How many fingers am I holding up?

The doctrine O’Brien claims, in itself, explains the whole perspective of INGSOC. If you thought individually, it was against the Party and considered a crime. Thoughts of the Brotherhood like Winston’s are seen as insane, and what was seen as sane were the collected thoughts of the Party’s. O’Brien also says if one thinks individually they are not self-disciplined. If everyone thinks the same way, talks with the same diction, and knows the Party’s “truth,” then that is how oligarchical collectivism is maintained.
Winston had a hard time understanding what the “truth” was. “What-ever the Party holds to be the truth is truth.” This quote is, what I believe, the whole point O’Brien is trying to get across to Winston. What ever the Party says is true, no matter if you have a recollection of otherwise, is true. If you believe otherwise it is considered lunacy. O’Brien’s exercise of how many fingers Winston saw only broke him on the surface. He finally agreed that he seen five when in reality it was only four, but it is what the Party says it is that you must go by. After Winston’s questions about Julia and the Brotherhood it was certain Winston was not fully committed to the Party.
Winston’s curiosity led him to Room 101. One’s biggest fear was unleashed in that room, and it was hard to deny and rebel against it. Winston’s fear of rats had turned his feelings for Julia into hate, which rendered his love to Big Brother. The fact that he hated rats so much turned his hate to Julia. She says later on, “Sometimes they threaten you with something—something you can’t stand up to, can’t even think about. And then you say, ‘Don’t do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to so-and-so.’” She goes on to say you think you might not mean it, but in reality you really care about yourself. Their hate was turned on each other for putting each other in the situation they were in. They were tired of fighting which left them nothing but love for Big Brother.
Winston’s ultimate fate in the passage was not death. According to the passage O’Brien says, “That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.” O’Brien would rather break him and teach him the basis of INGSOC than sentence him to death. Why would the Party waste time in saving Winston’s diluted mind rather than sentence him? Having the Ministries refurbish minds like Winston make the system of oligarchical collectivism stronger which diminishes any chance of any rebellion. Orwell ended Nineteen Eighty-Four with Winston conforming to Big Brother. If Winston did not give in it would be seen that Winston would have won. This goes to show how strong the Party really is through ignorance.

The World I Know

Reading 1984 and comparing ways of life in the book and the world I know I’ve come to appreciate what I have. Winston Smith is an older man who knew what life was like when he was younger: different, with a mother, a father, and a baby sister. I believe older people were more vulnerable to stray away from the new government like Winston. People like Goldstein who knew when times were better and would rather be free. I ask myself what life would be like in the future if I had no choice, no freedom, and have a scheduled day. No one had a choice and no one had an indecent thought. From waking up at a certain time to do exercises to everyone sitting down for “Two Minutes Hate”, not to mention the Newspeak language and the rationed food, the government had everyone under control and all the more ignorant. Children born at the time of this new way of life didn’t know what life was before and the government had them more under control. In a way they see this is how life should be and love Big Brother like Mrs. Parsons’s children who dance to the military music and act as the Party’s Thought Police. Children grow up to be the government’s own Stepford Wives so to speak.
Thinking about a different reality was a crime. Freedom was a crime. Winston went along with the people and the government’s rules until he found someone that was worth the risk.