Sibrian 1

Eileen Sibrian
Professor Derohanessian
English 113B
24 March 2015
Boxed In
No windows, just walls, and alone. A type of feeling that sends one in a mental despair.
When Winston Smith from the book 1984 finds himself imprisoned, he finds himself in a
windowless cell all alone, without being able to decipher whether its daytime or nighttime, all
he knew was that he didnt want to be there. This type of situation shares almost the same feeling
as when a child gets grounded; they get isolated within the confinements of their room or home,
not able to go out. All freedom for being able to enjoy the outside and having fun is stripped
away. Winston, on the other hand is trapped with no freedom, and he has been confined with no
liberty to do as he pleases. But its far worse for the reason that not only did the Thought Police
take his freedom, they also took his dignity and humiliated him by beating him and making him
vulnerable. These situations correlate because an essential substance for a human beings is being
taken away, their free will.
To start off, in the book 1984 by George Orwell, the punishment between the adults from
the book and the punishment between children in real life both share its similarities and
differences. Its similarities consist of the self-explanatory notion that all freedom has been
stripped away, no type of free will is allowed, and that the higher authority is watching and
observing almost every move that the prisoner is making. The dangers of the punishment
inflicted upon the adults from 1984 is much more severe because its done with the intention to
instill a type of fear for life if something is not done accordingly to what Oceania is teaching or

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having a different thought process; one wont know when theyll be released or if theyll be
killed because they pose as a threat by having their own knowledge and ideals. Whereas, the
punishment for children is temporal the grounding ends after a short period. But both
punishments end based on behavior.
When parents or parent discipline their children, they are able to carry out such discipline
because it is them managing their household. Hence, managing their space. Parents, whether
single or together, do it to maintain order in their homes. If the child does something wrong, acts
out in a rebellious way, or talks back there will be consequences and based on that, it instills a
type of knowledge within a child where they know that if they dont comport themselves in a
satisfactory way there will be consequences. These consequences may include a time out, a
spanking, or a grounding. Nevertheless, these outcomes depend on how serious the crime was;
they are also meant to be unpleasant. To put a type of fear in a child that if they were to behave
badly again, those are the consequences that will happen again. But, lets focus on a certain type
of punishment, grounding. When a child gets grounded, they are restricted from going out and
doing things freely and are also in their rooms for most of the time. They are imprisoned in their
own home and are most likely being constantly watched by the parent or both parents to make
sure they dont do something that will further elongate the grounding time. On the other hand,
when Winston finds himself in prison, he was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of
glittering porcelain (Orwell 225). I can somewhat relate because when I was younger and got
grounded it was the worst feeling in the world, I felt as though I was in a prison cell. Though I
was not and had a bunch of windows, I had to spend most of that grounding-sentence time in my
room, with no tv, no friends to play with, nothing but me and my thoughts reflecting on what I
had done to get myself grounded. That time prompted me to be on my best behavior to get the

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grounding time reduced. So, when one is in a situation like that or in actual prison just like
Winston was, something inside a person happens, where they do whatever possible to get out of
that space or confinement quicker. Nobody likes to be restricted from their freedom.
Which is why Winston Smith, who was in a world that was based on sole control and
power over all humanity, went against how Big Brother and the Party were trying to erase the
past and control every aspect of how the people of Oceania thought, and had pure hate for it got
caught and sent to prison. Yet, he knew what would happen when he was caught because
thinking in such a manner was not permitted at all, that was his violation; and the consequences
were torture and prison. When he was being tortured he admitted to all kinds of things he didnt
even partake in, for the reason that he wanted the torture to end. He didnt want to be in prison
anymore with no freedom, where they stripped him of his rights. He wanted to be free and not
watched by the telescreens twenty four seven; so he did what was humanly possible to try to
shorten his time there, by confessing to any crime and trying to believe as the rest of the
brainwashed people of Oceania did. On the other hand, according to the article Spanking
Children: Evidence and Issues, the goals of disciplining children are to decrease some
behaviors (Benjet and Kazdin). When a child gets spanked it is not to obtain information but to
have the child be aware that what they did was not right and think twice before behaving badly
again. In the case with Winston, when the officers tortured him it was to have him know that
what he did was a serious crime and that what his fate, also for Winston to give up all
information so they can destroy his thought process to create a new one. According to OBrien,
when he is speaking to Winston, his purpose for torturing and brainwashing is so, By the end
you will accept it, welcome it, become a part of it (Orwell 268). It would be a complicated thing
to achieve because for someone who opposes the ideas of society, just like Winston, torturing

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him to make him believe can change him to a certain extent. He may only go along with it so
they wont hurt him anymore but somewhere deep down inside he still will not be one hundred
percent for the ideologies that the Party has.
In Michel Foucaults Discipline and Punishment (1975), Panopticism, he discusses and
develops a theory where everyone is being observed and analyzed from a tower to ensure
regulation. So he states, individuals are inserted in a fixed place, in which the slightest
movements are supervisedall events are recordedin which power is exercised without
division, according to a hierarchal figureeach individual is constantly located, examineda
compact model of the disciplinary method. This describes a radical form of sole power, where
one person obtains control to regulate and control over everyones free will. On the other hand,
not all regulation is bad. Police get involved in situations when it is deemed necessary for
regulation, cameras are installed in public places to prevent people from shoplifting or
committing any other sort of crime. But whats to say if everyone were to self-govern or selfregulate? Society would revolt against themselves and become an anarchy, for the reason that it
is innate to regulate each other. Between one person holding all power and the people holding
power over themselves, it would become a circle. Some sort of regulation needs to define a
space. There has to be an appropriate parameter of control, not too much power to where its a
Dictatorship but not too little to where it gives way to become an anarchist government.
To finalize, nobody enjoys being under pressure or under close scrutiny. The people from
Oceania were in a prison within their own homes. Nowhere was it safe to do or say how they
really felt and if they did there was consequences, they would be killed. Free will is an important
aspect to being human, free will gives us cognitive rationality; humans thrive with free will and
without it we would be physically and emotionally constricted within a space.

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Works Cited
Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism. New York: Vintage, 1995. Print.
The Birth of Prison.
Kazdin, Alan E, and Corina Benjet. "Spanking Children: Evidence and Issues." Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 12.3 (2003): 99-103.
Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. NY: New American Library, 1977. Print. Signet Classics.