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.)
__________________________
