In George Orwell's 1984, Winston Smith's fate is predetermined and he is well aware of the consequences of his actions against the Party. After reading 1984, you are also aware of how Big Brother works. Knowing what you know now...
Imagine yourself as Winston Smith, from the beginning of 1984 until its ending. What would you do to undermine the Party? What would you do similarly or differently than Winston? And lastly, how would you avoid the fate that awaits you?
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The Party of Oceania erased memory and falsified written records; it is done with the concept that “who controls the past… controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” (37). With the past tampered, the lies that replace it become truth, and the glorification of Big Brother is ensured. The only means of knowing the truth is through an individual’s own memories, although they can never be sure for the debasing of language and thought employs them to confusion.
Nevertheless, there are those who refrain from succumbing to Party orthodoxy. The human spark, thought and emotion, is present in every human being. It is only oppressed to suppression in the members of the Party. Everyone is capable of rising above subjection. The dissociation lies within the people who are trained to be incapable of knowing the difference early on.
Winston Smith is made to believe that he is “the last man… the guardian of the human spirit.” (283), however there are countless other “last men”, without them there would be no purpose for having a Ministry of Love. Despite his knowingness of the outcome of his rebellion, Winston Smith, easily trusted everyone whom his consciousness told him was reliable, ignoring the quiet warnings of his unconsciousness. This is an act resulting from a mind trained for doublethink. If I were to be Winston, given the knowledge I know now, I would become wary of my surroundings, and the people around me. Hesitant to give complete trust to anyone. Other than the possible prolonging of the struggle for freedom by avoiding being monitored, I would have not done anything different. I would also have faced the fate that awaits me. The Party’s failure to reprogram Winston’s unconsciousness, foreshadows the outcome of his and a collective struggle.
A person is malleable, but cannot be fully controlled. The conscious state of mind might be captured but the unconscious thought remains in the depths of its owners power. The whole structure of Ingsoc falls from the strength of that power. If a person feels that being human is worthwhile, even when it does not bear a result, then the tyranny is beaten.
If I were Winston Smith living in George Orwell’s 1984 I definitely would have lived a different life than the one Winston lived. I honestly would not have rebelled in any physical way simply because every party member is aware that they are under constant surveillance by the telescreen, “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment… It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.” (5). Unfortunately, for me this knowledge would be enough to control my actions. I believe I would eventually grow to live in habit of being aware that I could very well be watched every moment of my life. No matter what, every physical rebellious act will be punished by death, “Whether he went on with the diary…made no difference. The thought police would get him just the same…sooner or later they were bound to get you.” (21). This is why the Party is so successful in oppressing the party members because the members know that if they revolt they will eventually be killed, it is inevitable. This knowledge would ensure that I would take no physical action against the party because my main objective would be to stay alive.
The ways in which I would act similar to Winston Smith are in his mental rebellious thoughts. The only conceivable way of defeating the Party is in one’s thoughts and memories so I would try to maintain my memories by thinking about them whenever I could. Though I am aware that thoughts can be caught by the Thought Police, I think that it would be the only way to stay sane in a country like Oceania. The only way to defeat the party is to truly despise Big Brother until death, to avoid growing to love him; this is how I would defeat Big Brother. A rebellion of one cannot result in a change and every member in Oceania is made to believe that they are the only ones who think rebellious thoughts, “the last man… the guardian of the human spirit.” (283). Since no member can privately speak to another member there is no hope for a real rebellion so this feeling of hopelessness works in the Party’s favour. The obvious problem with this way of thought is that in a world with no action, nothing can be done. This is how the party sustains its power in Oceania because the population is made up of people like me.
It states in the blog that it is Winston’s fate that leads him to his capture. The party is constantly watching everyone so it is inevitable that anyone who rebels will eventually be caught, and Winston knows this. It would then seem to the reader that Winston should just obey the party because as fate has it for any individual who stands against the party, he will disappear. The question of whether I would do something different, in the end would not make much of a difference. It is possible to survive a little longer or maybe shorter, it is even possible to not even act on your desires but ultimately it does not matter as we see when Winston talks about his journal "The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed—would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."(pg 19) Winston knows that he will be caught in the end for this but the essential point is that he is keeping the human spirit alive. If he did not write is his journal, have a secret relationship with Julia or talk to Mr. Charington it would not matter "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death."(27) you are born a certain way and some people will conform and others like Winston can not control the thoughts that occur in their brains.
Now I will imagine myself changing places with Winston. There are now two options for an individual in his place. You can obey the party by becoming a good party member or a prole which is essentially the same thing or you can rebel by taking action or committing a thoughtcrime which again is the same. I myself would follow the path that Winston took because I would rather live like a human being then become a mindless drone. I would not sacrifice my right of the human spirit and would take the punishment that entailed using it. To avoid the fate the awaited me would be nearly impossible but there is one thing I might try and do. A person who had not undergone the torture Winston had would not know about this but putting myself in Winston’s shoes I would. After I was releases from the ministry of peace I would publicly shout out things such as “down with Big Brother” and tell people “if they take me away I’ve died hating Big Brother” In would most likely not make much of a difference but if you could come up with the right words to say it might be possible to convince some people. Then again you can’t draw blood from a stone and to ask for a thought from an individual who is not truly an individual is pretty much hopeless.
If I were Winston Smith, knowing my death is only a matter of time I would make it my life goal to undermine and destroy the party before I die. The parties main purposes is to reprogram everyone so they all follow their system, the only way this can fail is if the reprogramming does not succeed and people begin to think for themselves. If I were Winston, I would fight to keep my memory so that I would still be able to think for myself, that part of my human spirit will forever live on, and that would destroy everything the party stands for. I would also avoid using Newspeak and keep my language full and strong allowing me to be less controlled by the state. In 1984, Winston does continue to be unaffected through out all the reprogramming and therefore is fighting back against the party just as I would have done if I were him. If I were Winston, I would have been less selfish and would have tried to better the future for others. I would have done this by pretending I was reprogrammed but before I die, I would yell out a line so that all could here and then all would see that I was a martyr in Oceania. Being a martyr would surely change things for the future generations, but Winston does not plan to do this at all. Even with Winston’s little nook he knows that he could be caught, “whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The thought Police would get him just the same.”(21) If I were Winston and knew that my fate was already sealed I would not try to waste my time avoiding what is already going to happen, I would try to take action and make others aware, or become a Martyr. Avoiding your death is useless, but making better of the life you have right now is useful.
In 1984, Winston lives in Oceania, a society where “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.”(29). Winston’s society is a place of constant surveillance and is a place where even the truth is abolished. As a result, the people “had to live- did live from habit that became instinct- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard and except in darkness, every movement scrutinized”(5). The party has established and maintained control over its people by not only keeping them under constant watch but by turning the people into creatures of habit. By doing this, no one can learn or understand transvalutaion and can be able to think for themselves. In order to undermine The Party, Winston writes in a diary: an action that will have him caught and killed by the thought police. By doing this, Winston strays away from the lies that the party has taught him which is considered to be a thoughtcrime Despite this risk, Winston still writes in the diary, which inevitably will have him arrested and killed.
If I were Winston I would do my best to disobey the wills and ways of the party. I would follow my own desire and do whatever I thought was right. These actions may have me arrested and killed eventually but I will die knowing that I have undermined the party for committing thoughtcrime and also undermined them for being my own person and think for myself. In the beginning of 1984, Winston “recognised himself as a dead man (30). I would have not done anything differently because my actions would have already had me killed in the first place.
Winston was doomed to being arrested by the though police whether he wrote in the diary or not. He was also doomed to the fact that he cannot make an appeal to the future for “not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper could physically survive. (29)” Throughout all this Winston still writes in the diary because “the continuity was not broken. (30)” Winston believed that it is not the diary but the very action of writing in it that will undermine the party. Even if his fate is sealed and he is doomed to having his very identity vaporized, he is willing to go through all of it under the idea that he remained a person not of the party but of himself and that is what I think will undermine and ultimately destroy the party in due time.
In George Orwell's epic political novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the main character Winston Smith is plagued with a predetermined fate, because of his actions. Winston's fate is also predetermined by the actions he takes within the first 20 pages of the novel. Winston who lives in a totalitarian environment with no personal thought at all, has taken the risk of writing in a diary. Orwell tells the reader that " this was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no laws, but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death,"(8) which tells the reader that even writing in a journal is punishable which seems outrageous by modern standards. I believe if was in Winston's shoes I would have done the same to undermine the authority of Big Brother. Even the thought of desire to rebel against Big Brother would take an enormous amount of strength and hope in the future. Although Orwell states that, " it was of its nature impossible.(to communicate with the future) Either the future would resemble the present, in which case it would not listen to him: or it would be different form it, and his predicament would be meaningless."(9) I think I would also seek for a refuge like Mr. Carrington shop as Winston did. Winston even says that the "lunatic idea of renting the room upstairs flashed momentarily through his mind again"(104) which suggests that Winston has free thought that is contemplating the idea of being a free man, and willing to flirt with the danger of being caught. Even with the knowledge that the "telescreen has a never-sleeping ear"(174) I believe that the Winston's strong human spirit would be enough to validate my own ambitions to attempt to undermine Big Brother. By having the advantage of knowing the end fate of Winston I believe that I would still proceed in all my endeavors simply because what Winston's actions showed was not symptoms of outrageous actions but were more simple put actions of the human spirit. Therefore if I were to be thrust into he same situation I believe that my own spirit would overcome me and with no regard for the end result I would also attempt to live and deceive the party.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell introduces the reader to a fictitious society, one that is ruled by big brother who is watching everything you do. There is no hiding from the police, they seem to have this control over you and have instilled a sense of fear and consequence over everything one does. As Winston understands all of this, he rises and rebels against Big Brother and the party. He begins to keep a diary and consciously breaks the laws. He also consciously commits thought crime knowing that "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death."(27) However if I were Winston, much of my actions would be different. A major mistake made by Winston is the diary that he writes in, and writes against big Brother “Down with big brother…”(21). There is a false sense of security in his house he has a nuke he feels safe from the eyes of the telescreen. However this freedom seems too good to be true that in this area Winston is not being watched when he is constantly remind that Big Brother is watching him all the time. However Winston knows that he committed a crime because he mentions that the “ Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed-would still have committed… thought crime, they called it…” (21) This shows Winston is aware of what he is doing, yet he continues to do it showing that this is his way of rebelling against society and standing up against the party. Secondly Winston makes the mistake of trusting O’Brien, when Winston has doubts about O’Brien he does not stick with his original thoughts and he tells O’Brien everything. If I were Winston I would not attract any attention towards me, and have not followed Julia and meet her in the counrty. What he has done with Julia was incredibly risky and clearly against the laws of the society. As a proper and well-respected citizen I would have more control to show others the truth about the party and not attempt to stand up against the party alone. After a sufficient amount of people understand the party’s intentions and realizes the control the party has over the people I would then attempt to over throw the party. It is said that knowledge is power. This is true for Winston, the more knowledge he has of the party, and the more people he will be able to convince to know the truth. Also the more people who know the truth will stand up and a group of people will have more power to over throw the party.
When Winston writes in his diary he understands his fate, he knows what will happen to him. “ They’ll shoot me I don’t care they’ll shoot me in the back of the neck I don’t care down with big brother…” (22) He is no longer trying to avoid the fate that is awaiting him; he is willing to go suffer the consequence. If I was Winston, and had followed the life he had and made the same decisions I would not be avoiding my fate, because from the beginning Winston knew what would happen to him. Winston would not have made the decisions he did if he was not willing to accept the consequences, which were his predefined fate. After consciously making a decision to stand up against the party and to rebel against them, you consciously make the decision to accept the consequences and the predetermined fate.
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