Winston Smith vs. Katniss Everdeen

Winston Smith and Katniss Everdeen Winston Smith, from George Orwell’s 1984, is a thirty-nine year old man who lives in a society where everything is ruled by the government. Winston Smith lives in a world where even his thoughts are monitored by the Thought Police. He has to watch everything he does to a point where he is paranoid about everything. Winston Smith starts to write a journal, which is illegal, about his thoughts on rebelling against the government and when Julia, a women he is having a love affair with, thinks the same thing he decides to act on it. O’Brian, a member of the inner circle invites Winston Smith over to talk about work, but Winston Smith thinks he wants to talk about the rebellion. When Winston Smith and Julia show up at O’Brian’s house, O’Brian acts like he is on board with the plan but in the night the Thought Police take Julia and Winston Smith and torture them to a point that they think everything the government wants them to think. Katniss Everdeen, from Suzanna Collins, is a sixteen year old girl who grows up in a world where the government also controls everything but to a different level. In Katniss Everdeen’s world there are these things called the Hunger Games, which is where one boy and girl from each district, or tributes, are chosen by random to go into an arena and fight to the death until there is one winner. Katniss Everdeen becomes a tribute by volunteering for her sister and becoming the first volunteer from district twelve. When Katniss Everdeen is in the games she has to pretend to be in love with the boy tribute from her district to get gifts to stay alive. With that becoming true the Capitol, the government, says that there can be two winners if they are from the district. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta, the boy from her district, are left at the end but the Capitol takes away the new rule. So as an act of “rebellion” Katniss Everdeen and Peeta decide to both die, but the Capitol must have a winner so they save both of them. Winston Smith and Katniss Everdeen have a lot in common including their hatred for the government that governs them. They both want to over throw the government but they do it in different ways. Winston Smith tries to get the support of others to help him but he is very paranoid about getting caught that he ends up getting caught. Whereas Katniss Everdeen just wants to run away from where she is but gets pulled into the leadership position by not taking the Capitols crap. She stands up for herself and it ends up getting her into trouble. As these two characters develop though their stories people can see the difference starting to emerge between these two different characters. Katniss Everdeen is confronted by the leader of her society and is told that if she does not show that she is not trying to rebel in front of the people that slowly everyone she knows will be killed leaving her alone. With this Katniss Everdeen at first tries to show the world that she is just one of the people, as she does that she relieves that she must lead a rebellion and help everyone around her. As she advances though the rebellion she is almost broken by the government that betrayed her in the first place but comes out on top making the best decision she can with the mind set she has. Winston Smith, on the other hand, gives in to what the government feeds him as lies. He tells them that everything they are doing should be done to Julia instead of him. He lets them win and govern over his mind. His last line in the book is “I love Big Brother.” Winston Smith breaks to the government. Both of these characters have good efforts in what they are trying to accomplish but Katniss Everdeen is the one that comes out to be a hero unlike Winston Smith. Katniss Everdeen starts off brave and is ready to get everything over with; Winston Smith is a coward and tries to do something that he deep down knows he cannot do. Katniss Everdeen does not care if she can do it or not she just goes out and gets it done. Winston Smith also gives in. He gives up the women he loves just to end what is painful in that moment. Katniss Everdeen fights for the man she loves. Peeta is brain washed but she fights to get him back to normal and succeeds. Whatever Katniss Everdeen sets her mind on something and does not change it until she finishes what she needs to get done and Winston Smith would be the one to change his mind if what he wanted to do was questioned by anyone. Yes, both of these characters try to rebel against their messed up governments but one of them is successful and gets what she wants even if it means dying for the cause where the other one would pass the punishment on someone else if he had the chance to. He wanted to rebel but only if he did not get caught.

Work Cited:
Collins, Suzanne, and Elizabeth B. Parisi. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print.
Collins, Suzanne, and Phil Falco. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.
Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.
Orwell, George. 1984. Orlando: Signet Classics, 1977. Print.

Cited: Collins, Suzanne, and Elizabeth B. Parisi. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print. Collins, Suzanne, and Phil Falco. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print. Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print. Orwell, George. 1984. Orlando: Signet Classics, 1977. Print.