FREE ESSAY ON 1984

1984

1984 by George Orwel is a dramatic novel portraying a restricted society. Winston Smith is
a thin, 39 year-old man who wears blue Party coveralls. Winston is sick of the Party's
rigid control over his life and world, and begins trying to rebel against the
Party--writing defiant thoughts in a secret diary and starting an illegal affair with
Julia. Julia a beautiful dark-haired girl working in the Fiction Department at the
Ministry of Truth. A mysterious and powerful member of the Inner Party whom Winston
believes is a member of the Brotherhood. Throughout the novel, Winston is obsessed with
O'Brien, dreaming he will meet him one day in the place where there is no darkness. Mr.
Charrington a kindly old mans whom runs a second-hand store. Winston buys his diary at
Mr. Charrington's store, and also buys a paperweight there that becomes very important to
him. The novel starts off in a city called Oceania, where the BIG BOTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
Winston feels frustrated by the control of the Party, which prohibits free thought, sex,
and any of individual thought. He has illegally purchased a diary in which to write his
thoughts, and has become fixated on a powerful Party member named O'Brien, whom Winston
believes is a secret member of the Brotherhood, the legendary group that works to
overthrow the Party. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical
records to fit the needs of the Party. He has noticed a beautiful girl, staring at him;
he worries that she is an informant who will turn him in for his thought crime. He
worries about the Party's control of history: One day, Winston receives a note from the
dark-haired girl that reads, I love you. Her name is Julia, and they begin a covert
affair, always on the lookout for signs of party monitoring; . O'Brien initiates Winston
and Julia into the Brotherhood, and gives Winston a copy of Emmanuel Goldstein's book.
Winston reads the book to Julia in the room above the store, but suddenly soldiers seize
them; the owner of the store has been a member of the Thought Police. Torn away from
Julia and taken to a place called the Ministry of Love, Winston finds that O'Brien was a
Party spy as well; O'Brien spends months torturing and brainwashing Winston, finally
sending him to the dreaded Room 101. Here, O'Brien straps a cage full of rats. Winston
snaps, pleading with O'Brien to do it to Julia, not to him. The main conflict in the
novel is between man vs. society, because Winston tried to rebel against the government.
As much as he could hold the torture, right when he got into Room 101 and saw all the
rats, he started to love Big Brother, and gave up the rebellion.
The main theme in the book is to warn people what can happen when governments are given
too much power. It also shows us how such governments can develop, and what methods 
they use to keep the people they are governing in their power.
I though this book was very interesting, because of just how the government works and how
it relates us. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it was getting
confusing during the middle of the book.