Nineteen Eighty Four
Uploaded by Admin on Nov 18, 1999
From the very beginning Winston and Bernard make them enemies of their society. These characters risk their lives to try and recapture what we take for granted today. Winston and Bernard try to keep their individuality and recapture through their jobs, and the way they live. Both 1984 and Brave new World show us that we must be careful to protect our ideas and way of life. Through the two main characters, Winston and Bernard, the authors show the readers that once tyranny takes hold reality and individuality are lost.
Winston attempts to keep in his individuality through the apartment he rents. The apartment, which was rented from the owner of the antique store, is one way he makes himself different. The antique store owner could sense how Winston was different from the others, and he showed that when he said, "There's another room upstairs that you might care to take a look at." (81) Winston is instantly charmed by the rooms nostalgic look and furnishing.!
At first it was, "a wild, impossible notion, to be abandoned as soon as though of."(82) One thing that leads to him later renting the apartment is the fact that their is no visible telescreen. The owner told Winston the he never had one because, "Too expensive. And I never seemed to feel the need of it somehow."(82) In truth their was a telescreen behind the etching, which leads to the capture of Winston and Julia. The apartment was a huge symbol of the past to Winston. The apartment is decorated with relics of the past: a double bed, a metal etching of a church, a bookshelf filled with ancient tomes. Winston and Julia use these items as constant reminders of the past they are longing for. They believe that they can safely enter this world, separate from the one of the Party and Big Brother. In their mind it is a safe haven, in reality it is a rat, pest and filth ridden slum. It is not even safe from the Party. As it turns out there was a telescreen in the apartment. It was hidden behind the etching of the church, that Winston thought was so nostalgic. In the end Winston and Julia could not control their own lives, just like society where no one has a control.
Bernard didn't have a nostalgic apartment, what he had was a way of life contrary to...