In response to Todd

[inna]

i think that was a very well thought out comment, but i can't agree with it. first of all, i don't think that the newspeak thing has anything to do with the ending of the book. i think the "victory over himself" is kind of an ironic way of saying "victory over his sanity". winston did go insane after room 101, and if he truly hated BB like you said, then did he truly love julia after all also? i don't think so. the point of the novel is to show us how far the future may bring us, that the "party" may have complete control over us someday, enough to make us lose all human emotion. and lastly, the metaphorical "bullet" means death in the sense that winston realized he truly did love BB while watching the telescreen in the chestnut tree cafe. the bullet reached him only when he found he loved BB.

[Shylock]

I dont think so, there is big a difference between Love and Hate a difference known by Winston during before his end. The Party clames that the two are asame and the fact that before his death Winston loves BB only points out that he was finally transformed into conformance with Party ideology. He had won the war with himself, means that he no longer felt any discordance with his own reality and that one provided by the Party. He no longer had any doubts about what was real and what was not, he believed everything they wanted him to believe. He had killed the doubt, the individual from himself. It is not a happy ending, and yes you are right it should not even be. Anyway a 'victory' only minimizes the value of the message. To put it short your prof seems to be just a play of words

[waxmephilosophical]

I have to disagree with your deductions of a happy ending in 1984. Winston thought that the one thing the party could not tamper with was your thoughts. He whole-heartedly believed that no matter what they changed in the external world, the party could not make you believe their doctrine, love their leader, or resign your love for another human being. This idea was the one thing that kept him from just committing suicide, or giving up his tiny acts of rebellion. He knew that in the end they would catch him, but as long as he still had his beliefs, his hate for Big Brother, and his love for Julia, he wasn't afraid of what the tyrants would do to him. It turned out he was wrong...that was the message that Orwell tried to convey at the end of the novel. The party leaders had taken totalitarianism (under the masking title of English Socialism) so far that they had actually figured out how to change your personal and most deeply rooted thoughts and beliefs and conform them to theirs. He did not "win" at all; he failed miserably. Now he did love BB in his heart of hearts, he believed party doctrine, and he no longer felt any passion and love for Julia. The "healing change" that he underwent was only the death of independent thought.

[August West]

good comment, you had me for a second. Newspeak however is like the matrix.. it isn't real or is it a means of communicating the real world. It is based on doublethink, which is contradictary. hence 2+2= whatever big brother wants it to. So the reality is Winston loses.

[Unregistered]

i really have to disagree with the statements you made about winston. Although i completely understand where you're coming from and the point your tring to get across. the fact is that even though Winston still 'has his own thoughts' in your terms, is in reality not true. winston was brainwashed. Any human being has their own thoughts and emotions but the fact is that what is the idea, person,etc. that imples those thoughts and emotions on them?Beacause whatever it is is the thing that's controlling them. Therefore even though winston was experiencing what he thought to be his own emotions , ideas and concepts in reality those are the things that the party wanted, and eventually forced him to accept and believe himself through brainwashing. He accepted them to be his own when really they were only the concepts the party wanted him to grasp and apply in his own life, thus making these thoughts and feelings of winston's not his own. So actaully while your point does have some truth the information you have provided was slighty incorrect. Interesting thought though.

[hayley]

As soon as I read what you wrote, I finally understood. Of course it was a happy ending, as he got his release. He was free from Big Brother - as it didn't manage to control his thoughts. Thanks for helping me understand.

[LittleBrother]

1984, among other things, also displays a pure aspect of human nature. We all have a "Winston Smith" that, when it comes to difference (as it has in various people "defining" this literary work's ending through interpretation), assures each and every one of us we hold the truth. In the majority of instances, especially one such as this, one can not have their views validated by fact. <br> I claim not to be immune from the proceeding or entirely accept it for that matter. <br> I pose merely two questions:<br> <br> "Whats so bad about being wrong?"<br> "Whats so good about being right?"

[Dominic]

No, I have to agree with what most of the people above (and every single literary criticism of 1984) have said and say that your analysis is severly flawed.<br><br>You use ironic names (the ministry of love), to point out that Winston having 'victory' over himself is ironic. Rather, as had been pointed out, the concept of victory itself is ironic in this context (as Winston has in fact, lost all he held dear). So essentially, you are taking thing one step too far - double analysing.<br><br>Don't see Zebra droppings when there are horses near-by. Orwell's point is that Winston does lose control of the very things which make us Human Beings - our emotions and our ability to choose. This whole misinterpretation reminds me of the ending to the novel of Fight Club - about which I still hear people insist Tyler ends up in heaven: a nice happy ending. The reality - Tyler's 'heaven' is a mental institution, full of angels in white uniforms and shoes.<br><br>Read back a little, to the scene in which Winston realises, for a split second, that 2+2 does equal 5. Then read the end of the 101 incident. Then listen to the track '2+2=5;, by Radiohead, and realise how close our world has become to 1984.

[COWGIRL]

I believe what waxmephilosophical said was perfectly correct. Winston may have been "free from Big Brother", but only because he had conformed to what the government wanted him be. In a sense, he is not free at all; he can not think and do what he wants because they took away his humanity and individuality. This was Winston's greatest fear that he said was worse than death.

[Yexenia]

Great comment.<br>There is no right or wrong way to interpret 1984 as long as you get something out of it that you can take with you into your world and make better.<br>Thanks for thinking for yourself no matter how many oppose we should never stop thinking for ourselves.<br><br>"I should stop pointing fingers;<br>Reserve my judgment of all those public action figures, the cowboy president.<br>So loud behind the bullhorn so proud they can't admit when they have made a mistake.<br>While poison ink spews from a speechwriter's pen, he knows that he doesn't have to say it,<br>So it don't bother him. "Honesty" "Accuracy" are really just "Popular Opinion."<br>And the approval rating is high, so someone is going to die. ABC, NBC, CBS: Bull****.<br>They give us fact or fiction? I guess an even split. And each new act of war is tonight's entertainment.<br>We are still the pawns in their game." -Conor Oberst

[Unregistered]

This reads like a bad high school essay written by someone who has not read the book carefully, or really understood it. At the end of the book Winston gets shot in the back of the head. He gets shot in the back of the head because he has been completely brainwashed. The job of O'Brien is finished. In fact the last several chapters may all be his own imagination anyway--"he was back in the ministry of love" the book says. Reality is inside your own head. etc. Read the book again.

[Kyle]

I think you are confused about Newspeak. I think it is O'Brian (but it may be Winston's vaporized friend who worked on the dictionary) who talked about how there are many uneccesary (sp) words that can all be erased by adding -un, -double and -plus, but it doesn't mean they are the same thing. The appendix is also fantastic for more information regarding NewSpeak, and is an interesting read if the English language interests you.

[viper850512]

Todd wrote on september 16th 2002:"The ending also, many have said that it shouldn't have been like that, that it should have a happy ending but we must all remember the purpose of this book was to warn us all, Orwell is a Genious in his own right."<br><br>I just want to point out that the end of the book IS actually a happy ending. No, seriously, if u read the ending carefully, you will realise that Winston actually won. He "won the war with himself. He loved Big Brother."<br><br>The key word here is "loved." Many people don't realise it, but in Newspeak, love and hate are the same thing (ie: The ministry of LOVE, where they torture people). In essence, Winston won the battle with himself because, despite his horrendous torture, he still had anti-Big Brother thoughts. The idea that "They can't get inside you" had been proven true. Countless effort had been put into trying to change the way Winston thought, and in the end he still had control over his own mind.<br><br>The "long-awaited bullet" was symbolic of this. The relation between the actual bullet, which Winston had originally longed for, and this new symbolic bullet (the realisation that he could still think what he wanted) was that they both could provide relief to the tension building up within himself.<br><br>In the end, the happy ending was surely existent, even if it wasn't entirely obvious. Winston had won. They had tortured him endlessly, but he still hated big brother. The meaning of the smiles on big brothers posters became clear. Big Brothers smile was a false one, an entirely forced one. This related because of the fact that that was what everyone had to do. No matter what your thoughts, you just had to pretend that they didn't exist, and put on a smile.