We won, but was it worth it?

Emerging from a situation as victorious can become addictive, as the feeling of euphoria that comes with the title of “winner” is greater than any buzz. You become competitive, driven for glory. Nothing but that taste of victory can satisfy you.

And that is what we begin to see within the society of Oceania.

That taste of victory becomes common as they present the characters with an ironic serving of “Victory Gin” and “Victory Cigarettes” everyday. Winning should taste extremely satisfying, but in this dystopia it becomes revolting and inedible as characters like Winston see something like that as a symbol for their hopeless reverence of the Party.

These vices weren’t even Winston’s choice. He didn’t have a chance to develop bad habits or addictions, which are often necessary to release negative energy, because the totalitarian government doesn’t allow for such mutinies. Even the simple guilty pleasures of life are not theirs to own because the Party controls every aspect of life.  Even in an official faction such as the one of the Ministry of Truth, the victories are false. Popularity and money and happiness are faked. Every victory in 1984 becomes an empty victory, or in other words, a loss.

And “Freedom is slavery”.

The paradoxical nature that Orwell chooses demonstrates the deleterious dichotomy which the citizens of Oceania are subjugated to. They must decide between loyalty or vaporization, even though reality could provide many other options. The Party propagates “victory” and “freedom”, but every person eventually ends up as a slave to the government.

No matter how hard the citizens of Oceania try, they cannot escape the always-winning team (the government).

Victory is meaningless.