1984
...is an offence punishable by death, and the people live under constant supervision. The main character, Winston, lives in the totalitarian state of Oceania, where a figurehead known only as Big Brother is revered by the majority of the populace. In this state, those in positions of power are members of the Inner Party, while the rest of the people are either members of the Outer Party or part of the proletariat. Those who choose to rebel against the principles of the Party are not only killed, however, and instead are tortured until not even a trace of individuality remains within them. W.H. New stated that “Nineteen Eighty-Four is very much a novel about the conflict between Man’s responsibility to self and State”, and this very sentence speaks volumes regarding the situation Winston finds himself in. Among the conflicts that Winston is faced with in the dystopian society of Nineteen Eighty-Four, he makes many efforts independent of those around him to combat the force-fed principles of the Party with his own beliefs, but in the end fails to withstand the Ministry of Love’s methods of torture.
Throughout the novel, there are many challenges that enter Winston’s life in Air Strip One, and the manner in which Winston handles each situation gives readers insight into his ideals and views on the society he lives in. The fact that he must modify history for the benefit of the Party as part of his job, for example, is one of the major conflicts Winston is faced with in his life. He is forced to change newspaper articles and other things the public might see, in order to give the people the impression that the Party is perpetually correct. In one instance, he changes one of Big Brother’s speeches so it becomes a commemoration of a hero that never existed, but was a perfect fit for the Party’s image of the ideal. Once finished, Winston realized that the hero...
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