1984 Summary Essay Research Paper 1984 SummaryNineteen

1984: Summary Essay, Research Paper 1984: Summary Nineteen eighty four is a tale of future society, a society in which independent thinking is a crime punishable by death. This is also a society who’s leaders are self serving and don’t set their goals for the common good by which all of the society will benefit. The party doesn’t need to justify its selfish ways because it holds all of the power. The symbol of the party was Big Brother. The idealism of blind loyalty was embodied in this symbol. It was the centre of control. The Party has set its agenda of completely controlling every single human mind by narrowing down the complexity of human thought. They will try accomplish this through the elimination of speech to a form where humans can no longer think for

themselves. These future citizens would not be able to commit any crimes against the Party. There is no possible way these humans would even think “criminal” thoughts to begin with since they had no knowledge of any crime from personal experience or history. The main character of this book is Winston Smith. Even though he is portrayed as a criminal, I believe that he is a victim of a system that is criminal. All through this book Winston’s convictions lead us to believe that he is ethical and the Party is unjust but it is left up to the readers discretion to decide whether he is the criminal or just a victim of a totalitarian society. The first instance of Winstons “criminal” nature was when he bought an illegal journal, quill and bottle of ink to record his thoughts.

Although he had so called “criminal” thoughts before, the journal seemed to bring out the more daring ideas in him as to how to get free from the Party’s reign. This all indirectly led to his meeting with a woman called Julia who shared his feelings and was either very brave or very foolish because she was more open then he about her feelings. I believe that these and the other actions following his initial “criminal” offence are justified and that Winston Smith is not a “criminal”. My first set of examples as to the flaws in the Party government are how they pitted family members against each other, and how the true nature of the family was destroyed because of this. The controlling intentions of the Party were reflected in how children were used to spy on their

parents. The toys given to the children such as ear horns were used to listen in on the conversations of their parents. Through groups and activities that were provided , the children were actually taught how to spy and were given justification for this act. They were given the title of “Child Hero” when they denounced their parents and reported them to the thought police. The children felt it was perfectly acceptable to inform on their parents to the authorities even though it meant punishment for their mothers and fathers. When Winston was in jail he met a colleague named Mr. Parsons who’s child turned him in for saying ” down with big brother ” in his sleep. Husbands and wives were also affected. They would report their spouses or children if they said anything

improper, did anything improper, displayed a facial tick or any other abnormalities. The Party took away the basic pleasures of their people, as another method of control. One example of this is how the food was intentionally very bland and tasteless. There is an account in the book where Winston is in a public cafeteria and longingly remembers a better time and how food was pleasurable then. Another example od pleasure deprivation is how they brought sex down to a level where the general public was repulsed by the thought via the anti-sex league. The public continued having sex as it was the will of the Party that people must reproduce. The degradation of sex also kept the married and unmarried alike brimming with energy for hate week, war marches and other fascist public