Summary: Chapter IV
Winston goes to his job in the Records section of the
Ministry of Truth, where he works with a “speakwrite” (a machine
that types as he dictates into it) and destroys obsolete documents.
He updates Big Brother’s orders and Party records so that they match
new developments—Big Brother can never be wrong. Even when the citizens
of Airstrip One are forced to live with less food, they are told
that they are being given more than ever and, by and large, they
believe it. This day, Winston must alter the record of a speech
made in December 1983, which referred to
Comrade Withers, one of Big Brother’s former officials who has since
been vaporized. Since Comrade Withers was executed as an enemy of
the Party, it is unacceptable to have a document on file praising
him as a loyal Party member.
Winston invents a person named Comrade Ogilvy and substitutes
him for Comrade Withers in the records. Comrade Ogilvy, though a
product of Winston’s imagination, is an ideal Party man, opposed
to sex and suspicious of everyone. Comrade Withers has become an
“unperson:” he has ceased to exist. Watching a man named Comrade
Tillotson in the cubicle across the way, Winston reflects on the
activity in the Ministry of Truth, where thousands of workers correct
the flow of history to make it match party ideology, and churn out
endless drivel—even pornography—to pacify the brutally destitute
proletariat.
Summary: Chapter V
Winston has lunch with a man named Syme, an intelligent
Party member who works on a revised dictionary of Newspeak, the
official language of Oceania. Syme tells Winston that Newspeak aims to
narrow the range of thought to render thoughtcrime impossible. If
there are no words in a language that are capable of expressing independent,
rebellious thoughts, no one will ever be able to rebel, or even
to conceive of the idea of rebellion. Winston thinks that Syme’s
intelligence will get him vaporized one day. Parsons, a pudgy and
fervent Party official and the husband of the woman whose plumbing
Winston fixed in Chapter II, comes into the canteen and elicits
a contribution from Winston for neighborhood Hate Week. He apologizes
to Winston for his children’s harassment the day before, but is
openly proud of their spirit.
Suddenly, an exuberant message from the Ministry of Plenty announces
increases in production over the loudspeakers. Winston reflects
that the alleged increase in the chocolate ration to twenty grams
was actually a reduction from the day before, but those around him
seem to accept the announcement joyfully and without suspicion.
Winston feels that he is being watched; he looks up and sees the
dark-haired girl staring at him. He worries again that she is a
Party agent.
Summary: Chapter VI
That evening, Winston records in his diary his memory
of his last sexual encounter, which was with a prole prostitute.
He thinks about the Party’s hatred of sex, and decides that their
goal is to remove pleasure from the sexual act, so that it becomes
merely a duty to the Party, a way of producing new Party members.
Winston’s former wife Katherine hated sex, and as soon as they realized they
would never have children, they separated.
Winston desperately wants to have an enjoyable sexual
affair, which he sees as the ultimate act of rebellion. In his diary,
he writes that the prole prostitute was old and ugly, but that he
went through with the sex act anyway. He realizes that recording
the act in his diary hasn’t alleviated his anger, depression, or
rebellion. He still longs to shout profanities at the top of his
voice.
