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Winston as a fantasy for Orwell

 So. A LOT happened in this section. The worst thing Winston had done at the end of section one was write in his diary. Now he's having sex with Julia, working with the Brotherhood, and even drinking black market coffee! However, I'm quite dissatisfied with Orwell's depiction of Winston's path so far. Everything seems to fall perfectly into place for Winston, to the point where it seems wildly unrealistic given the setting. I think that Orwell has overly romanticized Winston's life, and thinks of Winston as a version of himself if he lived in Oceania.

Winston lives a pretty valiant life: he is an inconspicuous guy who fights against the government while conducting an affair with the most beautiful woman he knows. He knows it's only a matter of time before he gets found out, but this doesn't dissuade him from his life of rebellion. How upstanding of him. Perhaps the scene that irked me the most was when Winston and Julia go to O'Brien's flat to officially join the Brotherhood. Like, come on. The chances of things working out that perfectly are so ridiculously low. The way that Orwell lays everything out so nicely for Winston makes me think that Orwell has some sort of hero complex where he sees himself as Winston. This delusion hinders the plot of 1984, because I don't think there is any way that Winston could realistically find all the connections he finds/make it as far as he does without being vaporized.

Do you guys agree with me/see glimpses of Orwell's self-glorification in Winston's character?

Comments

  1. Alice Gao22 February 2021 at 07:36

    This. Yes. This post put into words my exact frustrations. But hah spoilers....(Winston gets arrested by the ThoughtPolice and it turns out his whole fantasy was a lie). That still doesn't change how Orwell wrote the book and might even further glorify Winston's little paradise. I think this could also be interpreted as the Party showing off their control of the system by fooling Winston into having hope and then completely crushing it. I prefer this interpretation, as it makes me less mad.

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  2. Prithika Ravi22 February 2021 at 07:39

    Yeah everything was moving a bit fast for my pace-- he goes from being scared to write in a diary to having regular meetings in a flat he rents out for that purpose. It also feels odd because as readers, we've become accustomed to figuratively always looking over our shoulders. Seeing Winston so relaxed is unnerving, and it really did feel like I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

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  3. Katelyn22 February 2021 at 07:50

    I think that in addition to what you've said in your post, another thing that has kind of bothered me is that Julia really doesn't seem to have much to do with the rebellion or the brotherhood at all. The way that Orwell treats Julia is truly just as a person for Winston to have sex with. She doesn't care very much about any sort of overarching, long-game rebellion and isn't really even given the time of day by O'Brien. She seems to be just another way to show the reader that Winston is "not alone", although O'Brien could've done that just as easily, I suppose.

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  4. L. Moffitt22 February 2021 at 07:55

    Oh I like this discussion! I think maybe this is one of the reasons 1984 has such lasting popularity -- it ends up being sort of a blueprint for all dystopian lit to come. Oddly I had similar feelings about Hunger Games -- I felt like Katniss was a fantasy figure, the only person (really?) who protested the Games and started a movement where everyone revered her.

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