Question

• George Orwell once offered this definition of heroism: ordinary people doing whatever they can to change social systems that do not respect human decency, even with the knowledge that they can’t possibly succeed. • In Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, Orwell creates an ordinary person, an "everyman" who stands for all the oppressed citizens of Oceania. Yet, as the novel closes, Winston cries as his love for Big Brother overwhelms him. Is Winston the novel’s hero, by Orwell’s definition? Is he a hero that readers can admire and emulate? Explain your position by tracing Winston’s actions throughout the novel and considering the results of those actions quotes

Answer 1

Answer:

Yes, Winston is a (ordinary) hero.

Explanation:

In the novel 1984 we follow Winston, eager to change a social system that is suppressing him and other ordinary people. From the meeting with O´Brien, who claims to be part of the revolutionary Brotherhood, Winston is torned apart by eternal hope on one side to get in touch with other 'revolutionaries' and to belong to a group, and the almost certain conviction that O'Brien is lying. And therefore, he realizes that he cannot succeed.

For ordinary people (and a ordinary hero) don´t have the intellectual cleverness (or shrewdness) to obtain their goals.

He is not the kind of hero that people could admire; rather he is a sad hero who is defeated by his emotions.