Entry 3 - Main characters

Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?

Winston Smith
Winston is our protagonist who despises Big Brother, and is an enemy to the Party. He is a clerk for the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents. Towards the beginning, he stands up for his hate of totalitarianism as well as his hate towards the society that he lived in. During that part of the novel, he was a likable character. Occasionally, he was reckless and not cautious, which made me feel Winston was foolish. However, in some cases, he was thoughtful and logical. Winston had once wrote "If there is hope [wrote Winston] it lies in the proles" (1984 - p.60). He explained how proles can shake and blow the Party into pieces if they could if they became conscious of their own strength.

In one part of the novel, Winston's childhood was mentioned briefly. It described Winston dreaming of the time he nearly took all the food that was allocated to the family, even though his younger sister was starving to death. I think Winston now somehow regrets his egocentric behavior. Another interesting part was when he was writing in his diary. Winston felt somewhat like a hero to me, because he was aware of the danger that he had faced. For example, he knew from the start that the diary would be found. He also knew that his illegal love issue was an act of revolution and would be found by the Thought Police.

Nevertheless, he is also, in my opinion, naive. Even when he did not have concrete proof that O'Brien was against the Party, he just went ahead and opened his mind to him stating that he was an enemy of Big Brother.

Julia
Julia is the woman who Winston meets and falls in love and who Winston can trust and be confident with. She is about 26 years old and is an enthusiastic participant of the Anti Junior-Sex League, the Two Minutes Hate, and the Community Center. By doing this, she has been able to cover herself to become a sexually promiscuous rebel. She states that she has had her first love affair with a Party member when she was sixteen. Winston figures that Julia is a "thoughtcriminal" as well as a sex criminal. However young she may be, she has experience of being a spy and apparently is good at games. Julia is described lovingly, sharp, funny, and attractive.

O'Brien
O'Brien is a peculiar man. As a leader, he appears as a friend to Winston and a person who is supposed to be the head of the Brotherhood aimed to overthrow Big Brother. When he hints to Winston that he is secretly opposing the party, Winston finds the courage to approach him and openly states himself an enemy of the totalitarian state.

After Winston is arrested, it turns out that O'Brien is actually loyal to the Party. I thought he could be one of the founders of the totalitarian society in which Winston lives judging by how that part was written. His role now seems to be to search for potential thought-criminals and lure them in by pretending to be on their side, then "cure" them. O'Brien tortures Winston to cure him of his "insanity" and explains that reality is simply what the Party defines it as such as two and two could be five if the Party says so.

In my opinion, O'Brien was a mysterious and a chilling character depicting an intellectual who used his ability to brainwash the "insane" rather than actually helping them. He was fascinating and although his personality and actions were not likeable, it was still interesting to see his uncanny way to change people like Winston. An interesting fact of O'Brien is that I only had Winston's view of him.
Big Brother
Although Big Brother does not appear in the story, he is mentioned and essentially sets the whole plot of this novel into action. He is the dictator of Oceania having complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly telescreens.
He does not seem to be a real person. Although he is all-present, all-power and forever watching, glaring out from enormous posters that say BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, nobody regards him as a person. To the Inner Pary, Big Brother is a symbol they can use to scare the people and use as a shield if anybody asks. For proles, Big Brother is a distant figure of authority. As for Winston, Big Brother can be a stimulation. He is drawn to Big Brother like he is drawn to O'Brien. Personally, the description of Big Brother reminded me of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin who are two famous historical figures of dictatorship.

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