Winston Smith Orwell named his hero after Winston Churchill, England's great leader during World War II. He added a common last name: Smith. The action of this novel is built around the main person, Winston Smith, and therefore the understanding of his personality, and his character is important for the understanding of the whole book. Winston was born before the Second World War. During the War, there was a lack of food, and Winston has taken nearly all of the food that was allocated to the family, although his younger sister was starving to death. In 1984 Winston often dreams of this time, and he often remembers how he once has stolen the whole chocolate, that was given to the family. I think that Winston now (1984) somehow regrets his egoistic behaviour. He also sees a kind of link between his behaviour, and the behaviour of the children that are educated by the Party. These children prosecute their own family (Parsons). He finally realises his and the Party's guilt. To my mind Winston is a sort of hero, because he is aware of the danger that he has encountered. So for example he knew it from the very beginning that his diary would be found. And as one can see the things that are written in this book (that freedom is to say that two and two makes four) are used against him later . He also knew that his illegal love affair was an act of revolution, would be disclosed by the Thought Police. But nevertheless he is some kind of naive. He has opened his mind to O'Brien before he was sure that he was also against the Party.

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1984