1984 Where The Ind Is No

1984, Where The Ind. Is No Longer In Control…. Essay, Research Paper

1984

(George Orwell)

The individual is doomed in a world where the he is no longer in control of his self. Forces around and in him victimize the person, but all these forces have the same center, they all revolve around one main source. In the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, Winston Smith, the main character, falls victim to these forces which prohibit him from controlling his own life. One of these forces is the control the Party gives itself on the so-called truth, they take away history and replace it with whatever fits their needs. Another force that victimizes Winston is the Party s policing and unwritten laws, which in the end turn out to be the ruin of Winston s life. Winston also falls victim to his self; he is constantly fighting a battle within his mind against the evils of newspeak and doublethink. Winston Smith loses control of his self because of one main source; this source is the Party.

The Party takes control of Winston s life using many methods, one of these ways is through their manipulation of the truth in the past. In Winston s world any unpure thought may strike the Party as evil , if so they will make one disappear, or be an unperson . This is one of Winston s many fear’s. He is afraid of what might happen if the Party is to see his diary. All he can think about is a fate worse than death but, annihilation . How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you could physically survive. (Orwell, p.29). The Party eliminates anyone who dares to confront them. This leaves Winston, along with others, feeling inferior; they can no longer control their own lives, but must rely on rulers whose sole care is the luxury of their lives. News of wars with Eastasia/Eurasia could lead one to believe that other lands exist outside of Oceania. But if so, why is there no means of Travel. This of course not being a part of Outer Party member activities. Vacations or travel outside of Oceania would be of course forbidden. In the years before the revolution it may have been different but there were not many people left whose ideas were formed before that time. In the novel it reads, The older generation had mostly been wiped out in the great purges of the fifties and sixties, and the few who survived had long ago been terrified into complete intellectual surrender.” (Orwell, pg.74). So these conditions may only exist in Oceania and not the rest of the world. The only solid evidence of an outside existence or people are the Eastasia/Eurasia prisoners bound in chains and transported by truck through the streets for all to see heading for who knows where. Are these even prisoners of war. Surely no one would ever be able to talk to them without being carted off themselves. In this world of theirs, as it reads in the novel, The Thought Police would get [anyone] just the same (Orwell, p.21). These people may not even be prisoners of war at all, just the members of the outer party or proles, that disappear every day due to thought crime, or are believed to be dangerous and are sent off to die at the hands of Big Brother. Oceania could be a self-contained country controlling its people and feeding them lies. Its people would never have any way of knowing otherwise or any reason to think so. The rest of the world could be free and no one would be the wiser. Just toys in a game being played with and discarded at will being pushed around and controlled by a master hand from above. No longer in control just a pawn in the greater scheme.

Although the Party s hold on the people through the manipulation of the past plays a great contribution to Winston s loss of control of his self, the Party s methods of policing also plays a role in it all. In a world controlled by a higher power, constantly living in fear of doing or saying something wrong, constantly being watched, and observed without knowing. There is no escape from the Party, even one s home has a telescreen watching every facial expression and recording any abnormal body language, any movement everywhere one goes. Winston s diary is an excellent example of the lengths some people go through for security and that the government goes to for its control of its population. Winston begins writing his diary in the hope of later generations using it as a basis for revolution, but even he knows that will never happen because the Party keeps an eye on everything. When Winston starts his diary he carefully puts a piece of hair on top of it so he will know if anyone looked at it while he is at work. But, Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same, (Orwell, p.21). The Party will find out no matter what he does, the secret cannot be held forever, and when they find out Winston will pay with the worst punishment ever. The Party does nothing for the citizens but police them to make sure they are not conspiring against the Party. The Party has small cameras and microphones hidden all around Oceania, this is how the thought police catch Winston. He and Julia had rented a room in the proletarian neighbourhood, where they committed their acts against the Party. It turns out that there is a camera, as it reads in the novel, behind the picture (Orwell, p.230), in their room. The Party destroys Winston and Julia s entire lives. They have nothing to live for, only a