Blog post 4
***PLOT TWIST***
No way!!! Winston's trust in O'Brien was misplaced? His trust in Mr. Charrington was MISPLACED???
No, in all honesty, even though a lot of us probably saw this coming, I think it was written really well in that I was still caught pretty off guard. Especially as the reader (or at least I did this) lives out the 1984 delusion through Winston's shoes, you feel yourself lowering your guard with him as you read along, and become a lot less anxious. Essentially, you know in the back of your head that this is the natural path of the plot, but you don't think it'll happen any time soon.
I also didn't suspect Charrington, even if I did suspect O'Brien.
Needless to say, I was surprised.
I also thought it was pretty interesting how it all went down. It was all very sudden in that the Thought Police let Julia and Winston live out their fantasy, just long enough that they believed and their hope for a better future grew. They really dug the knife in deeper and rubbed salt in the wound. Ouch.
I have so many questions for the next part though. I wonder if the diary makes a comeback.
Either way, I wonder if they'll hold out-- if Winston and Julia's love and their hope for the future is strong enough to withstand extreme psychological manipulation.
Honestly the whole "love conquers all" trope is super overdone and very cheesy in my opinion. I would be extremely disappointed if Orwell played into any aspect of it. At this point, all of the characters are sufficiently annoying and I would be content if the Party was the victor in the end. Is that how I want my own reality to be? No. Do I still want to see Winston's messed up fantasy get torn to shreds before him? Yes.
ReplyDeleteOh don't you worry. :D
DeleteI was very surprised and dismayed by Charrington. In a lot of ways that was a worse betrayal than O'Brien because it emphasizes that everything was false -- the Party already knew about their relationship all along and their quaint sweet little room above the junk shop was a setup. Sadness!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering while I read this section why the Party didn't act immediately to silence Winston after it became clear in Charrington's shop that Winston was taking a dangerous interest in the past. Maybe they wanted to see how deep in the "brotherhood" Winston would get before they pulled the rug out from under him...
DeleteI do wonder about the diary, it seemed so important at the beginning (and he had bought it from Charrington) but maybe with all of the significantly more dangerous actions Winston has been committing since the diary, it's less important now
ReplyDeleteHonestly, there was a lot of tension and suspense building up that we had to suspect something. But I was still so surprised when the voice came from behind the picture because that portrayed how little privacy and security people will have as long as they live under the Party.
ReplyDeleteCharrington's betrayal was definitely a huge surprise for me. It seemed to me that Charrington was extremely trustworthy, likely because that was how Winston saw it. What was extremely strange to me was why the thought police didn't immediately arrest Winston and Julia after they got the room, rather than waiting for them to read the book first.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, Winston was able to rent out a room in a shop that nobody ever went to (except for him) and had privacy in a world like that? We should have seen it from a mile away lol
ReplyDeleteOk, yeah, you're right, but dangit we needed hope.
DeleteI felt the exact same way! It was a great plot twist, but I also didn't really know what Orwell will do with the diary plot-wise. Unfortunately, I don't expect Winston and Julia's love to hold up as they will most likely be killed.
ReplyDeleteDid O'brien really betray him, or is he just doing his job as ordered, and deep down he really wanted Winston to succeed?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was really strange how the police let Winston and Julia live out their fantasy for a while before capturing them. We've seen Orwell do this kind of thing in other places as well. He gives us a little glimmer of hope for Winston's cause, but eventually crushes it.
ReplyDeleteI think much of Julia's affections for Winston are misplaced, but Winston does seem truly in love with her. I completely agree with you too, although I figured that O'Brien would betray Winston, I was still caught off guard.
ReplyDelete