In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist is an ordinary man by the name of Winston Smith. Throughout the novel, Winston struggles against the tyranny of Big Brother and the Party, both inwardly and eventually outwardly. However, by the novel’s end, Winston is discovered and broken by the Thought Police; his struggles are proven to be in vain. Still, despite his failure, Winston is undoubtedly the hero of the story. George Orwell’s definition of heroism is “ordinary people doing whatever they can to change social systems that do not respect human decency, even with the knowledge that they can’t possibly succeed,” and Winston fits all aspects of this definition to a T.
The first part of Orwell’s definition refers to “ordinary people,” and Winston …show more content…
Despite the restrictive, deceptive, and controlling nature of the world he lives in, Winston is still able to recognize that life is grossly unjust. The only way Winston has of knowing this, he says, is “the mute protest in [one’s] own bones, the instinctive feeling that the conditions [one] lived in were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different” (Orwell). Winston desires to replace his “world of lies” with “a world of sanity” and equality (Orwell). And to create this new world, Winston is willing to do nearly anything and everything. Referring to the Party, Winston once reflects that he would gladly “have infected the whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis” if he could have done so, saying that he would do “anything to rot, to weaken, to undermine” (Orwell). This dedication to doing whatever possible to overthrow the Party is further shown when Winston meets with O’Brien in his home. During this meeting, Winston affirms many things he is willing to do in the name of defeating the Party. He is prepared “to commit murder,” “to commit suicide,” to give his life, and many more terrible things (Orwell). Winston is willing to sacrifice and risk a great deal if it means taking down the Party. Indeed, with the seemingly omnipresent nature of the Thought Police, Winston …show more content…
The truth of this statement is made quite clear when it is revealed by O’Brien that the Party had been watching Winston for years and had set him up. As Winston reflects in his broken state at the end of the novel, “for seven years the Thought Police had watched him like a beetle under a magnifying glass,” and “no physical act, no word spoken aloud,” and “no train of thought” had not been noticed by them (Orwell). O’Brien was never on his side, and the perceived “link of understanding between them” had been a ruse to lure him in (Orwell). Because of this, Winston is captured. By the end of the novel, his hope for rebellion is completely erased, and he thinks that “he could not fight against the Party any longer” and that “the Party was in the right” (Orwell). He cries because of his overwhelming love for Big Brother. Still, even though Winston eventually gives in to the Party, he did everything he could in his situation to fight against it, knowing that it would result in his downfall. That arguably makes his struggle even more noble and
The first part of Orwell’s definition refers to “ordinary people,” and Winston …show more content…
Despite the restrictive, deceptive, and controlling nature of the world he lives in, Winston is still able to recognize that life is grossly unjust. The only way Winston has of knowing this, he says, is “the mute protest in [one’s] own bones, the instinctive feeling that the conditions [one] lived in were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different” (Orwell). Winston desires to replace his “world of lies” with “a world of sanity” and equality (Orwell). And to create this new world, Winston is willing to do nearly anything and everything. Referring to the Party, Winston once reflects that he would gladly “have infected the whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis” if he could have done so, saying that he would do “anything to rot, to weaken, to undermine” (Orwell). This dedication to doing whatever possible to overthrow the Party is further shown when Winston meets with O’Brien in his home. During this meeting, Winston affirms many things he is willing to do in the name of defeating the Party. He is prepared “to commit murder,” “to commit suicide,” to give his life, and many more terrible things (Orwell). Winston is willing to sacrifice and risk a great deal if it means taking down the Party. Indeed, with the seemingly omnipresent nature of the Thought Police, Winston …show more content…
The truth of this statement is made quite clear when it is revealed by O’Brien that the Party had been watching Winston for years and had set him up. As Winston reflects in his broken state at the end of the novel, “for seven years the Thought Police had watched him like a beetle under a magnifying glass,” and “no physical act, no word spoken aloud,” and “no train of thought” had not been noticed by them (Orwell). O’Brien was never on his side, and the perceived “link of understanding between them” had been a ruse to lure him in (Orwell). Because of this, Winston is captured. By the end of the novel, his hope for rebellion is completely erased, and he thinks that “he could not fight against the Party any longer” and that “the Party was in the right” (Orwell). He cries because of his overwhelming love for Big Brother. Still, even though Winston eventually gives in to the Party, he did everything he could in his situation to fight against it, knowing that it would result in his downfall. That arguably makes his struggle even more noble and