The Curtains Open, Partially

We have finally entered Room 101! It makes sense that they would carry out your most extreme nightmares and make them into reality. For Winston it was rats, which we saw a little bit of his fear beforehand. (For me it would be snakes and my mind kept visualizing the most horrid things.) An understatement would be that releasing hungry rats onto Winston would have been a terrible way to die! To be slowly eaten by several disgusting rodents, killing you slowly with each bite is distressing! Thank God it stopped. All Winton had to say was that he wished this terrible fate onto Julia, and mean it. Which he did and was eventually released.

Winston ran into Julia again and after a few awkward moments, they tell each other that they had betrayed one another. Neither of them seems to show that they have an emotional connection anymore.

I don’t understand that now that Winston is released, he doesn’t fear Big Brother anymore. He suggests, more than once, that he could lay with Julia and they wouldn’t care. Wouldn’t they be skeptical of his first run in with Julia? Especially since he was such a hard egg to crack.

So the question remains, was Winston able to keep his secret? For quite a while I was debating this in my head, hoping for a glimmer of rebellion in his thoughts. But the ending clearly depicts that Winston truly came to love Big Brother. And that’s how the story goes. Or does it?

This ambiguous ending leaves a lot open for interpretation. I find it particularly interesting that while sitting at his usual table in the Chestnut Tree Cafe, his perception shifts and he’s back at the Ministry of Love (torture building) and then gets a bullet to the back of the head. Does this indicate that Winston dies?

First, it’s pretty easy to see that figuratively Winston died. Rejecting thoughts from his childhood memories and claiming them to be false says that he is brainwashed. In the second to last sentence of the book, Winston says, “he had won the victory over himself” (298). Winston officially became just like everybody else, and in this sense, he died.

I am still trying to figure out if Winston physically died. I remember O’Brien telling him that they were going to execute him before it was all done. And that right before their death, everybody succumbs and loves Big Brother. Does this indicate that Winston is shot shortly after? It felt like it was going to happen sooner or later and the daydreaming right before suggests that it is possible.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book and the ending. It’s a reflective story that makes us view the world (especially the government) differently. It makes me want to take a step back and look into my life and my government with scrutiny.

If You Want To Keep a Secret, You Must Hide It From Yourself

This book never ceases to keep me guessing wrongly. As it turns out, Winston has been tortured in the Ministry of Love for seven years. Not months, like I originally thought. The proof was there when Winston finally got a look at himself in the mirror for the first time. The descriptions were great! I felt as though I could see Winston’s body wasting away. I was truly disgusted and saddened by his appearance. This was definitely evidence of something that had taken more than a few months to accomplish.

I found out that O’Brien has three phases of “reintegration:” learning, understanding, and accepting. Right now Winston is at the second phase. He is still being tortured nonetheless but they are lessoning. He has physically been broken down to skin and bones. This is the secret to O’Brien’s conversion. He breaks Winston down to the point where Winston doesn’t even recognize himself. More pain or shame would not do anything more to Winston at this point. Then, he starts to rebuild him. Little by little Winston gets stronger, physically. Mentally, Winston says that, “he seemed to have lost the power of intellectual effort, now that the stimulus of pain had been removed” (275). In other words, without negative reinforcement lingering as a potential threat, Winston’s brain has no more energy to think intelligently.

Earlier on, I was wondering how O’Brien was going to achieve all of this but now it makes perfect sense to me. And I don’t think the ending is going to be a happy one. Even though Winston still has a piece of himself left, I don’t think it will be there for long.

“If you want to keep a secret you must hid it from yourself” (281). And with a sudden outburst for Julia, Winston’s efforts to hide his secrets are exposed. O’Brien walks in through the door and announces that Winston has progressed onto the next phase. Finally, we are now about to enter into Room 101. A little scared. And a little excited.