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The Lack of Rights in Oceania In George Orwell s novel 1984, clearly the citizens of Oceania have no discernible rights. They are not allowed to speak for themselves, they cannot have personal relationships with anyone, and above all, they must abide by whatever the Party and Big Brother tell them to do. They live in fear that their every action could be reported to the Ministry of Love, which could torture them until they love Big Brother and abide by what the Party tells them to do. Orwell s 1984 depicts a society that has no choice in the way the people want to live their lives.
The people do not even know that they are being manipulated, and they just go ahead and mindlessly listen and believe everything that Big Brother has to say. This society seems almost impossible to the reader since no one would ever want to live in a place where people have almost no voice in what is being done. In the very beginning of 1984, the main character Winston is introduced. He walks into Victory Mansion, and the first thing that is illustrated to the reader is that the hallway smells like boiled cabbage and old rag mats.
Immediately following this, Big Brother is then introduced to the reader. Winston sees a large color photo of Big Brother, which states: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. Even after reading the first two paragraphs, the reader can surmise that Big Brother plays an important part in this novel. Big Brother is the leader of the Party in Oceania. Everybody is required to love him, or they will suffer the consequences. Within the first chapter of 1984, the reader comes to discover that the citizens of Oceania have absolutely no rights.
Sure, they do not have any laws, but everyone who resides in Oceania knows that they have to watch what they say, do, and even think. It is apparent throughout the novel that no one has any human rights. The tele screen is a very good example of this. The citizens of Oceania must keep their telescreen's on at all times.
The tele screen is not only something that the people watch, but it is also a devise in which the Thought Police can observe them. If someone so much as has a bad look on their face, the Thought Police can come in and detain them. In the morning, everyone must engage in exercise by watching the tele screen and doing exactly what the other people are doing. If they do not, someone will either yell at them or they can be sent to the Ministry of Love.
Winston knows that his every action is being constantly watched by the tele screen, and that everything in his life has to be done in accordance with what the Party believes to be the right and proper thing. Another great example showing the lack of rights of the people of Oceania is the Spies and ear trumpets. The Spies consists of children who are completely aligned with Big Brother. The formation of the Spies is bad because from the very beginning of these children s lives, they are taught that Big Brother is their primary family, not their own blood relations.
They are taught that if they see or hear anyone going against Big Brother, they must report them for the good of the Party. All of these children listen and obey because the Party is all these children have known since birth. Ear trumpets are little instruments that are given to the children of Oceania if they are apart for the Spies. This instrument allows the children to put it up to a keyhole so they can hear easily inside a room, and thus eavesdrop on their parents or anyone else who is talking. If the children hear something contrary to the beliefs of Big Brother, they will readily turn their parents into the Ministry of Love, and most likely their parents will never be seen again.
It is ironic that even though Parsons, Winston s neighbor and a faithful follower of Big Brother, was sent to the Ministry of Love only because his daughter heard him say Down with Big Brother in a dream. Parsons was proud of his children because they did everything in compliance with the Party. Parsons loved the Party and he loved Big Brother, but due to only one little dream, he was sent away. The Two-Minute-Hate is another one of the most blatant examples, which show that the people of Oceania have no rights. Everyone must gather in front of a large tele screen and watch what the Party presents. The first time the reader is introduced to this, they see that even though Winston does not want to be there, he must.
The Two-Minute-Hate starts off with a hideous grinding screech, which is soon followed by the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Party s enemy. The people of Oceania then start yelling at this picture of Emmanuel Goldstein because they believe that he could bring about the demise of the Party. Later in the Two-Minute-Hate, the picture of Big Brother comes up and everyone starts to chant B-B. Even though Winston does not believe in anything that is occurring, he feels compelled to chant along with everyone else and is scared to express any dissenting views.
Throughout the first two parts in the novel, the reader observes Winston s internal and external fight against Big Brother and the Party. He buys an old novel from a member of the proles, and he writes thoughts down such as Down with Big Brother and Down with the Party. He wonders what life used to be like, but there is no sign of any history in Oceania. It seems like Oceania has always been at war with someone, either Eurasia or East asia. Whenever someone believes that something that the Party says is false, they are quickly corrected because whatever Big Brother says goes. Winston is a victim of his society, and he hates everything that he is compelled do.
He hates having to come home to a place that smells bad and having to sit down and watch the tele screen and drink his Victory Gin. Winston wants more from life, but since the Party will not allow it, he has to do it secretly in the hopes of not getting caught. When Winston first sees Julia, he hates her. She is a member of the Anti-Sex Legion, and he believes that she is a symbol representing all that he hates. He also sees a man by the name of O Brien.
He believes that O Brien is an intelligent man and that he does not look like he believes everything that the Party is telling him to believe. For some strange reason, Winston believes that he can trust O Brien, and throughout the rest of Parts One and Two, he keeps wondering if O Brien is truly a kindred soul. After seeing Julia several times, he falls in love with her, which is totally against Party dictates. She notices this, and they decide to meet in a room above the antique shop where the proles live. It is through this whole relationship that he finds out that Julia thinks the same way he does.
She just pretends like she is all for the Party, when in fact, she is trying to do everything that she can do to go against it. She informs Winston that she has had sex with several other men before, which implies to the reader that she is willing to defy the Party. Winston also feels this way. This is shown when Orwell writes, Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.
Winston is so in love with Julia, and he would love to have her be his wife, but that is impossible since the Party will not allow love. They only allow people to get married for the sole purpose of having children. Winston was married once to Katherine, and what Winston and she had together was not love. Making love became a weekly chore and it was a humiliating experience for Winston, which he hated. Unfortunately he is stuck in a Catch- 22 because he cannot be with the woman he truly loves due to the Party. This is undoubtedly an example of how Winston and other people in Oceania have no rights.
The greatest example of how the people of Oceania have no rights is when Winston is finally caught committing acts against the Party and Big Brother. When his acts are discovered, he is sent to the Ministry of Love, where ironically it turns out that O Brien will be the person trying to reform Winston. In the beginning of the book Winston thought that O Brien was a person who he could trust, when in fact, he was a spy for Big Brother all along. Winston has not broken any laws, since there are no laws in Oceania, but he has committed a thought crime, and he has violated their beliefs.
He is tortured and left to die in the Ministry of Love, but he still sticks to his primary belief, which is Down with Big Brother. It is not until he is sent into the dreaded Room 101, that Winston betrays himself and his beloved Julia. He is tortured with rats, and finally caves in. He betrays Julia because from that moment on, he has been brainwashed and, unfortunately, now loves Big Brother. If he had had any rights at all, Winston would not be in that predicament in the first place.
He did not have the right to speak his mind or leave whenever he wanted. He was a prisoner, but is now a prisoner of Big Brother. Liberty can be defined as exemption from control of another, freedom from external restraint, and the power of choice. Clearly, these all go against what the Party and Big Brother say. The people of Oceania are victims of their society and government. They do not have the right to do anything, which deprives them of a reason to live.
One should not have to live their lives according to what one person or party says. People need freedom. George Orwell sums this up very well by saying, Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. If that is granted, all else follows. 322
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