What classifies someone as being free? As defined by the Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary, freedom is "liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another . In other words, freedom is a political right that allows everyone to do what they want. Similarly, individuality is an important factor of freedom. Without having the right to express one's individuality, their freedom is also taken away from them. It is defined by the Oxford Online Dictionaries as "the quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked . In simpler terms, individuality is the quality of a person that makes him or her different from everyone else. However, in George Orwell's novel entitled 1984, published in 1949, the setting characterizes a society that is ruled by a totalitarian government that suppresses the people's individuality and freedom. The protagonist, Winston Smith, displays one of the many typical features of a dystopian fiction, which is that he questions the society that he lives in and intuitively feels that something is terribly wrong and immoral in the structure and the way the government runs the society. In order to rebel against the government, he begins his quest to try and prove that the past was better than what he and all the people of Oceania are presently living in. Orwell's novel, entitled 1984, exhibits the quest of freedom and individuality through the protagonist, Winston Smith, and proves that he is a hero figure due to the fact that he risks his life to defy and the government and prove that the past was in fact better then present-day living standards. Three of the many risks that Winston takes that may be punishable by death in his society are when he purchased the diary in which he records changes in the structure of the government and the society so that if the government does change, he will have proof of the event. Another risk he takes is buying the glass paperweight from the junk shop. Winston also rents the room above the junk shop from Mr. Charrington. To begin, a diary is defined by the Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary as a "book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences . Winston buys a diary, which is described as "smooth creamy paper, a little yellowed by age, was of a kind that had not been manufactured for at least forty years past  (8). He is conscious of the fact that he purchased the diary because he paid for it. "The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp  (8). This is an example of doublethink, which is defined by Winston as "To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them [ ¦]  (37). In simpler terms, doublethink is when two completely opposite terms are linked together in a phrase or sentence that cancel each other out, promoting blind conformity and confusion. There are no laws in this society yet one can still be punished by death if he or she commits a certain act, which makes no sense because if there are no set of laws and regulations in any society, how can