1984 Essay, Research Paper

The novel 1984 by George Orwell is an American classic that explores the human mind when it comes to power, corruption, control, and the negative-utopian society. Imagine living in a ?world of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons. Warriors fighting, triumphing, persecuting?three million people all with the same face,?(64) and there is the world of 1984, frightening, grotesque, and completely controlled by the ruling Party.

Winston Smith is an insignificant member of the ruling Party, in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, he is watched through telescreens, and everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party’s omniscient leader, the figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything, even the people’s history and language. The Party is currently forcing the implementation of an invented language called Newspeak, which prevents the possibility for political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal, and is known as thoughtcrime, which is the worst crime of all. Thoughtcrime is the work of the Thought Police, who ?snoop in on conversations, always watching your every move, controlling the minds and thoughts of the people?(6).

As the novel opens, Winston feels frustrated by the oppression and rigid control of the Party, which prohibits free thought, sex, and any expression of individuality. He has illegally purchased a diary in which to write his criminal thoughts, and has become fixated on a powerful Party member named O?Brien, whom Winston believes is a secret member of the Brotherhood, the legendary group headed by Emmanuel Goldstein that works to overthrow the Party.

Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical records to fit the needs of the Party. He has noticed a co-worker, a beautiful dark-haired girl, staring at him; he worries that she is an informant who will turn him in for his thoughtcrime. He worries about the Party’s control of history: it claims Oceania has always been allied with Eastasia in a war against Eurasia, but Winston seems to recall a time when this wasn’t true. The Party also claims that Emmanuel Goldstein is the most dangerous man alive, but Winston doubts the claim. He spends his evenings wandering through the poorest neighborhoods in Oceania, where the proletarians, or proles, live relatively unimpeded by Party monitoring. One day, Winston receives a note from the dark-haired girl that reads, “I love you.” Her name is Julia, and they begin a covert affair, always on the lookout for signs of Party monitoring; they rent a room above the second-hand store in the prole district where Winston bought the diary. Finally, he receives the message he seeks: O’Brien wants to see him. O’Brien indoctrinates Winston and Julia into the Brotherhood, and gives Winston a copy of Emmanuel Goldstein’s book. Winston reads the book to Julia in the room they rent above a store, completely secure from the telescreens, or so they think. Suddenly soldiers crash in and seize them; the proprietor of the store has been a member of the Thought Police all along. Torn away from Julia and taken to a place called the Ministry of Love, Winston finds that O’Brien was a Party spy as well. O’Brien spends months torturing and brainwashing Winston, trying to get him to believe in the Party and all of its hypocrisy like everyone else in Oceania. Winston reaches the final step, and is sent to the dreaded room 101. Here, O’Brien straps a cage full of rats, which is what Winston fears most, onto Winston?s head and prepares to allow the rats to eat his face. Winston snaps, pleading with O’Brien to do it to Julia, not to him. His spirit broken, and Winston has been fully brainwashed and is released to the outside world. On his way home one day he meets Julia in the streets, and both know that they have betrayed each other in the Ministry of Love. They depart each other with few words, and know that there can never be anything between them again. Winston, a man who once said ?the only thing that can keep you human is to not allow the government to get inside you?(137), looks up at a poster of Big Brother, and finally realizes that he has come to love him.