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1984 Winston's Manipulation

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Winston Smith, a worker for the Outer Party is dissatisfied with how his life is going. He decides to take up measures to rebel against the government by writing in a diary and even committing the sin of “thoughtcrime”. During the novel, he encounters Julia, another woman who wants to help stop The Party. Together they fall into love, or at least what they perceived as love, and met in secret contemplating the fact that they could be taken prisoner any day. They do get taken prisoner and are betrayed by Winston’s friends. Afterward the outcome of their efforts had been in vain. He is manipulated and eventually changes his outlook on Big Brother. Orwell relays that one must be wary of change; change should be looked upon as bad if it is thought …show more content…

The doctrines in the novel are presented formally, but Winston and Julia’s evasion of them makes them seem less formal. At various periods throughout the novel, Winston goes through monologues with himself to see whether or not he should accept a mandate or not. This shows the core of Winston’s personality. He is very speculative about society, and wants love more than anything. “ Life, if you looked around you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out if the telescreens, but even to the ideal that the Party was trying to achieve.”(73) Orwell’s use of “you “ and the persuasion he plunges urges one to follow contribute to the fact that this work is informal. Out of the three books I read, I found 1984 the most enjoyable because it was the most realistic and most applicable. It made me question totalitarianism, capitalism, the meaning hidden behind a government. One realizes that the government, (The Party) can have complete control because they can hide in a cloud of lies and deceit that they themselves procured. In today’s world, laws are viewed as more guidelines than rules, because some laws are mistaken or ignored. Jaywalking is against the law, but it is rampant everywhere. In this novel, laws serve as rules, so there is no escape from them, no loopholes that one can find. Also Orwell had withdrawn the appellate system in his novel, so that no opinions can be justified and what the Party says is always right and one should follow them without any questions. Also, 1984 showed insight that though capitalism is an effective system, it is flawed. The vivid descriptions of war-torn neighborhoods and the separation from the rich and the poor were the very reason that the revolution occurred in the first place. Orwell’s contrasting style subtly warns of awareness, and living in a more balanced

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