"He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain." This line at the beginning of Section 3 is quite ironic for "white" especially pure white, is a universal sign for purity and peace. The place Winston is describing though, is the Ministry of Love, where nothing but torture and death takes place.
As I begun reading I made a prediction that the Ministry of Love would not be what Winston had always assumed. As I finished the reading, though, it actually was exactly what Winston had imagined.
Winston made the comment in the beginning that "it was the place with no darkness." This is ironic because, everything about it was dark. From the feelings it evoked to the occurances in the torture rooms, there was no place darker than the Ministry of Love.
My question in this section was who is Ampleforth?? Had O'brien told him that the bearer of the razor blade would be named Ampleforth? I thought the whole part was a bit confusing. When Amplefoth arrived and there was about six people in the cell, they made a connection about the "skeleton faced man". After the whole group had this sort of "coming together" I had thought that perhaps they would rebel. After all, what did they have to lose?
I was very surprised to see Mr. Parsons come in. First, it was quite a coincidence that Winston and him would end up being captured at the same time. Secondly, Parsons always bewilders me for he is so niave and stupid. His own daughter turns him in, and he is proud of her!!
When Winston was "rolling down a mighty corridor, rolling with laughter and shouting confessions at the top of his voice." I imagined that he was close to death, for this was almost like one of those flashbacks people talk about when they are between life and death.
As Winston is being tortured, it reminds me of the expiraents done on the Jewish prisinors in the Nazi labor camps. Also, I was a bit surprised that Winston kept telling the truth when O'brien asked him how many fingers he was holding up. Winston kept saying four, if he would have just said five right away, I think he would have endured much less pain. Finally, as I was reading about all the torture and the Party's reasoning that they were doing this to make him "sane" again. The question, once again, came to my mind of what is the purpose of this?? Who is benefitting from this? The fear itself of being arrested by the thought police is enough to keep the citizens in line, so why the arresting and brainwashing? What is the point of all this??
As far as room 101, O'brien said that "you know what is in room 101, everone knows what is in room 101." Well, I'm not sure, but I can speculate that it is where prisinors are actually killed. I'm afraid, though, that we will soon find out when Winston is sent there.
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While it was coincidental that Parsons was there with Winston, I don't know that I was all that surprised. With all the people his children have turned in for thought crime, it was just a matter of time. I do agree, though, that he is so stupid for praising his daughter's action. I guess it just shows his devotion to the Party and how devotees are idiotic.
I do agree with you that the white walls of the Ministry of Love are ironic, but I think they symbolize how the Party is going to make the prisoners "pure" again, but in a humanless form.
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