Analyzing dreams

Winston has a dream back when he was around 12 years old. He remembers air raids, and taking shelter in tube stations. He remembers picking up scraps with other boys and picking up ribs of cabbage leaves or whatever they could find just so they wouldn’t starve. He remembers that his mother did not show any grief when his father disappeared but she changed. She became spiritless and just took care of the kids waiting to die. Winston remembers how he would always beg and scream for more food because they were starving. He would take food from his siblings and his mom so that he wasn’t starving but had no regard for their well being. He remembers taking chocolate from his sister and running out of the house because he felt ashamed. When he returned home, everyone was gone. His physiological state must be so messed up because of these memories. Remembering doing something so horrible to those you love such as taking food from them must be so traumatic. It’s no wonder that Winston is so destroyed. This dream is important to Winston’s character because it shows us that he has a lot of regret from what society has done to him.

Winston and O'Brien

Winston knows that he will eventually accept O’Brien’s summons to meet him, but he isn’t sure when he will go and meet him. What Orwell is doing here is foreshadowing that O’Brien is going to talk with Winston and Julia about how they can overthrow the party somehow. It makes the reader feel like the beginning of a revolution is about to start until Orwell says that the feeling Winston got from talking to O’brien is the sensation of stepping into the dampness of a grave. This then changes those feelings of everything changing for the better to that when Winston finally does go and meet O’Brien it will be a trap to destroy Winston. Because I have already read the book I know what is going to happen so my view of O’Brien is already set in stone, but for now, the impression I have of O’Brien is that he is unhappy with how the party is treating the outer party and wants to rectify the situation. He acts very cautiously and is able to read people very closely. If he really is the man that is going to help start the revolution he is doing a very good job of making the inner party think that he is truly working for Big Brother.

Winston and Julia

Winston and Julia have a very strange relationship because it doesn’t seem like they would be a very good couple, but in this society they can scheme together against the party. Julia sees Winston as the bad boy character that can help her feel like more of a rebel, and Winston sees Julia as the girl he could never have. When he first saw her, she was wearing the junior anti-sex league sash so it made her seem like she was just in love with the party and would do anything for them, which made Winston’s feelings even more confused. It is possible that he got even madder because he figured if the party wasn’t in control then he could be with her but they have corrupted her to the point of no return. Julia is different than Winston because she doesn’t care about things she can’t control whereas that’s all Winston cares about. They are similar because they both want to rebel against the party, but Julia’s way of rebelling is to sleep with Winston and his way or rebelling is to create thought crimes and try to disguise them.

Comparing John and Winston

These statements relate exactly and it’s no surprise because both of the characters that say them aren’t happy with the society that they are talking about. Winston doesn’t want purity, goodness, or virtue because the party has told him what those things are and he hates everything the party stands for. John’s defiant speech in Brave New World is about how he wants a government that doesn’t intrude upon people’s personal beliefs just like what Winston wants. Both John and Winston are talking about how the society is keeping people controlled so that the society can function, but that the increase in functioning the societies gain is not worth the misery and lack of freedoms that they say the society instills upon them. It’s interesting comparing John and Winston because at the bottom of it all they have the same issues with their societies when the governments go about controlling its’ citizens in very different ways. In Brave new World the government tries to make its citizens happy by making them believe that they are lucky to be alive and to be in the position they are in their society by means of hypnopaedia or controlling the oxygen amount in their embryo. In 1984, the government doesn’t care about happiness, all they care about is people following in line by fear. People in Brave New worlds society are happy where as people in 1984 are miserable. So Winston’s and John’s arguments about what they want in a society because although they both want less control, John loves virtues and goodness but Winston’s society has shown him misery and fear of those things so he wants the lack of control but, unlike John, he wants a society with nothing to guide you but human instincts.