Winston lives in the city of London, in Airstrip One. London is contained in the superstate of Oceania, formerly known as Great Britain. The opening section of the book consists largely of Winston's personal reflections on his existence and the world in which he lives. Oceania is a totalitarian state dominated by the principles of Ingsoc (English Socialism) and ruled by an ominous organization known simply as the Party, of which Big Brother is the figurehead. Two other superstates inhabit the world along with Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, and the three are constantly involved a series of shifting alliances and battles. Winston is a Party member, and wears the uniform of a Party member: blue overalls.

In the opening pages, we find Winston, having climbed the seven flights to his apartment slowly due to his bothersome varicose ankle ulcer, looking out his apartment window, noting the large and ominous presence of the four Ministry buildings: the Ministry of Truth, which manages news, entertainment, education and fine arts as related to the Party, the Ministry of Peace, which manages war, the Ministry of Love, which manages law and order, and the Ministry of Plenty, which manages economic affairs. In Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, these Ministries are referred to as Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty. Winston sees the Ministry of Truth clearly from his apartment window, and can even make out the three Party slogans carved into the large, pyramid-shaped, glittering white concrete structure: "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength."

Winston's apartment contains a telescreen, an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror that simultaneously receives and transmits information. The machine constantly spews Party propaganda, but also monitors each Party member, listening to his or her words and observing his or her actions in search of evidence of disloyalty. The telescreens are an important tool of the Thought Police, whose sole responsibility is identifying those disloyal - even with a single word, phrase, or facial expression - to the Party. Strangely, the telescreen in Winston's apartment is hung at such an angle that there is a small alcove in which Winston cannot be seen. He sits at a desk in this alcove and begins to write in a diary he purchased discreetly from an antique shop. In 1984 Oceania, people do not keep personal documentation. Such behavior is considered dangerous, as it promotes independence and individual thought. In preparing to write in this diary, Winston knows he is committing thoughtcrime and therefore risking his life. Winston writes, "April 4th, 1984," and then realizes he is not even certain of the year, as it is impossible to tell if the information the Party disseminates is truly accurate anymore.

Winston begins writing about a violent war film with vivid death scenes. He then remembers an event from earlier in the day that inspired him to begin the diary. It occurred at about eleven hundred that morning (time is kept in the twenty-four hour method) during the Two Minutes Hate, a daily propaganda presentation given to groups at their places of work praising Big Brother, Oceania and the Party, and denouncing Emmanuel Goldstein, the figurehead of capitalism and the Party's number one enemy, and Oceania's current enemy of war. While surrounded by fellow Party members caught up in the fervor of denouncing enemies to the Party, literally screaming and throwing things at the screen and praising Big Brother and Oceania, Winston took note of those around him. He observed the dark-haired girl he had often seen in the Ministry who he hated based purely on her apparent worship of the Party, and also a man named O'Brien, an Inner Party member whom he also often saw in the Ministry of Truth. He and O'Brien made eye contact, and immediately Winston felt as though they were both thinking the same things, realizing that O'Brien also found this practice and the Party's propaganda disgusting. O'Brien, he suddenly understood, also yearned for individual freedoms. Bolstered by what he perceived to be nonverbal support of his anti-Party feelings, Winston resolved to begin his diary that day.

While remembering this event, Winston finds he has unknowingly written, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over in his diary. Winston feels slightly panicked, but then reminds himself that he knows he will be arrested: it is only a matter of time. A knock on the door interrupts his thoughts. Winston assumes that the Thought Police have already found him, but soon discovers that his visitor is Mrs. Parsons from across the hall. Her husband works with Winston at the Ministry of Truth, and Mrs. Parsons has come to ask Winston to help her unclog her sink. Winston obliges, and in doing so meets her son and daughter, who are both members of the Spies and Youth League, and ardent Party supporters, eager to display their loyalty. In fact, they are begging their mother to take them to the hanging of a declared enemy to the Party, an unfortunately common event. Winston predicts that quite soon these children will denounce their innocent parents to the Thought Police and be publicly named "child heroes."

Winston returns to his apartment and begins to reflect on the impossibility of escaping the Party. He begins thinking of O'Brien again, remembering how seven years ago he dreamt he was walking through a dark room, when he suddenly heard O'Brien's voice say, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." Ever since that dream, Winston has increasingly understood O'Brien's shared perception of the Party. Moving on, he ponders the sacred principles of Ingsoc and the mutability of the past, and feels as though he is "wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster." Winston feels alone in his internal rebellion and wonders for whom he is writing the diary. The chances of any human other than a member of the Thought Police ever reading his words is quite small. Before returning to work, Winston writes a few final thoughts in his diary: "From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink - greetings!" Finally, with solemn understanding, he notes, "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death." To be sure he is not discovered, Winston carefully washes the ink off his hands and places the diary in his desk drawer, complete with a noticeable piece of dust on the front cover - a security device that will reveal whether other hands have touched his precious book.

Analysis

In these first chapters of 1984, we meet the main character, Winston Smith, and learn about the totalitarian regime he lives under as a citizen of Airstrip One in Oceania. Winston lives a harsh and limited life: he is watched at every turn, and forced to submit to the Party in almost every aspect of his existence. In Oceania, those who do not submit to the Party suffer the wrath of the Thought Police. Orwell's parallels to totalitarian regimes of the early twentieth century such as Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, and the degree of control they maintained over their citizens, are clear. In 1984, the Party maintains control over its citizens through the use of telescreens that transmit constant streams of propaganda while observing citizens, mandatory organized propaganda events such as the Two Minutes Hate and Hate Week, and by instilling the fear of the Thought Police and the retributions of thoughtcrime in all. The Party controls its citizens and maintains its power through the use of extensive psychological manipulation.

Winston views the regularities of his world - the face of Big Brother, the telescreen, the dilapidated apartment complex, and the sad existence of his neighbor and her Party-worshipping children - with sadness and disdain. He has deep reservations about the Party and believes there must be hope for a brighter future, in which personal freedoms are permitted. However, his neighbor's children's powerful allegiance to the Party scares Winston. He sees how young minds can be indoctrinated into the Party through organizations such as the Spies and the Youth League, which encourage children to report anyone they believe to be a thought criminal - even their parents - to the Party. This control and influence over the youngest members of Oceanian society speaks to the massive degree of psychological control the Party holds over its citizens, and again provides a parallel to similar totalitarian organizations of the twentieth century such as the Hitler Youth.

When we meet Winston, these rebellious notions have clearly been festering for quite some time. Now, in writing his diary, he is taking the first physical step towards all-out rebellion. In putting his pen to paper, Winston knows he is committing thoughtcrime. He is now a criminal, and knows that his eventual arrest is inevitable. This fatalistic perspective stays with Winston throughout the novel. As he often says to Julia, "We are the dead." He has no true hope for rebellion in his time, but he cannot submit to the Party. This in-between state forces him to constantly be reminded of his eventual arrest, torture, and death.

Winston is a unique citizen of Oceania. Although he was raised from an early age in the bosom of the Party, Winston harbors a strong sense of individual freedom, while those around him seem to soak in Party propaganda and find no fault with the Party's constant and seemingly obvious revisions of history. Through stressing the significance of Winston's risking his life through the physical act of writing, Orwell demonstrates the great rarity of personal freedom and self-expression in totalitarian regimes and clarifies the massive degree of control the Party holds over its citizens. At the same time, Winston's choice to begin the diary (and his subconsciously writing "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER") shows us the strength of Winston's anti-Party feelings. Winston feels alone in his act of rebellion and his attitude towards the Party, but holds out hope that O'Brien shares his views. In these chapters we meet O'Brien, a man who becomes a symbol of rebellion in Winston's mind, for the first time. Ultimately, however, it is O'Brien who will guide Winston towards his downfall and will torture him into absolute submission.

Winston has vivid dreams that prove to be prophetic. Winston hears O'Brien's voice in a dream, telling him that they will "meet in the place where there is no darkness." They do eventually meet in this dream, but the "place where there is no darkness" is not associated with freedom as Winston had hoped. Rather, it is the interior of the Ministry of Love, where thought criminals such as Winston are tortured, and where the lights are always on. The irony in the naming of each ministry is an obvious notation on the contradictory nature of the Party. Criminals are tortured in the Ministry of Love, war is waged from the Ministry of Peace, misinformation and lies are regularly distributed from the Ministry of Truth, and the Ministry of Plenty oversees and manages the weak economy of Oceania, where most citizens live in poverty. In fact, London is in a serious state of urban decay, which the Party simply ignores, instead stating with a celebratory attitude how wonderful and plentiful the lives of Oceanian citizens are. The Party slogans exhibit similar contradictions: "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength." The Party is built and thrives upon such contradictions. Forcing acceptance of such blatant inaccuracies removes the individual's ability to question the Party or think independently.

Winston dreams of his mother, who disappeared in one of the great purges of the 1950s, when Winston was ten or eleven years old. In his dream his mother is sitting below him with his baby sister in her arms, in some sort of underground room. In this memory, he feels sad because he knows that somehow she has given up her life and that of his sisters for him. He thinks of her death as a tragedy - impossible in current times, because she died loving him and giving herself up to a personal loyalty that current Party rule would never allow.

In his dream, Winston suddenly finds himself in the Golden Country, which he happens upon often in his slumbers. The Golden Country is an "an old rabbit-bitten pasture, with a foot track wandering across it and a molehole here and there...the elm trees were swaying faintly in the breeze, their leaves just stirring in dense masses like women's hair." In this dream, the dark-haired girl from the Ministry whom Winston despises for her Party-fueled fervor approaches him and tears off her clothes in a gesture so "splendid" that its existence alone rebels against the Party. He wakes with the word "Shakespeare" on his lips.

It is time for his morning Physical Jerks, an exercise routine implemented to all Party members through the telescreen, specifically tailored for each age group. Winston falls among the 30s to 40s group. After overcoming his daily morning coughing fit, Winston begins the exercise routine, but lets his mind wander to the history of Oceania. He can't remember a time when Oceania wasn't at war, but he remembers being quite young and rushing to an underground Tube station with his parents and little sister to take shelter during an attack - although he cannot remember the source of the attack. Next, he remembers an era of common London street fighting, and then only an era of permanent war. Winston remembers that only four years ago Oceania was at war with Eastasia, even though it is currently at war with Eurasia and claims this has always been the case. Such was the nature of doublethink - completely accepting the opposite of the known truth and adjusting one's personal memories accordingly. Winston realizes that the past has been not altered, but rather destroyed. Suddenly, a voice from the telescreen interrupts him, yelling out his name and identification number and urging him to "bend lower." Feigning interest and determination, Winston complies, and succeeds in touching his toes for the first time in many years.

At work in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, Winston reads his daily assignments, sent to him in the form of small cylindrical paper rolls that spurt out of a pneumatic tube. The messages order him to "rectify" certain articles or news items to ensure the Party is always proven right and good, no matter its original predictions and actual outcomes. For instance, the predictions of the Ministry of Plenty's output of goods need to be "rectified" to reflect recently-published "actual" numbers. Once Winston completes assignments by dictating corrections into the speakwrite at his desk (which translates spoken word into written word), Winston puts all related documentation into a "memory hole," thus sending any evidence of altered data to a large furnace in the center of the building.

When taking a short break from his work, Winston notices his coworker Tillotson sitting in the cubicle across from him, whispering secretively into his speakwrite and casting suspicious glances about the room. Winston realizes that he barely even knows the people in his department. The little he knows consists of workplace information and basic personal details. For instance, the sandy-haired woman in the cubicle next to him is responsible for tracking down and deleting all mention of any vaporized person, so as to remove their entire existence from the records. Ironically, her husband was vaporized not long ago. Ampleforth, a poet, sits a few cubicles away from Winston and produces "definitive texts," or garbled versions of poems that the Party has deemed ideologically offensive, but for some reason wants to retain. Winston then reflects on all the other departments in the Ministry of Truth, including those areas that create and distribute fiction, film, textbooks, and plays, both at the Party level and at a level specifically produced for the lower class non-Party members, the proletariat, or "proles," including Pornosec, which produces pornography that no Party member is allowed to even look at.

Returning to work, Winston admits that his greatest pleasure in life is his work. He is good at it, and although he despises the Party's reinvention of the past, he ironically takes pleasure in finding creative ways to complete particularly challenging assignments. Today, Winston creates a "Comrade Ogilvy" out of thin air to replace the name of a recently named "unperson," Inner Party member Comrade Withers, who once received the honor of the Order of Conspicuous Merit, Second Class. Winston creates an entire life for his fictional Comrade Ogilvy, and is sure his work will be found creative and satisfactory in solving the particularly difficult problem of removing a publicly-lauded Inner Party member from the records.

Winston enters the Ministry of Truth canteen and runs into Syme, whom he grudgingly calls his "friend." Syme is a Newspeak specialist working on the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. The two men speak of the rarity of razor blades, and Winston lies, saying he has none, when he actually has a few saved at home for his personal use. Syme asks Winston why he didn't go to the hanging, suggests he knows that they make Winston uncomfortable, and then goes into grotesque detail about the event, noting how the man's tongue was bright blue and sticking out of his mouth when he died.

Winston and Syme obtain their bland, unrecognizable food, and sit. They begin to discuss the Newspeak dictionary, and Syme goes into great detail about his work, discussing the greatness he sees in the destruction of words and the simplification of language. For instance, why does a language need the word "bad," when "ungood" is sufficient? Syme claims that Oldspeak will be obsolete by the year 2050. Winston begins to say "Except for the proles," but cuts himself off as he realizes it might be unorthodox to make this claim. Despite this, Syme sees Winston's point and argues that he is wrong. In his opinion, Newspeak will take over completely, resulting in a climate without thought. He exclaims, "Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." Upon hearing this statement, Winston thinks to himself that Syme is too intelligent, and will eventually be vaporized for seeing too clearly and speaking too plainly.

Tom Parsons eventually joins Winston and Syme. Parsons is an overweight, boyish, deeply loyal Party member with a very simple mind. He is quite active in Party activities and collects a subscription fee from Winston for the house by house Hate Week fund, which will be used to purchase flags and patriotic decorations for the event. Parsons apologizes to Winston for his son, who hit him with a toy catapult the other day, and then launches into a story about how his daughter followed a suspicious man during a troop hike and reported him to the authorities, claiming he was a foreigner because he was wearing "a funny kind of shoes." Winston is horrified, but outwardly agrees that she did her duty to the Party.

A telescreen announcement lauding the Ministry of Plenty's success in exceeding all production goals interrupts their conversation, and Winston reflects on the lies being told. He knows production did not meet the stated goals, but regardless of actual numbers, production will always be reported as far higher than expected. This supports Party morale and convinces the Party members that they are leading happy lives. The phrase "our new, happy life" is repeated often throughout the broadcast. In the midst of this announcement, Winston finds himself predicting the fates of those in his life. He believes that he, Mrs. Parsons, Syme, and O'Brien will be vaporized, while Parsons, the dark-haired girl, and other mindless followers of Party doctrine will never be subject to such a fate. Suddenly, he realizes that the dark-haired girl is staring at him. When he returns her gaze, she quickly looks away, and Winston begins to fear that she knows what he has been thinking and will report him for facecrime. Minutes later, Parsons tells another story of his children setting a woman's skirt on fire for having wrapped fish in newspaper containing pictures of Big Brother. A whistle blows, and the men return to work.

Analysis

Winston's prophetic dreams continue in this section. He dreams of the Golden Country, and of a sexual encounter with the dark-haired girl (whom we later learn is Julia). Later in the novel, this event actually takes place. This dark-haired girl is an object of sexual attraction for Winston, but also of hate. He is conflicted in his feelings for her, and represses both for fear of expressing himself too openly.

Throughout this section we clearly see the striking contradictions in the Party's constant revision of the past, which Winston directly contributes to through his position in the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth. Any past documentation challenging a current Party goal, achievement or development must be destroyed or altered to support the Party's current actions. In this way, the "past" is constantly changing, and constantly altered. At one point, Oceania is at war with Eurasia and has always been at war with Eurasia, but later in the novel, Oceania is at war with Eastasia and has always been at war with Eastasia. For the Party, the past is mutable. Winston refuses to accept this, most visibly during the Ministry of Plenty report at the end of Chapter V where Winston listens in awe and disgust to false reports that the Ministry of Plenty has exceeded all production goals.

In detailing Winston's work life, Orwell reveals the inner workings of Party organizations and the fastidious control the Party wields over every detail of information administered to Party members and the masses. To work in the Ministry of Truth, Party members must embrace doublethink. They know they are altering past information, yet as loyal Party members must accept their own personal alterations as the truth. Winston cannot embrace doublethink. He knows the Party's version of the past is false - he remembers events the Party pretends never happened, and he refuses to ignore this knowledge.

Through a detailed account of Winston's work life, we also learn how lonely he is. He has no personal friends, except perhaps for Syme, whom he only grudgingly calls a friend. He observes the people he works among with a great deal of detachment. He knows little about their personal lives, and is generally frustrated by their simpleness. He tends to view them with disdain. This loneliness and separation from fellow mankind will fuel the intensity of Winston's eventual relationship with Julia and his longing for a friendship with O'Brien.

In these chapters, we also witness the degree of self-control Winston must wield in order to avoid discovery. In conversations with work colleagues, Winston stops himself from saying what he actually believes, and maintains great control over his facial expressions to avoid expressing discontent when it would be inappropriate to do so. Although Winston has become comfortable with this self-control, he doesn't trust himself completely. Therefore, when he catches the dark-haired girl looking at him during the Ministry of Plenty telescreen report, he is immediately worried that he has revealed himself, and that she will report him for facecrime.

Winston writes in his diary, revealing the details of a particularly sordid night when he had sex with a prole prostitute with a face thickly painted in makeup (which Party women never wear). Winston struggles with his internal turmoil surrounding this disdainful act, noting to himself that man's nervous system is his worst enemy. There is no way to fight involuntary facial spasms or talking in one's sleep. These are the actions that cannot be stopped, yet can condemn one to death.

Winston remembers his wife Katharine, whom he separated from but never divorced, as per Party practice. Winston describes how the Party works continually to remove all pleasure from sexual acts, seeing eroticism as an enemy. Party marriages must be approved by a committee, and to gain such approval, the man and woman in question must not demonstrate any true physical affection for one another. The goal of a marriage is to produce offspring, not to seek personal pleasure or satisfaction. In fact, certain Party organizations, including the Junior Anti-Sex League (of which the dark-haired girl is a member, as demonstrated by the crimson band around her waist), advocate celibacy and procreation through artsem, Newspeak for artificial insemination, and even suggest that children should be raised in public institutions rather than by parents.

Katharine and Winston separated almost eleven years ago, and Winston rarely thinks of her. He nicknamed her "the human soundtrack" because of her empty mind and willingness to spout Party propaganda. Katharine had always been extremely cold when it came to sex, but insisted that she and Winston must keep trying to have children so she could fulfill her "duty to the Party".

Winston returns to his story of prostitution, revealing that when he turned on the light to look at the nakedness of the woman he was about to have sex with, he realized that she was old. She had no teeth at all, and was at least fifty, but Winston completed the act nevertheless. In writing this admission, Winston struggles, pressing his fingers against his eyes and using every vestige of control to avoid screaming foul words.

Some time later, Winston writes, "If there is hope, it lies in the proles." The proles, who comprise eighty-five percent of Oceania's population, are the only ones, he believes, who can overthrow the Party. It is impossible to do so from within. Winston remembers walking down a street and hearing what he thought was a riot - a prole rebellion. In fact, it was women fighting over a limited supply of poorly made frying pans that broke in half during the scuffle. Winston writes, "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious." Acknowledging this catch-22, Winston reflects on how the Party has claimed to have liberated the proles from the bondage and slavery of capitalist society, when in actuality the proles still live in squalor, work, produce children, drink beer, and die by age sixty. The Thought Police are always among them, seeking out those deemed too intelligent or too aware of the Party's activities, and removing them from society.

Winston takes a copy of a children's history textbook he obtained from Mrs. Parsons out of his desk drawer and begins to copy a passage describing the ills of capitalist society, including starving children having to work for cruel masters, and capitalist men always wearing long black coats with top hats. Winston then remembers other historical matters he has been taught about the capitalist past, including jus primae noctis, which supposedly was a "law by which every capitalist had the right to sleep with any woman working in one of his factories." Winston notes it is impossible to tell how many of these stories are lies, as nothing can be proved or disproved. Only once in his life has Winston ever held actual proof that Party history is false in his hands.

In the mid-sixties, during a series of great purges removing the original Revolutionary leaders, three men named Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford were arrested. Under torture, they confessed to a variety of crimes. They were then released and returned to posts within the Party. Winston once saw them at the Chestnut Tree Cafe, and their spirits seemed entirely broken. While he observed them, a song came on over the telescreen: "Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me..." Shortly afterwards, the three were rearrested and charged with a new string of crimes. Five years later, in 1973, Winston was at work and a newspaper clipping describing the three men at a function in New York on the date that they had confessed to being in Eurasia came into his workstation along with other rolled pieces of paper. Winston held in his hand concrete evidence of their innocence. Ten minutes later, Winston dropped the clipping into the memory hole, destroying it forever. But he never forgot the experience.

Remembering this day, Winston writes "I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY." He wonders if he is alone in this belief that the Party alters history, sometimes for entirely unknown reasons. He wonders if he is a lunatic, and whether it is possible to know that anything is true. Recalling O'Brien's face, he realizes he is sane. With new courage, he writes, "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."

After work one night, Winston finds himself wandering through the streets of London, among the proles. After being warned, he survives a "steamer" (rocket bomb) attack, a common occurrence in London, which constantly suffers such attacks. Following the attack, he continues his walk and finds himself near the antique shop where he bought his diary and the stationary shop where he bought his pen and ink. Across the street, he sees a very old man enter a pub and decides to take the risk of following him in and asking him about life before the Revolution.

In the pub, the old man keeps asking the bartender for a "pint," and the frustrated bartender keeps explaining to him that there are only liters and half-liters for sale. He does not know what a "pint" is. Winston buys the man a drink and begins to ask him pointed questions about the past and how things have changed since the Revolution. The man acknowledges living before the Revolution, but only refers to life before the Revolution with references to minute details of his life that Winston does not find particularly interesting or satisfying, such as references to top hats, lackeys, and his luck with women. The man simply does not answer Winston as to whether life was better before or after the Revolution.

Frustrated, Winston leaves and finds himself in front of the antique shop. He walks in, thinking he can claim that he is looking for razor blades if he is questioned. The owner of the store, Mr. Charrington, is a frail man of about sixty years old with benevolent eyes, thick spectacles, white hair, and bushy eyebrows. Winston notes that he has a "vague air of intellectuality" about him. The man remembers when he was last in the store, buying the rare diary, or, as he calls it, the "young lady's keepsake album." Winston wanders through the shop and finds a paperweight with a piece of coral inside of it. Winston is struck by its beauty and decides to purchase it. Mr. Charrington suggests that Winston take a look at another room, above the shop. The room consists of a strip of carpet, a few pictures, an armchair, a fireplace, an old-fashioned twelve-hour clock, and a large bed. With amazement, Winston realizes that there is no telescreen. The man explains that he never had a need for one, and begins to show Winston a picture on the wall of St. Clement's Dane. He recites part of a nursery rhyme about the old church: "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's...You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin's" He cannot remember the rest of it, but knows that the rhyme included the names of all the London churches.

Winston eventually extricates himself from Mr. Charrington and leaves the shop. He wanders home, briefly wondering what it might be like to rent the upper room from the old man. While recalling the rhyme Mr. Charrington shared, he suddenly sees the dark-haired girl from the Ministry of Truth on the road in front of him. In a panic, he stands stock still as she quickly walks on. He wanders aimlessly for a few minutes and then stops, wondering if he should turn back, follow the girl, and murder her with the paperweight to prevent himself from being turned in to the Thought Police. He quickly abandons the idea, thinking himself too weak, and heads home. Once back in his apartment, he chides himself for being so fearful and not acting to protect himself. He writes the rhyme down in his diary and begins contemplating what will happen to him when the Thought Police do eventually come to take him away. He will be tortured; his bones will snap; he will bleed and scream in pain. He thinks of O'Brien saying, "We will meet in the place with no darkness." In his train of thought the image of Big Brother merges and then replaces that of O'Brien. He pulls a coin from his pocket to look at the face of Big Brother, and is instead confronted with the Party slogans: "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength."

Analysis

Through Winston's painful memory of his experience with an aged prole prostitute, we begin to understand the depths of the Party's sexual repression. The memory pains Winston. Because he was so desperate for a close sexual experience, he continued the encounter even after realizing that the heavily made up woman was toothless and old. The Party represses all sexual acts in an effort to force Party members to channel all of their energy into furthering its own goals and needs. The Party must approve all marriages, and such unions must not appear to be sought because of sexual attraction. Sexual pleasure is an individual act, promoting independent thought and independent experiences. Clearly, sex is required for procreation, but through organizations such as the Junior Anti-Sex League, the Party turns sex into a duty performed purely to continue the Party and propagate the human race rather than an act performed for personal pleasure. Winston's wife Katharine felt this way, and was frigid in the bedroom, much to Winston's frustration and humiliation. As we later learn, the Party even encourages abstinence and advocates procreation only through artificial insemination.

The children's textbook (undoubtedly published in the Ministry of Truth) Winston has obtained is particularly revealing of the Party's revisionist history. The Party demonizes capitalism and capitalists, and Winston does not know what information in the book is true and what is false. Winston's story of the newspaper clipping proving Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford's innocence further evidences the degree to which he yearns for information about the past. Although Winston destroyed the clipping, he knows that it existed, and he knows that the Party covered it up. Here, he addresses an important question that will continue to arise throughout the novel, and will only be answered in the Ministry of Love: Why? He understands how the Party revises history, but does not understand why this constant revision is necessary.

When Winston travels out into the prole world, we begin to see how the rest of the Oceanian population lives. The proles are destitute, living in poverty in areas removed from Party business and life. The prole areas are also the only places Winston and the others can go if they wish to find relics of the past. Winston notably visits Mr. Charrington's antique store, purchases a paperweight, and dreams about what it might be like to live in the apartment above the shop, free from the eyes of a telescreen. Winston is in awe of Mr. Charrington's shop, and wishes he could soak in the history of his artifacts. Winston sees great freedom in the prole world, and it is for this reason that be believes that if there is hope, "it lies with the proles." Unfortunately, the proles seem unable to capitalize on their freedoms, and take no interest in Party affairs.

When Winston meets the old man in the bar, we see the stark contrast between his hopes for a prole rebellion and the reality of prole existence. Winston hopes that the old man will reveal ideological differences between life before the Revolution and life under Party control. However, the man focuses only on very personal memories that do not speak to Winston's concerns. Winston becomes frustrated in this conversation because he believes that the proles, who are not subjected to doublethink and the revision of history, hold the true details of history, and therefore the hope for a brighter future.

When visiting Mr. Charrington, Winston sees the picture of St. Clement's Dane for the first time. This picture, and its accompanying rhyme, become symbols of the past for Winston. He holds onto this picture, and to the first few lines of the rhyme that Mr. Charrington remembered, believing that they represent his ideal of incontrovertible truth and rebellion against the Party. The Party cannot control this picture, or this poem. Despite the hope Winston places in this object and this rhyme, both foreshadow his downfall. The rhyme ends with the line, "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head," and much later we will learn that a telescreen is hidden behind the picture. Winston's walk through this prole area of the city further confirms his rebellion, and continues to set him on the path towards eventual arrest and defeat.

In the middle of the morning, Winston takes a break from working to go to the bathroom. He notices the dark-haired girl walking towards him. The two are alone in the hallway. The girl falls, and Winston rushes to help her up. While assisting her, she discreetly hands him a small piece of paper. To avoid detection, he waits five minutes at his desk before allowing himself to read it, all the time imagining that perhaps it is a warning or a summons from the Thought Police. Finally he looks at it. It reads, "I love you." Winston is stunned.

At home in bed, Winston is able to think about the paper and work through his feelings. He tries to determine how to get in touch with the girl to arrange a rendezvous. Because she works in the Fiction Department, it would be too obvious if they ran into each other again in the hallway. For the next week, they keep missing each other in the canteen. Finally, he manages to sit an otherwise vacant table, only a few seats away from her. Speaking in near whispers, and not looking at each other, they quickly agree to meet at Victory Square.

In Victory Square, the excitement of a convoy of Eurasian prisoners causes a crowd, and they are able to stand side to side. The girl takes charge of the conversation immediately, outlining a plan to meet in a specific and distant point in the country that Sunday afternoon. Winston agrees. Just before the crowd parts the girls squeezes his hand, and upon touching it Winston feels he has learned every part of it by heart.

On Sunday, Winston travels into the country, following the girl's directions. While he is picking her some wildflowers, she finds him and they head to the secluded spot she has in mind. Before anything happens, Winston tells the girl that he is thirty-nine, and has varicose veins, a wife, and five false teeth. The girl replies that she does not care. They begin talking, and Winston learns that the girl's name is Julia. She has known for some time that he is Winston Smith. Winston reveals that he believed Julia to be part of the Thought Police. Julia finds such a notion quite funny, but appears to take some pleasure in being that believable as a Party devotee.

Julia and Winston stroll through the little enclave. Winston, standing at the edge of their small clearing, suddenly recognizes the scenery: it is the Golden Country from his dreams. A small thrush perched near them begins to sing passionately, and the sound strikes Winston as an example of simple, pure, unstoppable beauty. They head back to the clearing. Just as he saw in his dream, Julia tears off her clothes and they embrace. She reveals that she has done this with many Party members, and Winston explains that the more men she has been with, the more he will love her. He is inspired by her freedom and passionate rebellion, as corruption within the Party gives him hope for the future. After having sex, Winston likens their affair to a political act; a blow against the Party.

When Julia wakes from her short slumber, she immediately becomes businesslike: she dresses herself, and discusses where they should next meet, as it is dangerous to return to the same place more than a couple of times. They are able to meet up again privately once in the month of May, in a ruined church belfry, but otherwise they must be satiated with minor, seemingly accidental and unnoticed encounters in public streets, during which they pretend not to know each other. At the church tower, Winston learns more about Julia's life. She is twenty-six, lives in a hostel with other girls, and works on the novel-writing machine in the Fiction Department. She has no memories of life before the Revolution, and knows barely anyone who does. Throughout her life she has been an ideal Party member, often singled out for leadership roles in youth organizations. She also reveals that she has worked in Pornosec, the pornography section of the Fiction Department, devoted to creating pornographic stories for the proles. Apparently the Party believes women are better suited for Pornosec, because their morals won't be as tempted by the material as their male counterparts'. She had her first love affair at sixteen, and does not believe in the underground anti-Party Brotherhood movement.

Winston discusses his own life, and talks about his wife, Katharine, calling her "goodthinkful," meaning entirely and completely loyal to the Party, even in her most private thoughts. Winston hated her, and her cold, businesslike approach to their sex life. Julia predicts that Katharine called sex her "duty to the Party," and Winston is surprised to learn that this is a phrase women are taught to use. With this realization, he begins to understand the depths of the Party's sexual Puritanism. Removing sex allows one's energy to be otherwise focused, into violent loyalty to the Party and hatred of its enemies. Moreover, removing the parent instinct removes any loyalty other than that to the Party. Next, Winston reveals that once, while separated from a larger group on a walk in the country, he considered murdering his wife, but did not. Julia states that he should have done it to free himself. Winston agrees.

After a moment, Winston begins to understand that Julia believes it might be possible to continue living a secret life, while Winston knows the Thought Police will find them eventually. Stating his belief, Winston says, "We are the dead." Julia argues that they are not dead yet and begins to describe her next plan for them to meet.

Analysis

In these chapters, Winston takes a significant step in his rebellion against the Party. He begins a love affair, blatantly rejecting the Party's hatred of sexual attraction and enjoyment. In Julia, Winston finally finds a compatriot in his quest against the Party. He is no longer alone. Julia's presence supports Winston's anti-Party thoughts and feelings, but their affair also highlights the differences in their attitudes toward the Party. Julie despises the Party, but accepts it as a permanent ruling government. She has no illusions of bringing the Party down or of a successful rebellion against it. Rather, she enjoys finding her own ways to rebel against the Party, such as efficiently planning her and Winston's encounters. Julia wants to live as long as possible without being caught in her small rebellions, and within the bounds of the Party. In contrast, Winston is sure that he will be arrested and will die. Rather than working to protect his own life, Winston embraces fatalism while holding out hope for a rebellion against the Party and dreams of a Party-free future.

Julia and Winston meet in the square and observe a procession of prisoners of war. Here, we see the brutality of the totalitarian regime. The Party purposely parades these prisoners through a public square to use them as sources of propaganda and to rally the crowd against them. The parade of prisoners suggests that the Party is succeeding in battle and rallies the crowd's support for the Party's war efforts. Here again, the Party is masterfully manipulating the minds of its subjects through carefully planned propaganda efforts. Moreover, these prisoners and others already in Oceania are the only foreigners in the nation. Oceanian citizens never interact with foreigners - yet another method of control that prevents Oceanian citizens from understanding what life would be like outside of Oceania or beyond the reach of the Party. With no basis for comparison, Oceanian citizens have no choice but to be content with their lives.

Winston and Julia's encounter in the Golden Country is an important moment in the novel. Here, Winston sees the vision from his dream - Julia ripping her clothes of in the middle of the Golden Country - transformed into reality. In addition, he is inspired by a thrush's passionate song, which is, in Winston's eyes, a wonderful expression of freedom and beauty. Throughout the novel, Winston finds great inspiration in music. Here, it is through the thrush, and in much of the rest of the novel, it is through the red-armed, large prole woman who sings passionately while doing laundry in her yard.

Winston talks about his wife with Julia, revealing her sexual frigidity, and Julia is not surprised. Again, the Party's puritanical views on sexuality become apparent. Winston is encouraged to learn that Julia has had many affairs, her first at age sixteen. In his eyes, this behavior is a great act of political rebellion against the Party, and he is eager to take part in it. On a more personal level, Winston is elated to finally be in a sexual relationship where both parties are eager for personal pleasure, and in which the Party plays no role.

Winston stands in the room above Mr. Charrington's shop, looking around. His paperweight is on the small desk, and the room now contains a small oil stove, a saucepan, and two pots, all supplied by Mr. Charrington. Winston rented the room from Mr. Charrington, clearly for a love affair with Julia. Rather than judging him, Mr. Charrington noted vaguely that privacy was very valuable these days. Winston hears someone singing beneath his window. He looks out and sees a large, stocky prole woman hanging baby diapers, singing, "It was only an 'opless fancy..." Apparently, this is a Party song published for the benefit of the proles, who revel in machine-generated verse.

Winston admits to himself that he has taken a great risk in renting the room, but remembers how hard it had been for he and Julia to meet. Once, she had to cancel a planned reunion because her menstrual cycle was early. At first Winston was furious, but upon recognizing the depth of their bond was calmed by a powerful wave of tenderness towards Julia. His mind wanders to their eventual arrest and what awaits them in the Ministry of Love, but Julia's entrance interrupts his dismal reverie.

Julia has brought with her many black market items, including good bread, real coffee, sugar, makeup, and perfume. When she puts on the makeup and allows Winston to see her, he is pleased. Julia reveals her plan to get a real dress and a pair of silk stockings so that - in Mr. Charrington's apartment, at least - she can be a woman rather than a Party member, and embrace her femininity. Winston and Julia make love on the large bed and sleep for a short time. When they wake, Julia sees a rat poking his head out of a corner of the room. Winston is horrified, revealing that he is more afraid of rats than anything else: "Of all the horrors in the world - a rat!" Winston remembers his recurring nightmare of standing in front of a wall of darkness, knowing that on the other side lies something dreadful.

Julia explores the room, noting the paperweight and the picture on the wall. Winston tells her of Mr. Charrington's poem, and she adds to it: "You owe me three farthings say the bells of St. Martin's / When will you pay me, say the bells of Old Bailey?" Winston is shocked, but Julia reveals that her grandfather, who lived before the war and was vaporized, used to recite it to her. Julia begins to get dressed and clean up, while Winston picks up his paperweight and imagines that his life inside this apartment is like the coral: trapped inside thick, safe, protective crystal, fixed in eternity.

It is some weeks later, and Syme has vanished. Just as Winston predicted, Syme has been vaporized. His name has been deleted from Ministry records, and people begin to behave as though they never knew him. Winston has been working long hours to prepare for Hate Week. The weather has become hot, and the population seems eager for activity: they hang banners, posters and signs, and proudly sing the Hate Song. In the lead-up to Hate Week, Winston has noticed a new, particularly large poster of a Eurasian soldier wielding a machine gun all over the city. Winston and Julia continue to meet in the apartment above Mr. Charrington's shop, dealing with its meager amenities and apparent bug problem in order to revel in their increasing happiness. Winston's ulcer has subsided, his coughing fits have disappeared, and his anger has somewhat abated. He has begun regularly chatting with Mr. Charrington about old times and the things in the shop. The apartment has become a refuge where he feels safe from the Party, able to act as a person rather than a Party member. However, Winston still understands - albeit distantly - that his fate is sealed. Such rebellion will not go unnoticed forever. Their time is precious.

Winston tells Julia of the bond he feels with O'Brien, and she understands why Winston might recognize him as sympathetic to his feelings. Julia believes deeply in the power of such relationships, but also tends to assume that most people are fundamentally against the Party, even though she doubts the existence of the Brotherhood. Although she is rebellious, Julia is somewhat naive in Winston's eyes. She believes that the Party invented the airplane, barely understands who Goldstein was, and cannot remember that Oceania was once at war with Eastasia (rather than Eurasia). The ease with which she accepts the Party's propaganda slightly disturbs Winston.

While walking through a hallway at work, Winston hears a small cough behind him. He turns and sees O'Brien, and feels that finally the day has come when he will receive a message from the Brotherhood. O'Brien begins the conversation by claiming that he knows Winston is interested in Newspeak, even vaguely referring to Syme, who was recently vaporized. O'Brien offers Winston an advance copy of the Tenth Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary and gives Winston his home address so that he can come pick up the copy. Then, as suddenly as he arrived, O'Brien is gone. Winston reflects on the interaction, believing that he is taking yet another step towards complete rebellion, and towards his own grave.

Winston and Julia are in Mr. Charrington's apartment. Winston wakes with eyes full of tears. He tells Julia that he has been dreaming of his mother. He remembers that shortly after his father disappeared, he lived with his mother and his baby sister. Times were difficult, air raids were common, and rations were small. Winston's mother was highly distraught. She performed all her household duties, but rarely spoke, and sometimes held Winston for inexplicably long periods of time. Winston was a selfish young boy who always demanded more food from his mother even though there was barely enough for them to share, and sometimes even stole from his little sister's plate. One day, Winston's mother broke apart the two-ounce chocolate ration, giving three quarters to Winston and one quarter to his little sister. Winston snatched his sister's piece and ran from the house, his mother screaming for him to come back. He never saw her again. When he returned to the apartment several hours later, his mother and sister were gone.

After Winston tells his story, Julia responds by saying that she bets he was "a beastly little swine" in those days. Winston tries to explain the point of the story, but Julia falls asleep. He thinks of a violent propaganda movie he saw in which a refugee mother in a small boat tried to protect her son from a bomb by wrapping her arm around him. He finds a similarity between her gesture and his memories of his mother. Both women cared first for their children, and only second for their Party or their country. Such personal loyalty does not exist anymore. The Party has destroyed it by removing the sex instinct and family bonds. Winston realizes that the proles maintain these loyalties, and discovers a newfound respect for them. He says aloud, "The proles are human beings. We are not human." Julia wakes, and they begin discussing their relationship and what will happen when they are arrested. They agree that the Party will never be able to force them to stop loving each other. Staying human and maintaining their love is the ultimate rebellion against the Party.

Analysis

In these chapters, Winston and Julia settle into their affair. Winston takes another significant step towards his eventual arrest by renting Mr. Charrington's room. Originally he rejects the notion, understanding that to rent the apartment will definitely mean death. However, his love for Julia and their agreed-upon hatred of the Party emboldens him, and he decides to take the risk. When Julia sees the room, she is satisfied. She adds a line to the St. Clement's Dane poem, which thrills Winston. She also suggests cleaning the St. Clement's Dane picture, but never does. If she had, perhaps she and Winston would have discovered the telescreen hiding underneath and avoided arrest.

The paperweight Winston bought from Mr. Charrington earlier on takes on a larger symbolic meaning in these chapters. Just as the painting of St. Clement's Dane and its accompanying rhyme hold special meaning for Winston, so does the paperweight. One day after Julia leaves the apartment, Winston imagines he and Julia living in a world inside the paperweight, protected by the beautiful glass and removed from any sense of time or place. The paperweight, the apartment, the picture of St. Clement's Dane and its accompanying rhyme all symbolize Winston's hopes for freedom, yet are all false symbols. Each is obtained from Mr. Charrington, who is later revealed to be a member of the Thought Police. Even in what Winston believes is his path towards a greater understanding of the Party, history, reality, and the potential for rebellion, he is being manipulated by the Party. Perhaps the only real thing in his life is Julia. She came to him independently of the Party, and their love is the single act of rebellion that is not defined or controlled by the Party.

The prole woman singing outside the apartment window is another important symbol introduced in these chapters. Winston has already revealed a near-obsession with the proles and a belief that if there is hope, "it lies with the proles." As such, he takes a strong interest in the large, sturdy prole woman who sings simple yet passionate songs while hanging her laundry. In the prole woman, Winston recognizes a zest for life that Party members never enjoy. Listening to her songs and watching her work inspires Winston. She makes him believe that there is hope for humanity outside of the Party, perhaps in the next generation of proles.

In the apartment, Winston reveals his biggest fear: rats. When Julia points out one that is trying to sneak into the room through a hole in the corner, Winston is terrified. He describes a vague nightmare he has always had where a large wall prevents something horrible from reaching him. In the dream he never sees what is behind the wall, but in his mind he knows it is a horde of rats. Here again, Winston's dreams prove quite important to his waking life. Later, in the Ministry of Love, O'Brien will capitalize on this fear to break the last vestiges of Winston's independence and loyalty to Julia. Horrified at the idea of a rat cage being locked onto his face, Winston finally betrays his love.

In this section, Winston learns that his "friend" Syme has been vaporized. Syme is the first character in the novel to be vaporized, and his disappearance drives home the very real threat of arrest and death. Winston is headed down a similar path, but he cannot stop himself. Although death is inevitable, Winston forges on, again embracing his fatalistic outlook.

In this section, Winston finally meets and speaks to O'Brien, who has long been a symbol of the potential for rebellion from within the Party. The meeting is everything Winston had hoped for. O'Brien approaches him and gives him his address, an action Winston immediately recognizes as an invitation to discuss the Brotherhood. He thinks that the moment has finally come: he will join the rebellion, and his life will take on meaning. Tragically, we will later learn that Winston is wrong and that O'Brien is laying a trap.

In waking from a dream in which Winston remembers the last time he ever saw his mother, we begin to understand the suffering Winston endured as a child and the guilt he has carried over his mother and sister's deaths. Winston is deeply pained by the selfish acts of his childhood, and remembers his mother's love for his sister and for himself. Winston begins to understand that before the Party, loyalty to family came before loyalty to the Party. When Winston recognizes this sentiment in a Party propaganda film, he finds hope that somewhere in the world there are people who love each other. Such humanity, which Winston and Julia exhibit in their love, must mean that the potential exists to overthrow the Party. Once again, we see Winston and Julia's love as an act of rebellion in and of itself. They agree that the Party will never be able to destroy their love, and in that way, they are above the power of the Party. Once again, we will later learn that they are wrong in this assumption, and that the Party can indeed break their spirits and their love.

Winston and Julia, having traveled by different routes, arrive at O'Brien's apartment. Winston is nervous to have even entered the rich, spacious part of town that the Inner Party members live in, which smells of rare foods and tobacco. O'Brien's servant, Martin, is dark-haired, has a diamond-shaped face Winston believes to be Chinese, and wears a crisp white jacket. Martin brings Winston and Julia to O'Brien. O'Brien's flat is luxurious, with thick blue carpeting and clean, cream-colored walls. Before greeting his visitors, O'Brien completes a brief bit of business. Winston suddenly wonders if he is welcome, and whether he should have come. He has no proof that O'Brien is a member of a political conspiracy against the Party. He is acting only on glances, brief conversations, and a feeling in his gut.

O'Brien walks over to his guests, switching off his telescreen on his way. Winston and Julia are astounded. They never knew anyone who had the power to turn off a telescreen. O'Brien explains that Inner Party members have that privilege. The three face each other for a moment, and O'Brien asks, "Shall I say it or will you?" Winston launches into an admission of thoughtcrime, his and Julia's hatred of Big Brother and the Party, and their belief in and eagnerness to join the underground movement. Martin appears with refreshments, which turn out to be wine, something Winston and Julia have never tasted. O'Brien explains that Martin is "one of us" and asks him to sit with them.

O'Brien answers Winston's questions, explaining that Goldstein is real and that the Brotherhood (the anti-Party movement) exists. He then asks Winston and Julia what they are willing to do for the cause. They claim that they are willing to do anything, including murdering innocents and committing suicide, to further the Brotherhood. The only thing that they are unwilling to do is to part and never see each other again. O'Brien sends Martin to the pantry and begins to lecture Winston and Julia, explaining to them that they must obey him no matter what his instructions, and that he must effectively keep them in the dark about the extent of the underground organization so as to keep other members safe from discovery. Once the Thought Police find them, the Brotherhood will abandon Winston and Julia to protect the cause. Winston and Julia watch O'Brien with a sense of wonder and deep respect, and Winston believes that O'Brien represents hope for mankind. Before sending Julia out, O'Brien calls for a toast. Winston offers, "To the past," and they drink. Julia leaves, and O'Brien and Winston begin to speak of logistics. Winston reveals his "hiding place," Mr. Charrington's shop, and O'Brien tells him he will send him a copy of "the book...Goldstein's book." One day in the near future, Winston will find a misprint on an assignment and will have to ask for a repeat. The next day, he is to leave his briefcase at home. At some point during the day a man will walk up to him saying, "I believe you dropped your briefcase," and give him a briefcase containing the book. Before Winston and O'Brien part, O'Brien again offers a toast, saying "We shall meet again - if we do not meet again..." Winston interrupts hesitantly, stating, "We shall meet in the place of no darkness?" O'Brien agrees. Asked if he has any more questions before he leaves, Winston questions O'Brien about the rhyme Mr. Charrington taught him. O'Brien reveals the rest of the poem, adding, "When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch." The poem is complete. The men shake hands, and Winston leaves.

Winston is walking towards Mr. Charrington's apartment, carrying "the book" and feeling utterly exhausted. He has worked more than ninety hours in five days, along with everyone else in the Party, because of Hate Week. On the sixth day, the enemy changed from Eurasia to Eastasia. Immediately, all the propaganda had to be adjusted to denounce Eastasia rather than Eurasia, Oceania's new ally. Winston recalls that when the event happened, he was watching a speech. The speaker was interrupted and after reading the newsflash, continued on almost seamlessly, denouncing Eastasia rather than Eurasia, which he had been discussing only moments before. The Party worked to "correct" old news stories and propaganda about being at war with Eurasia. In the view of the Party, Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.

Finally, Winston reaches the apartment, sits on the bed, and opens the book. He reads the title page: "The Theory and Practices of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein." Winston begins to read. The book opens with a discussion of basic class levels. Winston decides to jump ahead and begins reading the third chapter, which discusses how the world was split into three super powers. Russia absorbed Europe, and the United States absorbed Great Britain. A decade later, after a great deal of fighting, Eastasia finally solidified. Eurasia consists of the whole,

"northern part of the European and Asiatic land mass, from Portugal to the Bering Strait, Oceania comprises the Americas, the Atlantaic islands including the British Isles, Australasia, and the souther portion of Africa. Eastasia, smaller than the other and with a less definite western frontier, comprises China and the countries to the south of it, the Japanese islands and a large but fluctuating portion of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet."

Goldstein explains that for the past twenty-five years, these superstates have been permanently at war, despite the impossibility of a decisive outcome. Goldstein claims that the goal of modern warfare is to use the products created by society without raising standards of living. When a war is on, massive production is needed, but economic growth is impossible. The superstate populations are kept "bare, hungry, and dilapidated," compared to how they lived before the Revolution.

Goldstein notes the difficulty in maintaining a balance between wealth and power in healthy, growing societies. He explains that it was perceived that the only way to strike an effective balance and make all members of society equals would be to quickly distribute goods to prevent consumer growth: "The essential act of War is destruction." Scientists no longer pursue knowledge alone. Rather, they study facial expressions to determine ways to detect thoughtcrime, or chemistry to develop new weapons. Goldstein even notes that there has been very little development in weaponry. Each country still builds and hoards atomic bombs, which were developed long before the superstates were established.

Oceania is ruled under the ideology of Ingsoc, Eurasia under Neo-Bolshevism, and Eastasia under what can be translated as either "Death-worship" or "Obliteration of the Self." All countries have an Inner Party, a Party, a prole structure, and worship absolute, semi-divine leaders. Goldstein states, "when war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous...technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied or disregarded." The people have no way of knowing the true state of the world, and must rely entirely upon the Party. Rather than being a war between nations, the war is waged upon the people to maintain loyalty, unity against a common enemy, and Party domination. Thus, as war maintains order in each individual nation, the meaning of the Party slogan "War is Peace" becomes clear.

Julia arrives, briefly acknowledges the book, and busies herself making coffee. Half an hour later, while lying in bed, Winston tells Julia she must also read the book, and she asks him to read it aloud so that they can both take it in at the same time. He begins again at the first chapter.

Goldstein discusses the pyramidal shape of society, which consists of the High, who wish to remain high, Middle, who wish to change places with the high, and Low, who wish to develop a society based on equality among all men. When the Middle works to overthrow the High, it enlists the Low to achieve its goals, and then pushes the Low back to their place. Thus, the Low are always trod upon, with no hope of true change or progress. This pattern became clear in the nineteenth century, when Socialism began to gain popularity. The socialist movements among the superstates turned into totalitarian rule, which eventually evolved into Ingsoc, Neo-Bolshevism, and Death-worship, and worked directly towards developing "unfreedom and inequality." The purpose of these systems was to stop progress and "freeze history at a chosen moment." Rather than moving forward, society moved backward, embracing concepts such as "imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions [and] torture." Goldstein blames the invention of the television for the complete loss of privacy and the drastic increase in domestic spying. The television and propagation of print media allows superstates to develop and maintain complete uniformity in opinion.

Goldstein defines the four dangers to a ruling regime as being conquered from without, suffering from inefficient government leading to revolt, permitting a strong and independent Middle Group to develop, or losing self-confidence and willingness to govern. The main danger lies in the growth of liberalism. To address this, the government works efficiently to mold consciousness. As such, the infallible, all-powerful Big Brother sits at the apex of Oceanian society, as a representation of the Party to its country and the world, and "a focus point for love, fear, and reverence, emotions which are more easily felt toward an individual than toward an organization." Next lies the Inner Party, numbering approximately six million, less than two percent of the population. The Outer Party follows, filled with workers who allow the Party to maintain society, and finally come the proles, the "dumb masses" and non-Party members consisting of eighty-five percent of the population. Membership in these groups is defined by heredity, and each is monitored closely by the Thought Police to weed out any independent thinkers.

Goldstein goes on to discuss the advent of Newspeak, the total lack of privacy demanded by the Party, and the central notion of the mutability of the past. Goldstein focuses specifically on the Newspeak word "doublethink," which means "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." Goldstein notes that the Party tends to embrace contradiction, "constantly linking opposites - knowledge with ignorance, cynicism with fanaticism," peace with war, truth with lies, plenty with starvation, love with torture. In this way, the Party has abandoned every basic principle of Socialism and turned its back on the original goals of the Revolution.

Winston stops reading and realizes that Julia has fallen asleep. He lies down next to her, noting that he still has not learned the "ultimate secret." He knows how, but not why. He knew all of these things before, but reading Goldstein's words showed him that he was sane. He falls asleep murmuring, "Sanity is not statistical."

Winston wakes thinking that he has slept for a long time, but the clock suggests otherwise. He hears the deep singing of the prole woman in the yard below. Julia wakes and notices that the oil stove is empty, which is strange considering she had been sure to fill it. Julia dresses, and they take a moment to observe the prole woman in her yard, performing her domestic duties and thriving in her simple life. Winston calls her beautiful, and reflects on how she must have changed quite quickly from a young, supple beauty to a hardened, wide mother of many needy children. He thinks about all the people in the world who live similarly simple lives, focused on family, children, and daily work, and again tells himself that if there is hope, it lies in the proles. He knows that this must have been Goldstein's conclusion as well, and takes heart in the notion that eventually "strength would change into consciousness," and humanity would recapture the earth. In comparing himself to the freedom of the proles, he states aloud, "We are the dead." Julia echoes his words, and then suddenly, a voice from behind them states, "You are the dead." Winston and Julia jump apart in fear. Julia realizes that the voice is coming from behind the picture. The voice tells them to stay where they are, and then adds the final lines to the St. Clement's poem, "Here comes a candle to light you to bed / Here comes a chopper to chop off your head!" The picture falls to the ground, revealing a hidden telescreen. The Thought Police break in through the window, smash Winston's coral paperweight to the ground, and hit Julia. Mr. Charrington walks into the room, and Winston realizes that he looks younger, taller, colder, and more alert. He suddenly realizes that it was Mr. Charrington's voice on the telescreen; Mr. Charrington is a member of the Thought Police.

Analysis

Finally, Winston and Julia meet O'Brien in his home to discuss rebellion against the Party. This pivotal moment places Winston and Julia - in their minds, at least - forever on a path towards rebellion, but in reality only sends them careening towards arrest and torture. Winston's easy admission of hatred for the Party and desire to join an underground organization working against it seals his eventual downfall, but frees his spirit. Winston believes that he has finally found the anti-Party organization he has sought throughout his life. Throughout the meeting, both Winston and Julia are in awe of O'Brien's simultaneous status as a member of the Inner Party position and dedication to the Party's destruction. In expressing great confidence, knowledge and power, O'Brien is further established as a man of great wisdom and knowledge. Winston references his dream when he closes a toast with O'Brien, saying they shall meet "in the place where there is no darkness." Before leaving, Winston asks O'Brien about the St. Clement's Dane rhyme, and O'Brien is symbolically able to complete the verse, which assures Winston of O'Brien's like-mindedness. As is sadly common in Winston's experience, we later learn that O'Brien has lied to Winston and Julia in an effort to build up their hope for rebellion and trap them into arrest, torture, and deep psychological manipulation at the Ministry of Love.

Through the description of Hate Week and the extra hours Winston must spend at work due to the sudden change of enemies in the middle of the propaganda-filled week, we again see the degree to which the Party can successfully manipulate people's minds. The Party changes enemies in the middle of a speech from Eurasia to Eastasia, and immediately claims that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Here, the phenomenon of doublethink is displayed clearly and powerfully. The masses accept this new enemy and the claim that Eastasia has always been the enemy with phenomenal ease.

Chapter IX consists almost entirely of excerpts from "the book," Goldstein's The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. When Julia arrives and finds Winston with the book, we again see the differences between them. Julia, more interested in her own personal survival than the future of the human race, is only vaguely interested, and after asking Winston to read aloud, falls asleep. Meanwhile, Winston is deeply fascinated by Goldstein's words and believes that the book will unlock the key to the mysteries behind the Party and its rule over Oceania. This section of the book reads largely like a history textbook, and provides a glimpse into Orwell's view of how Socialist revolutions have been abandoned by its champions to develop totalitarian regimes. We can assume that Orwell is drawing significantly from Stalin's rise to power and the institution of Stalinism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This section has often been criticized for an excess of academic analysis, but others cite it as supporting the novel's focus on the negative effects of totalitarian regimes. In this section, we can see how closely linked the world of 1984 is to historical events.

During this long discourse on global political developments, Julia is lulled to sleep and Winston eventually follows, but only after he realizes that the book has not told him anything new. Winston and Julia wake in the morning with a false sense of safety and serenity that is interrupted quite dramatically with the invasion of the Thought Police. Only moments earlier, Winston and Julia had again gazed down at the singing prole woman, and Winston had imagined a world filled with simple humanity. Yet it was during this hopeful moment that the Thought Police arrived. Winston has always known he would be arrested, but the scene is a dramatic surprise for the reader. The inevitable day has come.

Winston sits in a holding cell with white porcelain walls, no windows, and a high ceiling. He isn't sure where he is, but assumes that it is the Ministry of Love. The room is filled with light, and there is a low humming sound that Winston assumes is coming from the air system. A bench runs around the outside of the room, there is a telescreen on each of the four walls, and a lavatory pan sits in one corner. Winston is hungry, and has lost track of how long it has been since he has eaten, or even since he was arrested. Perhaps a day, perhaps two. He tries to sit as still as possible to avoid the wrath of the voices behind the telescreen, but after remembering he might have a piece of crust in his pocket, he succumbs to temptation. Immediately, the voice behind the telescreen yells, "Smith! 6079 Smith W.! Hands out of pockets in the cells!" Winston complies.

Before this cell, Winston was in another, far dirtier, cell, with at least ten to fifteen people in it at any given time. Most were proles or common criminals, and a few others were Party political prisoners. The common criminals were far less afraid. They fought against the prison guards, wrote on the walls, yelled back at the telescreen, and blatantly ate the food they had smuggled in, while the Party prisoners sat in terrified, obedient silence. Interestingly, the guards seemed to treat the common criminals more leniently. Winston gathered from what he heard in his cell that the work camps were "all right...so long as you had good contacts and knew the ropes," but the worst jobs in the forced labor camps were always given to political prisoners.

Winston observed the prisoners as they came and went. At one point, the guards brought in a very large woman, kicking and screaming, and unceremoniously dumped her across Winston's lap. She sat up, swore at the guards, and apologized to Winston by saying, "I wouldn't 'a sat on you, only the buggers put me there. They dono 'ow to treat a lady, do they?" Next, she vomited, and then, once recovered, put her arm around Winston and asked his name. Her last name was Smith as well, and she noted that is was even possible that she was his mother. Winston was struck by the possibility, but did not pursue the matter. None of the other prisoners spoke to Winston, but he overheard whispered, fearful conversations regarding Room 101.

In the white-walled cell, Winston thinks about what is going to happen to him. He imagines being beaten and tortured, and screaming for mercy. He rarely thinks of Julia, and finds it hard to fix her image in his mind. He wonders if O'Brien knows he has been arrested, and remembers him saying that even though the Brotherhood cannot ever help a prisoner, it might be able to smuggle him a razor blade. Winston hopes for the razor blade, imagining how quickly he might be able to end his life. Winston loses track of time completely, recognizing that with the lights always on, the Ministry of Love truly is "the place with no darkness." Suddenly, Ampleforth is thrown into the cell. He is dirty, shoeless, and clearly in a poor state. The two men talk, and Ampleforth says that he although he is not sure, he thinks he has been arrested because he left the word "God" in a Kipling poem. There was simply no other way to rhyme the couplet. They continue talking, but the telescreen quickly silences them. The guards return for Ampleforth, and he is sent to Room 101. Some time passes, and the guards return again, this time with Tom Parsons. Winston is shocked: he never expected Parsons to be arrested. Parsons is visibly upset, and begins asking Winston if they will shoot him. He expresses confidence that he will receive a fair trial, and hopes that his loyalty to the Party will keep his labor camp sentence short. Winston asks Parsons whether he is guilty, to which Parsons replies, "Of course I'm guilty! You don't think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?" He then tells Winston how his seven-year-old daughter listened at his bedroom door at night and heard him saying "Down with Big Brother!" in his sleep. He absolutely believes that he is guilty of saying it, and is proud of his daughter for doing her duty to the Party in reporting him. Parsons then uses the lavatory in a loud and obscene manner, smelling up the room for hours to come.

Parsons is eventually taken out, and other prisoners come and go. Some are relegated to Room 101, and Winston begins to notice that a few people tremble in great fear upon hearing those words. The guards bring in a man so emaciated that it seems he is being starved to death. One man offers him a piece of bread, but the telescreen quickly shouts him down, "2713 Bumstead J.! Let fall that piece of bread!" He does as he is told. Guards burst into the room, and Bumstead is punched so hard that he is sent flying across the room. Two halves of a dental plate fall out of his mouth, and blood gushes from his face. He pulls himself up to a sitting position, and Winston notices that his mouth is extremely swollen and bruised. All the other prisoners sit quietly. A guard opens the door and tells the starving man to go to Room 101. He immediately gasps and protests, his face turning a shade of green, begging for anything but Room 101, even telling the guard he would rather they cut his wife's and children's throats than take him there. In a panic, he looks around the room, finds Bumstead, the man who tried to give him a piece of bread, and argues that the guards should take him because he is a true enemy to the Party. Finally he throws himself to the ground, grabbing a leg of one of the benches and howling, begging not to go to Room 101. Ignoring his pleas, the guards struggle with him, break his hands free, and escort him from the room while all the other prisoners sit quietly and watch.

Many hours pass. Winston is desperately hungry and thirsty, and his thoughts of Julia and O'Brien wane. The doors open, and O'Brien walks in. Winston thinks O'Brien has also been captured, but O'Brien explains, "The got me a long time ago...You knew this Winston. Don't deceive yourself. You did know it - You have always known it." The guard with O'Brien hits Winston in the elbow, and he buckles in pain. The guard laughs, and Winston realizes that in the face of pain, there are no heroes. Nothing is worse than physical pain.

Winston wakes, and realizes that he is lying on a cot. O'Brien and a man with a hypodermic syringe are standing next to him. He does not know how long he has been unconscious, and has no concept of how long he has been undergoing torture. It might have been months, weeks, days, or only hours. He has been interrogated and forced to admit to a long list of crimes, and has been regularly and viciously beaten, suffering deep bruises and fractures all over his body. Sometimes, he knows, he screamed for mercy before anyone even hit him, and other times he convinced himself he would wait to confess until the pain became unbearable. After some time, the beatings became less frequent. When his questioners became Party intellectuals, he was forced to suffer face slapping, ear ringing, and standing on one foot for long periods of time. The complicated stream of questions could go on for hours, catching him in self-contradictions and leading him to a state of nervous fatigue. Sometimes they were nice to him, and spoke to him as though he were an equal, but then they would turn on him quickly. To gain their approval, he confessed to any and everything he could think of, including the assassination of Party members and various traitorous acts.

Throughout all of this, O'Brien is always nearby, guiding and defining the extent of Winston's torture. Winston finds himself strapped into a chair with O'Brien at his side, sitting next to a dial and a lever. O'Brien turns a lever, and Winston is overcome with pain. O'Brien continues talking to Winston, warning him that the dial goes all the way up to 100. He explains to Winston that he is taking the trouble to truly work with him to correct his mental derangement and defective memory. He begins by asking Winston what country Oceania is at war with, and what country Oceania has always been at war with. He then moves on to the newspaper clipping Winston found regarding Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford. He produces a copy of the photograph, places it in a memory hole, and explains that it never existed. He forces Winston to understand that the past does not exist in space, and therefore only exists in records and in human memory. In controlling these two things, the Party controls the past. Winston argues that the Party has not controlled his memory, and O'Brien counters that in fact, Winston has not controlled his own memory. He is at the Ministry of Love because he "failed in humanity, in self-discipline...would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity." O'Brien explains, "Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else."

O'Brien begins forcing Winston to destroy this last vestige of his independent spirit. He works to show him that if the Party says that two plus two makes five, it does. Throughout this entire exchange, O'Brien tortures Winston with the dial, turning it up to 60, and perhaps beyond. Finally, O'Brien releases the dial and puts his arm around Winston. In his heart, Winston still has not admitted that two and two can actually make five. O'Brien begins again, the needle travels higher, and Winston becomes increasingly desperate. O'Brien reveals to Winston that people are brought to the Ministry of Love not to force them to confess, but to cure them. He discusses how past regimes tortured and killed their enemies, but did not work to change them. In contrast, the Party converts and changes their enemies, making them "one of their own" before killing them. He tells Winston, "We will crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back...Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling...friendship, or joy of living...courage or integrity."

O'Brien orders a new form of punishment similar to electroshock therapy while continuing his line of questioning. Finally, he is successful in convincing Winston that his memory is flawed. At the end of the session, when Winston is almost able to actually see five fingers where there are only four, O'Brien reveals that he likes Winston, because his mind reminds him of his own, except that Winston's mind is deranged. He then allows Winston to ask him questions, and Winston asks about Julia. She has betrayed him, and every part of her independence has been destroyed. Winston asks if Big Brother exists. O'Brien answers that he does, in the way that the Party does, but that he will never die. Winston asks if the Brotherhood exists, and O'Brien says that Winston will never know the answer to that question. Winston asks what is in Room 101. O'Brien answers, "You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101."

Winston is again tied down, flat on his back. O'Brien mentions Winston's diary entry, in which he wrote "I understand how; I do not understand why." In reference to this, O'Brien mentions Goldstein's book and reveals that he collaborated in writing it. Winston asks if it is accurate, and O'Brien replies that the book's notion of enlightenment and proletarian rebellion is nonsense. The Party can never be overthrown: "The Party is forever." After explaining this fact, O'Brien asks Winston why the Party exists. Knowing the correct answer, but not believing it, Winston replies, "You are ruling over us for our own good." O'Brien turns the dial, and explains to Winston that the Party "seeks power entirely for its own sake...We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power." He compares the Party to the German Nazis and Russian Communists, but argues that the Party is far superior because it has no illusions of equality. The Party embraces power for the sake of power, not for any other cause. In utter submission, individuals can become part of a greater, immortal whole: the Party. As such, "Freedom is Slavery...[and] Slavery is Freedom." O'Brien continues, explaining that the Party defines all, including the laws of nature, and explains that before man, there was no world. Without human consciousness, nothing exists. Winston argues that dinosaurs and ancient beasts lives before humans, and O'Brien counters that 19th-century scientists made those stories up. Man is the center of the universe, the earth is the center of the universe: "Outside man there is nothing."

O'Brien pauses this philosophical discussion to return to the main issue of power over man, which is achieved through making men suffer. Progress will work towards more pain, more hatred, and more destruction. Art, science and literature will disappear. There will be no way to distinguish beauty from ugliness. O'Brien describes "a world of victory, triumph after triumph after triumph: an endless pressing, pressing, pressing on the nerve of power." Winston disagrees, claiming that such a society would die of its own accord. He tells O'Brien that the Party will never overcome "the spirit of Man." O'Brien counters that if Winston is a man, he is the last one on earth. Winston admits feeling superior to O'Brien, at which point O'Brien plays a tape revealing the irony of Winston's statement in which Winston agrees to do anything in support of the Brotherhood, including murder, espionage, etc.

O'Brien forces Winston to look at his naked body in a mirror. Winston is horrified to see his gray, weak, bowed body. He is emaciated, has gone partially bald, is extremely dirty, and carries innumerable scars. He can barely recognize himself. O'Brien ridicules his appearance, showing him how he is rotting away, and even pulling out one of his remaining teeth. Winston breaks down, and O'Brien assures him that he can escape from this hell if he so chooses. Winston refuses to accept defeat, claiming that he still has not betrayed his love for Julia. Winston asks when he will be shot, and O'Brien says it might be a long time, but that in the end, it will happen.

Analysis

Part Two describes both the beginning and the end of Winston and Julia's affair. Their arrest separates them for the entirety of their time at the Ministry of Love. In this way, Winston's only true act of rebellion is over. Winston's torture proves to be as horrific as he always imagined. He easily concludes that physical pain is the worst thing in the world, and entirely unbearable. During the process of torture, O'Brien quickly gains control over him and begins to penetrate his mind through deep psychological manipulation, assisted by electroshock therapy. In the hands of O'Brien and the Ministry of Love, Winston cannot stop the process of his psychological and physical destruction.

O'Brien is a pivotal character throughout this section, and it is here that we finally gain insight into his thus far mysterious mind. He is an ardent Party supporter and believes deeply in the purity of his mission and work. Interestingly, Winston's fatalistic outlook continues in prison, as he acknowledges that somewhere deep down, he probably knew all along that O'Brien was a Party supporter. In truth, Winston knew he would be arrested before he met with O'Brien, and therefore the meeting neither increased nor decreased his risk. Perhaps Winston did imagine O'Brien was a Party supporter, but wanted to trust him and believe in the Brotherhood so badly that he disregarded these thoughts. Winston's dream, seven years ago, of O'Brien's voice telling him they would "meet in the place where there is no darkness" led Winston to obsess over O'Brien and gave him hope that he might be a source of support. O'Brien becomes Winston's hero; even in his torture sessions he is calmer when O'Brien is near. As O'Brien points out, Winston once wrote in his diary that it did not matter whether O'Brien was on his side or not, because he felt the man understood him. Ironically, Winston seems to love O'Brien, even throughout the torture process, and as such comes to believe the Party propaganda he has so long rebelled against.

In this section, Winston finally gets an answer to his question, "Why?" O'Brien reveals to him that the Party pursues power for the sake of power, and for no other goal. This is why the Party is able to define the present, the past, and every facet of society. Here, we also see how the Party has broken from Socialism and the Revolution to embrace totalitarian rule. This is Orwell's greatest frustration with totalitarian regimes. Orwell watched as supposedly Socialist revolutions broke down into totalitarian regimes, specifically in the case of the Stalinist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Hitler's Nazi Germany. These regimes spoke of their goal of improving life for the common man, yet in actuality simply sought power. In 1984, the Party admits to its goal of power for power's sake. This totalitarian society, efficient in quelling all dissent and individuality, and in defining itself and the world, is the ultimate dystopia.

Winston's torture process reveals the degree of violence prisoners are subjected to. They are starved, beaten, and deformed; brought to their weakest point, and then finally given salvation. When wholly broken, the prisoner's spirit and mind will finally give in to manipulation. Winston is almost physically destroyed in the process of his torture, but only after he sees the shell he has become does he submit to O'Brien. O'Brien becomes his savior in the next chapters, allowing him to eat, heal and grow strong. As his savior, O'Brien greatly influences Winston's mind and thought processes, guiding him to the ways of the Party and removing all sense of individuality and independence.

Winston is still in the Ministry of Love, but his health is steadily improving. He is eating well and continually growing stronger. He has been given a pillow and a mattress for his wooden bed, has had a bath, and has been permitted to wash himself in a small basin. He also has new underclothes and clean overalls. Winston is unsure of the exact timeframe, but thinks that weeks or months have gone by. He has been dreaming a great deal, largely of the Golden Country, his mother, Julia, and O'Brien. He is happy and peaceful in his dreams. Eventually, he begins to exercise, walking around the cell and experimenting with carrying and lifting weight. When he is able to complete a pushup, he feels a great sense of accomplishment. Soon, he begins to use the slate and pencil he has been given. Working through what he and O'Brien discussed, Winston analyzes his perspective of the world. He realizes that he cannot fight against the Party, and that O'Brien is correct in stating that sanity is statistical. He writes on his slate, "Freedom is Slavery, Two and Two Make Five." Then he hesitates, forgetting what comes next, reasons it out, and writes "God is Power." He accepts that the past is alterable, he accepts the Party's rule, and he accepts that he has been wrong. He thinks, "Only surrender, and everything else followed."

Winston sleeps, and in his dream calls out Julia's name. He wakes himself with this exclamation and immediately realizes that he has set himself back significantly by revealing this weakness. He had surrendered his mind, but not his heart. As he expects, Winston hears boots walking up to his door. O'Brien enters and tells Winston to follow him. O'Brien explains that intellectually, there is little wrong with Winston, but emotionally, he has made no progress. Demanding honesty, O'Brien asks Winston what he thinks of Big Brother. Winston replies, "I hate him." O'Brien notes that the time has come for Winston to love Big Brother. He sends Winston to Room 101.

O'Brien meets him in Room 101, and explains to Winston that Room 101 is "the worst thing in the world," which is different for each individual. For Winston, the worst thing in the world is rats. Winston sees the cage and begins to scream protests. O'Brien picks up the cage, which houses huge rats, and sets it down next to Winston. O'Brien explains that rats are carnivorous, and are known to eat infants and attack sick or dying people. The cage has a mask that will fit over Winston's head. A lever release will force the cage door up, allowing the rats access to Winston's face. They will attack him, gouging his eye, cheeks, and tongue. Winston is in a panic. He realizes that he must put someone else between himself and the horror of the cage. He feels "blind, helpless, mindless" in his fear. When the mask is inches from his face, he screams, "Do it to Julia!" He begs O'Brien to force Julia to suffer in his place. O'Brien is satisfied.

Winston has been released from the Ministry of Love. He sits in the Chestnut Tree Cafe drinking their special clove-flavored Victory Gin. Winston listens to the telescreen, eager for a special bulletin from the Ministry of Peace. There should be news about Central Africa. Suddenly, his mind wanders. He has trouble focusing on any single thought these days. He can smell the gin, and thinks of how it is forever mixed up with the smell of the rats he faced, although he never names the beasts. A waiter who recognizes Winston as a regular brings him a chessboard and a Times before filling his gin glass. He begins to examine the chess problem in the Times: "White to play and mate in two moves." He looks at Big Brother, thinking to himself, "White always mates."

The telescreen announces that a bulletin will be given at fifteen-thirty. He is excited to think of the news. Eurasia is invading Central Africa, and if they are successful may eventually succeed in splitting Oceania in two, which could mean the destruction of the Party. Unconsciously, he traces "2+2=5" in the dust on the table, and thinks of Julia. They saw each other once after being released, purely by chance. He followed her on her walk, always a few feet behind. Eventually she stopped and he put his arm around her waist, but felt revulsion at the thought of making love to her. She did not respond; her body felt rigid and lifeless. They sat down on a bench with some distance between them. After some time, she told him, "I betrayed you." He told her the same. They agreed, through a distant conversation, that there are some things they can do to you that make you think and care only about yourself. After that, it is impossible to ever feel the same way towards one who you loved. She made an excuse to leave, and they both feebly suggested they should meet again, knowing they never would. Winston followed her for a short time, but eventually lost her in a crowd and gave up the effort.

Sitting in the Chestnut Tree Cafe, Winston feels nostalgic, and tears up when the song "Under the spreading Chestnut Tree, I sold you and you sold me" begins to play over the telescreen. The waiter brings him more gin. Winston reflects on how his life is now filled with gin. It is "his life, his death, and his resurrection." Winston is a fixture at the Chestnut Tree Cafe, despite his new position as a sinecure, meaning he is on a sub-committee under many other sub-committees, and only goes to work a couple of days out of the week. He does little, but is paid well. Winston's thoughts turn back to the battle in Africa. He wonders if there even is a battle. Suddenly, a strong memory comes to him. Winston was nine or ten, sitting on the floor and shaking a dice box, laughing with excitement. His mother was sitting across from him, and also laughing. It was a brief moment, in their hard lives, of happiness and camaraderie. His mother had gone out in the rain to buy him the board game as a reward for behaving well. For a whole afternoon, Winston, his mother, and his sister had a wonderful, joyous time.

Winston pushes the memory out of his mind, certain that it is one of those false memories that keeps troubling him. Suddenly, a loud trumpet call sounds, signaling that the bulletin is about to be announced. Oceania has intelligently outflanked Eurasia, capturing the whole of Africa and perhaps bringing the war close to an end. It is the greatest victory in history. Winston listens to the news with excitement, thinking it has all turned out just as he had thought it would. His feet stir beneath him, and he imagines himself running with the cheering crowds out in the street. He looks at the poster of Big Brother and is in awe of his greatness. He recognizes that only ten minutes ago he had wondered if Oceania might be defeated. But now, staring into the warm, strong eyes of Big Brother, he realizes that this could never be. With tears of great understanding trickling down his face, Winston realizes he has finally defeated himself. He loves Big Brother.

Analysis

These chapters describe Winston's recovery from his near-death experience in the Ministry of Love. O'Brien continues to be his savior, allowing Winston to heal, benefit from basic comforts such as a mattress and a pillow, and gain back his strength. In this process, Winston begins to fully accept O'Brien's version of the world. Without the Party, there is nothing. Here, we see the effectiveness of the combination of O'Brien's physical and psychological torture. Winston, a lone man, has no hope for successfully rebuffing these invasions into his body and mind. He is overcome through force and power. Knowing he has been beaten, Winston still wonders when he will be finally be killed, when the Party will finally decide his life is over.

Winston reveals that his conversion is incomplete when he yells out Julia's name in his sleep. O'Brien methodically observes Winston's behavior, waiting to see exactly how much progress he has made. When Winston calls out in his sleep, O'Brien knows there is still some vestige of individual thought left in Winston's mind. He loves Julia, and to be a successful Party member, he can only have love for Big Brother. To remedy this dysfunction, O'Brien brings Winston to Room 101. The rat cage stretches Winston's sanity to its breaking point. To some, the rat cage might seem a simple tool, not threatening enough to demand Winston's final submission. However, we previously learned that Winston's greatest fear was rats. This fear is innate, and lies deep in his subconscious. Therefore, presenting him with the danger of sitting fully conscious in a chair and having his face eaten by rats is the worst possible threat Winston can face. In this scene, Orwell argues yet again that physical pain is the worst thing a person can face. Winston is unable to fight against the potential horror of rats eating his face, and submits almost immediately. In this pivotal scene, Winston loses all hope of maintaining his individual spirit or his love for Julia. They once promised each other that the Party could never take away their love for each other, but now they have been proven wrong.

Although his love for Julia is removed, as we see through the failure of their accidental meeting, Winston does not yet love Big Brother. Back in Oceanian society, Winston is a shell of a man. The totalitarian regime has broken him. The reader might once have seen Winston as hope for a brighter future for Oceania, and for the end of Party rule. Here, in the final chapters, we come to understand that there is no hope for rebellion against such a regime. The Party's power is total, and once that power is obtained, there is no way to reverse it. In the last scene, Winston finally comes to love Big Brother, and in so doing notes that he has finally beaten himself. The man as we first knew him has ceased to exist. Winston has submitted to complete psychological control by the Party.

In reflecting on this conclusion, it is important to note that Winston was one of few members of Oceanian society who even remembered a time before the Revolution. Julia, although disgruntled with Party life, never believed in the potential for successful rebellion. It is easy to assume that once the last people who remember life before the Revolution die off, and once Newspeak officially takes over for Oldspeak, thus removing the citizens' ability to even think against the Party, there will be no hope for Winston's ideals. The Party's control will be absolute, and it is difficult to see any scenario that would break it. Here, we have Orwell's final warning. He suggests that allowing totalitarian regimes to develop and take hold is the equivalent of placing society on a path towards violent governance and absolute removal of individual thoughts and freedoms; in other words, towards the ultimate dystopia.

• Biography of George Orwell
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• Summary and Analysis of Part Two IV-VII
• Summary and Analysis of Part Two VIII-X
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