1984 Chapter 1-2 Summary

I. Summary Paragraph
In book three, Winston has been arrested and is in a prison cell. He is hungry, dirty, restricted, and unaware of how long he has been in captivity. Other prisoners, such as Mr.Parsons, are coming in and out of the cell. One man that enters the cell is dying from starvation. O’brien enters the cell. Winston thinks that O’brien has been captured too, but soon learns that O’brien is a member of the party. Winston is tortured in all kinds of ways. He is kicked, beaten, forced to tears, and a man in a white coat connects him to a dial that has levels of pain. Winston is tortured until he is humiliated and his power to argue or reason is destroyed. Winston confesses to things he did not do. O’brien directs the torture. O’brien

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 everyone. 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. He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big

It fulfills things that O’brien said would happen earlier. In book 2, O’brien asks Julia, “‘Do you understand that even if he survives, it may be as a different person?’” (page 173). Winston does survive, but he is completely different. He sits in a dream, because he is no longer capable of creating his own thoughts. On page 255, O’brien says “‘Everyone is washed clean...by the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men.” Nothing sums up Winston better than this. On page 256, O’brien tells Winston, “‘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...never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside of you.” The bullet is symbolic. While Winston is not physically dead, he is mentally killed. Winston will never recover. He is not running or cheering. He no longer loves Julia. Rather, he loves Big Brother. As Winston sits at the Chestnut Tree Cafe, he ironically is drinking “Victory Gin.” The passage says he has won victory over himself, but truthfully he has lost himself and the party has won. The imagery of the smile under the dark mustache shows the “happiness” the party has. The party is victorious, not Winston. The party has the power. Personification is present in Winston’s “gin-scented” tears. The themes of power, control, and rebellion connect. Power and control has permanently