1984 - final

The passage quoted by O’Brien is significant in many ways to the story. Nineteen eighty-four was set up as a society where everything was perfect and nothing could go wrong. Everyone was controlled by the people of the party and demanded to follow their rooms or else. The most important aspect of this “or else” is that no one quite knew what it was. The whole idea of the society was to maintain an oligarchical collectivism. The reason for this is because of the fact that it allowed them to control those who lived in this society in any which way they wanted. However, the people of the society allowed this oligarchical collectivism go on, which is how and why it continued to exist. They were so unsure of what their fate may be that they did not want to go against the Party. The questioning between if their fate was already planned for them without their knowledge or if they truly have the choice to chose the path they want to follow was always lingering in people’s minds. Winston’s fate was already known from the very beginning of the story.
When O’Brien states “When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same things as you” he is describing how Winston lives in this society and what his life is like. When Winston met O’Brien, he immediately sensed a connection between the two of them. Orwell states “Much more it was because of a secretly held belief - or perhaps not even a belief, merely a hope - that O’Brien’s political orthodoxy was not perfect.” This quote meant that Winston sensed hope in O’Brien about having the same feelings toward the party as he did. Having such a hatred for party, lead him to believe that others felt that same hatred as well. By others he really meant O’Brien. Winston began to trust O’Brien considering they shared the same feelings, however he didn’t realize what was soon to happen to him. He starts to believe that everyone is believing the same things he does and has the same feelings, when in reality he was alone. The trust that he felt in O’Brien was the fall of Winston’s character. Once he began to trust O’Brien, there was nothing that could stop him from seeing Julia. By him seeing Julia, it lead him to make foolish mistakes that lead him to be torn apart. The trust he had in O’Brien was nothing. In fact, O’Brien was the bait that the controlling party used to get to Winston and it all faults in Winston’s foolish actions.
At the end of the book Winston’s fate once again plays a large role. When O’Brien says “You must humble yourself before you can become sane" he is stressing to Winston that in order to live with himself he must learn to live with the society first. He needed to learn to accept the person he had become before he could truthfully become that person. For Winston to live in the society without a constant struggle, he has to understand the societies thoughts and feelings. Rather than fighting against society, he must realize that it is just easier to make peace with the society and the people who control it. He has the choice of just giving in and being like everyone else or to still try and continue to go against them, but at the end of the story he realizes what needs to be done. “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” He finally allowed himself to be a part of the society. For so long he tried to be different from the world around him which only gave him problems in the long run. He finally stopped fighting against them and decided to fight with them.
Through these acts, the society was able to form an oligarhical collectivism into allowing the people to only believe what the party believed was the truth. The people of the society put up no argument and were completely fine with this act. “War is peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” the slogans in which the society was built upon. The people are so used to thinking that was is peace, that when there is no war, to them there is no peace. The Party uses that slogan so that they are able to keep the people in the society under very strict control. They are always worrying about what is happening in the war that it doesn’t open them up to details about different things. The question “why?“ does not exist to these people. Even when they have to ration their food, they believe that this is okay because the war is going on. By doing this the society is able to manipulate the minds of the people in to believing whatever they want them to believe. That is such a strong tactic because if they decide to go against this, they aren‘t aware of what will happen to them, just that it will be bad. “You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline”. This is the beginning of the speech that O’Brien says to Winston. They feel as though they must be looked upon as an example of disciplined people and that is what the society decides to make of Winston.
The Party decides the fate of everyone that lives with in their society. There truly is no such thing as “Big Brother“, but he acts as a figment so that the party is able to have more control. Since no one has every actually seen Big Brother, it adds more to the illusion. The party decides the fate of their people because they are able to see everything they do. “But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.” They knew of every move that was made by every person, which also leads to the fate of Winston. Winston’s fate wasn’t just determined due to the few mistakes that he had made through out the book, but they knew from the moment that they had seen a change in Winston that he was going to be torn apart. There are certain people with in this society that will always be around due to the fact that they are either not intelligent enough to think out side of the box, or simply smart enough not to show it. Winston thought that he was able to be smart enough not to show it, but he did realize that the simplest malfunction could lead to the destroying of his fate and that is exactly what happened. The party waited and watched him, and with just the simple mistake that Winston made, his fate was decided.

What interested me the most about this book was how people lived without freedom. It showed me how different things were compared to now. I can't imagine living such a confined life to where having personal thoughts and opinions was committing a "crime". The people were only allowed to believe what the people of the "party" believed, anything other than that was a crime. I've never even heard of "thoughtcrime" until this book, which is of course because it doesn't exist. However, my thoughts of the word itself would have gotten me locked away in the "Ministry of Love". The factor of control also plays a big role in this book. The party of Oceania had control over every aspect you can think of. As I mentioned before, the people were demanded to live this “confined” life that the party had control over. Anything from a document all the way to an event from past times was not allowed to be carried along throughout their lives. The reasoning behind this was to delete the past and all memories from each person’s past. In was in full affect for all the people of Oceania which left them forgetful and confused about the past they once experienced.
Also, the poem interested me too. The poem written by Orwell speaks of these "dreams" that he doesn't believe in. I always have some belief that dreams do come true, in some cases at least. He thinks all of the good things in life are just dreams that he will never experience. I feel as if both my explanation about freedom and about how you should follow your dreams link together. If you have the freedom you deserve, you are more likely to experience more things then a confined person whom can't express their personal opinions and thoughts. The word freedom is even a dream in some peoples cases. I think freedom drives you to dream, which is why these tie in with each other.
I feel that all three of these factors relate to one another in different ways. They all lead up to one another in someway. By being under complete control which doesn’t allow you to remember your past, will effect the way you portray dreams and experiencing them. Without the freedom that you need, dreams will be portrayed more as fantasies rather than a goal to reach. I believe these are put in the book to appreciate the things we have in life and follow your dreams.