Examples Of Power In George Orwell's '1984'

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” Essentially this quote is saying power is the ability to control someone to do and be whatever you want, put in the wrong hands can lead to chaos. In todays world there are more than enough ‘power hungry’ people to go around. Some will do the unthinkable to get what they want. I often think people are capable of many things even if it hurts the ones they love the most. Like in the book, where Winston betrays Julia in the final stage to his “reintegration” he yells “Do it to Julia! Not me!” at this point Winston threw away the last shred of his dignity and gave the government exactly what they wanted. This is a prime example of what the desire of power can make someone do to others. In todays world you can see this same desire for power handed to the wrong person everyday, leading into dictatorships and much worse. I believe that this quote is the main theme of the whole book. Power should be used for good, keeping things in order and safe but taken to the extreme like in “1984” is a great tragedy.
“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood” In essence this quote is talking about how sometimes one would rather be understood than to be loved. It is …show more content…
Winston can tell O’Brien the truth and O’Brien will listen to him but regardless of what Winston says it will never be true to O’Brien if it does not support the Party. Therefore O’Brien will always be the lunatic who believes whatever the Party tells him, even if they’re lies. This quote can apply to today because governments claim to hear the people out and do but nonetheless do nothing about the situation and or problems. Consequently not only does this happen in the book but also in todays