of the government agencies. His job is to rewrite the past so that The Party appears to be omnipotent. Although he is supposed to be extolling the Party, he actually despises the Party and everything it stands for. Orwell intentionally chose the name “Winston Smith” for his protagonist in order for his readers, mainly fellow Brits, to easily identify with him. The “Winston” is derived from Winston Churchill, a British World War II leader. Orwell chose “Smith” for the last name because “Smith” is the most common English last name. However, although this has a significant effect on the reader, the most important part of Winston is his current mindset. He is the only person left in Oceania who is not completely brainwashed by the propaganda of the Party. “Winston is, in fact, the last embodiment of the human. In converting Winston to the love of Big Brother, that last name in Europe is destroyed” (Fitzpatrick, 1999). In contrast to Montag, Winston individualism does not grow in the book. Rather, it has already grown. Winston in Part I of 1984 can be paralleled to Montag in Part II of Fahrenheit 451. Montag has to gradually grow into his non-conformist role, while Winston has been acting it out for years.In order to break out of conformity, Montag needs to be guided along the way. Bradbury uses the characters of Clarisse, Beatty, and Faber to do so. One day coming home from work, Clarisse asks Montag, “Are you happy?” (Bradbury, 1953) With that one question, Clarisse pushes Montag onto the road towards becoming a human again. He begins to realize that although he is living, he is not truly happy. His life begins to suffocate him. “Montag comes home after a satisfying book burning only to find that his house feels like a ‘mausoleum’ and his wife ‘cold’ and himself ‘with the feeling of a man who will die in the next h...
