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"He had won the victory over himself." Orwell—magical.

• dajohnson89 13y ago
  I didnt get that sentence, or the entire paragraph for that matter. Is there some story-dependent context that I'm missing here, or am I just too dense for Orwell?
  • ereckers 13y ago
    The final paragraph of a novel is most times best understood in a story-dependent context.
  • lstamour 13y ago
    First off, it's really more profound than any little statement like this can make it, and you're better off reading it for yourself. That said... It's been years since I read it, but I'll put forth a few ways to read it, though I'm probably wrong, as I said it's been awhile. One is a sort of Stockholm syndrome, in which you come to see and appreciate the others' point of view, but you're too close to see any of the drawbacks that were obvious and clear to outsiders (readers?). More literally speaking, the protagonist with every reason to hate the system that even set up traps to catch its own "enemies," ends up convincing him that it's necessary, hence, "He had won the victory over himself." (Cue "Mission Accomplished" photo-op? Heh.)
  • retrogradeorbit 13y ago
    Oh shit. Sorry for the spoiler. It didn't occur to me that I'd be spoiling the ending for those who hadn't read it. Good one, me! There's more context and events in the story which fit in with this ending, but I should leave them for the discovery of reading it.
  • fit2rule 13y ago
    The entire story is based on Winstons' struggle to resist the society he lived in. That struggle was constant, and he only 'won' the struggle at the end, when he indeed decided he loved Big Brother, and would no longer resist his authority.