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Summary Pt. 2 Chp. 9
Chapter 9
Next week, after he had finally completed the enormous load of work entailed by Hate Week, Winston gets his hands on Goldstein�s book and a chance to read it. Hate week had meant such immense work because half way through the enemy was switched from Eurasia to Eastasia. Banners and posters had to be rewritten immediately and the newspapers of the past five years had to be remade in a week. But at last it was over and Winston was alone in his room above the shop, reading Goldstein�s book.
The book was called The Theory and Practice of Collectival Oligarchism. The very fact of reading it in a room without a telescreen seemed to Winston to empower him considerably. In the first Chapter, Goldstein discussed the existence of the three classes of men � the High, the Middle and the Low in relation to the proposition �Ignorance is strength. He pointed out that in all revolutions the High were overthrown by the Middle ho then became the new High and for the Low all that revolutions usually meant was a change of masters. It was with the last revolution and the coming of INGSOC that the latest High learnt how to keep their position permanently � by cultivating ignorance among the other classes and by constantly surveying them through the Thought police. Part of this strategy included the maintenance of a state of continual warfare, which Goldstein discussed in the third chapter. The three major powers were not fighting this perpetual war for victory, they were fighting to keep a state of emergency always present as the surest guarantee of authoritarianism. INGSOC in Oceania, Neo-Bolshevism in Eurasia and Death-Worship in East Asia were the three Party philosophies which fundamentally shared the same tenets. The central doctrine of all these was the �mutability of the past� - the concept that the past had no objective reality except in records and so could be altered at will through doublethink.
While reading Winston had the strange feeling that he was hearing his own thoughts set out in an orderly manner. He reads out portions to Julia who comes in later. However she falls asleep in the middle and he reads on by himself. When she wakes up and they are standing at the window together the voice they had been expecting all along finally sounds from within the room itself, barking out an instruction to stand still as they are cornered. As they realize they are in the grip of the thought police, neither of them has any thought of escape; they clearly realize that is impossible.
As uniformed men with truncheons swarm into the room Winston concentrates his entire being on standing still so as to avoid being hit. From behind he hears Julia being savagely hit and sees her limp form being carried away. He feels the pain in his own body but cannot move an inch. At this point, Mr. Charrington enters the room and Winston notices a distinct change in his appearance and behavior. He realizes that Mr. Charrington had all along been a member of the thought police.
Next week, after he had finally completed the enormous load of work entailed by Hate Week, Winston gets his hands on Goldstein�s book and a chance to read it. Hate week had meant such immense work because half way through the enemy was switched from Eurasia to Eastasia. Banners and posters had to be rewritten immediately and the newspapers of the past five years had to be remade in a week. But at last it was over and Winston was alone in his room above the shop, reading Goldstein�s book.
The book was called The Theory and Practice of Collectival Oligarchism. The very fact of reading it in a room without a telescreen seemed to Winston to empower him considerably. In the first Chapter, Goldstein discussed the existence of the three classes of men � the High, the Middle and the Low in relation to the proposition �Ignorance is strength. He pointed out that in all revolutions the High were overthrown by the Middle ho then became the new High and for the Low all that revolutions usually meant was a change of masters. It was with the last revolution and the coming of INGSOC that the latest High learnt how to keep their position permanently � by cultivating ignorance among the other classes and by constantly surveying them through the Thought police. Part of this strategy included the maintenance of a state of continual warfare, which Goldstein discussed in the third chapter. The three major powers were not fighting this perpetual war for victory, they were fighting to keep a state of emergency always present as the surest guarantee of authoritarianism. INGSOC in Oceania, Neo-Bolshevism in Eurasia and Death-Worship in East Asia were the three Party philosophies which fundamentally shared the same tenets. The central doctrine of all these was the �mutability of the past� - the concept that the past had no objective reality except in records and so could be altered at will through doublethink.
While reading Winston had the strange feeling that he was hearing his own thoughts set out in an orderly manner. He reads out portions to Julia who comes in later. However she falls asleep in the middle and he reads on by himself. When she wakes up and they are standing at the window together the voice they had been expecting all along finally sounds from within the room itself, barking out an instruction to stand still as they are cornered. As they realize they are in the grip of the thought police, neither of them has any thought of escape; they clearly realize that is impossible.
As uniformed men with truncheons swarm into the room Winston concentrates his entire being on standing still so as to avoid being hit. From behind he hears Julia being savagely hit and sees her limp form being carried away. He feels the pain in his own body but cannot move an inch. At this point, Mr. Charrington enters the room and Winston notices a distinct change in his appearance and behavior. He realizes that Mr. Charrington had all along been a member of the thought police.
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