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.