you are wrong

[john]

Winston does not spend the rest of his days drinking gin at the chesnut tree. He is released back to the public for a little bit. two times a week he goes to the ministrey of truth and does a little work. then in the very last paragraph he describes the bullet entering his brain. He talks about how he was finally at peace with himself. just read this quote from the end of the book, im sure it will sum things up for you. "He was walking down the white tiled corridor, with the feeling of walking in the sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The long-hoped-for bullet was entering his brain."

[CET]

I think you misunderstood the passage. I don't think he was actually 'walking down the white tiled corridor...', but he was only daydreaming. If you read the lines that precede your quote it says: "Winston sitting in a blissful dream, paid no attention as his glass was filled up. He was not running or cheering any longer. He was back at the ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow..."
In the end though I do think they might have killed him. O'Brien said to Winston before his final 'test' and after a series of torture: "Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you."
But the actual story does not end with the shooting.

[Houndicus]

yeh, he died alright

[6079 Smith, W]

Winston Smith did NOT die in the end. :D :argue: I know it for sure. He is sitting in the Chestnut Tree Cafè and like he sometimes does in the Ministry of Love when he calls out for Julia he starts daydreaming: :nod:
'He was in the Golden Country, following the foot-track across the old rabbit-cropped pasture. He could feel the short springy turf under his feet and the gentle sunshine on his face. At the edge of the field were the elm trees, faintly stirring, and somewhere beyond that was the stream where the dace lay in the green pools under the willows.
Suddenly he started up with a shock of horror. The sweat broke out on his backbone. He had heard himself cry aloud:
'Julia! Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!' ' Something like this also happens in the end. Even in Miniluv he sees himself walking down that tiled corridor and in the end he senses the bullet entering his brain as something that makes him finally understand, so then he loves Big Brother. How could he look up at Big Brother's picture and cry when he got shot into the head? I think you die immediately if you get shot in the head. You don't have time to think.
W.

[starrwriter]

I agree with Smith. Winston did not die. It was a masochistic daydream, a symbol of his impotent rage after the Thought Police finished brainwashing him.

[6079 Smith, W]

I agree with Smith. Winston did not die. It was a masochistic daydream, a symbol of his impotent rage after the Thought Police finished brainwashing him.
Thanks a lot for the backup, mate!
W.

[XXdarkclarityXX]

Winston does die, but not in the way some of you are thinking. He dies from the inside, leaving an empty shell for a man. When O' Brien says "Every one ends up cured" he means that eventually no one comes out with their inner self alive. Is he walking, talking, and drinking? Yes. But is he dead? Certainly. The "bullet" was the Party being able to take away his identity, his feelings, and his self-recognition as a man. He's dead long before that bar scene, in my opinion.

[6079 Smith, W]

He dies from the inside, leaving an empty shell for a man. When O' Brien says "Every one ends up cured" he means that eventually no one comes out with their inner self alive. Is he walking, talking, and drinking? Yes. But is he dead? Certainly. The "bullet" was the Party being able to take away his identity, his feelings, and his self-recognition as a man. He's dead long before that bar scene, in my opinion.

You are absolutly right. That is exactly the way I saw it in the end. Even in the Ministry of Love O'Brien says something like that to Winston:
What happens to you here is for ever. Understand that in advance. We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.'
This is exactly what you mean right? Due to all the torture, the pain and the lectures of O'Brien they have succeeded in killing him in the inside. When the bullet reaches his brain the only thing is remains is a total orthodox.
He loves B.B, he loves the Party, he hate Eurasia/Eastasia (whichever is at war with Oceania at any time) and he can use doublethink. But he will never be able to ever have any human feelings again. A good example for this is the way he doesn't even care for Julia anymore. As you said, he is hollow the moment he leaves Miniluv, but his love for B.B is 'caused ' by the bullet 'entering' his brain in the Chestnut Tree Café. I also think it is strange the way he cries in the café when he hears the song, I think that shows that he still has a little feelings but not much. The same thing happened also to Jones, Rutherford etc. It is also very obvious why:
' I sold you and you sold me' like what happened in Julia and Winston's relationship. I also think in the Ministry of Love everyone sells someone he loves out of pure panic in 101. Even before some people do it, like the starving man in the waiting cell:
'I don't care who it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife and three children. The biggest of them isn't six years old. You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not Room 101!'
Winston.S

[XXdarkclarityXX]

That's exactly what I meant. The part about the party "filling you with themselves" is definately true. Him not caring for Julia isn't just an absence of feeling, its a sign that the Party has penetrated him. Remember, Julia doesn't like the party and she commits both thoughtcrime and sexcrime. I think Winston no longer cares for her because he no longer cares for things that go against the Party.

[SteveH]

He is still alive at the end of the novel, but knows that he will be shot soon, hence the stuff about the "long hoped-for bullet". The party doesn't just kill its opponents; it re-brainwashes them and then kills them.