Blog #9

The Ministry of Love uses various methods of torture to try to break Winston. There was the shock therapy which was used the most often and was fairly effective. Even in the movie though, it's confusing whether it's really shock therapy or what exactly it is, but it is similar. But along with that Winston was also starved and not given water and was constanly being watched by a telescreen which required him to remain completely still in his "cell." The cell is kind of a form of torture as well. These methods of torture, particularly the cage of hungry rats, eventually break Winston. The shock therapy leads Winston to be faithful to Big Brother even though he still hates him deep down, but the rats are what actually caused Winston to completely break and betray Julia. The betrayel of Julia is what O'Brien wanted from Winston, he knows that Winston is finally broken and the previous torture was just weakening him. This shows that Winston's hope for mankind and for himself is also broken and shattered. This shows that even the strongest people have a breaking point or they have one fear that can cause them to betray someone. Everyone is human.

Post # 8

The extremely long theory in the book about the classes that took up the majority of this chapter, but it makes sense to me. There is one part that I thought was really interesting, where "Goldstein" writes that society depends on what the upper classes' mental state is or something like that. It was around the same area where he was talking about how the upper class or ruling party could fall. I hadn't thought about that before, but I think it's true. This theory basically says that the proles will never rebel on their own. This is kind of big since Winston thinks they're the only hope because of their numbers. But the proles just aren't motivated and they are going to side with whoever promises them the most. This is probably disheartening for Winston since all his hopes rested with them. It's nice to finally have an explanation for hwo the world came to be as it is in the book and the explanation of the classes. It helps explain a lot about the book.

Blog #7

Orwell spends a great deal of time discussing Winston’s dreams. Discuss and analyze the dream sequence in Chapter 8. What does this dream suggest about Winston’s psychological state? Why might this dream be important to an understanding of Winston’s character? To the book as a whole?

I'm assuming we are supposed to talk about Winston's dream in Chapter 7, not in Chapter 8. In this dream, which takes place in the paperweight which reminds him of the past, he remembers his mother and how ungrateful he was with food and chocolate and wakes up crying. He tells Julia how he thought he might have murdered his mom when she asks him what is wrong, but now he realizes that he didn't kill her. The dream makes him realize how much he hates the party for taking away feelings and basically making the people inhuman. This shows that Winston is in kind of a fragile mental state. He's becoming a lot more aware of his emotions recently with his new love and remembering the past and his family. He's becoming more human, which I think he likes but the party definitely won't like.I think this dream shows how ready Winston is to fight the party and that he will soon. I think the book is about to get really interesting. I'm just waiting for him to get caught because it seems like he is long overdue, but there seems to be a lot of book left, so we'll see.

Winston knows...

At the end of chapter 6, Winston seems to know that his last act of rebellion is coming. He thinks that it will all end for him at the Ministry of Love. This is foreshadowing his death because eventually, I'm sure, he will be caught and killed. This love affair cant go on forever, especially since they keep going to the same place. I think it's amazing that they haven't been caught already. It seems like in a society where they are constantly being watched, and the same two people keep going to the same place, it would be pretty obvious that something is going on. I can't figure out O'Brien at this point. Although Winston seems to really like him, and he seems to be an important person, I cant decide if he is trapping Winston or if he too wants to rebel against the party. He could just be trying to get Winston to his flat so he can talk to him kind of in the same way that Julia did. It will be interesting to see what happens when Winston finally goes to his flat. He seems to think like it's the end of him. I'm kind of intrigued at this point.

Winston and Julia

The main difference between Winston and Julia is that Winston wants a widespread rebellion against the Party, whereas Julia wants to just outwit the Party and enjoy herself. They are similar in that they are both rebelling and their relationship is a political act of rebellion. They're both attracted to people who are like them, and not the orthodox party member. Winston loves Julia all the more because she is not pure and is promiscuous and "bad to the bone." Julia is attracted to Winston despite the fact that he is older and has bad teeth. She is attracted to him because she can tell that he is different than the other party members. Julia thinks of her sexual experiences as little victories and Winston thinks that victory doesn't come until long after you are dead. Winston thinks that he is going to die soon, and seems a lot more worried about it than Julia is. Julia seems to think that she can live two lives, and survive in the party. She believes that by controlling sex, the Party is controlling them, since they then focus their sexual energy into other things that the Party wants them to.

Defiance in Dystopian Society

Winston says that he doesn't want purity or any virtue to exist anywhere and he loves Julia for being bad to the bone. In Brave New World, the conversation between John and Mustapha Mond shows how in both of these novels, John and Winston are trying to defy the party or the world state. In Brave New World, John wants to feel things like fear, anger etc. because it goes against the World State. Winston also wants to rebel against the Party, and his conversation with Julia shows this. Both societies are suppressing different emotions, which these two men then want to feel or use to rebel with. In Brave New World they're suppressing anger and in 1984 they're suppressing sexual pleasure and love. It's so interesting to see how both of these societies have such different things that aren't allowed. Like how in Brave New World, real hate doesn't exist, but in 1984, they have the two minutes hate and hate week and they really stress hate for their enemies. And in 1984, they encourage sex for pleasure only, and not for reproduction and their people do not ever feel real hate. It's like how we talked about in class, Brave New World is not as dark as 1984.