In 1984 power can mean two different things, one is to have control over your thoughts and the way you think, and two is to have power over someone else. To have power over someone in 1984 that means to control everything about them, from the way they speak to the way they think. In the first few pages we see this man named Winston begin to try and free himself from the bonds of tyranny, the very first way he does this is by beginning a journal. This is a symbol of him trying to free himself, even if he doesn’t know it yet himself because the journal, no matter how innocent it seems to be will always have the same implications as being a traitor. With him being marked a traitor by the party for just writing in a journal shows how much power they truly have, being able to take people and mark them as criminals for something seen today as a normal act makes the book speak on more levels then one. Also we see Winston start to form control over his oppressors by taking his mind back he starts to think and it is …show more content…
When Winston is taken by the thought police we get an insight on how the party truly works. They are men and women who are seeking power can be shown in the quote “The party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the goods of other; we are only interested solely in power.”. This quote shows how the party does not care for the people but as long as they are in control then it does not matter. To gain power in this world is not hard, it is shown as an endless cycle of the middle becoming high and doing the same thing the high class before them did. Well if you eliminate the possibility of the middle trying to start a rebellion then you are safe. This is the ideology we see in the book If you keep the middle in check, yet give the people in poverty at a happy place then there will be no need for violence and
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.
Throughout the novel, the Party systematically destroys and information they say is not correct and replaces it with information they say is. For example, the Party claims they invented the airplane, but the reader knows they were created by the Wright brothers. Winston himself has a job in the Ministry of Truth “rectifying” Times articles. By controlling the past, the Party is able to justify the wrongs they do in the present. This creates the mentality in denizens that the Party can do no wrong because there is no proof of their wrongs.
If we take a look at what Winston’s does in the Party, his job is to keep the people ignorant about true facts and statistics in order to keep everyone happy. This allows the party to keep everyone ignorant about everything and make them always feel strong in the progress. If the people were to find out the true facts and their manipulation, they would rebel against the Party. So, the people’s ignorance is the Party’s strength. Through the use of War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength, the Party is able to distort people’s human nature and keep themselves in
Winston also had a secret notebook that he would write down his thoughts in which was not allowed by the party. Those who were younger than Winston had no memory of what life was like prior to the Party. The party's role on their people may be seen as irrational authority. Fromm gives an example of irrational authority when he writes, “The interest of a slave and master are antagonistic, because what is advantageous to one is detrimental to the other” ( Fromm 577). This is exactly what is happening between the party and the people.
. However, Winston Smith is not the hero that Oceania needed because even though he wrote anti-government messages in his journal, he wrote nothing of significance, he betrayed his lover when given the chance to prove his strength, to comply with the government, and was broken and taken over by Big Brother. Merely purchasing a journal to write in is illegal in Oceania. Winston knew this but he journaled nonetheless, using it for self-expression, which is denied under party rule.
In the book of 1984 The people like winston and others that aren’t associated with the Party are stripped of their freedom. They have no rights from being almost enslaved by the Thought Police, they have little to no education rights, and they have absolutely no say in there marriage of who they want to marry. Freedom is a part of who you are supposed to be, if you don’t have freedom then you really aren’t your own
1. Winston believes that the true way to defeat the Party is by the proles. He says that he knows that power lies within the proles and that power can be used to overthrow and defeat the Party. 2. To Winston, the most important thing for him is that he knows that the Brotherhood exists.
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”.
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
They always conform by directing their contempt towards enemies of the Party and fear those conspiring against it. Through the threat of rebellion and sabotage, citizens are kept in fear and have their hate directed at the Party’s enemies and are manipulated to rely on it for protection. Winston, however, fears the Party and its total control on his life and on society. He secretly harbors dreams of a revolution and the destruction of the Party. His failure to be manipulated is later rectified through other tactics until he becomes a “perfect” member of society, relying on and loving the Party.
In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, he uses truth and reality as a theme throughout the novel to demonstrate the acts of betrayal and loyalty through the characters of Winston and Julia. Orwell expresses these themes through the Party, who controls and brainwashes the citizens of Oceania. The party is able to control its citizens through “Big Brother,” a fictional character who is the leader of Oceania. Big Brother is used to brainwash the citizens into whatever he says. Orwell uses truth and reality in this book to reflect on what has happened in the real world such as the Holocaust and slavery.
It might have planted a few doubts here and there, supposing that I'd dared to show it to anybody. I don’t imagine that we can alter anything in our own lifetime. But one can imagine little knots of resistance springing up here and there- small groups of people banding themselves together, and gradually growing, and even leaving a few records behind, so that the next generation can carry on where we left off" (129). Winston has hope of a less horrible day that overthrows the Party, which shows his considerate, commiserating attitude and hunger for change and normality. How can one who aspires for a peaceful, civilized nation be
Standing out and individuality is frowned upon in both novels, which is one of the many elements that take place in dystopian literature. In 1984, people are watched and hunt down by the thought police. People in the society are not allowed to think their own thoughts, and they must not go against the Party and Big Brother. Winston, however, rebels against Big Brother and the Party and he wants to go “down with Big Brother!” The Party and Big Brother also frowns upon sexual relationships and love.
Winston is an inner party member in Oceania but while he seems to fall in line with party values he internally questions the party and the reliability of his own memories in George Orwell's novel 1984. Outwardly, Winston shows little to no rebellious tendencies toward the party, but inwardly he questions history and society because in his memories he recalls someplace better. Thorugh the novel one of the main points is Winston trying to infer if he can trust his own memories or if he is crazy, this is the book questioning reality. The book poses the question that if everyone around you believes one thing to be true, how can you prove that it isn’t?
1.2 Power Definition Of Power Power is "The ability to effect the outcomes you want, and if necessary to change the behavior of others in order to make this happen" – Nye We can say that power is about a relationship whose strength and domain will vary with different contexts. Those with more power in a relationship are better placed to make and resist change. Empirical studies have shown that the more powerful are less likely to take on the perspective of others . Power is one of the most important thing to the politic. This is because politik is base on some form of power and its sources may be highly varied and complex .