Dystopian Journal 3

The main character of George Orwell’s book 1984, Winston Smith, finds himself immersed in a futile struggle against a perfect socialist society. He becomes a victim of this society by being put under constant surveillance, and exposed to the other means of control the government of Oceania uses. Winston feels trapped and realizes that the government is destroying things like intelligence, history, logical reasoning, the common thought process and even the nature of a person’s sexual desire in order to gain complete control over the members of its society.
He chooses to resist the government in many ways and is to an extent successful. Winston develops a pure relationship with a woman, expands his intellectual capacity, seeks out the underground resistance, and even writes a journal. However in the end all of this is futile because he and the woman are arrested and Winston discovers that any rebellious actions he takes against the party accomplish nothing in the way of disrupting the government’s control over the people.
Because he chooses to resist the government, Winston is eventually arrested. After being arrested he becomes a victim of torture and the government works at forcing him to conform. Winston confesses to whatever crimes the torturers tell him to and ultimately surrenders all of his dreams, hopes, desires, and feelings in order to save himself from death. Orwell’s society does not use pain as its main form of torture; instead they target the person’s feelings, desires, reflexes, and personal thoughts. By doing this Winston and the other rebels are slowly forced to accept what they are told and to forget about logic.

Word Count: 269