Back to the Future: Reading 1984 (continued)

In the incredibly romantic proletarian section, Winston and Julia rent a room above a second hand store, owned by Mr. Charrington to serve as their secret love nest. Their pillow talk often centers around their imminent doom and the stupidity of their affair.

As the days pass, Winston’s frustration with the party grows. Finally he is able to arrange a meeting with O’Brien who enlightens him about the Brotherhood. They sing rebel songs, exchange a few manifestos, and drink from the same wine. Brothers ‘til the end right? Not so fast.

Back at their secret hideaway, Winston is desperately trying to get Julia interested in the rebellion by reading her portions of the Brotherhood’s Manifesto written by Emmanuel Goldstein- when suddenly they hear another voice. Turns out a picture was hiding the telescreen- (duh, that’s the first place you should look…) and their movements have been monitored the entire time by the Thought Police, led by Mr. Charrington himself! Betrayed!

Useful vocabulary to describe the Party’s actions:

• Duplicity- Deception

• Treachery- Betrayal of trust

• Entice- To tempt or lure

• Beguile- To trick or decieve

• Perfidy- Violation of trust

And just what did they forget, everyone? That’s right, rule number one- Big Brother is always watching! Julia and Winston are hauled off to find for themselves just exactly what goes on in the dreaded room 101 at the Ministry of Love.

At the Ministry of Love, Winston is endlessly tortured in very creative ways while he prays for help from the Brotherhood. Then one day O’Brien enters his cell! Winston’s prayers have been answered, right? Wrong. As we feared all along, O’Brien is not a powerful member of the underground but simply a very dangerous operative for the Party. It is O’Brien’s job to create a devoted supporter of Big Brother out of Winston- through manipulation, intimidation, and pain- and he does his job very, very well. By using Winston’s fear of rats, O’Brien is able to finally break Winston, threatening him to declare his love for Big Brother, or have his face eaten by a cagefull of starving rats (dare you to try and get that image out of your head!)