Is Winston a True Hero?

One topic that wasn’t discussed during the Socratic Seminar on Friday was number 18 on the list of questions which wanted us to discuss Winston as a heroic figure and describe the qualities that define him as one. I wouldn’t say that Winston is a heroic figure, but there are some parts in the book that where he has the characteristics of a hero.

            When I think of a hero I think of someone who is admired by people because of their strength, bravery, and their determination to defeat a villain and fight for what is right. An example in the story where Winston can possibly be seen as heroic is when him and Julia go to O’Brien asking to join Goldstein and the Brotherhood. The action itself was very heroic and showed that he was in fact determined to defeat the enemy (The Party), however he obviously didn’t succeed with his plan which leads me to think he actually isn’t a hero. There were so many points where he tried to fight against the Party, for example when he tried to resist O’Brien when he was held as a prisoner or when he was reading Goldstein’s book, however, by the end of the novel the Party and Big Brother were the true winners.

            The only time I felt like Winston was a hero was when he was writing in his diary. He wrote down how he honestly felt about the party and everything, and he really WANTED to do something about it, but never actually mustered up the courage to do anything. This is the main reason why I do not see Winston as the true hero of the story. He never really did have the courage, and even though he always questioned his society and never believed the lies (until the end), he never put his words into action.

            A huge reason why Winston couldn’t be an ultimate hero is because Big Brother and the Party are too powerful and too intelligent. It’s difficult to fight those with more power than you, especially when they are always a step ahead of you and they are familiar with a situation similar to Winston’s. In the end, Winston may not have been the hero, but a least he tried to fight the enemy till the very end before he lost his true identity and fell under the spell of Big Brother.