Seeking Knowledge

    In the novel, 1984, Winston is cast as a common man in a totalitarianism world seeking the understanding and awareness about the past. To show us so, he keeps a journal about what he experiences and thinks. The man looks to the wisdom of the others for help.

    Winston in a sense is just a little child looking for a light in a cruel dark world. He is a lost sheep looking for his master known as truth. When he finds an answer to his questions, his path takes a turn for the better or the worst. For instance, when Winston discovers that Julia was against the party like he was, loved sex, he was in love with him, things in his life started to look to the bright side. But when he learned that O’Brien worked and supported Big Brother, Winston’s life with downhill.

    To show the reader the answers Winston finds on his quest for truth, George Orwell uses symbolism. For example, the glass paperweight Winston gets from Mr. Carrington represents the past and Julia and his world together. However, that future is taken away were the couple is arrested and the paperweight is broken when it is dropped onto the floor.

    Along with symbolism, Orwell uses foreshadowing really heavily. One instance in this is Winston’s dreams. In one dream, Winston sees Julia strips off her scarlet chastity sash in the woods. But in the second dream, Winston walks by O’Brien in the park and he says, “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.” Well, that happens but the place turns out to be a well-lit prison. Another example of foreshadowing is on Pg. 77. Winston remembers the three guys sitting in the corner of the Chestnut Tree drinking Victory gin. They never spoke and they listened to the song:

    “Under the spreading chestnut tree

    I sold you and sold me:

    There lie they, and here lie we

    Under the spreading chestnut tree.”

    At that song, the men cry. Both the song and that scene I just described reveal to us what happens to Winston and Julia.

    Part of the flaw in his quest his the truth is that Winston is too trusting. Orwell points this out when he makes Winston trust and look up to O’Brien. This proves to be a fatal error when Winston is arrested and jailed. But strangely, through the torture, O’Brien is holding the main character like a baby. This seems to suggest that O’Brien is the one who inflicts the pain and take it away if Winston surrenders Julia. Through all of the pain he suffers, Winston still believes O’Brien will save him. O’Brien seems to be the only person that understands our protagonist. When Winston tries to talk to Julia about politics, she is apathetic about the subject and doesn’t care.