When we first meet Winston Smith he seems a small stitch in the social fabric of a totalitarian civilization ruled supremely by the all-powerful 1, 1814400)"; href="/tags/big-brother/">Big Brother figure. We quickly learn, however, that this seemingly standard individual holds deep extremist views against the ruling party, utterly detesting all they stand for. He creates, through his diary entries, ultimately futile ideas of revolutionary conquests instigated by the proles, who will rebel in their unmatched numbers and overthrow the Party. He believes this fantasised act would wipe out its corrupt, indoctrinating nature and restore the former world embracing liberation of ideas and unrestrained feelings once again. The problem with holding such radical views in the world of 1984 is that at anytime someone committing a thoughtcrime, or any notion contrary to the Party,could be vaporised; erased from existence. Hence Smith is potentially in great danger; but this doesn’t deter the strong feelings he holds inside. How then, could such a fierce opponent of the Party end up, by the end of the novel, loving Big Brother, and thinking his adoration to be a victory he won ‘over himself’?
‘He who controls the past controls the future; he who controls the present controls the past.’
When Winston is first captured by the Party he seems oblivious to the passage of time; ‘with no clocks and no daylight it was hard to gauge the time’. Time, like with the past, holds no significance in this place; it is ignored. This idea may help explain why there citizens obey Big Brother’s rules. The public are confused by where they stand in time and how they got there, the past is forever shifting, constant adaptation is required. The party’s ambivalent messages, praising workers sometimes, vaporising others based on a subjective line, evokes fear so people comply and dutifully obey the master unquestioningly, and live as robots with pre-programmed views and responses. Undoubtedly by the end of the novel Winston becomes a robotic figure like everyone else, and it is in the final section that the unalterable metamorphosis occurs, but how is it achieved?
Firstly Winston is tortured extensively until he becomes a ‘bowed, grey-coloured, skeleton-like thing’ with ‘battered-looking cheekbones…ancient, ingrained dirt…and knees (that) were thicker than the thighs’. In short he resembled a ‘man of sixty, suffering from some malignant disease.’ While captured he is emotionally wrecked, humiliated and emaciated beyond recognition; a shadow of him former self. Through his seven years of being tormented, both physically and mentally, it seems the ‘Ingsoc’ ideologies of the autonomous group were hammered repetitively into him until secured. As O’Brien puts it, ‘we shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.’ Winston is also eventually made to believe that ‘2+2=5’; a phrase no doubt borrowed from dictator Adolph Hitler who said "If the Führer wants it, two and two make five!" Winston’s development before finally complying with this statement shows how his mental structure changes over time. At first he dispels the idea; "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows." But ultimately consents to the premise, using doublethink to justify it, and from this point on there is little hope left for him to pursue his former path.
Indoctrination, to the point of alteration, seems to be the main aim of the torture sessions. Arguably O’Brien could be based on Josef Mengele, a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, known as the ‘Angel of Death’. These two can be juxtaposed especially during Winston’s electric shock brainwashing sessions where O’Brien seems to enjoy exerting agonizing force against his victim in an almost casual manner. O’Brien could be seen as acting as the Pavlovian representative of the party. This places Winston with an animal status inferior to the pa
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