens, like Winston and Julia. In the very beginning of the novel, Winston writes the words “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” (Orwell 18). in his diary. He immediately regrets this and decides to try and keep it a secret, hoping the Thought Police don’t already know what he did. George Orwell states, “He put the diary away in the …show more content…

Throughout the novel we see O’Brien a number of times. For years O’Brien is friendly with Winston and agrees with Winston on his negative thoughts of Big Brother, but secretly he is with Big Brother and has been watching Winston for years. “It was O’Brien who was directing everything. It was he who set the guards onto Winston and who prevented them from killing him” (Orwell 243). O’Brien holds his secret identity so well that he is comfortable inviting Winston and Julia to his house to conspire with them about going against the Party, just to see what they have been talking about. When Winston and Julia are arrested and tortured, O’Brien finally reveals his true identity. “‘Don’t worry Winston; you are in my keeping. For seven years I have watched over you. Now the turning point has come. I shall save you, I shall make you perfect’ (Orwell 244).” This shows how O’Brien wants everyone to be his idea of perfect, by banning the ability to have one’s own

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1984 Chapter 1-2 Summary

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O’brien enters the cell. Winston thinks that O’brien has been captured too, but soon learns that O’brien is a member of the party. Winston is tortured in all kinds of ways. He is kicked, beaten, forced to tears, and a man in a white coat connects him to a dial that has levels of pain. Winston is tortured until he is humiliated and his power to argue or reason is destroyed.

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O’Brien uses fear, scaring Winston into loving his government, Big Brother, and pushes him to break. In Orwell’s book, he states, “‘Room 101’ he said”... “‘Comrade! Officer!’ he cried.

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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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Unlike a sun behind the clouds, the rays of hope in the battle between Winston and the Party are not concealed, but rather undoubtedly extinguished by the end. In the book 1984 by George Orwell, Winston Smith. a bureaucrat in IngSoc, and his lover Julia question and resist the dogmas of the Party in which freedom and truth do not exist. In this society the practice of “doublethink” inherently weakens the man, breaking his grasp of common sense and sanity by believing wholeheartedly one claim one moment, and a completely contradictory statement when told. Winston and Julia cannot express his thoughts and ideology in a corrupt society, and end up capitulating to O’Brien’s manipulation.

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In the world of 1984, George Orwell reveals that words had been used not to declare truths but mostly hide them. The abuse and misuse of English become a weapon to power up the political party as they cloak the truth and deceive the public. Newspeak, technically English 2.0 had created a submission of vocabulary. The citizens had fewer words which limited their ability to share ideas. The party compounded and reduced words through a process; they changed the citizen's thoughts by carefully defining words.

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The Party has begun to influence people's thoughts on a deeper level and even tap into things that should be a natural impulse. The community is set up in a way that even human instincts are forbidden and destroyed. The majority of women in 1984 have begun to lose their sexual instinct and soley view reproducing as their duty to the Party (Parascandola). Prime examples of this are Katharine, Winston’s wife whom he has separated from, and the Anti-Sex League which instills this concept from a young age. Winston’s marriage with Katharine in itself was the doing of the Party.

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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.

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Winston is defiant and rebels against Big Brother and the Party through various illegal actions. After purchasing an empty diary, he continuously wrote “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” when the telescreens were out of view (Orwell 21). This simple thought is considered to be a severe crime where Winston lives because it is direct disapproval towards the Party. Winston feels as if Big Brother is controlling every aspect of his life, so this rebellious action allows for him to vent his frustration.

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2740 Words | 11 Pages

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O’Brien speaks in a kind and encouraging way; his words are encouraging in that he is pushing Winston to realize the how the Party has utter control over history and society itself. O’Brien explains that “[The Party controls] life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us” (Orwell 269). In reality, Winston is actually being unreasonable by not accepting that the Party has total control. O’Brien reveals his true identity as a friend by pushing Winston to accept this total control, justifying Winston’s torture to see five of O’Brien’s fingers instead of

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1420 Words | 6 Pages

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