Power

‘’Power is inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of you own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow less but more merciless as it refines itself...’’ (279). 

I believe that this passage is very significant since it basically puts in words what we already knew. The spies, microphones and telescreens are just a manner to be able to control and, most importantly, punish. The system basically asks people to be rebellious and be against the Party. And maybe that is just what they want. To be able to live in a society where torment is an ‘‘everyday thing’’. You will be more likely to not commit a crime, yet it is kind of what the Party wants. Their hunger, or lets say Big Brothers’ power for hunger, destroys his own society since he want them to suffer even though they are innocent. This is also communicated in a character like Parson. I personally believe that this man was innocent, he could never cause any uprising because he really does love the Party. I don’t think he ever mumbled in his sleep ‘‘Down with Big Brother’’. Yet, de Party just takes him in, kills his personality (if he already had one), and kills him. So, the main reason is why? Why does the Party do this? Would this ‘‘strategy’’ work in todays society? Do you think this can exist for thousands of years? Would people be able to uprise together in a society of torture and pain? Would be people do it anyway because of the pain? What is Orwell trying to convey in this passage? 

The Cell

At the beginning of Book 3 we find that Winston is caught in a cell which is completely lighted and is surrounded by 4 telescreens leaving no place unwatched. This place is also known as the place of no darkness that O'Brien seemed to be referring to in Winston's dream. In his holding cell Winston meets 3 other people, the Prole woman that shares the same last name as Winston and speculates the idea of being his mother, she is also not very worried of what might happen to her. Ampleforth the poet who got caught for leaving the word god in a works in translation, Ampleforth is terrified of what might happen to him. He also meets Parsons who accepts his punishment of whatever will come to him seeing as he believes that he deserves it, as Parsons is shown to be a strong follower of Big Brother. The question that I have for you is: What do you think the significance of this segment of showing these people in the cell?

Love and rehabilitation

"You hate him. Good. Then the time has come for you to take the last step. You must love Big Brother. It is not enough yo obey him: you must love him." 295

Spooky stuff as we reach the end of page 295. For this nearing the final pages of the book and for some flipping back frantically as I did, I'd like to discuss this whole idea of Winston's time in the Ministry of Love as a "curing" process. O'Brien as we know from the reading is not there to get information out of Winston and is not there for a confession, for as we know Big Brother already is all knowing and all powerful. But instead he is there for rehabilitation so to speak, in our minds it is a backwards sort of rehabilitation in that he is being taught that black is white and 2+2=5. Now the answer to the why is already answered, unfortunately we weren't left with something so interesting to discuss but my question is will Winston be cured? Or will he still live on hating Big Brother, or will the love supersede the hate? As a discussion that came up in class earlier on; what is stronger, love or hate? Winston has a strange bond with O'Brien, do you think this will play or has played an affect on his rehabilitation process?

More on language and Sapir-Whorf

 Only tangentially related to Nineteen Eighty-Four and very TOKish, but a mind-blowingly interesting article nonetheless: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/12/24/121224fa_fact_foer

Room 101

"You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101." 273

As we near the end of the book, I think it would be interesting to make some predictions about what will come about to Winston. What are your thoughts on Room 101, what do you think is in there? (Obviously if you've read ahead don't spoil it) Why do you think everyone is so fearful of this place?

The Naïvety of Winston and Julia

After reading the last few chapters of the book a few questions were raised for me as Julia and Winston seem to be having their fun. Of course the initial questions were how they got around so easily however this question was already answered once the end of Book 2 was read. However what really raised the questions for me was how naive Winston and Julia seemed to be as they thought they were being vigilant when really they were being watched the whole time. They seemed to underestimate the party and what it could do to them once caught as they were talking about their interrogation and how the party would make them speak but wouldn't make them stop loving each other. 
My question to you is: Do you think Winston and Julia are being so Naive? Do you think it is from their desire to be with each other that makes them overlook the power of the party or do you believe it is how they were built and that they were always naive from the start?

Interrogation with O'Brien

Reading the first few chapters of Part III of the book I could not help but feel how right the blurb of our book was when it says that, "Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker, Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal". Orwell uncovers for us in an amazing progression of the story how people that Winston dearly thought he could connect to (and whom he had the intuitive feeling that he KNEW that they thought the way he thought) had after all, been part of the Inner Party and Thought Police. Charrington's identity is truly shocking and Winston soon learns that even Julia and O'Brien too, were merely "conspirators" who had been monitoring every movement of his during the past few years (seven).

 Winston, on the right, being electrocuted by the dial, which O'Brien on the left has control of 

What I thought was worth discussing is this :

1. Why would Winston still feel that "he had the feeling that O'Brien was his protector, that the pain was something that came from outside, from some other source, and that it was O'Brien who would save him from it? when it is pretty evident that it is he who inflicts the pain ? Is this out of a conscious will to not believe O'Brien's true identity?

2. Do you think it is very powerful what O'Brien said about there being no such thing as "martyrdom" because everyone is cured. Winston, according to him was not there to be punished, but made to suffer to accept the reality -  no one had ever left "uncured" from the capability to think such dissident thoughts - judging by what has been happening so far in the novel do you think Winston can be the one exception?

3. When in p.270 Winston actually sees five fingers (when there is actually four) what do you think has happened? Is his on his way to being "recuperated" as the Party wants him to be or is this a conscious act, a defense mechanism?