1984, Blog log 4 - The conflicts

For weeks past he had beenmaking ready for this moment, and it had never crossed his mind that anythingwould be needed except courage. The actual writing would be easy. All he hadto do was to transfer to paper the interminable restless monologue that hadbeen running inside his head, literally for years.(1984,1949. George Orwell, P. 4)

The first obvious internal conflict that is presented to us is when Winston sits down in front of a table, out of vision of the telescreen, to write something in an empty book. The things he are about to write are probably quite sensible, because he says that he has been thinking of what to write down for many years, but he hasn’t yet done that because he hasn’t had the courage, yet.

The black-moustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner. There wasone on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHINGYOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston’s own.[...] In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the policepatrol, snooping into people’s windows. The patrols did not matter, however.Only the Thought Police mattered.(1984, 1949. George Orwell, P. 1-2)

However, the first external conflict, which also permeates the entire story, is the conflict between Winston’s thoughts and the government’s ideal. In fact, one are not meant to think freely. If one do think freely though, and the thought-police finds out, they will most certainly “vaporize” (make rid of) this person in a soon future.

What makes Winston worried is the absence of the past. Everything that has ever happened is being rewritten and erased continuously for the benefit of the party. In that way the government is also slowly but steady rewriting the past one remember, which is exactly the case of Winston; “[...] he could not remember: nothing remained of his childhood except a series

of bright-lit tableaux occurring against no background and mostly unintelligible.” (1984, 1949. George Orwell, P. 2).

One get to know that Winston is ready to do almost anything in order to overthrow the Party and their power. One reason for this might be that once a person is ”vaporized”, this person simply ceases to exist. Actually, it is like this person has never existed. This is what might have happened to both his parents, as well as with his little sister sometime long ago. All Winston has is vague memories which don't contribute to see the family as a whole. 

This internal conflict has a close relation to the external conflict with the government because they are the ones responsible for both the disappearance of his family as well as the lost memories of Winston's. One can say that the reason for the external conflict is the internal conflicts within Winston.