Do we like them?

Do we like Winston Smith?

A character from Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Our score: 6 out of 10. Flawed, frightened and sometimes selfish, but he keeps hold of truth and decency against a crushing state. We'd back him, and we'd worry for him.

Winston Smith is 39 and lives in Airstrip One, a province of the superstate Oceania. The Party and its leader, Big Brother, watch everyone through telescreens. Winston works in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where he alters documents so the past always matches whatever the Party says today.

Winston is quiet, anxious and in poor health, and he is not a natural action hero. He still can't switch off his own mind. He buys a forbidden notebook and starts writing down his real thoughts, which is a crime. He is drawn to the idea that two plus two should equal four whatever the Party says, and he longs for a past and a freedom he can barely remember.

We back him because he keeps hold of honesty and tenderness when the whole system pushes him to give them up. He is also naive, reckless and sometimes cruel in his thoughts, and he trusts people he shouldn't. That keeps him human, and it keeps him from a perfect score. Britannica reads him as a symbol of civilized values, and his story shows how fragile those values are against an all-powerful state.

His private rebellion draws the attention of the Party. In the end it breaks him, and he is made to love Big Brother. That is why many readers see him as a tragic figure, and not a victorious one.