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George Orwell 1984 Themes

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1984 by George Orwell is a dystopian novel depicting a socialist future through the eyes of a government worker named Winston. It tells the story of his attempt at rebellion with the aid of his love interest, a fellow government worker named Julia. Written in 1949, it is a futuristic story with many obvious themes, including the nature of love. 1984 conveys the message that forced love through controlled relationships, strict laws, and torture have the ability to conquer natural love. The Party maintained control over the people by limiting the relationships they could have with others. Winston originally married another woman named Katherine, who was very loyal to the party and never allowed herself to get close to Winston. If he tried to …show more content…

Citizens caught breaking rules were arrested, and were starved, beaten, and otherwise abused. They are also presented with their worst fears, which in Winston’s case were rats. Winston stated that, “There was only one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the body of another human, between himself and the rats” (Orwell 299). Winston has been defeated to the point of betraying Julia, the one he loved the most. He ends up suggesting that she should endure the punishment instead, which was the one thing he swore to never do. The abuse that he endured at the hands of the party finally forced him to go against the on thing he loved the most. The Party also broke WInston’s spirit to the point where he finally believed the one thing he was adamantly against. Throughout the entire book, Winston claimed his hatred toward big brother and acted out in direct rebellion. By the time he was released from torture, he stated that, “He had won the victory over himself. He loved big brother”(Orwell 298). The Party’s use of torture ended up being enough to change the entire base of his morals, and removed his love for independence and rebellion. They conquered his real feelings, and were able to keep control over him in the end. They forced an unnatural love of Big Brother, and brought Winston to their

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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.

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Big Brother was never one to be questioned, and he made the consequences known to anyone who did so. Winston clearly expressed his hatred for Big Brother and all of the restrictions placed on members of society in the beginning of the book. Despite this, he constantly hid his facial expressions and thoughts from the telescreens, in great fear that the thought police would catch him. Contrary to that outward conformity, he was always inwardly questioning Big Brother. He directly broke the law by writing in a journal, especially since

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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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Winston on the other hand is older and much more mature, and he wishes to effect change for all. Winston does not want to slap Big Brother but rather wants to see him dead. Due to his old age he has experienced what it was like before Big Brother and wants it to go back to how it used to

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Winston’s capitulation was the result of extreme physical and mental torture. He was beaten, starved, and tortured by O’Brien. Eventually, he admitted to things he didn’t even do as well as becoming a true believer in Big Brother. First, he was interrogated endlessly to confess his crimes, even if he did not do them. Then, he was taken to a room where there was no darkness and strapped to a machine.

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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

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George Orwell wrote 1984 back in the midst of World War II, which is alluded to multiple times in the book. He discussed what this world might turn into if we do not take action against the European leaders. The book depicts a over-controlling government, referred to as the Party, which is constantly spying on the citizens of the dystopian society called Oceania. One of the Outer-Party members named Winston Smith realizes the wrongdoings of the government and starts to rebel against them. Throughout the entirety of 1984, Winston can be seen as a hero by his defiance against the Party, his hatred toward the Party, and how he may have sparked a rebellion.

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Winston breaks, plain and simple. When it mattered most, his final stand against O’Brien and the oppressive powers of big brother, he is unable to withstand the onslaught. He gave up the only thing in the world of 1984 that made him human. Throughout the interrogations, O’Brien and BB took his body, mind, and forced him to believe things he did not (223). The one

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This also shows how willing Winston is to sacrifice himself for love, as it can end in both of them getting caught. In addition to this, one of the first times that Winston talks about Julia, he begins to feel the rebellion. “Thus, at one moment Winston’s hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police” (Orwell, 14). Publicly revolting in Oceania is extremely dangerous since there is too many telescreens watching over him. “All that they did was to keep alive in him the belief, or hope, that others besides himself were enemies of the Party” (Orwell, 17).

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One of the most notable themes in 1984 is George Orwell’s depiction of conformity. Conformity means to behave in accordance with socially acceptable conventions. In 1984, the party sets laws and brings in technology that forces the population into conforming. This is done so that they can control the population easier, and manipulate them into believing the party’s ideals. To do this, they firstly make everyone wear the same clothes, eat the same food, and live in the same conditions.

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In the book 1984, written by George Orwell, the main character is Winston Smith. A simple, frail, skinny man, wanting to know what life was like before the revolution, and just to have a small taste of freedom. Is Winston a typical storybook hero? Or is he is something else, something better or worse?

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He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” (Orwell 298). The only reason that Winston changed his mind was

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The proposal of Big Brother is to strip away the human qualities, such as emotion, so that everyone is alike and easier to control. To contrast, Winston is able to tell the difference and able to detect the false ideas of tyranny and disobeys the rules. His first rebellion was writing his thoughts

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884 Words | 4 Pages

In 1984, George Orwell depicts a dystopian society pervaded by government control and the obsolescence of human emotion and society. Winston is forced to confront the reality of a totalitarian rule where the residents of Oceania are manipulated to ensure absolute government control and servitude of the people. The theme of totalitarianism and dystopia is employed in 1984 to grant absolute power to the government and ensure the deference of the people through the proliferation of propaganda, the repudiation of privacy and freedom, and the eradication of human thought and values. The repudiation of privacy and independent thought and the ubiquity of government surveillance is employed to secure absolute power to the government over the populace

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In Orwell’s novel 1984, Room 101 represents the power of the Party and is the room where Winstons spirit is crushed. Room 101 is a presentation utilized by the party to show absolute dominance. It proves that the party has the power to totally ruin someone through the use of their deepest fear. Fear is the ultimate dominance. If you can purchase the power to pressure someone to meet their biggest fear, you have the ultimate dominance over that individual.

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