Chapter TWO

Winston puts many extra hours of work in to get prepared for Hate Week because their was a sudden change in enemies. Oceania was no longer at war with Eurasia, but they were at war with Eastasia now. In the middle of a speech that the Party was giving, it is claimed that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia and everyone follows this and believes it as the signs against Eurasia are torn down. Doublethink is presented here very clearly because these two contradictory beliefs, of being at war with Eurasia before and of always being at war with Eastasia now, are held in one's mind and both are accepted even though they can't both physically be true.
Winston receives the book of the Brotherhood finally after somebody walked behind him and said "You dropped your briefcase," just as O'Brien said would happen. He waited to open the briefcase and read it until he was in Mr. Charrington's room. When he reached the room above Mr. Charrington's shop, he opened the book with some excitement and begain reading it. To me, the book seemed rather boring; and I didn't understand how someone could learn so much about rebelling against the Party and the Big Brother, like O'Brien said, from a book. Julia arrives and seems uninterested in the book at all, whereas Winston seems to be facinated by it. Here we see again that Julia does not care about the future for all of Oceania, and that she only cares about her own life. We also see again that Julia and Winston, although they like each other and maybe even love each other, think almost the exact opposite other than the fact that they both are against the Party.
While Winston reads the book to Julia, she falls to sleep. After reading quite a bit and realizing that he learned nothing that he didn't already know, Winston put the book down and fell to sleep also. When they both wake up, Winston hears the prole singing outside again. The singing prole gives Winston a sense of comfort and that there is still humanity left even though the Party has tried to strip everyone of their feelings. This is ironic because right as Winston is listening to the prole and feeling this, the Thought Police are listening through the telescreen behind the picture waiting to break in.
Winston and Julia hear a disrupting voice. Then the picture falls, revealing a telescreen behind it. How did the picture fall on its own?? The voice in the telescreen was Mr. Charrington, who was a part of the Thought Police in disguise. The ordinary look for the Thought Police was obviously black symbolizing the darkness and evil that they portrayed by killing people's emotions.
The Thought Police invaded the room and caused Julia to become unconscious. They took her away. "Winston had a glimpse of her face, upside down, yellow and contorted, with the eyes shut, and still with a smear of rouge on either cheek; and that was the last he saw of her."
"And by the way, while we are on the subject, Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head." This statement is ironic when Mr. Charrington says it the first time because he gave Winston and Julia a place to stay, but only for the purpose of imprisoning them or killing them thus refering to chopping off their head.

Chapter TWO

Winston finally meets with O'Brien. O'Brien begins by making small talk about the new Newspeak Dictionary that would be coming out shortly. Winston says that he doesn't have one yet, and O'Brien says that he has one and that Winston should come to his house and get it. O'Brien exchanges his address with Winston. This is O'Brien's way of telling Winston that he is one of the Brotherhood and that he has something to speak to Winston about. This is foreshadowing that something is going to happen at O'Brien's apartment. What I don't understand is why there aren't phonebooks or address books? Why aren't people able to know other people's address unless it is given to them? Is it because the Party and the government don't want the citizens to make relationships with people by meeting at their houses?
Winston wakes from another, more in-depth dream about the last time he ever saw his mother. He realizes the way that he treated his mother before she and his sister disappeared. He had been selfish and didn't think about anyone but himself. Winston feels guilty for the way he treated his mother and his sister even though his mother loved them both so much. His mother had managed to keep her feelings and thoughts the same even though the Party was trying to corrupt everybody else. This makes Winston ponder about the proles. "The proles, it suddenly occurred to him, had remained in this condition. They were not loyal to a party or a country or an idea, they were loyal to one another.... The proles had stayed human." So what made the proles remain this way? The way they had always been? Why did the Party members change? Was it because they knew what was going on, and they worked for the government? Then Julia and Winston say that no matter what they will always be loyal for each other and that the Party can't destroy their love. I don't think that their love is real though. I think that it is more of something that they need because they haven't experienced it before because the Party took most of their feelings away.
Winston and Julia take different paths to get to O'Brien's apartment. Why did they both go there? What made them so sure that O'Brien was a member of the Brotherhood? By doing this together, Winston and Julia feel they are moving even closer towards rebellion against the Party; but in reality I think that they are moving too hastily into this and that it will cause both of them major trouble. By joining the "Brotherhood," Winston feels more free and feels more meaning in his life than ever before.
O'Brien tells Winston and Julia that they will have to do many things for the Brotherhood that they have never done before such as committing suicide, throwing sulfuric acid in a child's face, and committing murder. O'Brien also says "Do you understand that even if he survives, it may be as a different person? We may be obliged to give him a new identity.... And you yourself might have become a different person. Our surgeons can alter people beyond recognition. Sometimes it is necessary. Sometimes we even amputate a limb." After he says this, I begin to doubt O'Brien because how could this be true? How could they have surgeons that can do that and make a person live? How do they secure a place to do a procedure such as this back in this time? I don't believe him, and I think that Julia and Winston are falling into a trap. They are being set up.
Before Winston leave O'Brien's apartment, O'Brien says to Winston "We shall meet again--if we do meet again." And Winston replies, "In the place where there is no darkness?" What is so significant about this? Is it referring to Winston's dreams? Or what the Brotherhood is trying to make Oceania like?
Also what is so significant about O'Brien being able to complete the old rhyme about the churches?

Chapter TWO

Winston is become more of a rebel against the Party, and in doing this, he seems to be becoming more satisfied with his life; although he will never be satisfied as long as the Party and Big Brother are in control. Julia and Winston succeed in making love. "It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act." How could Winston call it a political act? It's like he did it only to go against the Party, not to be closer to someone. Julia and Winston do get closer though. They talk about how each of them are against the Party. Julia says that she likes rebelling against the Party, but wants to live as long as possible. Winston, on the other hand, thinks that he will be arrested by the Thought Police and be vaporized but Julia tells him to stop talking nonsense and embrace life as it is now.
As Winston and Julia talked in the church tower they discovered much about each other. Julia worked in the Pornosec of the Fiction Department, which I thought was funny when she told Winston that all the workers in the Pornosec were girls. "The theory was that men, whose sex instincts were less controllable than those of women, were in greater danger of being corrupted by the filth they handled." But if the books are "ghastly rubbish," what would it matter if the workers were male or female. Julia also told Winston that her first love affair was when she was sixteen with a member of the Party who was sixty. This I found rather disturbing. We think that someone ten years older is weird; he was over forty years older than she. Winston thought this to be attractive and a great act against the Party, and he seemed to like being a part of it, whereas most guys wouldn't have liked hearing about the girl that they are seeing having sex with other guys. They would have thought that it was very unappealing to them. "She seemed to think it just as natural that "they" should want to rob you of your pleasures as that you should want to avoid being caught." I don't understand this quote. How is it natural that the Party would want to take pleasure away from everybody? I think it is because the Party has control they just do whatever they want like Saddam Hussein; they become "control freaks" and do as they wish.
I found it ironic when Julia torn off the Junior Anti-Sex League sash before they had sex. Obviously the sash didn't mean anything to her. I think that she only wore the sash as a cover up to avoid being caught by the Thought Police, or at least to avoid being looked at or thought of for doing something against the Party.
Also when Julia and Winston were talking in the church tower Julia said "When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time.... If you'r happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?" I think that she is right because people always have to have something to care about and without sex, Big Brother and Two Minutes Hate seem to be the only other thing that they know. Where did she get this idea though? Did someone else tell her this such as an Inner Party member? Maybe she has connections with the Inner Party and that's where she gets all of her ideas about why the Pary does as they do; and maybe that where she gets all of the stuff such as the genuine coffee, chocolate, and tea.
I think that it is kind of ironic that Winston is with Julia because he really thinks that he loves her, but Julia is only with Winston to rebel against the Party. She basically uses him as her act of rebellion. I think that Winston only thinks that he loves Julia because he doesn't know what love is anymore. The Party drained all of his feeling and compassion so he doesn't understand what he is feeling. He only really knows that he likes sex and being with her.
Winston rents out Mr. Charrington's room so that Julia and he can continue their affair. Winston makes the comment: "As he had foreseen, Mr. Charrington had made no difficulty about letting the room. He was obviously glad of the few dollars that it wold bring him." Winston thinks that Mr. Charrington just gave them the room so he could have a couple extra dollars, but actually Mr. Charrington probably works with the Party or the Thought Police and is going to turn them in. After they have sex, Julia notices the picture of the church that is hanging on the wall. She says that she is going to take down the picture and give it a good cleaning. This is foreshadowing of what is to come because if she had taken it down and cleaned it at that time, she might have been able to prevent what is going to happen. It is also ironic because we, the readers, know something that she doesn't.
Julia also brought up the idea that they have never been at war with neither Eurasia or Eastasia and that it is all made up. She said that she thinks that it is all a story, and that the government is actually the one that is bombing them. I agree with her although I never had that idea before she presented it. I think that the government is bombing them to make them scared of the government. Why else would bombings be occuring more and more the closer Hate Week comes? And what are the chances that they are always at war with someone? That when they resolve a war with Eastasia, that they would be at war with Eurasia again? Also what is Hate Week exactly?

Chapter ONE - TWO

I found these sections much more appealing than the sections before. It was much more detailed and less confusing because it didn't explain so much about the government as it did in previous sections. It begins speaking of Winston walking down streets and alleys that he is not very familiar with. As he walks into the "pub," he spies an old man that could be his link to the past. The man is arguing with the bartender telling him that he wants a pint, not a half-liter or a liter. Winston finally walks up to the counter and buys the old man and himself a half-liter and sits down next to the old man. Winston converses with the old man about what life used to be like around there. He persistently asks the old man if life was better then than it was now, but the old man doesn't really know how to answer the question. He just says how the beer was better, that he had to tip his hat to rich people, and how he bumped into a drunk capitalist but he only shoved him into the street. Doesn't this answer Winston's question? I mean, the old man said that the beer was better, but instead of tipping their hats to the rich people wouldn't they have to basically grovel and instead of merely being shoved wouldn't they be incriminated for running into a capitalist??? Are these just obvious? Or is Winston looking for the straight answer? Why is it so important to him to prove the history books wrong if he doesn't believe them anyways?
Something else that I found interesting is how the "comrades" put so much attention on the lottery because, like Winston said, "it was the only thing they had to live for." Although this may be true for some of the people, but how can it be what one lived for if they knew only small prizes were given out and all of the large prizes were given to people who no longer existed? Did they not know? Or did they simply not believe? I think that the comrades who spent a lot of time on the lottery chose not to believe even though they knew what the reality was; they had to have some hope because it really was the only thing they lived for, and they didn't want that taken away too.
Winston walked into Mr. Charrington's shop. He browsed around for a bit while talking to the owner, Mr. Charrington. Then he saw a piece of glass that caught his eye. It looked to be a paperweight, but it was beautiful and had coral from the Indian Ocean within it. Nothing like it existed or was rarely found anymore. Winston had to have it because it was something that seemed to be of a different time period; something quite different from what was. I think that it symbolized the past and kind of reminded him that times were different than they were at the time.
What was so significant about the rhyme? Was it because it was something of the past also? What does it signify? For it to be repeated so many time in the book it has to mean something? Is it just dwelling upon the past and how all the buildings were demolished or altered so as not to show any detail about history?
Also why didn't Mr. Charrington ever change the sign on the outside of his shop? I think it is because the government pretty much has control of everything so what would the point be of changing the sign if it is not rightfully his. Why take time and effort to change something that is meaningless? But on-the-other-hand, it might be something that he would like to do to show that that is what he is dedicated to, that his shop is what he lives for since nobody seems to have a whole lot to live for at that time except for the Party members because they didn't have to be afraid of being vaporized in the middle of the night.
"The street was a blind alley." I remember this from How to Read Literature Like a Professor, but I don't think that it means the same thing. I only think that it means that the alley was hard to see down as if he were the blind one.
Then as he is retracing his steps, he comes across a girl that he had seen earlier; he suspects that she is a spy or a member of the Thought Police. He suggests to himself that "he could keep on her track till they were in some quiet place, and then smash her skull in with a cobblestone." Was he really that brutal that he would do that? If he says that life isn't worth living and he wouldn't care if the Thought Police came for him, then why does this matter? Is it just human instinct because he knows that if she is what he thinks that he could be vaporized? I understand why they call it vaporize. It's because they just disappear; they are vaporized and are never seen again. I never saw the connection before. But back to what I was saying, I think he wants to kill her because he doesn't want to take a chance of being vaporized. Even if part of him doesn't want to live, the other part doesn't want to die, which is basic human instinct.
In the next chapter, Winston is going down the corridor, and he sees a girl coming towards him. She trips and falls, and Winston goes to help her. At that time, she slips a notes into his hand that Winston doesn't notice until later. On the notes are the solemn 3 words: I love you. This is ironic because Winston thought that the girl was for the government and a part of the Thought Police or something, but actually she was only following him because of what she wanted to say. Winston said how seeing this and knowing that someone cared about him made him want to live. It gave him reason to stay alive. I think that is crazy though... the government is that harsh that they have to go to such lengths to tell each other how they feel? I didn't know it was against the law their to love each other too. I don't understand how people can live without breaking the law at some point. So shouldn't everyone be vaporized according to what their laws are?
After many days of waiting to talk to the girl, Winston finally gets the chance to sit beside her at lunch. She tells him to meet her somewhere. They meet around a lot of people, and after the girl tells him to meet her somewhere, he embraces her hand for like ten seconds.

Chapter ONE

In the beginning of the reading, Winston is at his job. He edits and rewrites stories and news articles so that it looks like Big Brother's predictions are always right. I don't understand how he could look forward to his job and like it so much if he hates Big Brother and the Party. Is it because it just helps him get away from the reality of what is outside those walls? To escape what life is now like? It seems like he is dreaming, or he just woke up one day and everything was different, controlled, brainwashed... because he doesn't remember anything of his childhood or even just years back. How could someone or something just take away everyone's memory, altering the way people think and their opinions? The way the Party is set up, no one is permitted to have their own opinions about anything. Well, at least they can't express them, or they will be turned into the Thought Police.
While I was reading "How to Read Literature Like a Professor," I noticed that the book said that every mark or problem with a character means something. Then what does the ulcer on Winston's ankle symbolizes. The author keeps bringing it up so it has to mean something. What does it shows us about the character?
"Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system." I, personally, like this passage. I connects with the quote "I am my own best friend." Therefore, you are the best and the worst friend you could have. What he means by this is that you could give yourself away to the Thought Police. "The most deadly danger of all was talking in your sleep." Your unconscious can betray you involuntarily.
At the end of this section, Winston talks about his wife over ten years ago. He said that even she was under their control. She would not have sex with him unless it was for the reason to bare a child. They were unable to have a child, so they didn't last and eventually separated. How could he be with someone if they aren't even with him just for love? He didn't believe what the Party said, so how could he be with someone who did? What does Winston really have to live for?