To be honest, I don't like Winston. I feel like a broken record, but it needs to be said. He has deserved everything that has come his way and can't act like he is the victim. You literally did this to yourself! I had this same perspective reading Brave New World. I suppose Orwell and Huxley expect us to pity and feel sorry for these (relatively safe and prosperous) males in a dystopian society. Poor you! Poor you for being in the majority of the minority! How ever did you survive? I'm really tired of white men from the 1940s feeling like they're special. It has the same energy of guys now feeling like they're "unique" or "original" for listening to the Beatles or relating to BoJack Horseman. Oh my god, you are just a manipulator who is trying to act like he is anything but. You're not special!
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but that is how I feel. Does Winston really deserve the pity or is he just an idiot who deserved what was coming for him? Do you think that Orwell and Huxley used their main characters to represent them feeling like they were "born in the wrong generation" or are "not like other guys"? Let me know what you think.
Winston is hard to like, I agree. His misogyny is ugly and he's pretty ineffectual -- if Julia had not started the ball rolling on their relationship, he probably would have been quietly vaporized without accomplishing a single thing. I do think Orwell sees himself in Winston (sadly).
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Orwell thinks he's Winston (and also really don't like him). Orwell may not think that he is "special", but he sure does want to live out a fantasy of dying for his ideals. I'm definitely looking forward to reading narratives written by people who have actually experienced oppression.
ReplyDeleteI think anyone living in 1984's world deserves some pity, but yeah I've rolled my eyes many times at Winston for thinking he's so special and unique. And I get other bad vibes from him idk
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel similarly about both the authors' relatively unique choice to make their protagonists privileged white men, when there are many more interesting stories that could be told from the perspective of underprivileged people like literally anyone else from the reservation or one of the proles or just, a woman. I think that modern YA dystopian literature remedies that to some degree by more often than not making the protagonist a young woman from a lower class.
ReplyDeleteI also totally hate Winston as a character - I feel a little bad for him because of how oppressive Oceanian society is, but Orwell could've made him wayyyy more sympathetic. I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about how I see flashes of Orwell through Winston, and this idea that Winston is a virtuous hero living the life that Orwell imagines he would live in Oceania. As much as it annoys me though, these characters are super typical of literature (and society) in the early 1900s. Everything revolved around white men. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI think Winston deserves some pity. If just for the situation he was put in. He was way too trusting in the end, and isn't really the best judge of character, but he did what he thought he needed to do to combat this oppressive regime. I also don't know about using the main characters to represent themselves. That may be true in some small sense, but I think the main point is using the main character to contrast the world that was built so we can see the flaws closer.
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ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't see it. Winston probably could have been easily written as a woman just as easily as he was a man. With the idea of the conformity they must live up to, a woman wouldn't likely act all too differently ( could actually be an interesting blog post idea).
ReplyDeleteInteresting! "What if Winston were female?" The next two protagonists we read will be female -- comparisons will be useful.
DeleteI totally get what you mean. I definitely think the representation in these novels are kinda lacking (probably due to the time period they were written in) but I think the perspective of a character becoming more and more aware of the EXTREME psychological manipulation around him is still pretty interesting. Also, I kind of disagree with the using their main characters to represent their feelings thing but it is a really interesting take I hadn't thought of before. Personally, I saw their novels and their main characters as more of a reflection of their political viewpoints, as well as the time period they were living in.
ReplyDeleteI agree, and I especially dislike how he considered himself special but was STILL pessimistic as frick, so we get a sort of "Im gonna do this! / but in sad ' cause its pointless" dynamic.
ReplyDeleteI do feel some pity for Winston - he's very messed up and certainly no hero, but it can't be easy to feel like you're the only person who recognizes the danger within your totalitarian society. Of course, like you said, Orwell seems to think that he's also the only person who recognizes the flaws in society, which is annoying, but I'm willing to cut Winston as a character some slack, because unlike Orwell he is actually living under Big Brother.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he's one of those guys who was "born in the wrong generation" and thinks he is different and quirky, but I feel like all protagonists in stories like these will be that way, because if they weren't, the story would be boring. I think the reason why it's all white guys is because it was written in the early 1900s.
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