I just started reading this book for the first time. It has been highly recommended on every book suggestion thread that has probably ever existed and I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about.
Can you guys help me clear up a few things? And PLEASSSE NO SPOILERS, AS IM ONLY IN CHAPTER 2.
Firstly, why did Winston speak so casually about wanting to “ravish” and do other really disgusting things to the girl sitting behind him at the Hate speech thing? That was a strong will to rape, and it definitely took me out of the book for a moment, and grossed me out pretty bad. At first I was thinking about Winston as this poor oppressed person under dystopian rule, but that made me feel different about his character in like .3 seconds of reading that. Better yet, isn’t he like 40, and wasn’t the girl in some youth group??
2. What are the tele-screens?? Is it a metal box on the wall or something? Is it a monitoring device/dystopian provided tv service? I’m so confused about these things for them to be brought up so often.
3. Thought police. Do they have to be within distance of someone to read their thoughts? How does that work? Winston acted like bc he just thought something at his cubicle that the thought police would take him away in the middle of the night.
Please help me out, and again, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NO SPOILERS!
by ImpendingBan
12 Comments
We have noticed your thread’s title mentioned a popular book title in /r/books. Please consider visiting some of [these recent threads!](/r/books/search?q=1984&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) You might also enjoy the subreddit /r/1984!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/books) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Most of the answers to these questions are spoilers. In future, I’d suggest continuing to read.
these are impossible to answer without spoilers; it’s normal to be confused about things while in the process of reading a book. It’s also normal for main characters not to be 100% likable/ do alienating things. Just keep going!
These sound like things that will probably be explained or explored in the book
Hi! No spoilers, I promise.
The thought police can’t read your mind. There’s no telepathy. They are policing “wrong thinking” and constantly watching everyone for signs that you might unconsciously be giving yourself away, so Winston is in a state of constant self-criticism and paranoia.
The book was written in 1949 so Orwell’s kind of making up telescreens as a futuristic device. You’re probably drawing on images that you’ve seen in movies and books, but people reading at the time didn’t have that. The main thing is that he can’t turn it off and you bet it goes both ways. Someone might be listening to you to hear what you say when you sleep. *You never know when you’re being monitored.*
A lot of people have struggled with the moment where Winston turns the state-sponsored Hate onto women. One of the things Orwell is definitely doing is creating a society where there is no love or normal healthy sexual relationship possible. The state doesn’t want people having individual connections to one another that then might surpass their loyalty to Big Brother. People are paired up for breeding purposes, essentially, but individual love and romance are seen as subversive… for good reason. Winston is truly an incel at the beginning of the book – he is involuntarily celibate because the state hasn’t given him anybody for a long time— and he’s all kinds of f***ked up about it.
But I think it also is meant to conjure up the kind of mass meetings like the Nuremberg rallies that his readers would’ve been very familiar with, the way that hate is whipped up by the leaders and then it can so easily be turned on to other targets. It’s like the leaders are tapping into everyone’s head, their darkest desires and fantasies, and giving you two minutes to let them run loose – like a mental Purge.
It’s a little hard to say any more with no spoilers, but we are both seeing that Winston is absolutely a creature of his society and we’re going to see a better side of Winston later. Orwell is saying that once you get rid of romantic love and human connection, what you have left is inevitably toxic even in men who would otherwise be normal healthy people.
I hope you end up enjoying it! It’s an incredible book. And definitely do stay away from the spoilers 😁
Iirc, while trying to be as vague as possible, Winston reacts so strongly to the woman because the society in which he lives doesn’t allow for healthy relationships, only loyalty to the party. He doesn’t know how to process looking at a beautiful woman (she’s an adult, not a teenager, I’m pretty sure she’s 26) without turning against his own desires. Yes, it creates toxic masculinity.
Telescreens: you’ll find out
Thought police: you’ll find out
Imagine watching The Matrix, getting to the part where Neo says “why do my eyes hurt?” And Morpheus says “you’ve never used them before.”, pausing the movie, and asking the internet to explain what he meant *without spoilers*.
Just keep consuming the media. Surely it will be explained. Come back if the media ends, and doesn’t explain or explains poorly, or you don’t get it. But why ask before finishing?
It was a dream the entire time.
Answers would require spoilers but the rape fantasies, I would argue, aren’t necessary to the plot. 🤷♀️ I think Orwell is describing the mind of a normal oppressed frustrated man. Unfortunately. He’s certainly our protagonist but we don’t have to like everything about him. His disgusting sexism is something I never liked about Winston. There’s some backstory about some other sex/women/mother stuff that comes out but none of it justifies rape fantasies.
Orwell was just a man after all
Most of what you are talking about involves spoilers, so I don’t want to go into the relationship between Winston and the woman (Though I will say she is in the 20s if memory serves). You just have to keep reading for that.
For your two questions, I think they can be answered without spoilers:
>What are the tele-screens?
Think of it as being similar to a zoom call. Winston is watching what is on the screen, but is also constantly being watched by that same screen.
>Thought police. Do they have to be within distance of someone to read their thoughts?
The Thought Police don’t have the literal ability to read his mind. His fear is a consequence of the fact that he is under constant surveillance
Just keep reading, as others have said. The questions you have are good ones, and will largely be made clear. The unease that you’ve got is intentional.
Telescreens – written in 1948, you’ve got future history going. It’s a common thread in scifi to have future tech be somewhat mysterious, since it doesn’t exist at the time of writing.
My favorite part is when Julia murders Winston for the One Ring. Oh shit, you said no spoilers…