Tuesday, 30 November 2010

What is the significance of Winston thinking, "Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system" in 1984 by George Orwell?

"Your worst enemy, he reflected, was
your own nervous system" reflects an essentialin and also a central
theme of the book, betrayal. 

's worst enemy was the state, in the form of
Big Brother. It is Big Brother who controls not just every physical aspect of Winston's life,
but even his psychology and sense of history. The whole point of newspeak is to reduce the
possibility of dissent through limiting the language available to the people. Ironically, in his
resistance to Big Brother, Winston has to deal with the fact that the human nervous system
reveals the existence of undesirable thoughts and makes it impossible to hide his resistance. He
might intellectually resist Big Brother, but his body becomes a betraying enemy as he does
so.

The political system represented in 1984 is based on
mutual betrayal. A major way of keeping people under control is to make sure they can trust no
other human being. Winston tries to avoid betraying , but he ultimately fails. The antique shop
owner andtake a more cynical approach to betrayal through being agents of the state and lying to
Winston. No characters in the story are able to find their way out of this insidious
system. 

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