1984 Pages 179 - 225

The first part of this week's reading was talk about the preparation for hate week. Winston is extremely tired after working so many hours, but it made me think, if nobody even reads books, like the ones he's changing, why does he have to change them?? As hate week begins there is a speaker in the town square and half way through his speech he gets a note notifying him of a change in enemy. Winston noted that he didn't even "skip a beat" when he went from one enemy to the next. This made me definately assume that the Party had planned for this to happen, perhaps to get more emotion from the crowd, or create more work for people like Winston who would now have to change all the records again.

The majority of the reading this week was reading "the book" O'brien had given Winston. It was not what I expected at all. I predicted that it would be very angry and denouncing towards the Party. When it was really just a complex explanation for the cause of the war. After reading just the first part of chapter three, I question how brainwashed Winston really is. He should have picked up on the fact that this was a bunch of lies. For instance on page 186 it states that "war involes a very small number of people...and causes comparatively few casualties." It also goes into great detail about the three different regions involved in the war. Why does Winston need to know these things? How is this going to help him "overthrow the Party"??

Throughout "the book" it brought up numerous different reasons for the war, but one struck me as almost funny. It stated that the reason for was is to use up all the products that are manufactured. How can Winston believe this?!?! Finally, it made me question, what is the war (if they even are at war) really about?? Could any of this be true?? Or maybe it's all true?? I came to the conclusion that the point of "the book" is to make Wintson believe that life is the same everywhere, so it must be right, as in majority rules. They made this clear several times when they compared the three regions and how they were all in this big "war" together.

Another reason, "the book" said, for the war was "to keep the structure of society intact". As unbeleivable as this book can sometimes be, Orwell made a completely true analogy about how the social classes alter now and throughout history. The high is always taken out by the middle class and the low always stays low. So, in Oceania, they believe they finally figured out a way to keep the high class in its position. As odd as it seems, they're right, they did figure it out. There is no class system in Airstrip One, they are all the same.

As I finished reading the portion about "the book" I wondered if Winston could actually understand it, for whoever wrote it was very educated and "the book" itself was very complex. Perhaps thats the point, it doesn't really matter if he can read and understand it all, it is just going to give him a sence that he belongs to "the brotherhood" now.

Finally on page 218, we were given our first clue that things were going to be getting worse, possibly deadly, for Winston and Julia as she commented that "it seems to have gotten colder." Cold, like winter, symbolizes death and struggle.

Oddly, right before I read the last party, when they get caught, I was thinking that Winston and Julia would be ok, because now that they , unknowingly, worked for the Party they wouldn't ever vaporize them because they needed them to do their dirty work, they were one of them. Well, apparently I was wrong.

I'm not sure what to think about their sort of "capture" yet. I don't believe their are actually going to be vaporized. I think this is the work of O'brien, and this is when they will have to start doing all those inhumane acts they talked about with O'brien.