1984

This section of 1984 is very sad and depressing. It is all about Winston in the room being tortured and his conforming to the ways of the party. First it is back to where O'Brien is torturing Winston in ways to get him to understand the ways of the Party and how they are all about Power and they really don't care about anyone,people are just 'cells' in the world and they really don't make a difference. This makes me wonder. The party is made up of people. All are people who need to truly believe in the party in order to do this to others. So if the party is made up of people who run it and everything then how do they not matter? How would the party possibly be able to run if there were no people because, why should there be people they don't make a difference?



Ok so what also happened in this sections of the story was Winston giving up Julia. Not actualy confessing her being part of this but giving her up to where when he did he had nothing left to hold on to, to keep sane. She had completely changed and Winston noticed this. She was described as a 'corpse' which showed me that she, and Winston, had died. They had given into Big Brother and by doing that they lost themselves and died inside. Winston was at the point to where he didn't think of anyone but himself, which was exactly what the party had hoped to accomplish. By doing this he betrayed the one he "loved" and had given into the party which is something he swore he wouldn't do.

Was Winston lucky? He didn't get shot, but does that mean he was lucky, was he better off? He is alone, no telescreen, no one following him, true freedom. Just what he wanted right? But what does he have? No wife, or child, or Julia, no family, no one who cares about him or that he cares about. His life is empty. Winston may have gotten away without being shot but he spent so much time being interrogated that he lost who he was, and now he loves Big Brother which is exactly what they wanted. I think Winston was in a lose-lose situation. If he were to get shot they would have made sure he died loving Big Brother and he would have lost his self anyway. In the end Winston is dead and the party has vaporized Winstons sould.

I thought the overall book was very good, one of our better ones. It made a enormous point of how we don't really know what is true, we just believe what we were taught and that is what is right to us. This book was very different from the other books we normally read and that is why I think it is one of the better ones. Also it is more modern and is something we could relate to. I really enjoyed this book.

1984

So chapter 3 starts off with Winston in the cell alone, remembering when he was in an ordinary jail cell and the people that came and went. He also was thinking of O'Brien and thinking that he should know that he is was caught and he was hoping he would be sending someone with a razor so Winston could kill himself because they do not break out their people if they get caught. Winston has too much faith in O'Brien and doesn't even realize he is the one who trapped him and got him in this situation, I think Winston has lost all sense of who he should and shouldn't trust because he wants to believe there are others like him and Julia and he wants to trust anyone who seems to possibly be that way. But what confuses me is that at the beginning of the book he wasn't trustworthy with anyone not even with Julia when they first met. I wonder if his instincts of not trusting people changed when he met Julia???



Ampleforth comes into his cell and he finally has someone he hopes to talk to, but to do this they need to be quiet and secretive so the telescreen doesn't hear them because it'll yell and they'll get into trouble. So Winston makes an effort to get Ampleforths attention and they talk and Winston realizes he is not the one bringing the razor. Winston is way too naive and it's slightly annoying because I just want to yell at him or something.



So one of the prisoners who arrives is Parsons, his landlord. This is very surprising because Parsons is all for the Party and it was thought that if anybody were to go to jail for thought crime it would definately not be Parsons and yet here he is. When Winston asks him if he really did have thought crime Parsons answers of course he did and yet he did it while sleeping and in a way I don't actually think he was muttering "Down with Big Brother." Unless he read it from Winstons diary I don't believe he would be one to do that not even in his sleep. Maybe this is some way to get information from Winston you know bring in his friends or people he knows to secretly get information from him.



Soon Winston gets a visit from O'Brien and he finally understands that this was all a set up. O'Brien is so confusing because what is the point in going back to talk to Winston? It's done and over with just leave it be. O'Brien questions Winston but it is really not for the answers but more for getting to the point of taking those thoughts from him and seeing wheter or not he will be let out into the world or be shot and killed. Soon Winston is not knowing what he is thinking and is pretty much thinking what they are thinking and this is the scariest part of the whole story. Winston has lost everything that he has worked for remembering how life was and is now thinking like them and that is what is completely demented about this whole thing...brainwashing. I wonder how Winston will turn out in a way whether he lives or dies probably doesn't matter anymore because if he goes out in the world thinking like them his life is over anyway.

1984

So this section starts off with Winston working all the time and finally he gets time off and makes his way to a square where people were at a Hate Week rally. A man was speaking of the hate against Eastasia until a man came over and gave him a note saying that it was actually Eurasia they were at war with. I find this pretty funny because it is just a way to see if everyone will react in a way that is either good or bad, with the Party or against it. And everyone does go with them and instead of hating Eastasia and praising Eurasia the roles where switched and it is completely ridiculous. So this leads to everyone thinking that Goldstein setting them up with this thought. There's no way it could have been Goldstein because if Winston works for the Party they are the ones who should know yet they are making Winston and the others write about Eatasia in the historical books. So Winston and everyone only get like 6 hours of sleep in each day for as long as it takes for them to finish this and they are all told to be creative but how can you be creative with a complete lack of sleep.

So Winston goes to meet Julia and while he is waiting he starts reading the book. The book is completely boring and talks about how the countries are split up and how they are the three superstates and how they never actually gain a significant lead on each other, and how War is Peace and how Ignorance is strength and yada yada...but what confuses me is how if this is Goldsteins book then why is it not actually talking of how bad BB is and completely being against BB...and why doesn't Winston question this???

I wonder why he went back to chapter one, did he think he missed something he might have just went on from chapter 3.

The true importance to this section is that Winston and Julia were having a good day not a care in the world, safe and protected in that room and then all of a sudden there is this voice like from a telescreen telling them they are going to die, and repeating everything they say. A complete rush of fear comes to them and they think there is no point in running. What would probably be going through my mind would be suicide. What is the point in living if they are going to be contained forever and then they will just disappear and they will never see each other again. They then hear boots coming up the stairs and men come in and grab them and the find out Mr. Charrington was actually like 30 not 80 and he totally setting them up. The men are mean and they hurt Winston and Julia and take her away and Winston states that was the last time he ever saw her...sad!

1984

So Winston starts this section off with him once again being followed, but this time it is by O'Brien. O'Brien comes up to him and starts rambling on and on about a new dictionary and how Winston put a word in the Times that wasn't supposed to be there because in the new dictionary it is outlawed, but what Winston told him was that they have not recieved the new dictionary yet. This process is done right in front of a telescreen which makes O'Brien seem very suspicious. Why do this infront of a telescreen, unless he is trying to get caught...right. O'Brien is not who he seems to be. I think that O'Brien is maybe working for the wrong side, he is probably part of the Party, and possibly working to get Winston caught.

The other part of the book was talking a lot about Winston's mother. When Winston's father died Winston's mother 'lost her spirit'. She changed and was now raising Winston and his sick sister on her own. Winston was in some words a bratty child. He would scream and fight and throw temper tantrums in order to try and get food from his mother, and when she folded and gave him some it only made his want more. Even though he knew he was starving the only family he had left he still kept on doing it. I wonder if Winston's mother thought that if she didn't give him the food he would turn her in for something like thoughtcrime. She may have lost her will to feel compasionate towards him and only fear what was to come if he wasn't a satisfied child.

Winston woke up and found out that he really didn't kill his mother like he thought, this is what he got from a dream he had. Julia asks him what is wrong and he confides in her but she just blew it off. I wonder if it was just because she was half asleep, because he did just wake her up to tell her or if it was because her feelings for him aren't as emotional as they are physical because no matter how much they try their abilities towards feelings and everything are somewhat lost.

Later on in this section Winston takes Julia to O'Briens home to get the "dictionary" and Winston confides in O'Brien but we find out he is not who we thought he was.

1984

This weeks reading was pretty intense. There were many risks taken and many new findings. First we start off with Winston and Julia heading off to a secret place. Danger/courage is what they are going through right now, not knowing whether or not they'll get caught but taking that risk anyhow. At first Winston is a bit scared to get too close to her. I wonder, is he still afraid of whether or not she's a spy or if he's afraid he'll get caught or he's afraid of what might end up happening between them? But whatever the reason he is pulling away from her at first he ends up not caring at all because he pushes away all of his worries in order to get back the one thing he's been thinking of most of the book, to be close to someone, not just emotionally, but physically too. One thing that bothers me about those two is that at times they are way too honest. First he tells her he hated her at first and thought of killing her and so on and then she tells him she's slept with tons of guys and liked it because she wanted sex...um ok. I would get creeped out about that but they apparently don't seem to mind. Also in this chapter things between the two strenghthen but what is strange is that Winston compares Julia to a political matter. He talks about being with her wasn't so much for physical/emotional but was because he was in a way rebelling and making some political statement.

Later on in the book we learn a lot more about Julia, especially about how she completely despises the Party. She actually plays a big role in the party, being part of the Anti-Sex League and wearing the red sash. But really all of this is in order that she doesn't get caught or even suspisioned for who she really is. Julia is much younger than Winston is it surprised me that if she grew up with the only knowledge of the Party, why is she so against them???

1984

The chapter starts off with Winston missing, for the second time in three weeks, going to his comunity center. When he is thinking about this his ulcer starts to hurt and I think the reason for that is because he is stressing about what could happen whether he could get in trouble or whatever but he is getting agitated and that is why his ulcer is starting to hurt and itch. "If there is hope it lies in the proles." I think that this saying is important in the story because it makes me think that the proles are the only ones left with the memory of how used to be, they are not under as much control from the government and this makes them so important because they are the only ones left to bring them back to the way the world was before the revolutionary war. Winston believes that they are the only hope left and that is why he follows an old man into a pub and bothers him hoping he will tell him about his past. Once Winston realizes the old man has no recollection of the past Winston knows that the government has made much more damage even to those who have lived before Big Brother. This just gives him a feeling that there is no hope left and when that is in your head, what's the point of living?

While Winston was walking home the girl, Julia, was once again following and for a moment he thought of taking her in the alley and killing her. He already thought she was some sort of spy but now that he was holding something that could get him in trouble he is even more nervous. But he decides not to and goes home.

Julia has completely changed from who we thought she was in this chapter. She went from being a spy to actually just following her heart. In this chapter Julia makes a brave move. When she was walking by Winston she fell and Winston, surprisingly, helped her up and she gave him a note that said "I love you!" Winston of course is thinking the worst but he gets the courage to go and talk to her and they plan to meet. When they do meet everything doesn't go as planned but in the process they get to hold hands.

1984

In this section of the reading we learn more about what it is that Winston does. Winston gets messages and then needs to go back through the articles in the "Times" and rewrites history in the way that Big Brother wants him to write it. Winston says that his work is his "greatest pleasure"...what is that all about. Winston first says he hates his work because he doesn't agree with it and then he says it is his pleasure. It's quite confusing, but in a way I think that maybe it makes sense. Maybe he is trying to do what everyone else is doing by following Big Brother but when he is going against it maybe that is his way of staying sane with the way the world is supposed to be. He needs to be able to get away from what he is told and do what he thinks is right.

Syme, a writer of the Newspeak dictionary, is introduced to us. He eats lunch with Winston and in a way is his friend. Syme tells Winston of how the dictionary is getting smaller, and smaller. Big Brother is trying to limit the amount of words people are able to speak of so that they will no longer be able to have bad thoughts. I wonder, is everyone expected to read the dictionary in order to know of the certain words they are and are not able to speak or even think of?

At the end of the section Winston speaks of his wife. The first time that we hear of Winston having a wife, and he says that she was under their control. They were unable to have a child so she left. How is it possible to even think in that way. In a way this book kind of reminds me of the movie "The Truman Show" where Jim Carrey lives in a world and in a way, even though he doesn't know, is being controled. His wife doesn't actually love him, everyone is nice to him because they are on TV, and his world is not even an actual world. In a way the book just reminds me of this movie and how you never know who is out there watching...