1984 {blog three}

The next part of 1984 is indeed very interesting. We continue to expand our knowledge about the Party and Winston himself. Winston now has a “girlfriend” whose name is Julia. He is a lot older than her and because of the risk of the two of them being caught they cannot be seen talking together at first. The first time that Winston and Julia meet is in the middle of nowhere, where Julia suspects that there are no government spies and no hidden telescreens. The two of them have sex in the forest and Winston tells her that he is happy that she is a whore and has sex all the time. “Listen. The more men you’ve had, the more I love you. Do you understand that?” I think that Winston doesn’t see it so much as that this girl is obviously experienced, but the fact that there are other men out there just like him wanting nothing more in the world to rebel against the Party. Throughout the next couple months, Winston and Julia only exchange glances when they pass each other on the sidewalks because it is still too dangerous for them to be “passionate” in public.

Winston soon gets fed up that he cannot spend time with Julia so he rents a room above Mr. Carrington’s shop. The two of them meet whenever possible to do what they do best. Julia and Winston talk about the growing power of the Party. I believe that the citizens in general are given no choice but to believe in the crap that government feeds them, however it seems that the only way to defeat the Party would be to have all the conscious minded citizens stand up in what they believed in. It’s obvious that Winston and Julia aren’t the only two people who think that their country is screwed up.

Continuing on with what I last said, Winston is confronted by a man named O’Brian. We soon find out that O’Brian is also against the actions of the party and he isn’t the only one. He informs Winston that there are thousands more just like them, who are all waiting to strike. Winston and Julia are initiated into the brotherhood of rebellion and now have no option of turning back.

We learn more about how gullible the citizens of Oceania really are. The country switches allies and enemies in the war so therefore they obviously had to go back and once again rewrite history. But the change was made during the middle of a speech, so half of the information was based on the truth and the other half was what was made up, and even then these citizens are still so ignorant that they cannot pick up that something is wrong.

In chapter IX, Winston begins reading the book given to him by O’Brian. He discovers the true meanings of the Parties slogans, “WAR IS PEACE and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”.  It  is scary to think that any government at any given time can conjure up information to make their followers believe that they are all that matters in life, which in turn gives them an endless supply of power.