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How Does Winston Lose The Subconscious Mind In The Novel 1984

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How Does Winston Lose The Subconscious Mind In The Novel 1984
If life is but a dream, do we ever wake up? Or are dreams just a fragment of our imagination? Do they hold any relevance to our inner most desires and thoughts? Revealing one's character or repressed feelings can be known by in our dreams. In the totalitarian society of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, the main character Winston Smith relies on his subconscious mind to maintain his sanity.

Winston works for the Party rewriting the past in a department called the Ministry of Truth. His memories of the past are usually the opposite of the Party's version. Winston finds himself confused about whether or not he is losing his mind. His dreams reveal the reality of the Party and the truth about the past, enabling him to trust his …show more content…
Without expressing his needs and desires Winston would lose his mind and become vulnerable to the Party. Thus enabling the Party to control Winston entirely. His mother's reaction shows his relationship of love with the past and his longing for past times and attitudes. Winston's memory of the times right before he lost his mother illustrate the historical turbulence leading up to this point. This shows a clearer picture of the economic situation emerging. Winston went through the struggle of starvation and losing his family. This is makes him realize that the proles are in some ways superior to himself and other Party members, because they have maintained their humanity and their dignity. The idea of the proles persevering despite, the trying times, allows him to retain control of his mind but more importantly it gives him faith. "If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the populatio of Oceania, could the force to destory the Party ever be generated." (72) Winston does not merely dream of his family and past events. He fantasizes about "the Golden Country". The "Golden Country" is a place with pastures, trees swaying in the wind and a clear sparkling stream. This place represents Winston's ideal, where he can be at peace and not constantly dodging the Party and its tactics. The fact that Winston thinks about this in his subconscious mind is significant because he believes (as stated in Chapter Two) that the only thing you own is your brain and your thoughts. So his dreams allow him freedom from the totalitarian world in which he lives. They represent history, and the independence associated with history. The existence of the Thought Police is testament to the Party's determination to control people's thoughts as well. The Thought Police can see everything. They are capable of finding his thoughts through his diary,
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