The Arrest of Winston by Police

The Arrest of Winston by Police

Introduction.

The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is written by George Orwell. He goes ahead to refer the secret police as the “Thought police”. The role of the thought police is to investigate and enforce punishment to either personal or political thoughts that have not been approved by the government. In this story, the secret police use psychology and telescreens to conduct surveillance on behalf of the government for close monitoring and observing of anyone trying to start an uprising. According to research, the regime government of Oceania was mainly composed of the Inner Party. This regime was very strict on control of speeches and went ahead to ban unapproved thoughts (Sullivan, 2018). Whereas the novel focuses on the Thought police operations and conduct, Winston Smith’s arrest forms the basis of our discussion. Winston Smith becomes the protagonist of the story while his girlfriend Julia is branded as an enemy of the state.

Why do the Thought police arrest Winston when they do?

O’Brien is an Inner Party member and also an agent of the secret police in Oceania. He has been mandated by his party to conduct operations that deal with resistance movements as well as investigate rogue members of the society who deviate from the social construct norms. Owing to Winston’s surveillance for seven years by O’Brien and the Thought police, there are several reasons for his arrest. First of all, Big Brother and the Inner Party do not have the guts to kill those that oppose them as this will be an abuse of human rights. Instead, the party wants to control and dictate the opposers into adoring Big Brother psychologically. In a depressing quote at the end of the chapter, Orwell states, “But it was all right everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”

The main reason as to why O’Brien and the secret police delayed in arresting Winston and Julia. They were meant to observe and study them under close surveillance. It is from the monitoring that the Thought police could work out a way to turn them as well as learn of their inner fears so that they can use that to torture and force a companionship with the Inner Party and Big Brother. According to research, if O’Brien had arrested Winston without conducting this surveillance, then he and the secret police would not have the required leverage to torture Winston and his girlfriend, Julia. Therefore, O’Brien holds off the arrest at first to get Winston’s hopes up in regards to his dire love for Julia. Thought police allow Winston and Julia to continue their relationship to develop a false sense of security (Tyner, 2017). In O’Brien’s view, this makes it easy to crush Winston’s soul and his rebelliousness for the Inner Party and Big Brother.

According to the novel by Orwell, Winston Smith and Julia are at their secret hideout, the Charrington’s shop. The two have just woken up from another night spent in their secret room. Julia and Winston have become tight lovers despite strict rules and regulations by the government on uncontrolled affairs. The novel goes ahead to say that the two lovers met at different locations, but their favourite spot was the room above Charrington’s shop. Despite the place being full of bugs and rats, Julia and Winston always felt safe there. Winston and Julia finish making love and the two finally fall into sleep. No sooner do the two lovers awake from asleep than they discover a telescreen behind the picture of St. Clément’s Lane. They find out that the image of St. Clément’s Lane has mocking sounds coming from it. All over a sudden, the picture starts joining in their conversation and making humour out of it. It is at this moment that Winston remembers that the Inner Party always had their eye on the affair through the O’Brien led surveillance team. Suddenly, soldiers armed with truncheons burst into the room and take charge. The novel by Orwell describes, “Soldiers intrude, and one smashes the paperweight. Someone kicks Winston as he sees Julia double over in pain when she is punched. Flinging her over his shoulder, a soldier takes her the room.” Some of the soldiers burst through the window.

As soon as the soldiers finish kicking Winston with their rugged boots, Mr Charrington enters the room. Not only does Winston find out that Mr Charrington is an informer but also discovers that he is not an older man. It is only at this moment that Winston reflects that he could be facing a member of the Thought police for the very first time in his life. Later, the two lovers are split up and separated. The love and relationship that Winston and Julia shared developed by a sense of rebelliousness were now doomed. Winston Smith is tortured and beaten almost to death for committing thoughtcrime, the most atrocious offence in Oceania. The only crime Winston committed was to share his irrevocable thoughts to the members of the society, thus the need for Oceania government interference (Sullivan 2018). O’Brien torture intensifies such that Winston offers Julia to the Thought police for torture on his behalf. In this chapter, the story reveals Winston’s evolution after his release from the Ministry of Love. Winston now leads a simple life, and after confronting Julia on their relationship, she admits that she feels nothing for him anymore. What shocks Winston is that Julia has also turned on him just because she no longer loves him.

At long last, the Inner Party and Big Brother establish a sense of victory. The fate of the story is confirmed by Winston’s acceptance of the Party’s rule and the decision to love Big Brother. Although Winston had been realistic and planned for all types of rejection and resistance towards the Inner Party, inevitably he is arrested and tortured. Despite the fate of Winston being sad and leaving us with sombre mood, there is a glimpse of hope at the very end. The inner party had gone to extreme measures and countless minutes following up Winston and Julia in their entire love affair (Tyner, 2017). The number of resources and energy used by the party to crush Winston’s rebelliousness would not work out with everyone in the entire Oceania. There is a high probability that another rebellious person just like Winston Smith would rise and go undetected by the Party. The mere fact that Winston was able to rebel against the Inner Party and Big brother confirms that the story is not entirely hopeless.

In conclusion, I do not think that Winston’s struggle was in vain but instead, one full of meaning and absolute value. As developed in the story, the main concern is the abuse of power and basic human rights. In today’s politics, there is nothing as denial of what is coming in the future and which strategy to use to shut down activists or political enemies (Sherman, 2019). Drawing theoretical insights from this novel, resistance and discipline are two crucial factors to consider in a society facing an evil government regime. Moreover, temporal control of daily activities serves as a disciplinary reminder in the community as directed by the government. All in all, the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four illustrates that whichever kind of resistance controlled by discipline always yields an evolution to save fundamental human rights and freedom.

References

Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1^st edition. Secker & Warburg publishers.

Sherman, L. (2019). Ethics in the Professions: Police: Should police target repeat crime offenders?

Sullivan, D. (2018). The Thought Police: Dolling out punishment for thinking about criminal behaviour in John Doe v. The City of Lafayette. 40-263

Tyner, A. (2017). Social and Cultural Geography. 5 (1), 129-149