The Changes of Winston in 1984, a Novel by George Orwell

A person named Shunryu Suzuki once said, “Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.” This quote shows that if one does not accept change, one cannot be happy, therefore suffering is a consequence. In George Orwell’s 1984, the main character Winston breaks away from the norm trying to figure out internal conflicts within himself and conflicts between him and the world around him.

Winton develops change with his physical appearance after going through the meetings with Julia and O’Brien. For example, after his seven meetings with Julia, “…Winston had dropped his habit of drinking gin at all hours. He seemed to have lost the need for it. He had frown fatter, his varicose ulcer had subsided, leaving only a brown stain above his ankle, his fits of coughing in the early morning had stopped.” (Orwell 150) Due to the good feelings he would have after having sex with Julia, his body was slowly recovering. Also, the author generates Winston to look and feel more alive than ever, rather than a cold, quiet, and confusing character.

After being arrested after the discovery of his intimate relationship with Julia, Winston experiences dramatic changes in physical changes when he gets tortured by O’Brien and he tells Winston to take off his clothes and looks at the mirror and Winston thinks, “…But the truly frightening things was the emaciation of his body. The barrels of his ribs was as narrow as that of a skeleton, the legs had shrunk so that the knees were thicker than the thighs. He saw now what O’Brien had meant about seeing the side view…” (Orwell 271)

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Once looking at himself in the mirror, Winston realizes how he is wasting away and growing weaker. With O’Brien’s constant torture, it makes Winston feel so low to the point where he is so used to the pain and does not know what to think about anymore. Winston promotes change in his appearance, but the mind also develops.

Furthermore, Winston starts to develop mental change in his every day activities with Julia to the torture brought by the Ministry of Love. Therefore, Winston starts to have rebellious thoughts against Big Brother after referring to the Party textbooks and thinks, “…Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that that the Party was trying to achieve…” (Orwell 74) This shows that Winston is doubting what Big Brother puts out for people to hear. Also, he thinks everything the Party tries to say are all lies and never the truth.

Even so, O’Brien brainwashes Winston to think everything he has done over the course of 7 years has been a figment of his crazy imagination and says, “…You are mentally deranges. You suffer from a defective memory. You are unable to remember real events, and you persuade yourself that you remember other events which never happened. Fortunately it is curable…” (Orwell 245) The author molds O’Brien to continue and make Winston think memories did not happen, he slowly starts to comprehend with what O’Brien says. Also, Winston starts to change the mindset and the cure O’Brien hoped to achieve. Winston’s changes are all difficult for him to bear; it all makes the man’s character.

Consequently, Winston begins to change emotionally as he forms an intimate relationship with Julia. In fact, after Winston gets caught by the Thought Police, he still thinks about Julia, “…He loved her and would not betray her; but that was only a fact, known as he knew the rules of arithmetic.” (Orwell 228) This shows that Winston still cannot betray due to the feelings he still has toward her. Also, the author pummels the feelings deep within Winston and makes it difficult for him to forget about Julia.

Although, after Winston was tortured, he was forced to admit defeat and deny his love for Julia, he sees her once again and thinks, “…he had helped to drag a corpse out of some ruins, and had been astonished not only by the incredible weight of the thing, but by its rigidity and awkwardness to handle, which made it seem more like stone than flesh. Her body felt like that.” (Orwell 291) This shows that Winston is comparing Julia to a dead body who he thought was just bad to look at. The author instructs Winston to no longer be emotionally attached to Julia and discovers his love for the one and only Big Brother.

When trying to figure out what to do in the world, change happens. Change happens everywhere. It can be difficult to bypass and it can also be easy. The way one can approach change can be up to them. Without change in what makes us suffer, we cannot find happiness. With change, we can. A world must go through the obstacles and it can make it.

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