Paper # 2

Jonathan Chen
English 1AB 8:30
2/29/09
A Place Where There is no Darkness in a World of Darkness
The book 1984 is a dark and mysterious book written by George Orwell in 1949. This book was supposed to be about how the people, government and the way of life would be in the future. The book starts with the main character Winston Smith. In the story, the antagonist is the organization called Big Brother; it is also abbreviated as BB. There are 3 classes of people in the future, Inner Party (the people who lead normal lives under normal circumstances according to our standards), Outer Party (the minority in the whole population and these are the people who do most of the work, like Winston) and lastly there are the Proles which are the mindless people who only show support and love for Big Brother. Big Brother is an organization that controls the people in the Outer Party in the future. Usually it is the Outer Party members that break the rules such as committing thought crime. A thought crime is committed when one starts to think about something that they are not supposed to be thinking about. The Inner Party members do not commit these crimes because they are the people that make the rules.
I think that an important moment was when O’ Brien and Winston’s eyes met. There was a hint of understanding, but the author does not tell the reader what kind of understanding it is because the people are so restricted. The book reads: “He tried with a little more success than before to summon up the image of O’ Brien. ‘We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness,’ O’ Brien had said to him. He knew what it meant, or thought he knew. The place where there is no darkness was the imagined future, which one would never see, but which, by foreknowledge, one could mystically share in. But, with the voice from the telescreen nagging at his ears, he could not follow the train of thought further. He put a cigarette in his mouth. Half the tobacco promptly fell out unto his tongue, a bitter dust which was difficult to spit out again. The face of Big Brother swam into his mind, displacing that of O’ Brien. Just as he had done a few days earlier, he slid a coin out of his pocket and looked at it. The face gazed up at him, heavy, calm, protecting, but what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache? Like a leaden knell the words came back at him. WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” There are two ways to interpret this part of the book. The first is to assume that O’ Brien is just like Winston and he wants out of the world and he wants change. The second one is to assume that O’ Brien will be face to face with Winston out in the open where there will be no tricks and it will be a battle between him and Winston.
I think that the part in the book is suggesting that Winston will get an ally to get out of the world that they live in because O’ Brien was very discreet about their contact. This is because it happened so fast Winston had to replay the whole scene in his mind. Also, the book reads: “But there was a fraction of a second where their eyes met, and for as long as it took Winston knew—yes, he knew! —that O’ Brien was thinking the same thing himself.” This shows that there is a possibility that O’ Brien is just like Winston. I think that there is a possibility that O’ Brien wants to be allies with Winston because in a world like how George Orwell described, contact like that would not be made unless you wanted to get an important message across.
There is another possibility and it is that O’ Brien is leading Winston into a trap. “But there was a fraction of a second where their eyes met, and for as long as it took Winston knew—yes, he knew! —that O’ Brien was thinking the same thing himself.” Could show that Winston is very desperate and he is desperately looking for hope and for someone to share his feelings of hate for the Big Brother with. I think that it is more likely to be this one because Winston has been stuck with this own thoughts and this made him desperate to find and partner. I think that this is a very important moment in the story because I think that this was a crossroads in the story to choose a happy or sad ending. If it had been that O’ Brien was on Winston’s side it might have been a happy ending.
I feel that this book’s most important moment was when O’ Brien and Winston’s eyes met. The connection of eyes was not very clear because it was only for a split second. This contact was very dangerous for anyone even if they were desperate, if they were to get caught by the thought police, then a punishment worse than death would be dealt. This was a turning part of the story because it decides the fate of the main character Winston Smith.