Summarizer

                                            

                                           Summarizer

Section 1-  Part 1: Page 3-66

Summary of Main Points                                                                          Chapter 1-6, Pages 3-66

           This section, and beginning of the novel, first introduces the main character, Winston Smith, a worker of the Ministry of Truth in London, Airstrip One. In this future country, Big Brother (leader of The Party) looks on from every dingy and downtrodden street, and in every dilapidated house; he marks the representation of what the telescreen does in application, so as to prevent orthodoxy. Winston's apartment appear no exception to this rule, but for a small anclove in the corner, to which he hides from sight along with a purchased diary, the keeping of punishable by vaporization, the makings of an "unperson". 

As he contemplates what to write in this journal- nay, if he should write in this journal- he also thinks of the Two Minutes Hate, the time of day which the people crowd in order to deliver rage filled words to those of the opposition seen through the telescreen, passions inflamed by decisive imagery and music. During this we see Winston's rebellion further taking root when he switches said uncontrollable aggression to Big Brother momentarily. This scene also gives the reader the additional characters of O' Brien, as well as the "dark haired girl", of which he feels a kinship to the former, and sexual aggression and anxiety to the latter. He returns from the thought, to realize he has written DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER; this acts as the conformation that he will die, that his dissension will come to light. 

He also has many dreams during this period, the first being, actually, a remembered dream from seven years past; in it O'Brien, wreathed in shadows, says "we shall meet in a place where there is no darkness". Next he dreams of his mother and little sister, sinking in a pit/well, knowing they died in order for him to live, unresentful and accepting of the situation; he also feels tortured solely due to the reason that he could not fathom the type of love needed for said emotions, as they no longer exist in his time period. The dream transitions to that of the dark haired girl, who walks through a meadow shucking her clothes off as if to leave behind all that Big Brother and The Party represents. The last dream is one of his childhood, where he huddles in the tube station along with many as bombs are dropped over head, the sound accompanied by the mutterings of an old man: "ain't ought to have trusted 'em". 

The final part of the section displays his job, that of the rewriting of the past, to "correct" newspapers and other forms of media; he is one of many. You also meet another character, Syme, who tells Winston of the basis of Newspeak, the language which shall be perfected and have replaced Old Speak, English by 2050. 

The section concludes with the dark haired girls weighted stare towards Winston.

Minor Details

-His first diary entry tells of a time when he went to the movies, which showed refugees  trying to escape by boat, only to be vanquished by aircraft bullets; all seemed to enjoy such a view, exception being a woman, hysterical, yelling that such content was not for children, to which she was haled out of the cinema. 
- He also visits the Parsons to fix their sink, only to be bombarded by their unruly children, of whom are fully devoted to The Party, and speak of war as if it were a game.
-Near the end of the section it is noted that the ideals of The Party in concerns with the appearance of human beings are wholly different to the reality; they dream up an Aryan type race of beings, while the average persons, is a dark, stumpy, ugly, beetle-like creature, the only type of person to survive in their squalid conditions.

Connections

Books:
Fahrenheit 451 (read previously a couple years ago): contains the same overarching theme of an idolized figure which controls all, and looks out onto a society which tries to distance one from education, to get them to not think and control emotion.
Hunger Games- Has a society controlled by the affluent and powerful, while the main bulk of the populace are in poor conditions and told to feel grateful for them.

Other:
People on the internet: Many people who post anonymously spout some of the ideals that can be found in The Party, such as wars on all those who oppose their country, as well as the racism and brutality shown other cultures, present in the movie Winston writes of.
Also, the idea of the impressionism of children. In my home, there are two young children, one of them being only the age of seven. It amazes me what children can be told to believe, and what they accept. I understand that under the right conditions, young people such as the Parson's children could become a reality.

-Allyson

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Section 2- Page 66-111

Summary Of Main Points

In this section of the novel, we start by seeing Winston writing in his diary again. He recounts a memory of when he had a sexual encounter with a prole prostitute. Winston tells us about the fact that the party worked to take all pleasure out of the act of sex, and made it into a duty for the sole purpose of making more party members. Winston wants very much so to have an enjoyable sexual experience. After he finishes writing in his diary, he realizes that writing his thoughts down does not get rid of his anger and depression. We also find out that Winston had a wife named Katharine who hated sex, and after Winston and her realized they would never have kids, they separated.

After coming home from work Winston begins to write again in his diary, he talks about how if a revolution were to take place, it had to come from the proles. The proles are common people who make up a huge part of oceania. He longs for the opportunity to think for himself. Winston goes for a walk in the prole district, talks to an old man and asks what London used to be like, he gets too vague a response to get an answer. As he’s walking back home he realizes the dark haired girl is following him, he goes into his house, shuts the door and contemplates killing himself instead of being caught. 

Minor Details

- Winston decides that he is writing his diary to O'Brien
- Winston goes back into the same shop where he bought his diary, and finds a from in the back that has no tele screen. He also buys a paperweight.

Connections

This past Easter weekend I went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier. One of the main plot lines is that S.H.I.E.L.D is deploying huge airships with heavy artillery in them, to fly and remain in the sky. There purpose is to take out any foreseeable threat (Criminals, Terrorists etc.) before they do something bad. They do this by running an algorithm through a system that looks ant everyones phone calls, bank records, history, everything. This reminded me of 1984 because it connects so well to the idea of control in the novel.

-Evan

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Section 3 Pages 111-174
By Katie

Summary of Main Points
           This section of the book starts off with the girl Winston has be admiring slips him a note after he helps her up when she falls. The says I love you which captures Winston's attention and from there Winston sits with her at lunch where they make plans to meet up in secret later on. At their third meeting, the first one where they can actually talk freely they start a secret and highly illegal love affair, meeting up in secret whenever possible.
           For most of Winston's time he and Julia both are caught up at work because they are preparing for hate week which is meant to unite society against political enemies and thought criminals.
           The two of them run begin to run out of places to meet up so Winston rents the room above Mr. Charring-ton's antic shop. Which is where they meet up from now on and gives Winston a sense of them feeling at home. At this point in the book Syme vanishes, which Winston already predicted would happen. However O'Brien uses this as a link to show Winston they're the same side.

Minor Details
             In the last section of the book Winston buys a paperweight which we find out he got it because it was a link to the past. The oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clement's rhythm comes up again, this time Julia adds a line. Lastly Winston now has O'Brien's address.

Connections
             I connected this part of the book to Romeo and Juliet mainly because of how in the play Romeo and Juliet are forbidden to see each other and have to meet up in secret. Just like Winston and Julia have to meet up in secret because their love is illegal.
              I also connected it to telling lies in general because at some point you have decide if you should tell the truth or not and when to tell it, which is what they discuss at the end of this section.


Section 3 - Sylvana

Summary of Main Points

At work one morning, Winston walks toward the men's room and notices the dark-haired girl with her arm in a sling.
Executing their plan, Winston and the girl meet in the country.
Winston becomes aroused when they move into the woods, and they make love; the experience is nearly identical to the passionate sexual encounter about which Winston has dreamed.
The next morning, Julia makes the practical preparations for their return to London, and she and Winston head back to their normal lives.
At a rendezvous in a ruined church, Julia tells Winston about living in a hostel with thirty other girls, and about her first illicit sexual encounter.
Unlike Winston, Julia is not interested in widespread rebellion; she simply likes outwitting the party and enjoying herself.
She explains to Winston that the Party prohibits sex in order to channel the sexual frustration of the citizenry into fervent opposition to Party enemies and impassioned worship of Big Brother.
Winston tells Julia about a walk he once took with his ex-wife Katherine, during which he thought about pushing her off of a cliff.
Winston looks around the little room above Mr. Charrington's shop, which he has rented-foolishly, he thinks-for his affair with Julia.
Lounging in bed in the evening, Julia sees a rat; Winston, afraid of rats more than anything else, is horrified.
Winston tells her that the paperweight is a link to the past.
When Julia leaves, Winston sits gazing into the crystal paperweight, imagining living inside it with Julia in an eternal stasis.
During his brief meeting with O'Brien in the hallway at the Ministry of Truth, Winston is anxious and excited.
O'Brien alludes to Syme and tells Winston that he can see a Newspeak dictionary if he will come to O'Brien's house one evening.
Inside his sumptuous apartment, O'Brien shocks Winston by turning off the telescreen.
O'Brien gives them wine, and Winston proposes that they drink to the past.
O'Brien tells Winston that they might meet again one day.
Winston asks if he means in the place where there is no darkness, and O'Brien confirms by repeating the phrase.
O'Brien fills Winston in on the missing verses from the St. Clement's Church rhyme.
As Winston leaves, O'Brien turns on the telescreen and returns to his work.

Details not Included

Winston realizes, in this section, that the proles would be the future of the rebellion. That if all of them rebelled they would be able to over through the Party. Winston understands that this will never happen, though.
Winston buys a paper weight that they mention is a gateway to the past, identifying again his hope and search for knowledge of the past and before Big Brother.


Connections
I connected this Hunger Games because, firstly the atmosphere of both novels is similar as they are both dystopian. The forest is also a point of connection, in the Huger Games it is an escape for Katniss where she can be away from the strict Capitol. In 1984, Winston and Julia go to the forest/ countryside to escape the view of the Party.
I also connected this to Divergent because in Divergent people aren't allowed to other factions and are kept in the dark about other the people in other factions (how their life is, what they do, what the factions are like... etc). This is similar to how the citizens of Oceania are controlled and kept in the dark; they aren't informed about how the other people in the world are living and what they do learn about the war and enemy is filtered to be whatever the Party needs it to be. 

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Section 4 Pages 174-234

Summary of Main Points

Chapter 8 of Part 2 starts off with Julia and Winston going to O’Brien’s house and becoming a part of the Brotherhood. As initiation, Winston and Julia answer challenging questions that show their loyalty to the Brotherhood. O’Brien tells them that they will only know a few people from the Brotherhood so that if they ever get captured and tortured then they will only have limited information to pass to Big Brother. This keeps the Brotherhood surviving! Once Julia leaves, Winston and O’Brien have time to chat about how he will receive the book one day through a man handing him a briefcase.

Hate weeks is an exciting time for everyone, there are many festivities, posters and speeches given. During the sixth day of Hate week a man is giving a speech and in the middle of his sentence he is slipped a note that tell him Oceania is now at war with Eastasia and Eurasia is now the ally. When just moments ago, Eastasia was the ally and Eurasia was the enemy. All the people listening to the speech became very embarrassed and blamed the Brotherhood and revolutionists for changing their posters and making it look like the wrong people were the enemy. As a result, everyone in the Party had to work non-stop to change any document that hinted that Eastasia was ever an ally and make sure that no one knows that they were ever at war with Eurasia.

The story continues to Winston finally taking well need rest in the little upper room. He arrives before Julia and reads Chapter 3 War is Peace in Goldstein’s book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. This chapter involves how the states came to be, the relationships between Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia and the hierarchies system. Julia arrives and after an affair, he reads Chapter 1 Ignorance is Strength to her as she falls asleep. This chapter involves mush of the information that Winston thought he knew, it just makes it more concrete and truthful.

Winston wakes up from a long sleep from the singing of a women outside the window. After a small conversation, Winston realizes that the women holds a secret to life, and that he and Julia are ‘dead’. A voice then emerges from behind the painting. Julia and Winston discover that there is a telescreen behind it, and that all along they have never been alone. Troops storm in and comprehend the two. Mr. Charrington walks in, but not with the appearance of an old man as Winston knew him, but as a strong, tall confident young man. He is Thought Police, and both Winston and Julia are taken away.

Minor Events

The Lady: In chapter 10, Winston spends a long time watching, listening and thinking about the lady who always seems to be outside the window of the upper room in Mr. Charrington’s shop. He see that even though she has had many children and has been worked to the ground with work, she seems happy. She sings a beautiful song and has a sense of joy about her. He mentions that she is like a bird. ‘The birds sang, the proles sang the Party did not sing.’ (Orwell 230). This women, against all odds stayed alive. It was this women who made Winston understand that he was never really living, he was merely surviving. But she also brought to him a small glimmer of hope, that there was a way to truly live.

The Rhyme: O’Brien finally finishes the rhyme of the churches for Winston, with alludes much to what was going to happen next. The end of this small poem is more happy than destructive, which is strange because that is what is shared with Winston from Mr. Charrington. This rhyme is a little spark of hope and interest that helps Winston to keep looking for answers, because there are people out there who do know the answers.

Paperweight: the first time we see the paperweight, it is a figment of beauty, hope and the past. But when it is destroyed it shows how Winston’s optimism is shattered. He sees how small the pink piece of coral really is, he sees that it was never significant.

Connections

Using telescreens to control a community and society reminded me of the Nova Com Saga released by Adventures in Odyssey. The idea of Nova Com started with pure intentions, the plan was to see if Brain waves could be turned to radio waves. This would allow paralyzed people to be able to move objects and allow for lots of hope in the medical field of brain studies. But when a breakthrough is made, the wrong people hear about it. A group of corrupt forces wish to see if this can be reversed. If radio waves can be changed to brain waves, so that they may control everyone. These signals were released through black satellite boxes and were strong enough to penetrate through walls. There were several test to see if the worked and if Nova Com – the bad guys – were able to control the minds. This theme of controlling others by technology I found is prominent in both stories. If this novel was written few decades later, I feel with the advancement of technology and electronics, that Big Brother would use a system of mind control with television signals. Nova Com was just the next level.

Beth Larmand

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Section 5 Pages 237-310 (end)
Julia Loewen

Summary of Main points

Winston wakes up in a prison cell with numerous other terrified, starving prisoners. When he is waiting in the cell, O'Brien walks in and Winston discovers that he is not a part of the Brotherhood, he is really a part of the Party. Soon after, the beatings begin. The horrible pain causes Winston to confess to everything he has ever done, including crimes that he never committed. Eventually, the beatings come to an end and Winston is sent to a room with O'Brien where he is placed on a machine with a dial. As the dial is pushed up by O'Brien, the pain caused by the machine increases. O'Brien uses this machine to break Winston mentally, until he fully accepts what the party tells him. This, however, still does not make Winston truly love the Party and also doesn't make him betray his love for Julia. During this time period, O'Brien tells Winston that once they make him love the Party (which is inevitable) they will shoot him.
After these meetings with O'Brien, they leave Winston to heal and recover from the physical torture they put him through. Once he is much better, they send him to room 101. We find that room 101 is the room where you are put in a situation that you cannot handle. For Winston, what he cannot handle is rats. He is placed with his head in a cage of large rats, and is told by O'Brien that they will open the cage doors and allow the rats to eat and tear at his face. This completely breaks Winston and he finally betrays Julia by telling O'Brien to do this to her instead.
After room 101, Winston is set free into the world, where he becomes a drunk. He meets Julia once by chance and they talk and confess that they have no feelings for each other after room 101, so they part ways. Later, Oceania gains a victory in the current war, and Winston realizes that he truly loves Big Brother for the first time ever. It ends with him knowing that now that he loves the Party they will finally shoot him, and he will die.

Minor Details

When Winston is in jail, Parsons gets caught for thoughtcrime by his own child. He was talking in his sleep saying "Down with Big Brother" and she turned him over to the thought police.
O'Brien allows Winston to look at himself in the mirror, to see that he is only a shadow of the man he used to be. This finally breaks Winston, causing him to weep in the room with O'Brien. O'Brien uses this as an analogy, saying humanity is in the same state as Winston.
We also find out from O'Brien that Julia betrayed Winston easily and quickly, and he also tells Winston that he will never know if there is a Brotherhood, so we never find out if there is any rebel group at all.

Connections 

The machine O'Brien uses to torture Winston is never described, so I pictured it like the machine in the movie Princess Bride. It reminded me of this because as you turn the dial, the pain increases, which is just like the machine in the movie.
I also connected the last part to Divergent. In Divergent, people can go through fear landscapes where they are forced to face their greatest fears in a simulation. This is supposed to strengthen the people of Dauntless, and make them more courageous and less afraid. In Room 101, Winston is forced to face his biggest fear (rats) but it is real, not a simulation, and the purpose was to break him down, not make him stronger.