Winston & Julia relationship

We are first introduced to Julia during the preparation for the two minutes hate. She was "a bold-looking girl" about 27 years old, with thick dark hair, a freckled face and she moved with a swift athletic grace. Winston hated Julia ever since he had layed eyes on her. He believed that the reason he hated her was 'because of the atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean mindedness which she managed to carry about her. He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones.... who were the most bigoted adherents of the party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy." (pg. 12) But Winston thought there was something more dangerous about Julia than most women.

During the two minutes hate Winston gets hallucinations about trying to mortally wound Julia, and at that time he realizes why he hates her so much. It was because she represented what he could not have; she was young, strong, and beautiful.

Later in the book Julia and Winston meet in a hallway and she falls. While Winston helps her up Julia gives him a note saying "I love you". They then secretly get together and Winston finds out that Julia has had affairs with other party members, even though this is strictly forbidden in the party. From then on Winston and Julia get together many other times always switching spots so that they would not be discovered.

Although Winston and Julia both rebel against the party they are completely different in their reasoning, inspiration, and motives. Winston rebels in hope that future generations will be free of the party and be able to live in something like the Golden ages or the times he remembers from before the party took over, or at least in a time where they are free to think what they like and are not denied the privilege of the truth. Julia, being younger has no memories of a time before the party and therefore can't imagine a time without the party in control. She rebels not for the future generations, like Winston, she rebels more for the sake of just rebelling. Julia believes that the only way of rebelling against the party is with secret acts of disobedience or at the most isolated acts of violence because she doesn't believe that anyone or anything can defeat the party.

Also, although Julia is against Big Brother, she does not seem concerned about the extent of his control. She is against the party and what it stands for but she never really says her reasoning. The only time Julia questions the party's teachings when they somehow touch upon her own life. Julia also accepts lots of what the party says simply because she didn't seem to care much of the difference between a lie and the truth.


To me it seems that Winston and Julia do not completely love each other, it seems like they more love the idea of loving one another than actually having the physical and emotional connection simply because they can relate to each other. They are also very determined to stay together, when O'Brien asked if they were willing to be separated they both refused. This might be because that when they are together they know that they are not alone. It is a human need for companionship and you can not have this in the party's society. In Winston and Julia's struggle against the party, they feel they can confide in each other their actual opinions and thoughts about the party and this would make them feel much less alone.

Brainwashing

In George Orwell's 1984 he brings up the idea of brainwashing. In his dystopia the outer party members like Winston are constantly fed a flow of false or modified information and facts. This is done so much that it is impossible to tell the truth from lies. The party has the information changed and the history destroyed mainly for the reason that they want to control the masses.

This is a form of brainwashing and it is done constantly. The people are told certain pieces of information every day, for example in the 2 minutes hate with Goldstein and the soldiers of which ever place they are currently at war with, and by doing this the people start to believe what they are hearing.

The party uses brain washing so much to get the public to be completely loyal to them that the public will automatically believe what ever they are told. For example during hate week a speaker is talking about how terrible Eurasia is and how well the war is going for Oceania, and then the speaker is handed a piece of paper and he suddenly changes what he is saying and instead of being at war with Eurasia they are at war with Eastasia and Eurasia is the enemy and that's the way it has always been. The people whom he is talking to start to believe it right away without question, some without realizing that it had changed at all.

Another example of how complete the brainwashing the party has done is Parsons. Parsons is so brainwashed by the party that he is actually proud of his children's actions for the spies. His daughter followed a man that she thought was strange and handed him over to the patrols because she saw that he was wearing "funny" shoes that she had never seen before so she thought that he was a foreigner. Parsons supports the party no matter what happens and he would even be proud if his children handed his wife, or even himself over to the patrols.

What is the the price to pay for freedom?

Winston commits his first act of rebellion when he starts writing a journal. This journal is a place where Winston can record his memories, thoughts, and ideas. This journal is a symbol of freedom, hope, and Independence. When Winston starts writing in his journal he knows that he will be killed because of it. He knows that there is no way that the thought police or another party member will not find out about his unlawful act, so this journal will be the end of him. If Winston knows that he will die if he writes the journal this poses the question, then why does he write in it?
When Winston begins the writing of the journal he stops to ask himself, who am am I writing this for? His answer is "For the future, for the unborn." At this point Winston realizes how big of a task this is. Is it even possible to communicate with the future? And what are the chances of his book actually surviving? The future would either be the same and the book would be destroyed or the future would be better and there would be no need for any of his thoughts or opinions. Even with all of these doubts Winston still writes in the journal.
Winston still writes in the journal because he hopes that it will survive and help the future or atleast give them a window into what his time was like. He believes that even if he might die the amount of people it will help would be worth more than his own life. In a greater sense Winston thought that he was performing an act of utilitarianism or an act that would benefit the greater good.
Writing in the journal was also a type of therapy for Winston. In the journal he could say whatever he wanted, he didn't have to hide his feelings. He could express the emotions he regularly had to keep hidden, and the opinions and thoughts he had to keep to himself.
If Winston was willing to die for a possibiltiy of liberating the future generations then what is the price we today will pay for freedom? Are we willing to risk our lifes or the lifes of others? Or are our needs for freedom today less extreme than those of Winstons?

1984

Orwell sets up a feeling of a dystopia in his novel 1984 within the first few chapters. It becomes clear that the present society described is very undesirable. With buildings that smell of boiled cabbage and old rug mats which show that the people must live poor and unsanitary lifestyles. As well as telescreens in almost all of the rooms and buildings which make it so that you can be seen every moment of the day allowing you no privacy, big posters with an image of a dictator and a caption saying "Big Brother is watching you" are used to impose the fact that the people are supposedly protected and looked after by this Big Brother figure. The fact that they need posters everywhere to remind the people shows how unsure of their safety the government is. Dreary, gray, cold cities, and wars which involve rocket bombs currently exploding on many populated areas in the country show that the condition of the cities themselves and the government cannot not be very stable. It is established that the lives of the people living in this society cannot be very good or anything like a place we desire to live in today.

The first character that is introduced in a man of about 39 years named Winston Smith. Winston is not in good health, he has a varicose ulcer above his ankle, he gets coughing attacks when he wakes up in the morning, and he needed to rest twice while going up stairs. He had a smallish, frail figure, a meagre body, very fair hair and an unpleasant face. Winston believes he is unique compared to the rest of the population in Oceania because he disagrees with the motives, ideas and actions of "the party" or the political group that leads his country. He believes he is the only person who isn't brainwashed by the party's lies and propaganda, and that the party is trying to control everything that the population does and thinks in order for the citizens to support and fight for their country, no matter what is actually going on outside of their cities.

Winston works in the ministry of truth. This ministry is charged with the responsibility of editing and changing past newspaper articles, books, records, and anything else that contains information of what happened in the past, to fit the current situation. Whether it is if Oceania is at war with Eurasia or Eastasia, a prediction made by Big Brother that has to be changed to fit what actually occurred, or the erasing of a person who was vaporised so that there is no evidence left that they existed.