1984 Book 2, Chapters 3-5

Book Two, Chapter 3

1. How and where do Julia and Winston meet? They meet in a dilapidated church tower. It was in the same month that they met in the clearing in the woods, but that was the only other time that month they could meet in private. Other than that, they had to meet in the streets as often as they could (every 3-4 days or so) and carry on a fragmentary conversation as they passed each other. This is the only way they can arrange their meetings, as they can't very well call on each other or pass notes.
2. What is Julia’s job? She works in the fiction department on the novel-writing machines.
3. What is her background? She is 26 years old and lives in a hostel with 30 other girls. She has no memory of things before the early sixties. However, she used to have a grandfather who would talk often of times before the revolution, and he was vaporized when she was eight years old. She was captain of the hockey team and good at gymnastics. She was a troop leader in the Spies and a branch secretary in the Youth League before joining the Junior Anti-Sex League.
4. What is her attitude toward the Party? She hates them. She thinks they are all pigs. She fosters a special animosity towards the inner party. She thinks the party is all secrets and lies, and doesn't trust them at all. However, that's as far as it goes. She doesn't bother to think about how she could fix it or what she could do. She doesn't even believe that the Brotherhood exists. She just has her opinions, and that's good enough for her. And there is nothing wrong with that, ALEXIS!
   
5. Describe the quote “ With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality. As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness”. What does Winston think about Julia? He thinks that she only cares about sex. She doesn't care about much unless it affects her directly, and that is mainly sex. Her awareness doesn't travel much past her immediate situation. He doesn't believe that she is that bright, but can be intelligent when speaking about certain subjects. He feels that she is more practical than intelligent.
   
6. Why does the Party think the sexual impulse as well as the familial love is dangerous? They're both uncontrollable instincts. The Party would like to kill all emotions except loyalty and things like that. Those emotions that people are allowed to have must be controlled, as during the Two Minutes Hate. Sexual impulses and familial love also connect people to one another. That is the biggest sin in the eyes of the Party, because once people start connecting with one another, there is a greater chance of ideas being shared. Ideas are the Party's kryptonite.
   

Book Two, Chapter 4

1. How does Winston react to the singing Prole woman? He likes her. He thinks her singing is beautiful and innocent (even though he doesn't like the song), and a symbol of rebellion. It brings him back to a time when things were more free. I think he is attracted to the melancholy of it, the fact that the woman is singing words that she probably doesn't understand and seems happy to do so.
   
2. What pleasures of the senses are mentioned in this chapter? What is Orwell’s point in mentioning them? All five senses are touched upon in this chapter. Winston smells the real coffee, which brings him back to his childhood, when everybody could have coffee like that. He tastes and feels the sugar, which is so much better than the saccharine they have now. Again, it takes him back to a time before the revolution. Both the coffee and the sugar are highly nostalgic for Winston. He sees Julia with makeup on, which is something that Party women just don't do. It makes her more feminine, which brings up just another thing that the Party has taken away. To kill the sex instinct, they are even trying to make the genders more equal in appearance, so nobody is a man or a woman and everybody is just "Comrade". Winson hears the singing of the Prole woman, which (though he doesn't like the song) brings him back, again, to a simpler, more innocent time. All of these things are piling on top of one another to bring back Winston's memories and to make him question everything he knows about the society he currently lives in.
   
3. What is Winston’s reaction to rats? Julia’s reaction? Winston wigs out, and he covers his face and gets really tense. He sort of cowers and doesn't want to go near them or even think about them. He reaches this black wall of memory in his mind, which is nightmarish for him. Julia is indifferent, and doesn't mind the rats. They hold no significance for her.
   
4. Winston is interested in the church bells that once played in the city even though he is not religious. What do church bells mean to him? They are a symbol of childhood. They also represent connections between people, as most children learned this rhyme. Julia and Mr. Charrington both knew it, despite being raised in different places at drastically different times.
   
5. Winston sees the coral paperweight as a symbol of what? He sees the paperweight as the room he is in and the coral inside as his and Julia's life. He sees them separate from everybody else, because he has finally forged a connection with her, and that's forbidden. He likes the paperweight because it isn't really useful, and wasn't even in its own time.
   

Chapter 5

1. Who has vanished? How does Winston confirm this? Syme has vanished. Winston checks the list of the Chess Committee members, which Syme used to be on. Since his name is gone, Winston knows that Syme has become an unperson.
2. Describe the preparations for Hate Week. In what ways does the Inner Party excel in building spirit? They decorate everything with banners, posters, and other propaganda. They distribute pamphlets. They have meetings and lectures and processions. They show movies and telescreen programs with nothing but Party nonsense. Everything is propaganda, and it is proliferated at an alarming rate. It is spread into the public even faster than usual until it takes hold and everyone has worked up their hatred into a fever pitch. Then, we're ready for Hate Week.
3. Julia and Winston have some differences. Explain them. There is a big age gap between the two of them, which means that Winston has some vague memories of before the revolution, and Julia doesn't. Their ideas about the Party differ as well. Julia doesn't like them, but she only cares to the extent that it affects her. Winston thinks about the Brotherhood and rebellion and is constantly dreaming of ways that he can overthrow Big Brother. Julia is practical and Winston isn't, but Winston is more intelligent. He cares for reading and writing and getting away from telescreens, while Julia can't be bothered. Julia lives in the moment while Winston lives in the past and future.

Connect the chapters to two different themes and explain them.

1. Isolation and Social Class Disparity. Winston and Julia have to meet in places where they are sequestered off from everybody else. They don't get to have a public relationship. Even when they do get to speak in public, they must have a fragmented conversation as they pass in the streets. Once they've forrged this connection, Winston feels even more isolated because connections are such a rarity in this society. This is why he compares them to the paperweight, with Winston and Julia being the secluded coral inside and the glass around them being their room, their buffer from the world. The social class disparity comes in during the interaction with the singing Prole woman. Winston knows that if a Party member were to start singing to themselves, they would probably be carted off to the thought police. He realizes that singing (except patriotic songs) is an activity of times passed, and that only the naive Proles are allowed the luxury. This plays into his ideas that the Proles might actually be more free than the Party members. We also see the difference between classes when Julia puts on the makeup, which is something that Party women don't do. Winston automatically thinks of the Prole prostitute that he visited once.
   
2. The meaning of freedom. Well, the entire book pretty much discusses the meaning of freedom. However, Winston's lack thereof has been brought under the microscope when examining his relationship with Julia. They are rebelling by being together yet, if they have to hide it from everybody, is that really freedom? If they have to worry that, at any moment, the thought police could come barging in on their private santuary and take them away, is that really freedom? Again, in looking at the Prole woman, Winston feels that she is more free than he can ever be. This is because she can sing, she can put out laundry, and she seems to be happy doing it as well. True freedom is the ability to be happy despite your situation, and Winston sees that she is happy. Honest and pure joy is something that the Party has tried to rid its members of. This is why the Proles are more free than the Party members, because they don't live their lives under the watchful eye of Big Brother (for the most part). Even though they are poor and destitute, they are free.