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STUDYWORLD STUDYNOTES

1984

Comprehensive Summary and Review of Part I Chapters 5-8

Summary:

" While he sat writing, a recent memory stirred in his mind; the "Two Minutes Hate," a government-sponsored work break in which every worker at the Ministry of Truth was required to participate, had consisted that day of an interlude when everyone raged and screamed as the telescreen alternately flashed images of enemy Eurasian soldiers and Goldstein, an abhorred traitor. That morning, Winston had noticed a "bold-looking girl of about twenty-six" who worked in the Fiction Department. This particular girl - wearing the bright scarlet sash of the official anti-sex league - gave him "the impression of being more dangerous than most," and Winston had that unnerving feeling that she was watching him.

A few days later, Winston walked through the working-class "prole" neighborhood to the antique shop where he had bought his diary. Though class barriers stood tensely in place throughout Oceania, Mr. Charrington, the shop owner, welcomed him and invited him upstairs to see other items. There wasn't much there, but Winston liked the old-fashioned room; it didn't even have a telescreen.

When Winston again slipped out onto the street, he passed the dark-haired girl from the Fiction Department.

Review:

As he writes, Winston broods on his day at work. Who is the dark-haired girl, and why is she following him? What was O'Brien, the burly, urbane and powerful Inner Party member, doing in their sector during the Two Minutes' Hate today?

Everybody in the section was taking out pent-up emotions on Emmanuel Goldstein, the rebel leader on the telescreen when Winston found himself distracted. (The Party uses Goldstein to focus members' hatred. Like the Nazis, the Party whips up anti- Jewish sentiment-Goldstein is a Jewish name-along with hatred for the superpower they're currently at war with. When everybody's hatred is at a high pitch, the Party channels this hatred into love for Big Brother.)