1984
For many years, scientists, psychologists, and common people alike have debated whether a person’s desire to pursue freedom, liberty, and justice is instilled within from birth or if these desires are learned from the environment in which he or she lives. In the book, 1984 by George Orwell, a world is created in which people must stifle their innermost feelings and succumb to the Party’s harsh regulations. In my opinion, humans have an innate desire to pursue freedom, liberty, and justice.
My belief that humans possess an instinctive desire to pursue such things as freedom, liberty, and justice is supported through George Orwell’s fictional character, Winston Smith. Throughout the book, Winston Smith, a fatalistic, complex character, finds himself being gravitated toward both a past that he cannot remember and an optimistic future. Although Winston cannot quite grasp the memories of his past, he knows that they reveal something of great importance. He finds himself questioning the Party, Big Brother, the Thought Police, and his place within the Party. Winston’s desires for freedom and justice from the Party reveal that such desires are innate. Winston is too young to remember life before the Revolution so a life of working for and being controlled by the Party is all he knows. It is obvious that Winston wants something more from life and thinks that he would be happier if he was not controlled by the Thought Police or the Party. Winston’s affair with and feelings of sexual desire for Julia, an obedient yet rebellious member of the Party, clearly depict the idea that desires, although scorned, are still felt. Feelings of freedom, liberty, and justice obviously cannot occur without being felt from within because Winston never experienced a life where he was free from rule and obligation to the Party.
Although Julia’s motives in the pursuit for freedom, liberty, and justice were not the same as Winston’s, it is still clear that one’s feelings of such desires do not...
View Full Essay
