Kevin McAdam
English 10 Honors/ Mr. George
3/19/09
1984 Paper


1984
The key aspect in determining if someone is a hero or a failure is determined predominantly in performance. If someone sets out to accomplish a set of goals, they are tagged with the term hero or failure simply based on whether or not they were able to realize those goals. In the case of Winston Smith, he had several lofty goals to destroy the party which he failed to complete. The vision of Winston as a failure comes from the reasons explaining that Winston was not an average man in Oceania, the reasons why Winston was not a hero, and how the party broke Winston physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
One of the objectives of the party is to create a society in which all the population consists of average citizens. In Oceania, an average citizen completely believes in all of the concepts of the party. Average citizens never revolt because they never have a reason to revolt against the party. Average citizens have no goals for success because they believe the party is perfect and have no will to promote themselves in life. Winston Smith was not one of these people. Winston believed taking down the party was what was right. Winston’s goals, which average people do not have, were to destroy the party so that everyone may be free from the everlasting chokehold it has on the city. In addition to that, Winston's job was to change events of the past to make it seem as though the party was always right, which was not average. Being so irregular in his lifestyle and beliefs, it is obvious that Winston wanted to be something other than an average citizen. Winston had such a strong desire to destroy the party that it is clear that he was trying to be the hero that would one day accomplish his goal of freedom. Winston made the wrong decision to be a hero and defeat the party because he ended up a complete failure. Winston’s failure came because Winston did not have the characteristics of a hero. A hero must be fearless and Winston showed many frights he had in the story, including rats. Also, Winston’s main goal was to defeat the party and he was unable to do that so he must be considered a failure. Another reason Winston is a failure is because he swore that he would never betray his secret girlfriend, Julia, and he eventually did which makes him seem very weak as well as a failure. In Oceania, the party decides who is a hero or a failure based on how it reflects upon them. Winston would not be considered a hero because he went against the party. Winston let himself be broken by the party and if he was a hero, he would have stood up to the party instead of backing down. Even if he had died, he could have been considered a martyr. Unfortunately, when he gave up what he believed in, he gave up his honor at the same time. Winston was basically just someone who could have easily settled in and been happy as an average citizen of Oceania with no problems at all, but he decided to be extraordinary and failed. Winston was just one man going up against what is seemingly an entire army with its job to break people like Winston and stop them from thinking against the party.
It was not only Winston’s fault as to why he became a failure. The party played just a big a role because they were the ones who broke him and made him believe in the party’s concepts. The party eventually broke Winston in almost every way imaginable: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The party was able to break Winston spiritually by breaking him physically. In order to make Winston believe in the major concepts of the party, they tortured him and starved him until he was ready to cooperate. It is very poor how easily Winston gave up all of his own beliefs so quickly to follow the party because if he really was a hero, he would have held out longer for something he truly believed in. The party had an easy time breaking almost anyone spiritually because those people that do not have a very serious belief in what they were doing would be broken quickly in order to stop the torturing. However, breaking Winston emotionally took a little more time than breaking him spiritually. Breaking Winston emotionally was harder because he held the things that meant most to him in his heart and he did not want to give them up so easily. Winston had realized that he would not be able to defeat the party, so he just bought into and eventually believed the concepts of the party, but giving up Julia was something he really did not want to do. Besides the fact that he loved her and she loved him, Winston had said he would never betray her if had gotten into such a situation. The party knew that it would be difficult to complete this final task, but they would eventually do it by turning back to breaking Winston physically to get what they wanted. When Winston faced the rat cage, we truly see that he is a failure. Winston sacrifices everything he had ever believed in or cared about in room 101. We see Winston’s true feelings in this quote: “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!” (Orwell 286). In this one quote we see a huge reason as to why Winston is a failure. Winston is a failure because he let the thing he thought was the worst thing in the world drive him away from who he thought was the best person in the world. Any hero would undoubtedly stand up against their biggest fear in order to do the noble thing and Winston did not do that. Winston’s true beliefs were tested in that dreadful situation and he failed to answer the call in a big way.
The vision of Winston as a failure comes from the reasons explaining that Winston was not an average man in Oceania, the reasons why Winston was not a hero, and how the party broke Winston physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Winston’s actions in the story hardly compare to those of a hero in any book or movie, and Winston cannot be compared to an average citizen of Oceania. Winston is truly a unique character who failed to establish his goals against the party and in the end, was a failure because he gave up in his attempt to take down n the party.