1984

Characterization

1984

Theme

Plot

Winston is best described as being contemplative, intellectual, and rebellious. This can be proven in multiple points throughout the book. For example, in his journal, he writes "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER," to show his feelings about the system in which he lived. This act was very dangerous, which caused him to worry if anyone had seen him. If anyone had, he would surely be tortured. Another thing would be him joining an anti Big Brother faction known as the Brotherhood, which ultimately led to his downfall.

I believe the theme could be conformity and the suppression of individualism. In the story most people follow Big Brother and are mindless zombies for him, they all love him. Except for Winston who hates Big Brother with all his heart, until later in the story after he was tortured for a long time that he finally admits that “he loves Big Brother.”

The climax of the novel is when Winston must choose between Julia who represents individuality and Big Brother who represents conformity. He decides to conform to Big Brother rather than Julia because he doesn’t want to be tortured any longer.

summary

Symbol

An eye would be a great symbol to represent the overall story, in the story Big Brother is always “watching you” causing paranoia in Winston and also leading to his overall downfall and submission to Big Brother.

In the book 1984 by George Orwell, mankind lives in a dystopic world. In the area of Oceania, a man named Winston Smith lives under the rule of Big Brother, he has always hated Big Brother and everything he’s done to their society. He finds someone with a similar viewpoint on Big Brother named Julia, they find a group of people called the Brotherhood and join them. Unbeknownst to them there was someone named O’Brien who has been spying on them for Big Brother. They get turned in and tortured until in the end, Winston loves Big Brother.