Dater: October 10, 2017
Period: 2nd
Journal Analysis In the beginning of the book Winston Smith, the main character, arrives at his apartment. As Winston walks in the hallway, sidewalk, or anywhere the sign Big Brother Is Watching You is literally everywhere. I’m assuming “Big Brother” is the government watching over the “Little Brother” or better known as Winston. As I continue to read and get a better understanding of Winston I can pick up that he is grim and totalitarian. Winston starts his “diary” off by writing down how he fortunate that his television is in the corner of the apartment, because it allows him to be viewed all day by the authorities or Big Brother. All of a sudden he stops and thinks about why he is …show more content…
During his brief meeting with O’Brien in the hallway at the Ministry of Truth, Winston is anxious and excited. O’Brien alludes to Syme and tells Winston that he can see a Newspeak dictionary if he will come to O’Brien’s house one evening. Winston feels that his meeting with O’Brien continues a path in his life begun the day of his first rebellious thought. He thinks gloomily that this path will lead him to the Ministry of Love, where he expects to be killed. Though he accepts his fate, he is thrilled to have O’Brien’s address. One morning, Winston wakes up crying in the room above Mr. Charrington’s antiques shop. Julia is with him, and asks him what is wrong. He tells her that he has been dreaming of his mother, and that until that moment, he has subconsciously believed that he murdered her. He is suddenly gripped with a sequence of memories that he had repressed. He remembers his childhood after his father left: he, his mother, and his baby sister spent most of their time in underground shelters hiding from air raids, often going without food. Consumed by hunger, Winston stole some chocolate from them and ran away, never to see them again. He hates the Party for having eliminated human feelings. He believes that the proles are still human, but that Party members like him and Julia are forced to suppress their own feelings to the point that they become virtually inhuman. The two take a …show more content…
O’Brien tells Winston that his crime was refusing to accept the Party’s control of history and his memory. As O’Brien increases the pain, Winston agrees to accept that O’Brien is holding up five fingers, though he knows that O’Brien is actually holding up only four—he agrees that anything O’Brien wants him to believe is true. He begins to love O’Brien, because O’Brien stops the pain; he even convinces himself that O’Brien isn’t the source of the pain. O’Brien tells Winston that Winston’s current outlook is insane, but that torture will cure him. O’Brien tells Winston that the Party has perfected the system practiced by the Inquisition, the Nazis, and the Soviets—it has learned how to eliminate its enemies without making martyrs of them. It converts them, and then ensures that, in the eyes of the people, they cease to exist. Slowly, Winston begins to accept O’Brien’s version of events. He begins to understand how to practice doublethink, refusing to believe memories he knows are real. O’Brien offers to answer his questions, and Winston asks about Julia. O’Brien tells him that Julia betrayed him immediately. Winston asks if Big Brother exists in the same way that he himself does, and O’Brien replies that Winston does not exist. Winston asks about the Brotherhood, and O’Brien responds that Winston will never know the answer to that question. Winston asks what waits in Room 101, and O’Brien states that everyone knows what