Part I: Chapter VIII (pg 85-pg 107: last section of part 1)

Chapter summary:

• Winston ventures into a prole neighbourhood
• Then after witnessing a rocket bomb landing in a group of houses, wanders into a pub and asks an old man questions about the past. However, he is drunk and doesn’t remember anything of importance
• Winston leaves and finds himself at the antique shop where he bought the diary
• After talking to Mr Charrington [the shop owner], he buys a coral paper weight, and is offered the room upstairs to rent – which he refuses.
• Then when he leaves for home he notices the girl who he saw at work following him and suspects that she is a spy. Horrified, he briefly debates killing her before rushing back home.

Relevant techniques/examples/effects:

1. Humorous irony is used to criticise and demonstrate the hypocritical government, as shown in the quotes: ‘There was a word for it in Newspeak: ownlife, it was called, meaning individualism and eccentricity.’ [pg 85] and ‘The Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware that the prizes were largely imaginary.’ [pg 89]
2. Cumulative listing is used to emphasize the uselessness Winston feels when he asks the old man for truth about the past: ‘They remembered a million useless things, a quarrel with a work-mate, a hunt for a last bicycle pump, the expression on a long dead sister’s face, the swirls of dust on a windy morning seventy years ago: but all the relevant facts were outside the range of their vision.’ [Pg 96] This displays the absolute control the government has over history and the truth.
3. Repetition is used in: ‘...utterly alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching you, no voice pursuing you, no sound except the singing of the kettle and the friendly ticking of the clock’ [pg 100] to convey Winston’s yearning for the freedom to relax without having to worry about persecution from the government.
4. ‘Her voice seemed to stick into his brain like jagged splinters of glass’ [pg 106] utilises a simile to show how fed up Winston is with the telescreen and how it’s used to control the minds of all the ministry workers. Another simile is used in: ‘Like a leaden knell the words came back to him: WAR IS PEACE | FREEDOM IS SLAVERY | IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.’ This conveys Winston’s feelings of dread and despair by comparing the mottos to a knell.

Possible concerns demonstrated:
This chapter shows the way the government achieves absolute power by erasing the past and controlling the ‘truth’. It also shows the segregation of the classes, as he is instantly ostracised by the proles due to his blue overalls. Winstons alienation from his own society is also apparent with his constant paranoia and the irritation conveyed in relation to the Party.

Contextual links:
The description of the Thought police, torture before death, and the constant paranoia that Winston has of being exposed, can be compared to the Authoritarian/Totalitarian regimes in Orwell’s time. The unshakable class system can be compared to those which Orwell experienced.