Who Is Winston?
Winston Smith lives in Airstrip One, under the gaze of Big Brother and the iron grip of the Party. By day, he works at the Ministry of Truth. His job is not to uncover facts but to erase them. If the Party predicts something that doesn’t come true, Winston alters old newspapers so it looks as though they were right all along. If someone falls out of favor, he deletes every record of their existence. In this way, reality itself is constantly rewritten.
Winston knows the truth — he remembers fragments of the past that don’t align with the Party’s version. He knows they want him not only to accept their lies but to fake reality, to pretend the lies were always truth. Two plus two does not make four anymore; if the Party says it makes five, then he must not only agree but believe.
The secret Rebellion
This demand eats at him. He begins a secret rebellion, writing in his diary that “freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” He clings to this thought as his last defense against the system.
When Winston meets Julia, a young woman who also despises the Party, he dares to live as if truth and love can exist outside of control. Their secret affair gives him hope that authenticity is still possible, that not everyone has been forced into faking reality.
The breakdown
But the Party is everywhere. Their safe space collapses when they are betrayed. Winston is arrested, taken to the Ministry of Love, and tortured by O’Brien — the man he once thought was a friend. O’Brien explains that the Party does not merely want obedience; they want absolute power over reality. “If the Party says you see five fingers, then you must see five. It is not enough to say it. You must believe it.”
Under endless pain, Winston is pushed to betray not just Julia but his own mind. They force him to say that two plus two makes five. They force him to love Big Brother. In the end, Winston is broken. His diary, his doubts, his rebellion — all erased. He sits in a café, drinking gin, a hollow man. The story ends with his surrender: “He loved Big Brother.”
A Call for Modern Winstons
The Party is not fiction. It exists around us, everywhere. Only a few manage to see it, while the rest accept the crumbs they are handed — crumbs dressed up as freedom.
Most people remain asleep. They cheer for false leaders and bow before unworthy authorities, not realizing that by doing so, they become nothing more than hollow echoes of lies.
It is not only novels that try to shake us awake. Films like Don’t Look Up carry the same warning: open your eyes before it is too late.
Our world cannot afford to let every Winston break. We need modern Winstons — people who refuse to accept falsehood as truth, who will not fake reality to please the powerful, who cling to truth even when it costs them dearly.
Because when truth dies, freedom dies with it.
