1984 Literary Reflection: Fear

 In the book 1984, Winston Smith is forced to face his fear. His greatest fear, rats, are used against him to make him sell out Julia.. O’Brien is the person who makes him look at the rats and stand right in front of a cage of rats. My fear is spiders and parasites. Spiders because they little and creepy and can literally be found anywhere, even on a person’s bed. Parasites are disgusting because they can invade a person’s body without the person even knowing and can poison and kill from the inside. There are many phobias in the world, and I think Winston’s was used against him in a very harsh way but it was necessary for the Party.

      O’Brien used manipulation to make Winston scared for himself. One night while Winston was asleep, he said Julia’s name in his sleep. This showed that Winston was still emotionally the same as when he was first put in the torture chamber O’Brien wasn‘t pleased. O’Brien took Winston to Room 101, the room that held people‘s fears. In that room, there was a cage of rats, Winston’s biggest fear. O’Brien was explaining how rats can eat a person’s face off and how we wanted Winston to put his head in the cage. O’Brien went on and said that there is nothing worse than physical pain, with nobody helping you and you’re all alone. As Winston’s head was nearing the cage, the rats faces becoming more and more clear, his fear sold Julia out. He yelled out for O‘Brien to punish Julia instead. Winston rather not get his head put in a cage of those ugly rodents. Winston had finally sold out Julia, and that’s what O’Brien wanted. 

     As I said before, spiders and parasites are the possibly the worst things to exist. Spiders can crawl in and out through everywhere. Once when I was 8 I was going to take a shower and there in the middle of the tub was a big fat spider. I cried because I thought that every time I shower now there will be a spider with me. I have a mild case of arachnophobia. Parasites are also another little organism that scare me. The fact that they are germs that can go anywhere inside your body and eat your organs if they are carnivorous is really scary.  As a child I had a bad experience with them. I’ve had relatives die because of a parasite destroying them from the inside. It's a terrible thing and it makes me wonder why these things should even exist. 

       In conclusion, there are many fears that can make people do the wildest things. Any person can have the strangest fear, fear for spiders, fear of people, and fear of rats. In the novel there are thought police, so Winston’s worst fear was picked from his mind and O’Brien used it against him. Fear can push to the limit, and it depends how far someone will go to get away from that fear.