Gabriela Rodriguez

Period-2

Freedom Essay

What is freedom? What is power? What is the relationship between them? It is very
common to mistake power with freedom in many different ways, because there isn't much
of a difference. In the book 1984 by George Orwell, the main character Winston, loses his
identity while living under a Government that restricts people's freedom and controls them
by using force. In the story Winston is a government employee who works at a job that
involves the rewriting of history. His secret relationship with Julia provides his only
measure of enjoyment, but lawmakers dislike his relationship -- and in his closely
monitored society, there is no escape from Big Brother. The book shows that it's easy for
people to not know the difference. In the short story The Censors by Luisa Valenzuela, a
young man named Juan gets a job censoring letters for an authoritarian government. He's
great at it - so great that he censors his own letter and gets himself executed. Juan in the
story is so under that he can't even think for himself and not censor himself. These two
texts show and exhibit many reasons for my opinion that Power is gained when you take
the freedom from others.

Orwell uses the text and the role of wiston to show that and prove my argument
that Power is gained when you take the freedom from others by showing how ‘Big Brother’
can easily take complete control of any member of the party. Winston starts to question the
rules and tries to figure out the actual meaning of freedom.“Freedom is the freedom to say
that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows”(pg. Orwell). This is
important cause he still understands the problem and believes that that's the correct
answer which it is. Later in the book Winston gets caught and is taken to the ministry of
love and Winston is questioning their power in the world and O’Brien replied to him that
they are the world meaning that he thinks that he has the power of the world just by
conquering one please so good.“We shall conquer them when it suits us. And if we did not,
what difference would it make? We can shut them out of existence. Oceania is the
world”(pg.265 Orwell). O'brien explains to him what actually happens because Winston
asks why not just rule everyone already. He questioned this is important because it shows
that Winston is aware of what's going on in society, but O’brien response wasn't what
Winston expected.“It is time for you to gather some idea of what power means. The first
thing you must realize is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as
he ceases to be an individual ''(pg.264 Orwell). Tjhis is important caUSE he told winston
but right after he said ,“You know the party slogan freedom is slavery has it ever occurred to
you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone free the human being is always defeated.
It must be so because every human being is doomed to die which is the greatest of all
failures but if he can make complete utter submission if he can escape from his identity if
he can merge himself until the party so that he is the party then he is all powerful and
Immortal”(pg.264 Orwell).this important cause it shows that power is way more easier to
gain because ur just taking it from some else by that i mean that you take their power to
freewill which is freedom.

Luisa Valenzuela uses the text and the role of Juan to show that and prove my
argument that Power is gained when you take the freedom from others by showing how
easily it was for Juan to give i n his free will so they could be more in controlled which
caused him to turn himself in basically. He knows exactly what happens with every
letter“But what about the rest? He knows that they examine, sniff , feel and read between
the lines of each and every letter and check it’s tiniest, and most accidental steam. He
knows that all letters pass from hand to hand and go through all sorts of tests in huge
censorship offices and that in the end very few continue on their way. Usually it takes
months even years if there are any snags all this time ; maybe even the life of both Senders
and receivers is in jeopardy and that’s why Juan is so troubled thinking that something
might happen to Maria because of his letter”(para2 Valenzuela). This is important because
he knows how the letters are checked and he still sends one. He is even aware of the
consequences and still sends it without thinking.He is so caught up in his work that it’s
controlling him and he can’t help censoring his own letter even tho he knows what would
happen. “ he had a truly patrol task both self-denying and uplifting his basket for censored
letters became the best fed as well as the most cunning basket in the whole censorship
division he was about to congratulate himself for having finally discovered his true mission
when his letter to Maria reached his hand naturally centered it without regret and just as
naturally he couldn’t stop them when exit cutting him the following morning another victim
of his devotion to his work”(para12 Valenzuela). This just shows how the power of three
will can be overtaken even by a job. In my opinion I think Luisa Valenzuela is trying to show
us that how I’ve previously said power is gained when you take the freedom from others.

Mistaking power with freedom in many different ways is very normal, because there
is not much of a difference. In George Orwell's 1984 novel, Winston's main character, loses
his identity while living under a government that limits the freedom of people and by using
force controls them. In the story Winston is a government employee who works at a job
that involves the rewriting of history. His story shows that it isn't that hard to slip your free
will by letting other people control you to have power over you because the answer to the
question is in my opinion that power is gained when you take the freedom of others.