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.