Aww.

"At the sight of the words I love you the desire to stay alive had welled up in him, and the taking of minor risks suddenly seemed stupid" (109). This quote regarding Winston's reaction to the note from Julia shows another theme. This novel also speaks of the need for humans to have someone to live for. The society of the novel takes away all human relationships. Even married people don't have to like each other. Children want to kill their parents, and no one really has friends. This is what allows the people of the society to be so bitter all of the time, preventing a revolt. When Winston realizes that there is someone else in his life that cares for him, he suddenly doesn't want to die. He feels that his life is important. This is a feeling that every human being needs. Everyone needs to feel as if their life is of some value. This society takes that away, and Winston realizes that. He loves the feeling of being loved and needed, so he thoroughly enjoys being with Julia. He just can't get enough of being needed. The Party knows what people need, and deprives them of that in order to control them. They only feel important by helping those in power. They will do whatever they are asked in order to fulfill that need.

A brotherhood of brothers in a brotherhood.

The Brotherhood cannot be wiped out because it is not an organization in an ordinary sense. Nothing holds it together except an idea which is indestructible" (176). The Brotherhood is nothing more than a group of people that hate the party. I think that this shows how as the strength of a government goes up, so does its vulnerability. The Party grows stronger, as does the number of people that want to defeat it. This is one of the themes of the novel. It speaks of the dangers of power. People in power only want more, and as their power grows, the hatred toward them grows more. I feel that as the Party grows even stronger, the number in the Brotherhood will become so great that it will be overtaken.
I would also like to praise the way that the Brotherhood is set up. It is pretty fool proof. They know that humans, if tortured, will spill everything. The Brotherhood protects people from that by not giving them any secrets to spill. Each member, even the high members, only know the identities of a few other members. This ensure that the entire Brotherhood cannot be eliminated in one swoop. Genius.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not...

"The groveling on the floor and screaming for mercy, the crack of broken bones,the smashed teeth and bloody clots of hair" (103). This is some intense imagery that is used when describing the torture that a thought criminal must endure in order to confess. Though this is clearly horrid treatment, it is only described as routine. This lack of reaction horrible treatment shows this society has become immune to the violence that is around it. There are people dying left and right, and Winston only kicks a severed hand when he sees it later on in the book. The scary part is that Winston does not conform. he is not the typical Party member. He is not nearly as immune to the violence as others are. The society trains people from a young age to enjoy hurting others. The Parson children throw a fit when they cannot see another man be hanged. This imagery shows the control that the Party has over its members. It has created people that have lost all empathy and concern for human beings. This allows the Party to use people as their soldiers and eliminate all in their way. Sound like Hitler?

Look, Ma, a simile!

"Accepting the Party as something unalterable, like the sky, not rebelling against its authority but simply evading it, as a rabbit dodges a dog" (131). The simile comapres the Party and its rules to a dog, and those like Winston that are trying to work around the rules to rabbits. Just as a dog tries to capture a rabbit, the Party will do anything necessary to weed out any nonconformers. Those who want to avoid this have the ability to hide from the dog, but it is tricky. This simile sums up the first half of the novel. Winston's goal is to live as normal of a life as possible without being caught by the thought police. He knows how to get around their rules, but he feels that it is only a matter of time until he is caught and killed. He lives his life hiding his true self from those who do not approve. He soon learns that he is not the only one of his type. This makes his run from the dog easier.

This simile creates a comparison that is constant throughout the novel. I could make some cheesy connections to add on to this connection to a dog and rabbit, but I won't. In all, this simile is one that creates the image of Winston's constant running from the Party. He can never feel completely safe....unless he is with Julia.

Proles!!!

"You could 'a drawed me off a pint easy enough. We didn't 'ave these bleeding liters when I was a young man" (88). This is what an old prole said in Winston in response to being bought a drink. This is the typical colloquial language used when the proles are speaking. The effect of this language is to show the difference that the Party sees in the sophistication of the Party members. The way that the proles speak seems to be uneducated, showing superiority of the Party members. This tool is also used to emphasize the differences in the culture. Those in the Party are focused on correct speech and doing everything to appear better and in unison with all other Party members. The proles, however, do not care how they look. They are only concerned with how they feel. They are afraid of offending no one and say it how it is. In a sense, the proles are real people while the conforming party members are robots. This colloquial language shows that difference.