Dialectic Journal 5

PAGES 289-290

"It might be two or three hours ago that they had brought him here. The dull pain in his belly never went away, but sometimes it grew better and sometimes worse, and his thoughts expanded or contracted accordingly. When it grew worse he thought only of the pain itself, and of his desire for food. When it grew better, panic took hold of him. There were moments when he foresaw the things that would happen to him with such actuality that his heart galloped and his breath stopped. He felt the smash of truncheons on his elbows and iron-shod boots on his shins; he saw himself grovelling on the floor, screaming for mercy through broken teeth. He hardly thought of Julia. He could not fix his mind on her. He loved her and would not betray her; but that was only a fact, known as he knew the rules of arithmetic. He felt no love for her, and he hardly even wondered what was happening to her. He thought oftener of O’Brien, with a flickering hope. O’Brien might know that he had been arrested. The Brotherhood, he had said, never tried to save its members. But there was the razor blade; they would send the razor blade if they could. There would be perhaps five seconds before the guard could rush into the cell. The blade would bite into him with a sort of burning coldness, and even the fingers that held it would be cut to the bone. Everything came back to his sick body, which shrank trembling from the smallest pain. He was not certain that he would use the razor blade even if he got the chance. It was more natural to exist from moment to moment, accepting another ten minutes’ life even with the certainty that there was torture at the end of it."

This is when Winston gets taken in to the, so he thinks, Ministry of Love, after being thrown into a van, essentially kidnapped but in this case arrested for his crimes. This quote, focuses on Winston's pain again. But, this is different from the pain that we've seen before. A lot of his previous pains have been due to his love for Julia or his wanting for her but this one not so much. Although, it could be said that his love for Julia put him in this position, so she's still to blame. Anyway, in this quote we can see how Big Brother and O'Brien are slowly breaking Winston. For the longest time, he said he loved Julia so much that he would never betray her. All he could do was think about Julia, but this time he hardly even thinks of her. His pain and hunger are far greater than any affection he could ever feel for her. I think Orwell added this different perspective to show that people are ultimately selfish. No matter how much one might love another person, they're going to choose themselves over that person. But, that's the problem with the society in Oceania. People are quick to tell on one another. The telescreens and Thought Police are always monitoring people, making sure they don't step out of line. Who knows, well we do know, what the consequences would be if someone witnessed someone else committing a crime and they did not report them. Although there are groups in the book that obviously all are committing crimes and claim to not betray each other, it's basically a given that they would in fact betray each other. Winston mentions The Brotherhood and how they'd send him a razor blade. Rather than really help Winston, instead they would help him kill himself before he could betray them. Nevertheless, even Winston says he would hesitate to kill himself, even if life is painful.