"!Look, Katherine! Look at those flowers. That clump down near the bottom. Do you see they're two different colors?...Why didn't you give her a good shove? said Julia. I would have" (135).
The first thing that caught my attention when reading this was that both of them didn't really care if they killed someone as long as nobody was looking. I thought that this was pretty inhuman for someone to have a conversation on how they regret not killing an innocent person. Winston and Julia don't really discuss how they would live their lives if they did kill an innocent person. Would they not live a life full of guilt? Wouldn't this be something they would have to live with for the rest of their lives? I think that this relates to the story because we now have a better view on how Winston doesn't really care for those people who seem to be completely devoted towards the party. Even when Winston states that killing her would make no difference, Julia seems to not understand it and she would continue defending her claim on how she herself would have pushed Katherine down the cliff.
"What was it? he said in surprise. A rat. I saw him stick his beastly nose out of the wainscoting. There's a hole down there. I gave him a good fright, anyway. Rats! murmured Winston. In this room!" (144).
I liked this part of the passage because it reminds the reader that even though they are always being watched and expected to act a specific way. Humans will continue being humans and every person has their fears and likings towards specific things. In this passage, we see a part of Winston that we never saw before. He was having a good time talking with Julia when all of a sudden he heard the word rat and immediately changed his personality. We can see how he has a huge fear of rats and was so scared that he even went pale. One thing that I found pretty weird throughout the story so far is how people don't find the killings of "people" bad and they would actually go and watch them for entertainment. In this passage, we see how he almost went pale for just hearing the word rat, but I doubt that anyone in the story would go pale to see people being killed as entertainment.
" Sometimes he talked to her of the Records Department and the impudent forgeries that he committed there. Such things did not appear to horrify her" (154).
I noticed that when Winston was trying to have a serious talk with Julia, most of the important ideas that he was trying to say to her would go right over her head. She seemed to not really care about all the people that died even if they did have some sort of important impact towards the lives that they live now. It seems that Julia doesn't care at all of the histories that have shaped the world they live in and I disagree with Julia on her view. I think that people should always remember those who have helped and shaped the life that you live now. It's important to keep these people in mind because for most cases historical figures sacrifice a lot throughout their lives in order to help the future prosper.
I thought it was pretty awful that Julia and Winston had no issue with the idea of killing Katherine, but I never thought to connect their casualness about death with Winston's fear of rats. It is a pretty interesting comparison to think a meager animal is what bothers him so much.
ReplyDeleteWhat really strikes me is that Winston doesn't even seem to have a problem with the way the Party has desensitized him to violence and death. He is always noting the things he can see the Party do, like rewriting history or lying to everyone about the true statistics for rations, but he doesn't say much about the way it has changed him as a person. Even though the Party is molding his mind through more obvious ways like accepting violence, they have also influenced him by making him desperate for escape. Over the past few months Winston had become more and more reckless, taking risks purely because he was obsessed with the idea of finding scraps of the old world to focus on. Winston can see that this probably isn't wise but never focuses on the fact that he is spiraling into that behavior because he has sort of been backed into an emotional wall.
It is interesting to think that Syme acted as sort of an opposite. Syme understood and thought about how the Party was changing (read: diminishing) everyone's thinking, but didn't really notice all of the injustice of a multitude of their actions. Julia is like neither of these characters, and likely much more similar to the pigheaded, gullible citizens who simply accept the Party's words as truth. She may make her own connections but ultimately doesn't connect it to injustice or understand any of the Party's intentions; she just sees it as an inconvenience.
Fernanda's comment is gonna greatly overshadow mine but I wanted to agree with you. All my blogs have been about how much Oceania sucks. The fact that people feel no shame in even thinking about killing another person is just terrible. It clearly illustrates just how bad Oceania is by how inhuman and emotionless people can be at times.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bemi on how Oceania sucks because they really don't care about what they do or how they do it. Like killing someone innocent for no reason is showing how people don't care anymore and want to do whatever they want to do.
ReplyDeleteA very nice a thought out blog. You went really in depth into the Winston's and Julia's comforts and uneasiness. Funny enough the book mentions on multiple occasions that killing is kinda normal or no trouble, something I never noticed until you brought it up. It poses a question whether if that's the same with the rest of society? How many other people are comfortable with the idea of murder? Is it possible that this comfort in killing is a product by Big Brother?
ReplyDeleteWinston's fear of rats is quite interesting. Like you said Winston has a phobia of rats, but isn't bother by a ruthless murder. To me its a weird symbolic representation on medieval times. Let me explain. Winston and possibly the rest of society are accustom to killing people. Similar to witch burning and executions. Winston's fear of rats can be a fear of catching a disease, possibly the Black plague. Also during that time a torture method was used where a rat was trapped in a bucket and the victim would have the mouse and bucket on top of him. The executioner would place a flame towards the bucket and force the mouse to burrow inside the person's body. All in all, the society's comfort in killing and Winston's fear of rats can represent medieval times comfort in killing and the importance of rats back in that time. I do admit that this comparison or symbolism is very loose and mostly likely is false, but its fun to think about.