1984: pg 179-224

In these chapters, Winston finally receives the book from O'Brien, supposedly written by Emmanuel Goldstein. Chapter 1 is titled "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" and Chapter 3 is called "WAR IS PEACE," two out of the three mottos of the Party. (Doesn't Winston suspect any deceit at all from O'Brien giving him this book?) The chapters shown mostly just put Winston's thoughts about the Party's corruption into words and doesn't really state how to take it down, rather, it pushes the idea that it is impossible to overthrow the Party. Actually, the book sounds more like an instruction manual for the Inner Party members on how to stay in power. It was really a letdown that--after reading all of "Emmanuel's" bland government words in Winston's book--readers never find the reason why the government wants this power.

The book refered to the proles as slaves, which gives readers somewhat of a greater understanding of the Party's attitude toward them. So if the proles are like slaves or servants, then the Inner Party/Big Brother is like the cruel slave-owners. In fact, the Party is almost exactly like a slave owner. It believes that the proles are below itself, and doesn't even consider them human. Proletarian can be defined in the dictionary as "the lowest or poorest class of the people" and can sometimes be called "vile" or "vulgar", which basically describes the view the Party casts upon them.

Another thing that the book stated was that people who could master the trick of doublethink were "intelligent as well as orthodox." Doesn't it occur to Winston that this oh-so-sacred book seems slightly biased. It almost seems as if the book is praising being an imbicile and a robot.

Well, after Winston finally puts the book down, he fell alseep. After awaking, the stout woman is again singing outside of the appartment window. Perhaps the fact that the song the woman was singing--even though it was probably composed by Party members--had outlived the "Hate Song" symbolized that they will outlive and overcome this time of hatred and tyranny.

As Winston is watching the woman, he sees her aged, wide, but strong body and understands that she has been through struggles and has overcome them. He sees how she sings, even in struggles, and just as the bird in the woods gave him a strange sensation, so did the woman. Winston utters that she is beautiful; Julia doesn't understand and basically says that she is fat, but Winston sees her inner beauty and strength, and his hope is somewhat renewed that proles will save humanity.

What happened to the woman when Winston and Julia were captured? What will happen to them next? Will they ever see each other again? Why did the Thought Police wait so long to arrest them? There are so many unanswered questions. Hopefully they will be answered in the chapters ahead.

1984: pg. 157-179

In these chapters, we learn a little more about Winston's past. He had a dream which made him recollect his memories and the fact that he was about twelve when he had last seen his mother. During this time, they were starving and Winston had become very greedy and disrespectful (for lack of a more powerful word to describe his tantrums). When the family was at dinner, Winston stole from his starving and dying sister. His mother knew she was going to die and let Winston take from the cupboards all that they had to eat. When they received a chocolate ration, Winston stole all of it and ran out the door, only to come back and find that his mother was gone.

There were a few significant aspects of this memory/dream. The way Winston's mother cradled her daughter feebly to her, knowing they would both die, displayed how human they were. Winston, how he stole and acted on his selfish instincts, was more like an animal and was becoming corrupt by the Party.

Another thing that happened in these chapters was that Winston and Julia meet up with O'Brien at his house. They talk for about less than half an hour because O'Brien has turned off his telescreen. He explains to Julia and Winston that there is a Brotherhood and Emmanuel Goldstein does indeed lead it. He says that they can join, but may have to kill others and alter themselves through surgery and perhaps never see each other again. This makes us wonder who O'Brien really is because of the surgery he's had. What if he was Goldstein?

The main purpose of the Brotherhood is to take down the Party by being corrupt. The thing is, the Party is not exactly an example of moral perfection, so they are basically just fighting fire with fire. In fact, the Brotherhood seems to be controlling them in a similar way, just giving them a sort of "hope" if one could call it that.

When will the Inner Party find out about Winston and Julia. If there is a telescreen in their room, how long will it take for them to be caught?

1984: pg 117-157

The oppression of the Party somewhat reminds me of cult religions or overly strict religions for the fact that they don't want the Party members to swear, to have sex without being married, to wear make-up, dress certain ways, etc. I kind of wonder if George Orwell was possibly trying to make a point about some religions. The Party was focusing on these certain activities that a person shouldn't do, but was making them do other sins aside from this--and if anybody didn't follow them, they either vaporized them or cast them out as being worthless and savage proles. The thought of religion keeps reoccuring and I believe that the fact that the Party is trying to suppress these activities so much just gives people more of a reason to rebel. A person cannot be forced to do good (if you could call the Party's demands good). Even God gives humans a choice whether to follow Him or not and doesn't force His will on anyone...so why should humans try to force "good" on others?

I am wondering when Julia and Winston will finally be caught. They are becoming more and more careless as the chapters progress. It was "four, five, six--seven times they met during the month of June." I was wondering if that telescreen would be found or not when Julia was talking about taking the picture down to clean the bugs out from behind it. Why is the government waiting so long to arrest them? The Thought Police could probably just set out a post near the store in secret so that they could catch those two. Are they waiting to actually see them on the telescreen?

Winston's ulcer has cleared up, he no longer needs to drink constantly, his morning coughing had stopped, and he had gained weight. This sort of shows how little stress he's going under now. Before, every time he seemed to be "rebelling" against the Party in any way (even slightly), his ulcer would get itchy. He's becoming relaxed somewhat and has this hope in their oppression; he doesn't need to depend on Victory Gin to get by.

This constant fight for survival has almost breed selfishness in the society. Julia doesn't care--to the point of it boring her to sleep--that the Party is changing history and that Winston could have possibly started a Rebellion if he had kept the evidence from before. Her rebellion was mostly one that wouldn't affect anyone else after she dies, but was mostly for a pleasure of the moment. I found Julia almost annoying when Winston was trying to explain the history's corruption by the Party because she has become apathetic to everything that doesn't pertain to herself.

I liked how Orwell compared Winston and Julia to "a damned soul grasping at his last morsel of pleasure when the clock is within five minutes of striking." This again reminded me of the almost cult religion that the Party has created and how people want to rebel just because they are forced into doing "good." The Party has murdured the morality of the people and has taken so much away from them that they are apathetic about anything but "the now." Winston and Julia are indulging in their pleasure while it lasts and not thinking about tomorrow...which could possibly spell death. But (along the lines of what was stated earlier in the book) they had nothing to live for, so either way they were dead...whether living as the Party wanted or physically dying.

1984: pg 81-117

I somewhat enjoyed these chapters. Winston is starting to become a little more rebellious. I was kind of curious about his meeting with the first old man at the pub though. Winston keeps on trying to get him to simply answer if the times were better long ago than they were now, just so he could make sure that the Ministry of Truth was lying in the history books. The man never really answered his question directly because he kept going off on different subjects and had trouble comprehending Winston's questions, but weren't some of the things he said somewhat of an indication that times were better before? The man said:
[a] that the beer was better (okay, not a big deal for the society),
[b] that he went to his sister's funeral (are they allowed to have funerals now?),
[c] that he used to hear people talk about "lackies" in parks every Sunday (do they have any parks anymore?),
[d] that he had to tip his hat to people he saw (a gesture more of respect than servitude)
[e] and that he got in a fight with a guy that shoved him off a the pavement (could he really get away with shoving someone of higher authority now?).
I'm not really sure if these things mean anything or not, but Winston should know that even if the times weren't better, the Party was lying to the people because I don't think that anything Winston said about the opression matched up with what the old man said (no matter how senile he may have seemed).

I was also wondering about the man in the antiques store, Mr. Charrington. Wasn't he old enough to tell Winston about the past? If not, his antiques surely would have revealed someting. For example, the glass paper-weight that Winston thought was beautiful was crafted long ago and should give Winston the hint that they are being way more oppressed now than people were back then because they aren't allowed to be creative now.

I find it ironic how this whole time in the story Winston thought that the dark-haired woman from the fiction department was out to get him and was spying on him to turn him in to the Thought Police. It turns out that she shared the same desires he felt for her. I'm kind of curious to what might happen next. Them meeting and talking and plotting and holding hands even is the start of some sort of rebellion, I believe. I did find their free, ten-second, romantic hand embrace a little disheartening, though, because of the sad eyes of the prisoner that Winston was looking at. Is there something symbolic here about the prisoner procession that I'm missing? I kind of wonder if they signify anything by the way the crowd was treating them...

1984: pg. 37-81

I found it interesting how at the beginning of the chapter, Winston sighed before going to work--it said he couldn't help but sigh, even though a telescreen was there, so I'm guessing it was not an eager sigh--and then later said that his work was all that he lived for. I suppose, though, in that society, work would be the only thing to look forward to.

I would probably, most definitely have been vaporized by now. I feel it would be better to die free and independent than to live in a society than turns you into a mindless drone. I must not have been comprehending entirely. In the part where he was talking about Syme,I found Syme to not be that intelligent, yet Winston said he would be wiped away for knowing too much. I suppose that in the state they were in, that was intelligence, or doubleplusgood smartness...yeah.

I'm just waiting for a rebellion to start. There has to be SOME fire left in these people...deep down. Like Winston said, he could feel it in his bones and in his instincts that he was being lied to. He felt the power when all of those women were screaming. If at least a hundred of them could group together, and for something meaningful as Winston said (not over cooking pans), they could change their government...They just need to start a riot or something....