We Are Our Own Worst Enemy?

[FanCpantsPossum]

In the novel 1984, I found Orwell to make a very interesting point. Orwell states, "It struck him [Winston] that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy but always against one's own body." This statement brought me to a sudden realization and has stuck in my head. Suprisingly, the truth value of this statement has never occured to me before.



Even when we are in conflict with others or the world around us, we are still in conflict against ourselves. When it comes down to it, we are always left with the important decision on how to go about handling the issue, and can become conflicted about the best way to solve the problem. Sometimes, choosing the path to take is easy, but on more serious scales, deciding the way to go often arouses conflict within. Before we can even think about facing the external problem, we must first solve one internally. Is this what makes us our own worst enemy? :confused:

[soccer03]

I do believe that we are our own worst enemy because we are at a constant struggle with what we know is right and what society is forcing us to be. Winston faces this conflict at his job. He works for the Ministry of Truth so is rewriting history and producing lies to tell the people. To write the lies, he first must know the truth. Winston goes about his life and job until Julia comes along. I think that by him being with her and assisting the Brotherhood, he is allowing his veiws on what he believes conquer over the veiws the Party is forcing upon him.

[soccer03]

I do believe that we are our own worst enemy because we are at a constant struggle with what we know is right and what society is forcing us to be. Winston faces this conflict at his job. He works for the Ministry of Truth so is rewriting history and producing lies to tell the people. To write the lies, he first must know the truth. Winston goes about his life and job until Julia comes along. I think that by him being with her and assisting the Brotherhood, he is allowing his veiws on what he believes conquer over the veiws the Party is forcing upon him.

[The Bookworm]

I think that we are definitely our own worst enemy. Winston throughout the whole book is trying to figure out was life better or worse before the revolution, eventually causing his questioning of Big Brother. I think his job plays a large role in this as well because he is the one who has to rewrite the history making him curious.

[Giraffe97]

I do believe we are our own worst enemies. There are many examples of this in the book and the largest in my opinion is what Winston does for a living. His job is to produce propaganda for the Ministry of Truth. Propaganda is contortion of the truth to make people believe something else, so in order to make it, you must first know the truth. He knows that the Party is feeding the people lies, but there is nothing he can do about it. In my opinion, his relationship with Julia is his way of getting back at the Party. He knows the party would disagree with his actions and is aware of the consequences both he, and Julia would face if they were to be caught but he continues to ‘rebel’ against the Party.

[ZeppelinForLife]

I think that Orwell is spot on about the fact that we are our own worst enemies. We fight with ourselves over small things, such as whether or not we should have a second serving at dinner. Being one of the only people who knows the truth about something so huge would tear anybody apart. It's an internal battle between what he feels and what he should feel.

[TheLonelyQueen]

I think Orwell wants us to realize that the man vs. self struggle (As well as the other types of conflict) is existent outside of books and movies! :)

[DeOrozco]

Not only does Orwell reflect on the Man vs. Himself concept with Winston and his job but also with the pressure of the thought police. Winston is extremely paranoid and almost afraid of his own thoughts. The rebellious ideas that he thinks are against the law and he seems positive that at any moment he will be killed. Even the children bring fear to their parents as they are ever so willing to turn in anyone, including family. I think that this isn’t far off from our society, in the sense that our thoughts are encouraged to be a certain way. The pressure to conform to the rest of society is present. This leaves you with an internal battle, fear of rejection or the ability to speak your mind.

[TheLoneWolf]

The whole man vs. himself idea is also present with the concept of room 101. A person goes into room 101 having to face their deepest fears. That also goes along with the idea that man is his own worst enemy. The torture comes from your own mind. The things that you think you are most afraid of are the things that end up destroying you in the end. you can never get away from them because they are all inside your mind.

[FanCpantsPossum]

:yikes: Woah. Mind=Blown!