1984 Hero Essay

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Serenity Winters Hero? In society today the qualifications for being considered a hero varies. Whether it’s Caitlyn Jenner inspiring people across the world and receiving the Woman of the Year award in the United States or Maggie Doyne opening a school and a children’s home in Nepal with her babysitting money, we recognize people for their bravery, courage, and self-sacrifice. In George Orwell’s 1984, the main character Winston does not amount to today’s definition of a hero since he is selfish and he is weak-willed for letting “BIG BROTHER” control his life. Through-out the story, Orwell presents Winston as the protagonist who is heart-set on being a hero and his rebellion against the government. When Winston is writing in his diary and he repeats the phrase “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” (19) on half of the paper, he is showing his hatred for the government and how he wants to make a change to lessen the fear of it that BIG BROTHER influences. Another characteristic of Winston’s that is, unlike a hero, he is selfish in that he lacks the will to help others. When he sees Syme in the canteen, Winston lies to him after Syme asks if he had a spare razor and he replied “Not one!”(43) when actually, “he had two unused ones ... he was hoarding”(43). Here, Winston shows his truly selfish personality by lying.…show more content…
We see this when he breaks down in room 101. In room 101, Winston was being tortured and when he begged “… Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her” (236). He did this to save himself more pain and suffering, and in doing this he halted the torture from O’Brien. In this, Winston illustrates that he isn’t as strong willed as he is portrayed in the beginning by Orwell, and that in fact, he does fail and is not able to make any positive changes towards ending the fear formed by the idea of BIG

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