By Colin Smith
5/9/13
After having read the first 250 pages of 1984, I was fairly certain that Winston would never renounce his negative views of Big Brother and the Party. However, the Ministry of Love successfully breaks him and rebuilds him as a faithful Party member over the course part three, which I personally found to be the most interesting part of the book. The one on one conversations Winston has with O'Brien are the most insightful as to the purpose and meaning of the society, as they examine why the Party exists (which is revealed to be solely for the exercise of complete power over the people, O'Brien explaining on page 263 that "Power is not a means; it is an end."), what the society's plans are for the future, and why they must reform Winston before he must die
The whole struggle of the book, the Man vs. Society idea, is represented by the microcosm of Winston's change from hating to loving Big Brother, the figurehead of Oceania. On page 282 Winston states: "I hate [Big Brother].", a statement which may be compared to the last sentence of the book on page 298, where the narration reports "[h]e loved Big Brother". The change that happens in between these points contains the message Orwell wanted to send by writing this novel, cryptic though it might be, and a warning to progeny of totalitarianism imagined through the victory of the society over Winston. It is scary, it's disturbing to see the protagonist who once felt so strongly and thought so confidently be conquered by the 'bad guys', and this is what Orwell wanted the reader to feel. The transformation of Winston is Orwell's warning.
I agree with everything Colin has written about Orwell's message throughout the book. While reading the last fifty pages or so, I was very surprised as well to see that Orwell transformed Winston from a character who hates big brother to a character who loves big brother by the end of the novel. I found the tactics taken to transform Winston into someone who supports The Party very disturbing. O’Brien had to transform Winston’s way of thinking, for example proving to Winston that two plus two is not always four, but sometimes five. I was especially disturbed when O’Brien was going to use rats in room 101, the worst room, to get Winston to like Big Brother. Obrien describes the tactic he was going to use on page 285 – “’You understand the construction of this cage. The mask will fit over your head, leaving no exit. When I press this other lever, the door of the cage will slide up. These starving brutes will shoot out of it like bullets… Sometimes they attack the eyes first. Sometimes they burrow through the cheeks and devour the tongue’” (285). Not only was the act of rats eating a humans face disgusting, I was shocked when Winston gave up Julia's life in order to save his. Winston had previously talked about doing whatever he could to take down the party; however, now he is supporting their acts and even giving them loved ones to save his own life. I was just as surprised when Julia admits that she had tried to save herself by giving Winston to the party as well. I agree with Colin that Orwell's point throughout this book is to show the power that a society can have on a person. Obviously in this novel, the party uses physical and mental methods to convert Winston into a faithful party member, but not all societies work the same way. Orwell is sending a message that a society can easily corrupt citizens to ensure that the society runs as the leader/leaders wish it to.
ReplyDeleteI always find the ending of this novel to be heartbreaking, that the hero ultimately succumbs to the will of the government. Orwell's perspective is pretty bleak here - we're not meant to hope for the future at the end.
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