![]() Clement's Church have SYMBOL written all over them. The paperweight, the old man in the prole bar, St. They see her as "beautiful" because of her wideness, largeness, and toughness - all indicating her ability to give birth to future generations of rebels intent on overtaking the Party's rule. Winston and Julia also acknowledge the Prole woman as a symbol of reproductive virility, and thereby, hope for the future. Unfortunately, as Winston and Shmoop note, the proles aren't smart enough to get their act together. After all, Winston reasons, the Proles constitute the only group capable of success because of their sheer size (85% of Oceania population). What is this hope? That the proles will become cognizant of their plight and rebel against the Party. Party members never sing, but hearing her song through the window of his rented room fills Winston - and soon, Julia - with hope for the future. Winston sees this woman as a symbol of freedom. The result? Ice cream is not so enjoyable anymore. There was a Simpsons episode where Marge tells Bart he can't have vegetables until he finished his ice cream. Which kind of defeats the purpose of vices altogether. Rather, his vices have been assigned to him. Winston's "vices" aren't personal decisions, nor are they small acts of individuality or rebellion. OK, sure, that sounds great - but it's really not that simple. These common vices help Winston check his doubts and paranoia at the door. He smokes cigarettes for a similar reason: to calm himself down. He drinks gin to sedate his paranoia, like that time he downs a shot or two before finally writing in his journal. In Winston's case, it's alcohol and cigarettes. For example, Hitler and Stalin used this kind of torture to keep their power and did it in the name of "purity." O'Brien represents these leaders and others, who use cruelty and torture as their primary method of control.Discontented with his life, Winston turns to vices as a means of escape and self-medication. The character of O'Brien is not so different from many of the contemporary leaders of the 20th century. ![]() ![]() If Winston would simply embrace the Party's doctrine, he would be "clean." But it is not really Winston that O'Brien and the Party want to change the Party wants to purify all thought, believing that one stray thought has the potential to corrupt the Party. O'Brien is trying, through torture, to make Winston "perfect," to "save" him. O'Brien is often seen as a father figure and a friend to Winston. He is not the individual being tortured, though he would have Winston and the reader believe that the "rehabilitation" once happened to him as well. This statement illustrates a consciousness that would be dangerous for an Outer Party member to have, so it is possible that O'Brien shares the same consciousness as Winston, but because of his status in the Party, has no reason to want society to change. There is no evidence to sustain the idea that O'Brien truly believes in the concepts that he forces upon Winston beyond his statement to Winston in the Ministry of Love that the Party had gotten him (O'Brien) long ago. Whether or not he truly believes contradictory notions simultaneously, he is determined to teach Winston to do so. O'Brien is not only duplicitous in nature, but he also seems to be able to employ doublethink very well. This effect is partly a result of his mysteriousness and partly because the novel hinges on O'Brien's "turnabout" actions if he were given more time on the page, his true nature would have been revealed too soon. While Winston is characterized as an individual, a small man in a large society, O'Brien is bigger than life and remains so throughout the novel. Without O'Brien, the Party would be as mysterious to the reader as it is to Winston and Julia. He functions largely to bring the reader into the inner chambers of the Party so that its mechanisms can be revealed. O'Brien represents the Party and all of its contradictions and cruelty. O'Brien seems to be a co-conspirator and friend to Winston Smith until the third part of the novel, when he is revealed as a zealous Party leader who had been closely watching Winston for years. He seems to be close to Big Brother and may even be part of a collective that makes up Big Brother. ![]() O'Brien is a prominent leader in the Inner Party, although his official title is not clear.
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