Orwell Assignment

In reading 1984 I found myself very drawn to the main character, Winston Smith, for several reasons. My main reason for finding a liking in Winston was that he seemed to want to not only rebel, but understand why this totalitarianism came to be, much unlike his counter part, Julia. Winston was very thoughtful and mindful of how and what he did towards Big Brother, for the most part. I think for most people under control of the “Big Brother” found it to be almost a safe haven. Somewhere where you are watched over and no one can hurt you; but to others, like Winston, it was an open threat. You are constantly being watched by a “person” whom is possibly not even real. I feel this may have been one of Winston’s motives for a rebellion; simply to discover if “Big Brother” were actually real. You can tell Winston has a great disdain of the Party through his actions. He has an illegal love affair with Julia. Also, when he wrote “Down with Big Brother” in his diary was another way of him pushing the power limits. To me Winston is the most interesting and intense character in this book. His eventual, and seemingly unquestionable, downfall I think is truly brought on by O’Brien and Winston’s own paranoia. If it wasn’t for his belief that he would be caught no matter what, he may have never trusted O’Brien and he may not have been punished.

I feel that Julia may have been a major character, and major part in the book, but her motives seemed to very different from those of Winston. Julia’s reasons for rebellion seemed very selfish and one sided. Her main reason to rebel was for pleasure whereas Winston wanted answers. The only true thing that Julia is Winston share is their desire for sex. Julia even admits to having affairs with Party members and she has no intention of changing her ways. She does not fear being caught because her rebellion is small and insignificant.