How would you compare Winston to people today ?

[studentofcharb]

In the book 1984, I think that George Orwell does a good job discribing Winston(as wierd as Winston may seem). I think that people are, and are not like Winston. For instance, Winston is desensitized to violence as well as everybody else. I don't think there will be anybody as sick as that (except for crazy,maniac,suicide people, which Winston isn't).But on the other hand he's also rebellious to big brother like many teens are rebellious to theyre parent's. As is, Winston is the bravest person I will probably ever read about (you know, how he agreed to do all those things at the meeting with O'brien). You could probably compare that to the soldiers fighting in Iraq, who would die for our country.Although when Winston saw that rat, and got afraid of it I thought that he was acting like a little fairy. Personaly I don't ever think I will be afraid of a rat (no offense ladies but there practicly harmless ) but if someone was ever afraid of a rat, I don't think I would picture a girl clobbering a rat to death. Please if you think other wise about my opinion's please feel free to argue .

[El Morgan Stern]

Yeah sure, I'll argue with it... I've got nothing better to do on a Wednesday night... I personally don't believe that you can compare Big Brother to people such as your parents because rebelling against your parents is a completely differant issue from rebelling against your government... But then again, our government is much differant from the government in 1984 too. I guess if you were to look at rebelling against your parents and rebelling against our present government there could be some comparrisons there I suppose. And as far as Winston being scared of a rat, it is quite possible to be scared of a rat and be a male because I've jumped a few times myself at the site of a rat. And as far as Winston being desensitized to violence goes, I think that you can say the same for most people today. I'm not saying that if a man's arm got blown off right in front of your face you wouldn't be pretty gosh dang (yeah, i said gosh dang, so what?) freaked out, but i saw a guy get stabbed right in front of my house and all i could do is sit there and watch, and I find myself to be a pretty normal person. But what I will do is blame this "desensitization of violence" on television because without movies such as Kill Bill and television shows such as Nip/Tuck(just to name a few), we might all be some what normal as compared to people 50 years ago who would have been apalled at the site of a man's face getting cut off... but now when a person sees this all you can do is gasp and proceed with eating your popcorn... just something to think about.

[gilthas]

Big brother, for your info, represents Stalin, Hitler, Tojo, Franco, Mao, and Mussolini all at the same time.

In addition, I would call Winston a "Flawed and Lazy Idealist". he keeps expecting other people to make things better. first the proles, and then OBrien and the Brotherhood. He has an idea of overthrowing BB, but is too lazy to do so

[ozebaseball]

Big Brother doesnt represent anyone, he represent an idea, totalian authority. The same as everyone and everything in the book is representative, its all symbolic. Im sick of people (im not directing this at anyone) who say we are not moving towards a totalitarian regime because there are no telescreens. Telescreens are representative of being watched an monitored and the CIA/FBI/US Military have got that pretty covered.

[gilthas]

actually, yeah, i kindof agree with you, and i kindof don't.
I'm doublethinking!

Your right. it is representative, but it often represents real life situations. I'm not saying that Big Brother is Stalin. It's just that BB has become the term used to describe totalitarian dictators, and Orwell likely got the idea from the dictatorial regimes at the time.

PS: Ozebaseball, are you the only one who actually replies with my statements?

I'm impressed!