Plot Summary & Critical Review of 1984

Plot Summary & Critical Review Winston Smith lives in a totalitarian society, in which freedom, knowledge and truth are abused. In this society, all the citizens must adore one common leader called the Big Brother,which is the embodiment of the party taking hold of the great nation Oceania.The world is divided into three great nations,Oceania,Eurasian and Eastasia. Wars between the three giants never stops.People in Oceania are divided into different classes. Winston lives in the middle class. In his country,people are not allowed to have their own thoughts.Because Thought police are everywhere,a slight expression in the face can be their excuse to destroy you.All they need to do is to believe every lie that the Party makes,to cheer every fictional triumph that the Party announces and to do anything that the Party requires.Otherwise they will be killed by the Thought Police.Like other people,Winston must learn to believe what the Party has just told him to be absurd in the previous minute.He resists the so-called Double think from the bottom of his heart.He falls love with a girl secretly and One day he is taken to the Ministry of Love, in which he receives many inhuman treatments. At last, he is killed by the Thought Police with a bullet in his head. Winston is clear,he's not like the others who has been brainwashed, or at least pretend to be so.He hates the Party,he knows what exactly the Party wants to do.Everyday he falsifies newspapers, magzines in order to match the past situation with the present,which is only a small part of the huge amount of falsification work everyday.Winston is sober,but a sober man cannot lives in that society.In the final pages,the author describes the miserable changes within Winston.He started to have illusions.Exaggerating figures on the radio no longer seem unacceptable and he feels that he loves Big Brother.He surrendered in the end. The tragic end of Winston is not contrary to my expectations but somehow I once hoped that he might have a chance to see the light through the clouds.Perhaps the author wanted to tell us that in such society no self-aware person can survive.That is why the society is so scaring,because no one can hide their inner feelings and their human rights are never guaranteed.To a certain degree,the author implied the former Soviet Union,which has similar situations with the world that he described.Of course, there is a large amount of exaggerations.But similar things can never be rare in the former Soviet Union:One party take absolute control of the country,all citizens adore one common leader passionately and people can be killed any time without excuses.From my perspectives, I believe that this novel was written not only to express his abhorrence towards political terrorism,but also to show his pursuit of a democratic society,in which people can express themselves freely and human rights are fully respected.As a critic once put:One more person to read Orwell, the more the protection of liberty.It may have set a perfect example for us,though the society he pictured may never come true,we do learn something from his work.On the other hand,looking past through his novel makes us appreciate our lives faithfully.We really need such thinkers,who make us realize the happiness we possess that we have always ignored in life.