Winston's journal

At the beginning of this book, Winston decides to keep a diary of the events that are happening at the present, and what he is feeling about everything going on. Winston is reluctant to do this, as there is a telescreen practically everywhere he goes, and that having a diary, or even having such thoughts as what he wrote in his diary will most definitely result in a death sentence, or at least 25 years of forced labour camp.

When Winston begins to write in his diary, he is unsure of even the year. He makes a guess based on how old he is, and when he was born. It is as if the Party had stopped bothering to announce the year for MANY years by now, as nobody really needed to know the date for any particular reason.

What Winston finally decide to write in his diary he wrote in a panicked rush, for fear of people finding out that he is in the possession of a diary. He wrote about the movie he saw at the movie theaters the other night; he had emphasized that all of them there were war films. what was happening in the movie was quite gruesome, what with the people being bombed and severed and cut from shells being exploded on the street. In every bloody and horrific shot, showing severed body parts, or bloody images, the audience laughed or cheered. And when a woman protested about showing this to the kids, she was taken away by the proles.

I think that the behaviour of the audience is disgusting, and in our society today, that is considered abnormal. To think that the society in 1984, can look at those types of images and not feel any particular emotion, is sickening. What's funny is, movies these days, compared to movies from a few years ago, our society may be able to look at those images and react the same way as shown in the book.

2+2=5??

In part three of the book, Winston and Julia are arrested, and are put into jail to await his interrogator. In the end, he doesn't know how long it has been since his capture, guessing it to have been several months. After a couple of months of endless torture, Winston is picked up by O'Brien. Believing O'Brien to still be on his side, Winston rejoices -- and is immediately horrifyingly tortured by O'Brien himself. Again, O'Brien brainwashes Winston, this time making Winston to believe that all along, he was the one that was insane, that he had a mental disability, and had imagined, hallucinated, and believed it to be true, in the past few years. He also asked how many fingers he has, torturing Winston to no end if he answered 4 and making him truly believe he held up 5 fingers (with his thumb concealed).

When Winston was being interrogated, it sounded like O'Brien was able to read Winston very clearly. Whenever Winston had a thought that went against Big Brother, O'Brien would always voice Winston's thoughts, and then perhaps torture him. Perhaps this, as well as the other things happening to Winston, was what finally brainwashed Winston to love Big Brother.

How EASILY these people can brainwash, and how EASILY those people can be brainwashed is scary. When Winston had finally agreed with O'Briens views, it was only after being drugged. It sort of reminded me of hypnotism. This "believing" that Winston had didn't last for very long, though. It was only after a few years of endless torture, and repeated words, that Winston could finally believe. After being attacked with his worst fear, and truly wishing it on Julia instead, only then was he able to be free. He truly believed that 2+2 can equal 5.

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Reading 1984 by George Orwell, I found how ironic the book is. I also found many comparisons with what Mr. Orwell had written, and how similar the events in the book to the events that are happening at the present time.
The irony and the depressing set-up in this book almost makes the reader think that sad events were happening to Mr. Orwell at the time, influencing him to write a book containing his thoughts, so that he could, so to speak, share it with the rest of the world. The first chapter really introduced the feeling of the book. In fact, the first line introduced the book. Filled with gloominess and ALOT of irony, this book draws the reader into a world of dread and unhappiness.