Winston Setting: Period 6

Setting: Records Department (Winston at work)

"Winston's greatest pleasure in life was in his work"(39).

While at work, Winston's mind is consumed in his daily tasks. He is very much like the other
workers in the department, and completes every task given to him as if he has nothing against the
Party. Here are some examples from the different settings within the Records Department:

Winston's cubicle:
-Winston separates his tasks by completing the easier ones first, and saving the hard ones for last.
(pg. 35) While he is at work, Winston strategically completes his tasks, and believes in
challenging his mind to its fullest potential.
-Winston is able to create the story of Comrade Ogilvy completely off the top of his head (pg. 41)
and also creates a reasonable statistic for the number of boots produced (pg. 37) when rectifying
old articles. He is said to be good at doing those kinds of things. (pg. 39) Winston is able to put
in effort in completing his tasks, and comes up with the most believable lies he can. He fulfills
what the Party expects him to do while at work, and even goes beyond.
-Winston also develops a rivalry with his coworker, Tillotson. Tillotson shoots Winston a glare
as the two complete their work. (pg. 38) We can infer that Winston is competitive when it comes
to what he does, and doesn't want anyone to write the articles better than he can.
-When Winston finds the article of Rutherford, Aaronson, and Jones which states the lies of their
crimes, (pg. 68) he is baffled. In his hand he has a solid piece of evidence in which he can prove
history with, yet he sticks it into the memory hole. He is intimidated by posessing such an article,
and having the power to prove the Party wrong.

Corridor:
-Winston speaks to both Julia (pgs. 88-89) and O'Brien for the first time (pgs. 130-131) in the
long corridor in the Records Department. The corridor is a very significant place, because it's
where Winston comes face to face with the two people whom he finds the most mysterious. The
brighlty lit hallway causes Winston to falsely believe it's the place where there is no darkness
when he meets O'Brien there.

Two Minutes Hate:

-Winston joins in with his coworkers as they shout at Goldstein on the telescreen and praise Big
Brother. (pgs. 14-17) His coworkers influence him to robotically participate in the Two Minutes
Hate, as he yells whatever and whenever they do. O'Brien and Julia are in the same room as him,
causing him to be very observant of them both.

Cafeteria:

-In the low-ceilinged canteen, deep under ground, the lunch queue jerked slowly forward. The
room was already very full and defeningly noisy. (43)
This setting resembles the grungy prole sector, which would make Winston feel more
comfortable in the cafeteria.

-"There's a table over there, under the telescreen," said Syme. "Let's pick up a gin on the way."
(44)
Winston willingly sits under the telescreen with Syme, so he feels more coomfortable with a
comrade, in the tightly packed cafeteria.

-"Nex', please!" yelled the white-aproned prole with the ladle. (44)
This setting could make winston slightly more comfortable, because he finds hope in the proles.

-A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston's face at the mention of Big Brother.
Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain lack of enthusiasm. (46)
Once again Winston shows his comfort in the cafeteria. He constantly reminds himself to keep a
straight face, but lets his guard down for a moment in the cafeteria.

-Neither of them looked up; steadily the spooned the watery stuff into their mouths, and between
spoonfuls exchanged the few necessary words in low expressionless voices. (94)

Chestnut Tree Cafe:

CHECKERBOARD:
-symbol that YOU choose how to "play"/live, but no matter what, the white pieces (Big Bro)
ALWAYS win.
- in corner of cafe
- "White always mates, he thought with a sort of cloudy mysticism. Always, without exception, it
is so arranged. In no chess problem since the begining of the world has black ever won." (238)

TELESCREEN:
- blurts out music in cafe:
"Under the spreading of the chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me ---
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree" (p. 66 & 241)

- after the telescreen anounces victory of the war coming to an end, Winston was rejoiced.
- "He had not stirred from his seat, but in his mind he was running, swiftly running, he was with
the crowds outside, cheering himself to deaf." (244)
- "Much had happened in the Ministry of Love, but the final, indispensable, healing change had
never happened, until this moment." (244)

TABLE WHERE HE ALWAYS SAT:

- sat in same spot every time he went
- he was sitting at the table when he finally cracked.
- "He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother." (245)
3 MEN IN CAFE FROM PICTURE:
- "There was no one at any of the tables nearest to them. It was not wise even to be seen in the
neighborhood of such people." (65)
- (66) Rutherford and Aaronson were tearing up because of a broken nose. (Probably from
getting in a fight for rebeling in some way.)

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES:
- When Winston sat in the cafe and thought of his past, he recalls some memories of being a
child. But after going through the Ministry of Love, he is forced to push out the memories
because they are false. (242)

DETAIL OF HOW CAFE LOOKS:

- "A ray of sunlight slanting through a window fell yellow on dusty tabletops." (236) [This was
after his time at the Ministry of Love]

WAITER:

-The waiter always brought Winston refills, even when he did not ask for them. It was almost
routine-like because he came oh-so-often.

GIN HE DRANK IN CAFE:

- "It was his life, his death, and his resurrection." (241)

First time in prole district

From somewhere at the bottom of a passage the smell of roasting coffee-real coffee, not Victory
Coffee-came floating out into the street. Winston paused involuntarily. For perhaps two seconds
he was back in the half-forgotten world of his childhood. (70)

The sky was a warmer blue than he had seen in that year, and suddenly the long, noisy evening at
the center, the boring, exhausting games, the lectures, the creaking camaraderie oiled by gin, had
seemed intolerable. (70)

Hurriedly, lest he should have time to become frightened, he descended the steps and crossed the
narrow street. It was madness, of course. (74)

It was horrible dangerous, but at any rate there was no telescreen in the room, a point he had
made sure of as soon as he came in. (75)

It was a wild, impossible notion, to be abandoned as soon as thought of;but the room had
awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory. It seemed to him that he knew
exactly what it felt like to sit in a room like this, in a armchair beside an open fire with your feet
in the fender and a kettle on the hob, 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. (82)
Statues, inscriptions, memorial stones, the names of streets- anything that might throw light upon
the past had been systematically altered. (83)

Even the lunatic project of renting the room upstairs flashed momentarily through his mind
again. For perhaps five seconds exaltation made him careless, and he stepped out onto the
pavement without so much as a preliminary glace out of the window...Suddenly his hear turned
to ice and his bowels to water...The light was failing, but there was no difficulty in recognizing
her. (85)

It was at night that they came for you, always at night. (86)

The place where there was no darkness was the imagined future, which one would never see, but
which, by foreknowledge,one could mystically share in. (87)

But with the voice from the telescreen nagging at his ears he could not follow the train of thought
any further. (87)

The Glade in which Julia and Winston meet up.

The first sentence of the chapter makes a distinct break in the setting, from the grey, grimy city to
the beautiful, natural glade:
"Winston picked his way up the lane through dappled light and shade, stepping out into pools of
gold wherever the boughs parted. Under the trees to the left of them the ground was misty with
bluebells. The air seemed to kiss one's skin" (98).
This is, in a way, a physical manifestation of the changes coming Winston's way. It's interesting
that Orwell describes the air as something that would "kiss the skin", due to the new relationship
between Winston and Julia.

After Julia guides him through the woods, they end up at a "tiny grassy knoll surrounded by tall
saplings that shut it in completely" (99).
The lack of telescreens in nature shows that they are safe and in a private area, again a distinct
break from the typical urban setting.

Winston is at once paranoid of the existence of a microphone in the trees, and that the bird
chirping nearby may be a decoy of The Party.

Here we learn that Julia is part of the Junior Anti-Sex League, but secretly defies them. She then
rips off the sash and tosses it onto a nearby bough. This exemplifies her behavior as a rebel
against The Party. Without the sash, he "noticed how much softer her waist seemed to feel"
(102).

Julia explains to Winston about the "Golden Country", a nearby area with clear ponds with fish
that is the antithesis of the city setting that Winston is accustomed to. This may be a symbol of
the ideas that Julia is instilling in Winston's mind.

Setting: Mr. Charrington's apartment

On page 121, they were discussing the picture of St. Clement's church, which is what is covering
the telescreen. I found it interesting that the rats which scared Winston came from directly below
the picture/telescreen..the "rats" to me were almost symbolic of the telescreen before they knew it
was there.

The rats scare Winston just as much as the thought police and being caught with Julia.

Also, on page 114-115, the prole woman was singing underneath the window. I think this woman
represents a sense of being at home for Winston. He comments on the fact that she's probably
had a lot of children, so I think this woman reminds him of his mother in a way. This fact makes
it easier for Winston to relax and be less worried about the Thought Police.