1984
"Winston is Humanity . "
In the book 1984 , after Winston and Julia are caught by the thought police , Winston is taken to the Ministry Of Love in which he is physically tortured by O'Brien. Odd considering the fact that when Winston saw him , at first he assumed that he was also caught for some crime he committed. Winston exclaims to O'Brien . "They've got you too!." O'Brien replies with "They got me a long time ago." He says this in a calm and almost regretful manner. After physically and verbally torturing Winston , he commands him to take off his clothes . When Winston does this ,he looks at himself in the mirror and sees all his flaws. He notices how much weight he's lost , he sees his varicose veins along with all his other imperfections.He describes his body as " the body of a man of sixty , suffering from some malignant disease ." (1984 272) . Prior to being naked , O'Brien says to him ,"You are the guardian of the human spirit.You shall see yourself as you are.'' After Winston gets dressed O'Brien says "That is the last man." I think what O'Brien means by this is Winston is the only one left that is sane (Not thinking in the way the party wants him to or having any real / genuine love for Big Brother ). By showing Winston his condition and using his physical appearance as a metaphor for humanity, The author is symbolizing that Humanity is dying (Because Winston is and he IS humanity in this case scenario) .The paroles even though they COULD change society could never do it unless they had passion that came from within. "To die hating them , that was freedom." (1984 281 )Winston is the only individual that has that ." Winston is sadly the perfect Archetype for the savior needed to defeat the party and save this dystopian society.In a false manner he's believing what O'Brien is saying and complying with whatever is being thrown at him but it's only an attempt to save his life.Deep down he still believes that 2+2=4. Winston says "Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence and as difficult to obtain."(1984 279)