1984-Winston Smith Essay, Research Paper
WINSTON SMITH
Winston Smith, the main character in the novel 1984, rebels, acts stubborn, and shows braveness against the Party in many ways. The Party is a group who controls the people of Oceania. There are many rules that the people must abide by. If they don’t and they get caught, they will be punished. Winston was one of those people who rebelled until he got caught.
One of the ways he rebelled against the Party was at the beginning of the novel. Thinking negatively against the Party is a crime. You are supposed to believe what the Party wants you to believe and if you don’t, then you are causing a crime. Winston never really believed in the Party and by showing that he didn’t he didn’t participate the correct way in the Two Minutes Hate. In the Two Minutes Hate, you are shown a type of movie for two minutes which is about the enemy to the Party and you are supposed to cheer against it. Winston just watched the people yell and scream for a while and then he started to join in and realized that “The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in.”
Winston also acted very brave toward the party. To show his braveness, he dated Julia and wrote bad things against the Party when he knew it was wrong. Winston knew that if he did get caught, he would get punished but he acted brave and did it any ways. Here is an example of his braveness in the novel: “His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals-
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page.”
Winston did not only rebel against the Party and act brave, but he also acted stubborn. At the end of the novel, Winston ends up getting caught rebelling against the Party. He was then forced to go to the Ministry of Love. There, O’Brien controlled the torture that Winston had to go through to be brain washed into believing in the Party. Although Winston was tortured very severely, he used his stubborness to last as long as he could before giving in. Here is an example of his stubborness: “O’Brien held up his left hand, its back toward Winston with the thumb hidden and the four fingers extended.”
“How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?”
“Four.”
“And if the Party says that it is not four but five-then how many?”
“Four.”
I think George Orwell used the character of Winston Smith in 1984 to show how easy it is to be brainwashed. Winston used his braveness to rebel against the Party even though he knew he could get caught and then when he did, he used his stubborness to try not to give in to the torture but he ended up failing. After reading my examples, I hope you understand that although he does get caught, Winston is known, by the readers, for his rebellousness, braveness, and stubborness against the Party.