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View Full Version : 1984- 2 questons for discussion, please help!



ErnieO
02-11-2014, 03:27 PM
:hurray: thanks for entering my thread!:hurray:

Hey guys. I got these 2 qoutes i'm finding hard to comprehend clearly from the end of the book.

1)While sitting in the Chestnut Cafe in the finisihing scene, after his brainwash had been completed, Winston thinks to himself the following:


"'They can't get inside you,' she (Julia) had said. But they could get inside you.
'What happens to you here is FOR EVER,' O'Brien had said. That was a true
word. There were things, your own acts, from which you could never recover.
Something was killed in your breast: burnt out, cauterized out."

my question is about the last couple sentences. It is said to be true that what happened to him in the Ministry Of Love is forever, so why could he not recover from his own actions? and what does that has to do with something that was killed in his breast? I really lost myself with the meaning of this one and it's killing me.

2)

"He was not running or cheering any longer. He
was back in the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white
as snow. He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating
everybody. He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling
of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The long-hoped-for
bullet was entering his brain."


I thought about it quite alot and I can't seem to decide, was it a symbolization of his inner, mental self been "finally" (long-awaited-bullet...) terminated by the Party- which is the popular assumption. Or maybe this was to show us readers that Winston is day-dreaming of the future that might happen someday, when the party will lay his hands on him again. It is implyed to us that they will- you can hear in this scene the telescreen in the cafe playing the same tune that was played when Winston witnessed the arrest of the old party members, Ruthford etc, in that same cafe, and so he is imagining the day it would happen- and by saying that while he would be back in the Ministry Of Love his "soul as white as snow" and he'll be "walking in sunlight"- means that now he accepts the consequences for his actions and with love, love for the big brother.

Thank you so so so much for the insightful answers.
this book is quite a brainbuster.
:p

luhsun
02-11-2014, 09:13 PM
My interpretation of the "something killed in his breast" and "bullet..brain" is that winston has betrayed himself and his girl.. and those sentences summarised his betrayal and guilt and self condemnation.. I have always felt that winston was a weakling, and orwell ingenious or disingenious for using such a weakling who amounted to nothing in life.. he was a small useless lump of earth before his awakening, and also after his brainwashing..

kev67
02-12-2014, 08:32 PM
:hurray: thanks for entering my thread!:hurray:

Hey guys. I got these 2 qoutes i'm finding hard to comprehend clearly from the end of the book.

1)While sitting in the Chestnut Cafe in the finisihing scene, after his brainwash had been completed, Winston thinks to himself the following:


"'They can't get inside you,' she (Julia) had said. But they could get inside you.
'What happens to you here is FOR EVER,' O'Brien had said. That was a true
word. There were things, your own acts, from which you could never recover.
Something was killed in your breast: burnt out, cauterized out."

my question is about the last couple sentences. It is said to be true that what happened to him in the Ministry Of Love is forever, so why could he not recover from his own actions? and what does that has to do with something that was killed in his breast? I really lost myself with the meaning of this one and it's killing me.

2)

"He was not running or cheering any longer. He
was back in the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white
as snow. He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating
everybody. He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling
of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The long-hoped-for
bullet was entering his brain."


I thought about it quite alot and I can't seem to decide, was it a symbolization of his inner, mental self been "finally" (long-awaited-bullet...) terminated by the Party- which is the popular assumption. Or maybe this was to show us readers that Winston is day-dreaming of the future that might happen someday, when the party will lay his hands on him again. It is implyed to us that they will- you can hear in this scene the telescreen in the cafe playing the same tune that was played when Winston witnessed the arrest of the old party members, Ruthford etc, in that same cafe, and so he is imagining the day it would happen- and by saying that while he would be back in the Ministry Of Love his "soul as white as snow" and he'll be "walking in sunlight"- means that now he accepts the consequences for his actions and with love, love for the big brother.

Thank you so so so much for the insightful answers.
this book is quite a brainbuster.
:p

I would say your second.interpretation was the more astute I took the final passages to mean he has been broken and driven slightly mad by all the torture and brainwashing he has undergone. Being kept drunk most of the time does not help his mental sharpness. He does however suspect that he won't be reserved a seat in the Chestnut Cafe for the rest of his natural life.

Anyway, maybe I should point out that there is a George Orwell subforum under Authors with a 1984 subforum beneath that.