My Final Blog, Finally

So I'm finally writing my last blog, apologies Mr. Ross for my blogs being varying degrees of late, but to make up for it I hope, this one is going to be annoyingly long, so like please take mercy on me.

"For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself. You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that could be given a name. From now onwards he must not only think right; he must feel right, dream right."

I found this section particularly interesting when you consider that this seems to be a process that other Party members understand. This sense of how to stay safe comes as an epiphany to Winston, but it seems that for others their own strife towards the Party is already buried deep. Parsons ends up in Miniluv too from what he said in his sleep, which either means he has his own rebellion developed in his subconscious or his daughter lied. While I enjoyed entertaining the second option, let me follow the first for a moment.

People have a way of hiding memories and thoughts within their mind to avoid distress. On a mass scale I think Ingsoc has convinced the general public to bury deep their true thoughts and feelings through crimestop and doublethink. Ingsoc wants all rebellion to stay far outside of your conscious thought, all true feelings and emotions you must hide from yourself to be a good Party member. In that same strain of thought, keeping any rebellion buried deep reaps the pleasure of relative safety. A tool of the Totalitarian society is the fact that everyone is truly in danger of being killed and the Party still employs this tactic, but you are more likely to believe in safety if you don't think you have done anything wrong. Keeping rebellion buried deep and separate from everything is the only way to feel safe, and these people have learned how to do it.

Sacrificing personal freedom for the idea of safety is the only thing that Party members know to do. they sacrifice their thoughts the most personal thing of all in order to be relatively affected. It really makes me wonder everything that went into creating this system, and how the idea of safety versus freedom extends into our world.

QUOTE 2
"‘pain is not always enough. There are occasions when a human being will stand out against pain, even to the point of death. But for everyone there is something unendurable—something that cannot be contemplated. Courage and cowardice are not involved. If you are falling from a height it is not cowardly to clutch at a rope. If you have come up from deep water it is not cowardly to fill your lungs with air. It is merely an instinct which cannot be destroyed."

I found this portion of the book both interesting and questionable. Why did Orwell choose to include this idea? How does this connect to everything else? And while I don't think I have the answers, I'm going to try and analyze this idea.

In terms of why Orwell included it, of course, he had to make Winston truly break. His message is not a message of hope, so Winston had to break at some point, even if he did love Julia (debatable) and even if he hated Big Brother there must be a line where eventually will gives way to self-preservation.

The entire scene serves to indicate that some point the torture becomes so forceful so personal that personal morals and promises must be made, through the realization that it won't stop unless he complies, and with compliance, a pattern is formed and soon you have accepted a new truth. I think my only general surprise in relation to this scene is that we are so used to seeing characters who are tortured, but come out themselves on the other side, and are able to hold onto their beliefs. This entire system is based on the fact that they know who you are, they know what you fear, and they know the exact thing that will break you. In a way, it's like being tortured by a close friend or family member, you trust them and in doing so they learn some of your secrets and fears. The Party has the same knowledge. They know exactly what will make you crack and how the pure terror will make you do things you wouldn't dream of before.

I wonder if Winston hadn't already been pushed to the edge with the previous torture if the rats would produce the same reaction out of him. If the order had been flipped and he went to Room 101 first what would change? Would he hold too much of his own ideals that he wouldn't betray both Julia and his own mind, or is the fear infinite and all-consuming no matter the state of mind?