Hello Everyone,
I hope you're enjoying this glorious weather.
When you get a chance this weekend (or before Tuesday night, at the latest), please post an answer to this question:
In your view, does Winston ever truly think for himself, that is, as a free individual outside the control of the oppressive structures he lives under and functions within? Analyze a particular part of the novel to illustrate your answer.
Begin your answer with a short summary of the novel (1-2 lines) that serves to provide the context necessary for your audience to understand YOUR answer to this question.
Use at least two but no more than three particular passages, scenes, or other pieces of evidence from the novel to support your answer.
You may choose to argue for or against other students' answers to the this question, but you must, in addition to citing them, provide additional evidence and explanation that either further confirms or refutes the other's argument.
(40 points)
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Winston, a "rebellious" man, tries to go against the totalitarianistic government, Big Brother. Along the way his sex partner, Julia, also goes along with his plans, but both are betrayed by O'brien, a person who Winston thought was a ally, and are brainwashed to love Big Brother in the end.
I don't think Winston ever thinks for himself because during the two minute of hate, Winston even states that you can't help but join in on the hate. So whether he wants to or not, he's kind of been programmed to act that way. Another time is when Winston has to do the morning exercises, and the telescreen lady tells him to touch his feet, so he's forced to. Either way, whether he is forced or subconsciously does something, he can't think for himself.
In a society where people are constantly governed, one man named Winston tries to break away from the government's control. He lashes out against Big Brother, the head of the government, by having a love affair with a woman named Julia, but Winston ultimately submits to the rules of society.
Winston never thinks for himself because when he thinks for himself, he plays right into the plans of the Thought Police. For example, he hears a poem from Mr. Charrington and then becomes interested in the churches that are named in the poem. This is a trap to get Winston to think for himself because Mr. Charrington is a member of the Thought Police. The same goes for when Winston talks to O'Brien. O'Brien makes Winston believe that there is a Brotherhood against Big Brother. When O'Brien turns off the telescreen, he gives hope to Winston that one day there might be a world without telescreens. Winston and Julia both tell O'Brien that they cannot be separated from each other, and that was the information the Thought Police wanted. Winston beleived he was thinking for himself, but he was falling into a perfect trap set by Big Brother.
Winston does not ever think for himself. Ever. The handout that Maxwell gave us on Friday helped explain a lot. "One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship." To me that tells me since the thoughtpolice were watching winston for 7 years, they knew that Winston was going to rebel and if the party controls the rebellion (which they do) then they control everything. If you can control you opposition and mold them to be ineffective and weak, then you have the ultimate control over the society.
1984 is about the government, big brother melting minds with propaganda, mind control, and constant surveillance. Winston questions big brother and plots to rebel against it along with his partner, julia. In the end they are caught and tortured till they worship Big Brother.
I think Winston was able to think for himself. He writes in his journal which is conscious step that he takes knowing the consequences. He also talks about how the telescreen was always monitoring "but if you kept your head you could outwit them" (166). I think the party is too powerful and it's impossible to rebel against them.
I'm sick of this book!
1984 tells a story about a society that is completely controlled by the government, Big Brother,in all aspects from what you do to what you can think. Winston, a citizen of this society, begins to question big brother's truths. He is joined together with another rebellious citizen named Julia. They both eventually get caught by the government and are subject to change into the government slaves they once were again.
I think Winston does think for himself as a free individual. When he begins to write in diary he begins to think for himself. Right when he started to interpret and analyze his memory a little and write down how he felt, he was able to reach that freedom in his mind. When he wrote "down with big brother" he was able to think individually, because no individual in that society would ever think that way or at least write it down. So for Winston to actually do that and develop that idea, he would've had to think as an individual from his emotions. Another scene when Winston thinks for himself is when he makes a decision solely from himself such buying the coral. He knew he shouldn't have really been in that section of town or at the least should be purchasing something like a coral. He knew that he would get caught with it he would be dead, but he did so anyway. He made that conscious and free from restriction decision.
I think Winston is capable of thinking freely as an individual. He was able to make decisions freely due to how he interpreted his thoughts freely in his mind. Though he didn't have any knowledge of whether or not the thought police was on him, he was able to make a decision for his own benefit.
"1984" is a riviting novel, ahead of its time, with a rebellious protagonist who tires to rebel against his government. In doing so, he falls in love with a beautiful woman, Julia, and is ultimately betrayed and sentenced to death for his wreckless actions.
Throughout the novel the protagonist, Winston, is confused as to weather he should believe his government or rebel. I think that Winston did rebel against his government and was successful for a brief moment. He felt a sense of satisfaction and he showed this through his relationship with Julia. I think that at the end of the novel Winston was just scared. He knew that he was going to die and in that fear that Big Brother had already instilled in him, just gave in and gave up. He figured why try and fight what is already in place. I think that Winston would have rather of rebelled for a short period of time, with someone he loved then never rebel at all.
1984 is about a man nameed Winston, who questions his goverment. The goverment controls everything that society does. I think that Winston never thought for himself, he was always controlledby the goverment. On page 269 O'Brien says "there is learning, there is understanding, and there is acceptance. It is time for you to enter upon the second stage." This shows that Winston went through all the stages that the GOVERMENT wanted him to. We know this becasue in the end, Winston loves Big Brother. Which excatly what the goverment wanted! Another example of the goverment thinking for Winston is on page 274, "Nothing exists except through human consciousness." The goverment controls consciousness, therefore the goverment controls Winston and his thoughts; no matter what he does!
In a world of false identities and events, a ugly skinny-skeletal-bony (lol)man named Winston tries to live under the party's Independence.
An example that provides evidence regarding false identities and events is "when memory failed and written records were falsified...when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested" Page (96)
--- The party is trying to erase the minds of the people, and get them to believe in things that didn't really happen to the measure in which the Party wants them to believe in and the past history that really happened to denigrate out of their little minds.
Winston never truly felt like he was a free individual outside the control of the Party, but he felt he was free to do what he wanted to do at first because he and only he can control his bodies motions and control, and that the freedom he used he knew wouldn't last, and it didn't, and that he would be eventually caught and lose that control completely, but he used as much freedom was he was able to during the short period, in which he went against the Parties Independence.
1984 is a Novel about a a man named Winston who trys to rebel and be his own person, against a government which trys to control everyones thoughts and actions. In the end, he is not his own person with his own thoughts at all, but becomes a person who is uniform in his society.
In this book, i am not so sure winston thinks for himself. In a way he does, but it is almost like he was led to this rebellion so the party could catch him and change him. For instance, when he got his notebook, or diary, it was a way for him to rebel and write bad things. When he finally hangs out with Julia and learns where she stands, it kind of encourages him to rebel even more- but he thinking for himself, or feeding off of Julia. Then there is Obrien, whom Winston confessed everything to him about how he felt about the party. Was Winston thinking all this for himself, or was it the fact he thought Obrien felt the same way which was encouraging him to say these things.
The novel 1984, where the leader or dictatior is Big Brother. The party controls very aspect of life, and even people's thoughts. Winston hates the pary, so he starts finding clues about the past. then Winston feels inlove with Julia and they both find out that they both hate the party. But they thought that O'Brien also hates the party so they become good friends tells him some of the things, and gives them a book to find about the past. But it was all a trick to tortur and brainwashed him until he fully believed in the Party and ends up betraying his love for Julia.
I think Winston do think about himself for example when he wants to find something about the party and also when he starts to write in the diary about some things. Although he knew that if the party finds out he would get tortur or killed. But at the sametime at the end of the novel Winston is brainwashed and O'Brien makes him to believe in the the Party and at the end Winston ends up loving Big Brother.
I don't think that Winston is ever really thinking for himself throughout the book because everything that he does is driven by the party in someway. Him being with Julia is just a rebellion against the party. Also when he writes or thinks thoughts against the party he does so because the party leaves him unfullfilled mentally.
Winston is a rebellious man who tries to rise against the party ( his government). he meets a girl (Julia) who also wants to rebel.so they sneak off and have sex together just to rebel against big brother. eventually O'Brien turns them in and they are tortured until they give in and start to love big brother.
I really don't think that Winston ever thinks for himself because even though at one point of his life where he thought he was thinking for himself. He was really being watched the whole time. Big brother knew that Winston and Julia were rebelling. So even though he felt like he was beating the government by being with Julia. He was really under as much surveillance as everyone around him. All the people in his life that made him think that they cared for him in the end turned on him. Mr. Charrington, O'Brien and Julia all betrayed Winston in the end. So really Winston was being set up to be caught by big brother the whole time.
although it sometimes seems like winston is thinking for himself he actually cant. in the book every time he thinks he is being watched by the telescreen or thought police he stops thinking about rebellious things. he thinks that when he is with julia he is safe from Big Brother but in the end he realizes that he can never escape Big Brother. so i do not think that there is anyway that there could be any rebellion, because as we saw in the book they shut down winston's little rebellion very fast.
1984 is about a man that constantly rebels againts a controlled government but in the end he ends up loving Big Brother.
I think Winston was able to think for himself but he kept making the wrong decisions. In the book, he says that if the Thought Police caught him writing in his diary then we will be dead for sure, but he goes ahead and does it anyway. Winston also makes the decision to have sex with Julia although he knows that sex was strictly for having babies. I think Winston makes these wrong decisions because he wants to rebel against the party so badly.
1984 by George Orwell is about Winston, the protagonist, trying to find out the past through rebellion against Big Brother, antagonist. Winston eventually gets caught and finds out the reasons why his society is the way it is.
I don’t think he thinks for himself because this society is made of lies and control over its people by Big Brother. On p.276, O’Brien tells Winston that “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” I think the way Winston thinks is not an accident, and caused by influences of other individuals with the Party—directly or indirectly--directly when O’Brien tells winston, and Indirectly through deception by Mr. Charrington and his room with no telescreens. Also on p.279 O’Brien tells Winston that “We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.” Here O’Brien tells Winston that people can be manipulated to do what the party wants.
The novel 1984 by George Orwell is a warning to the future about the terrors and inhumanities that could be achieved if totalitarian communist societies were left to develop into an organized, well run super powers.
Winston, a very average member of a totalitarian communist government, finds his thoughts astray from the proscribed doctrine of the overbearing dictator Big Brother. He rebels in his mind and in his secret diary but it takes falling in love with a like-minded member of the party to put his thoughts into action, to actively start to dismantle the control of the government. Winston's affair is shot lived, he and his lover Julia are arrested as criminals of thought and are tortured until they thoughtlessly believe in the ideals of the government and, in the end love Big Brother.
During his struggle with doublethink, a tool The Party uses to control the minds of its followers, Winston thought for himself to the greatest degree possible, his views were outside the parameters of control of the government for a short amount of time. Doublethink reversed his opinions reversed, he felt the need to uncover his past and reclaim is memories, but simultaneously worked altering facts for the Ministry of Truth and dumping any evidence of the new past into the “Memory hole,” or the furnace. While acting as a member of society Winston thought for himself to the greatest degree possible.
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Vigilanti Pretium Libertatis
Winston is a confused man in a society ruled by its controling government. The government controls all aspects of its peoples lives and strives to take control of it all even their thoughts and ways of thinking. Winston tries to rebell against this government in a variety of ways but most notably by enging in the act of enjoyable sex with his lady Julia a younger member of the party who also shares some of his views.
I beleive that throughout the whole book Winston is at a constant struggle with himself. For instance When he is in the shop in the slums and examines the glass bauble or paperwieght he sees it in a different light rather than just being some plain bauble. He sees it as a form of treason against the party to hold something that is attractive to the eye. As well when he reads Goldsteins book and is enmeshed in it and later forgets that Julia is even beside him. a couple times you can identify the struggle with Winston can be shown in these two scenes. One when Winston is at the two minute hate and he really sees how futile it is but then after about thirty seconds he finds himself enmeshed in the hate and later ponders on why that had happened. Another situation where Winston was at an odds with himself would be when he found himself writing in the diary in the beginning of the novel and he found later that he had wrote down with big brother. He did not know why he had wrote it or even that he had written it.
Being controled by his every move and every thoughts, Winston, a man who is struggeling to find out something more to this governed world, only ends up finding that in the end, not even he can thinkfor himself.
I don't think winston is ever able to think for himself, and never really did. Throughout the book Winston is trying to figure out bits and pieces of the past through memories that he has, or thinks he may have, and something or another always gets in the way of this. Being in constant awareness that members of the inner party and members of the thought police are knowing what he is thinking at all times hinders his capability of finding time to actually show some kind of emotion that invovles thinking. Winston didn't know who was who and who belonged to what. He only knew what the party had engraved in his mind, as well as the others. Even when he did have his rebellion time by being with Julia and trying to find the secret brotherhood, he still wasnt thinking for himself. And when he is being tortured by O'brien and has thoughts about the past or something he is thinking at the moment, O'Brien calls him on it. He is completely conroled bt this government as well as everyone else, even if he or they refuse to believe it.
Being controled by his every move and every thoughts, Winston, a man who is struggeling to find out something more to this governed world, only ends up finding that in the end, not even he can thinkfor himself.
I don't think winston is ever able to think for himself, and never really did. Throughout the book Winston is trying to figure out bits and pieces of the past through memories that he has, or thinks he may have, and something or another always gets in the way of this. Being in constant awareness that members of the inner party and members of the thought police are knowing what he is thinking at all times hinders his capability of finding time to actually show some kind of emotion that invovles thinking. Winston didn't know who was who and who belonged to what. He only knew what the party had engraved in his mind, as well as the others. Even when he did have his rebellion time by being with Julia and trying to find the secret brotherhood, he still wasnt thinking for himself. And when he is being tortured by O'brien and has thoughts about the past or something he is thinking at the moment, O'Brien calls him on it. He is completely conroled bt this government as well as everyone else, even if he or they refuse to believe it.
Basiclly this book is about a guy named Winston. He lives in a futuristic world that is run by a group called "Big Brother". This group controls all aspects of everyones lives. Or atleast Winston thought at first. He begins to find differents ways to rebel. In the end the thought police discover his "crimes" agianst big brother. And he is forced to accpect and love big brother. Once that happens... they end his life.
I dont think he ever thought for him self. For instantace during the first two minutes hate he makes eye contact with Obrien. He thought he saw somthing in Obrien's eyes. Winston started to get neverious and decided not to approach him. Then went home and started drinking. He started to think for himself but then the stuff big brother put in his head takes over and he does what he "should" do not what he wants to do.
Agian when he meets Julia every time they meet she kind of takes control. After there first meet she jumps up gets dressed and lays out his path back to the train depot. She does most of the talking when they meet.
Also when they where talking to Obrien and Winston was about to answer the final question she interupted and said no we couldnt dare be apart.
These are all example of how Winston did'nt think for him self.
The novel 1984 is about a man,Winston, who tries to find his place in society by looking deep into the lies of the party in search of "truth". He does this by rebelling against the party through having sex with a woman named Julia, writing in a diary, and joining a group that goes against the party. He realizes that everything that he writes for a living is altered, but doesn't seem to know why it's being done. When he's with Julia it seems like he is a different person, one that is "free."
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