George Orwell’s 1984: Is Winston Smith a Hero?

1984 is a dystopian novel written in 1949 by English novelist George Orwell. The book is set in the fictional state of Oceania and follows the story of Winston Smith, an everyday man who’s day-job is to doctor historical documents to keep up with the changing ethos of the totalitarian ruling Party. Orwell portrays Winston’s character as an everyday man working an ordinary job, at least by the standards of Oceania. Moreover, through Winston, readers learn the suffering that the totalitarian government has imposed on its people. George Orwell once described a hero as an ordinary person doing whatever they can to change social systems that do not respect human decency, even knowing that they cannot possibly succeed. Could Winston Smith be a hero? Read on…

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Why Winston is a hero according to Orwell’s Definition.

Winston is an ordinary person flawed with personality and physical shortcomings not associated with the classic hero; he loves to write, drink, smoke, and maybe out of the smoking, he has terrible coughing fits each morning. Winston also has an itchy, swollen ulcer at the back of his leg. When Winston rebels, he develops an intense sense of fatalism. He is over-paranoid about the Party and believes that the Party will eventually catch him. Moreover, true to his fears, the Party was watching all along. Winston holds on to a dream of freedom and independence from a totalitarian system, and this everyday person who is somewhat cowardly ends up fighting for what he believes in, fully aware of the consequences of his action. Orwell mentions in his book that “in the face of pain, there are no heroes.” Although Winston is tortured to the point that he denounces Julia and cries for his love for Big Brother, this man of ordinary stature was facing a daunting task he possibly could not succeed in and is still a hero in Orwell’s definition of the term.

Winston is a hero that readers can emulate.

Totalitarian systems use propaganda, intimidation, and fear to demand conformity. History is doctored, the truth is altered, and dissent is severely punished that, with time, people begin to believe the lie that the government wants them to believe. Winston lives in such a system. He is a lonely and observant intellect interested in the truth. His work of re-writing and distorting history makes him see the bigger picture, and he grows to resent the Party’s oppression. According to the novel, “He felt as though he were wandering in the forest of the sea bottom, lost in mosterous world where he himself was the monster…What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side? And what way of knowing that the dominion of the Party would not endure forever?” (Orwell, 1990. p47). To escape the tyranny of the government, at least in his mind, Winston portrays an attitude to do what is right and shows bravery by rebelling against Oceanian law, fully aware that Big Brother could be watching and that such actions are punishable by death.

Winston is an everyday man anyone can relate to; however, he does not just sit and allow his mind to be imprisoned. He does whatever he can to achieve freedom and independence. His rebellious tendencies against what he knows to be wrong are the first indicators of his heroism. Moreover, he has an unwavering attitude to keep rebelling until the very end. He starts by rebelling against the Party’s unfair laws. He occasionally prowls the street looking for items from the past that he can buy, which is where he obtains his diary. However, buying such items is against the Party laws. “Party members were not supposed to go into ordinary shops. (Orwell, 1990. p6). Winston even rebels during the Two-Minutes Hate period when citizens of Oceania are supposed to conform to propaganda. According to the book, “there was a space of a couple of seconds during which the expression of his eyes might have conceivable betrayed him.” (Orwell, 1990. p16).

Why some might not consider Winston Smith a hero

Historically heroes are admired for their great courage and outstanding achievements. Moreover, heroes are known to face adversity and fight for what they believe to the very end, emerging dead or victorious. Winston is captured and tortured, and eventually broken. Winston fails in his search for independence and freedom, which can be attributed to his weak willpower, unorganized planning, and indulgent nature. Heroes boast of outstanding achievements, but Winston has none. In the end, he only suffers and ends up exactly as the Party wanted him. His sense of freedom is taken away, and the Party manages to turn him into a subservient unquestioning loyal citizen. He even renounces Julia, whom he earlier believed to be the love of his life. Nevertheless, Winston achieves nothing and ends up worse than he started, which hints that he might not be the hero everyone wants him to be.

 However, Orwell defines a hero by their actions and not the outcome. Winston is an ordinary man who takes action to free himself from tyranny and even makes an effort to try and fight for the freedom of others. Hence, by Orwell’s definition, this is what should define Winston as a hero. Even when undergoing torture, Orwell writes, “Winston knew that he was on the wrong, but he preferred being on the wrong,”(Orwell, 1990, p50). This shows his unwavering attitude to continue fighting for freedom in the face of adversity. Heroes do not have to be perfect; they are everyday flawed men and women. Although Winston is eventually broken, he is still a hero because he stood up for all oppressed citizens of Oceania and knew deep inside that he could not succeed and might even have ended up dead.

Final take…Winston Smith is an absolute hero

In conclusion, Orwell defines a hero as someone ordinary doing whatever they can to change social systems that do not respect human decency, even with the knowledge that they cannot succeed. No one could be more ordinary than Winston Smith. He is 39 years old, divorced tobacco addict with a relentless cough and an itchy swollen ulcer at the back of his foot. However, Winston is also a lonely intellect with an unwavering quest to achieve independence and freedom from an omnipresent totalitarian system. Winston takes action to stand for all oppressed citizens of Oceania. Although he fails to achieve this, Orwell’s definition shows that a hero is defined by his action and not the outcome, making Winston an absolute hero.

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Middle English Vs. Modern English, A Case Study of the Tempest.

Image of The Tempest courtesy of Sacramento Theatre Company

Shakespeare’s The Tempest was written in 1611; hence, the English that it was written in is significantly different from the contemporary English spoken in all the English-speaking countries today. The language in which Shakespeare wrote The Tempest is described as Early Modern English, a language that was spoken between the year 1500 and 1750 in modern-day Britain and is often referred to as Shakespeare’s English or Elizabethan English.

Around the end of the 16^th century, Middle English was fast fading away, giving rise to an English that bears a lot of similarity to the one that we speak today. However, even today, no English is the same, and there are different variations of the same language spoken in the United States, Australia, and England, hence, the need to specify whether it is American English, Australian English, or British English, but the difference is small anyway, and the language is mutually comprehensible.

To highlight the difference between Shakespeare’s English and Modern English, consider Act 1 Scene 1 of the original play, which begins with the master calling out to the bo’sun who then replies, “Here, master, what cheer?” In modern English, the bo’sun’s answer would just be “yes, captain.” Given that the ship’s masters are called captains in contemporary English. Next, in Shakespeare’s English, the captain instructs the bo’sun by saying, “Good, speak to the mariners: fall to’t, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.” Although the Middle English statement retorted by the captain is difficult to understand, in contemporary English, it would be translated to, “get all hands on deck, or we’all run ourselves aground, quick, quick!” Notice that the word ‘bestir’ becomes ‘quick!”

There are a lot of differences between Middle English and Modern English. For instance, Middle English had a lot of french influence while modern English developed on its own as a version of Middle English. Consider, by the eleventh century, a lot of Norman conquests were happening in today’s Britain, which significantly influenced the English language. England was conquered by the duke of Normandy in 1066, after which several impressions got infused into the English language, including a significant number of French impressions. However, beginning the 15^th century, the flux towards modern English started taking shape, which can be seen in pronunciation.

In Anne Carson’s essay, “Variations on the right to remain silent,” she mentions that in some instances, every translator should know that some words cannot be translated into another language, and it is best that they remain in the language of the original text. Carson says, “But now what if, within this silence, you discover a deeper one—a word that does not intend to be translatable. A word that stops itself.” In Shakespeare’s play below, the phrase that beats translation from Middle English is “run ourselves aground” The term is a phrasal verb meaning hitting the shore and is less often used today, most commonly replaced with the phrase ‘landed.’

Modern Translation: The Tempest.

Act 1, Scene 1

The storm was wild, the sea was violent, the wind was very strong, and it roared with demonic shrillness, relentlessly beating on the ship, sending it in moments of violent up and down dips. The captain had lost control. He called out to the bo’sun, but the wind carried most of the sound away. Bo’sun shouted back saying, “here, captain’. The captain said, all hands on deck, or we’ll run ourselves aground.” The bo’sun struggled to make his way through the wind and storm, trying to get the crew members to work towards bringing down the sails. The bo’sun shouted, “heave my hearties!” and pointed to areas that needed more muscle. Moreover, he directed them on when to lower the topsail or when to listen to the captain’s whistle.

Out of curiosity and a feeling of obligation to help, the passengers in the ship, Alonso, the king of Naples, his brother Sebastian and his son, Ferdinand: Antonio, the Duke of Milan, and the elderly courtier, Gonzalo, came out of the deck one by one. God knows they were worried. The passengers were on their way to Naples after attending Tunisia’s wedding. Tunisia was Antonio’s daughter. Alonso, seemingly worried and feeling a greater sense of responsibility, struggled against the storm, making it to the bo’sun. “Be careful,” he shouted, “Where’s the captain? Push the men harder.” Upon seeing Alonso, the bo’sun shouted, “Stay below.” The bo’sun then ignored the king, addressing the crew members, “can’t you ‘all hear the captain’s whistle?” Then he turned to the king and informed him that he was in the way. He wanted him to go back to the cabins. He did not hesitate to remind the king that the sea did not care for his title and that he was bothering the crew, hampering their effort to keep their royalties from drowning.

Malcolm X’s Autobiography: Nature v Nurture

A painting of Malcolm X by T. A. Charron (2007)

While reading Malcolm X’s autobiography by Alex Haley, I realized that most of it was about his African American experience than was his Muslim experience. The key theme in the book is about racial prejudice, and it demonstrates just how the vice was ingrained in society back then. In chapter two, Malcolm X himself concludes that even well meaning white people still believed that they were better than Black people. A young Malcolm X witnesses the murder of his father, Earl, in the hands of white people just for speaking for an independent Black society. Moreover, he watches his mother driven to insanity by a white welfare agency that does not deem it fit for a widowed Black woman to take care of her children.

The coming of age Malcolm considers himself a “pink poodle,” a perspective that is emasculating due to the White oppression that denies him his manhood. Moreover, at the age of 15, Malcolm has already come to terms with the reality that no amount of achievement or popularity can break the barrier of success or societal acceptance. For instance, Malcolm tops his all-white class, but the teacher cannot see any feasibility in his dream of becoming a lawyer. To the teacher, Malcolm is better off being a carpenter.

Malcolm first comes into contact with Islam in chapter ten of the book. He learns about Muslim beliefs through his brother Reginald, ultimately giving up pork, which I consider as his first step in becoming a Muslim. Moreover, Malcolm goes ahead to meet the Nation of Islam and its leader Elijah Muhammad, whose central rhetoric is that all white men are demons. Malcolm had negative experiences at the hands of white people all his life, from the people who murdered his father, the people who split his family apart, the teacher who discouraged his dreams, and the policemen, judges, and guards who locked him away.

The negative experiences perpetuated by the White society made it easier for Malcolm to resonate with Elijah’s teachings and ultimately accept the truth of Islam. Malcolm leaves prison in Chapter 13, and the audience is introduced to Minister Malcolm X. He has polished his English, rhetorical style, and is a devout Muslim. Moreover, he is hell-bent in spreading his newfound faith to his African American brothers and sisters. Through Malcolm’s effort, determination, and dedication, the Nation of Islam has excellent success in converting many Black Christians into Islam to the point that they get national recognition. Oppression, segregation, and racial prejudice from a dominantly white society plays a significant role in attracting ethnic minorities and ex-cons to Malcolm’s movement.