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How surprising was the betrayal?

Part 2 was surprising, but at the same time, I think we should have expected some sort of betrayal coming. I don't know if it's just me, but I felt very anxious every time Julia and Winston met up. The suspense and tension building throughout this book had to have a big reveal exploding. Did you guys see this coming? What about O'Brien's involvement behind all of this?

These 2 chapters in Part 3 are really mentally and physically draining to read. Here, we see the full extent of torture and abuse that the Party is capable of. There are people who beg to be killed rather than taken into specific rooms. I thought it was also horrifying how a daughter reported her father of thoughtcrime while he was asleep?? This just goes to show how the horror of the Party is truly impossible to escape from -- exactly why Julia and Winston couldn't keep their secrets for long either.

Although I was slightly surprised that Winston and Julia were caught, I had no idea O'Brien would have completely fooled them. I realized that this is the reason why people fear the Party and why no one really makes it out of the torture mentally sane.

Comments

  1. Sam K.March 1, 2021 at 9:46 AM

    To be honest, I think you would have to be completely naïve to not see the betrayal coming. I think that we would all wish the best for our protagonist, but reason takes over. Winston was not careful and went head first into a situation that was going to end up horribly for him regardless of the results.

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  2. L. MoffittMarch 1, 2021 at 9:49 AM

    I think we all knew Winston was doomed. After all, Julia figured him out immediately, so there's no reason to think Big Brother wouldn't. There's still the question of what ultimately happens to Winston...

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  3. Alice GaoMarch 1, 2021 at 9:50 AM

    I honestly feel no sympathy for Winston. The chapters were uncomfortable to read, but more because I was trying to make sense of the ideology O'Brien is setting forth. I can't say that I saw the betrayal coming, but it was a complete plot twist. This book is so convoluted in it's own timeline that making sense of what is the "truth" isn't quite feasible. This was totally Orwell's intention, and I feel that none of us will be able to logically make sense of the book.

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  4. Prithika RaviMarch 1, 2021 at 9:51 AM

    I think I definitely had an idea of what was coming, but I definitely didn't think Mr. Carrington to be part of the Thought Police. That must have meant that Winston was flagged from the moment he entered that store to buy the diary. That's what's surprising to me. It did still catch me off guard even if I knew that was the natural plot of the path. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for me, it was the opposite. Every time they met up and didn't get caught instilled a little bit of confidence in me that they were getting better and better and even more careful.

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  5. KeshavMarch 1, 2021 at 9:55 AM

    I definitely agree with your description of what it felt like to read these passages in terms of the physical reaction to sympathy regarding someone being tortured. Fear is definitely a manipulation tactic used throughout the novel.

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  6. KiranMarch 1, 2021 at 9:57 AM

    For me the real problem about the father who got reported was that the father was fine with it. In fact he was proud of his daughter for having turned him in for something he had basically no control over. O'Brien too had always been a little suspicious to me, but it was a huge surprise to me that Mr. Carrington had been thought police. My only other question is if O'Brien really told the truth about Julia's betrayal.

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  7. Brooks HuMarch 1, 2021 at 9:59 AM

    While I didn't think O'Brien and Mr. Charrington were working for the government, it was clear that Winston and Julia were going to get caught. Sure, they lived in a room with no monitoring, but that makes it even more likely that they would be watched, because whoever lived in that room would be suspicious. But seeing O'Brien and Mr. Charrington as Thought Police definitely showed how omnipresent the government is.

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  8. CatherineMarch 1, 2021 at 11:43 AM

    I honestly kind of expected this betrayal, and I initially thought that O'Brien would be the one betraying Winston too. But I completely agree with your point, the way Orwell writes the betrayal and all of the events leading up to it still made me completely shocked when it finally happened.

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