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Who Is Winston Smith A Hero In 1984

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Riley Phillips Miss Prill Yearlong English II Honors 05 April 2024 Creative Title Unwavering dedication, resilience in the face of adversity, hope in spite of despair, and selflessness to a fault. All heroes share these traits. Humans have been depicting stories of these individuals for centuries, giving an image all aspire to become. However, in George Orwell's 1984, this image becomes distorted. Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, is depicted as an antihero. Throughout the story Winston rebels against an oppressive government, vowing to do everything in his power to destroy it, yet he is inevitably converted to a believer. During this story we see first hand that Winston Smith is an inherent anti-hero whose extensive flaws, deplorable …show more content…

Within another minute perhaps, it [crumbled] into ashes'' (Orwell 79). This quote demonstrates Winson bringing evidence that could have been used to disprove the party. Whereas a normal hero would have taken this to use against the party and gain more support, Winston chose to get rid of it permanently. By keeping himself safe and destroying something that aligns with his beliefs of going against the party, he is directly contrasting what a hero would do. Ultimately, the actions committed by Winston convey a sense of selfishness and contrast the nature of what we know a hero to be. Finally, Winston is solidified as an anti-Hero by his retrogression as a character, losing any of the qualities we would have used to deem him as a hero in the first place. For instance, Winston's final moments in the novel go as stated, “But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He has won the victory over himself. He loved “Birth Brother” (Orwell 298). This quote is very jarring and uncomfortable for the reader. It happens at the very end of the book and shows that Winston's character development is at odds with normal character

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It fulfills things that O’brien said would happen earlier. In book 2, O’brien asks Julia, “‘Do you understand that even if he survives, it may be as a different person?’” (page 173). Winston does survive, but he is completely different. He sits in a dream, because he is no longer capable of creating his own thoughts.

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This quote shows that Winston has always felt guilty of his mother’s death as if he had been the reason she was killed. In other instances in the book it is almost like she is haunting his conscience, constantly appearing in his dreams, “Winston was dreaming of his mother” (page 31). This might be another reason why he was so determined to oppose, an obsession with wanting to avenge his mother. Winston fought hard against the government because he desperately craves to feel real emotion, he wants to experience love, to live knowing he accomplished something, despite knowing deep down the party would not allow accomplishments to survive, as they could erase him from history in the blink of an eye. “‘Does he [Big Brother] exist in the same way I exist?’ / ‘You do not exist,’ said O’Brien” (page 272).

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In this section, Winston’s entire out look and thought process changes extremely quickly and determinedly. Once he starts to interact with this girl who he seems to keep bumping into to, the whole course of Winston’s outwardly obedient but internally disobedient behavior becomes much more actively counter regime than it ever had before. This drastic change begins even in his first interaction with the mysterious girl who falls in front of him in the hallway at their office, “A curious emotion stirred in Winston’s heart. In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him; in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone. Already he had instinctively started forward to help her” (107-108).

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Winston’s duties consist of editing and rewriting history with respect to the announcement of Oceania’s new enemy. Wiston is not bothered by his lying in furtherance of The Party’s goals, but is genuinely proud of taking part in society. This furthers the power of manipulation that The Party has because it convinces Winston that he was doing a good deed rather than promoting lies to the people. This manipulation is promoted more frequently throughout this novel is eventually accepted when Winston ends the novel saying, “He had won the victory over himself. He loved

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Winston feels that his death of his mother is his fault. Everything he’s doing is to find out the truth about his mother’s death. Another traumatic experience that Winston has been through is when the atomic bomb had fallen on Colchester. As a kid this something traumatic to go through because the place you’re living in is going through a war. It’s like your

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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

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In summary, Winston’s character has a despondent feel, and this is showcased in this passage. Winston can seem depressing, yet he is still

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Eventually, it becomes blatant that Winston cannot change society, nor what will happen to others, or to himself. As a result, it is evident that Winston has no control over his fate. Winston’s primary goal is to remove the power of the party, and his method of doing so is to maintain the hate for the party and commit acts that

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Winston is aware that his capture is inevitable, but he rebels anyways, this is what makes Winston Smith a hero. Furthermore, Winston Smith fits George Orwell’s definition

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In the novel 1984, the author Geoge Orwell emphasizes the theme of rebellion against the government as he writes about the significant changes in the outlier Winston Smith. In this novel, Winston lives in a society where his everyday life is continuously being monitored. Orwell uses Winston's emotional changes to show the evolution of his character throughout the story. Winston's life starts with replete misery and pain, though Orwell allows him a brief time of love and happiness which causes Winston to emotionally change and show his change through rebelling against the government. Winson’s character changes from being inhuman and heartless towards others to being caring and passionate.

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Winston is a dynamic, round, character because at the beginning of the book, he wanted to go against Big Brother and found a liking toward the Brotherhood. In the end he

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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.

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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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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

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Winston had occasionally showed signs that he could be a hero. However, it was never in his own, it was only when Julia was with him. He just isn’t cut out to be a hero. He was never looking out for other and all of his

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