Part Two, Chapter 7 — Teaching Companion

What it asks It asks the student whom the dream shelters. Winston wakes “with his eyes full of tears.” The dream “had consisted in” “a gesture of the arm made by his mother, and made again thirty years later by the Jewish woman he had seen on the news film, trying to shelter the small boy from the bullets”. “In the dream he had remembered his last glimpse of his mother”: her arm drawn round his sister as he stood at the door with the chocolate. Earlier in the memory, “Very occasionally she would take Winston in her arms and press him against her for a long time without saying anything.” The student says who is under the arm in the dream. The card must not say that his mother and sister are dead; Winston does not know “with any certainty.”

One reading

His sister. The dream gives back his last sight of his mother, and in it her arm is round the little girl he has just robbed. Winston is outside the arm, at the door with the chocolate in his hand. That is why he wakes speaking of murder.

• His mother drew her arm round the child and pressed its face against her breast.
• until this moment I believed I had murdered my mother

Another reading

Winston too. The woman in the film shelters a small boy, and his mother had held Winston pressed against her without a word. The dream joins the two, so the arm he ran from is round him as well. That would fit the soft light, and tears that come from finding as well as from losing.

• trying to shelter the small boy from the bullets
• inside the dome everything was flooded with clear soft light

Listen for

• Hears “enveloping, protecting”: the arm both wraps and guards. On the day of the chocolate, whom did it guard, and from what?
• Notices what the narrator ties her silent embraces of Winston to: “the never-mentioned thing that was about to happen.”
• Sets this dream beside the earlier one the chapter recalls, where his mother sat in “the sunken ship, far underneath him and drowning deeper every minute, but still looking up at him through the darkening water.” There she looks up at him from below; here there is an arm and clear light.
• Keeps to the page: Winston does not know that his mother and sister are dead.

If stuck

• Whose arm is in the dream, and whom does the woman in the news film shelter?
• On the day of the chocolate, where was his mother’s arm, and where was Winston?
• Have you ever dreamed yourself into a place you were not in real life?

A strong answer A strong response says who is under the arm and argues from the opening paragraphs and the memory. One reader says his sister: the dream gives back his last sight of his mother with her arm round the little girl he robbed, and Winston outside it, which is why he wakes speaking of murder. Another says Winston too: the woman in the film shelters a small boy, his mother had held him the same silent way, and the soft light and the tears may come from finding as well as from losing. The best answers hear “enveloping, protecting”, notice what her embraces of Winston were tied to, and do not say his mother and sister are dead.

What it asks It asks the student to read one line in the memory of the chocolate ration. A two-ounce slab is issued “between the three of them”, and “It was obvious that it ought to be divided into three equal parts. Suddenly, as though he were listening to somebody else, Winston heard himself demanding in a loud booming voice that he should be given the whole piece.” Just before, the chapter has said that “The clamorous hunger in his belly seemed to justify him” and that his voice “was beginning to break prematurely and sometimes boomed in a peculiar way”. The student says where that voice comes from. The card must not turn the memory into a lesson against greed; the chapter dwells on hunger.

One reading

From hunger. The voice is the belly’s, and the boy only hears it. The chapter has already said that the hunger seemed to justify him, and that he knew what he was doing to the other two but “could not help it”. The voice is the need itself, speaking through him.

• The clamorous hunger in his belly seemed to justify him.
• He knew that he was starving the other two, but he could not help it

Another reading

From a self he is turning into. The voice is a man’s voice arriving too soon, loud and booming, sure of its rights. The boy hears it as a stranger’s. The grown Winston, who later kicks a severed hand into the gutter, may be the one he was listening to.

• which was beginning to break prematurely and sometimes boomed in a peculiar way
• he even felt that he had a right to do it

Listen for

• Hears “Suddenly”: the demand surprises him, after “weeks or months” with no chocolate at all.
• Notices that the somebody else has an argument as well as an appetite: “he even felt that he had a right to do it.”
• Sets the split beside Winston telling the story thirty years on. The grown man looks back at the boy almost as at somebody else too.
• Keeps to the page: the chapter neither makes the boy a villain nor excuses him, and it is not a lesson about greed.

If stuck

• What does Winston demand, and how is it supposed to be shared?
• How does his voice sound when he demands it?
• Have you ever heard yourself say something and wondered where it came from?

A strong answer A strong response says where the voice comes from and argues from the paragraphs on the hungry years. One reader says it comes from the hunger, which “seemed to justify him” and which he “could not help”. Another says it comes from a self he is turning into, a man’s voice arriving too soon and sure of its right, perhaps the man who later kicks a hand aside. The best answers hear “Suddenly”, notice the boy’s sense of a right, and do not turn the memory into a lesson against greed.

What it asks It asks the student to weigh Julia’s answer to Winston’s story. “He told Julia the story of his mother’s disappearance. Without opening her eyes she rolled over and settled herself into a more comfortable position.” She says, indistinctly, “I expect you were a beastly little swine in those days,” and adds that the young are all like that. Winston answers, “Yes. But the real point of the story –”, and she goes back to sleep. “He would have liked to continue talking about his mother.” The student says why Winston does not argue. The card must not take her reply as the chapter’s judgment, and must not scold her for it.

One reading

Her charge is true, and lighter than his own. He did grab from his sister’s plate, and he knew he was starving the other two. Minutes before, he said he had believed he murdered his mother. If the young are all swine, he is only ordinary, so he takes it.

• he would grab bits from his sister’s plate
• All children are swine.

Another reading

The boy is not the point. Winston gives up the charge in one word so he can get past it. The real point is his mother and what her arm meant, and Julia sleeps through it.

• Yes. But the real point of the story –
• He would have liked to continue talking about his mother.

Listen for

• Hears what follows the “Yes” straight away: “But the real point of the story –”.
• Notices how she listens: “Without opening her eyes”, and “indistinctly”. Be fair to her: she is half asleep, and the chapter does not blame her for it.
• Weighs her “All”: a word that spreads the blame so wide that each one’s share grows small. Is that comfort, or a way of not hearing?
• Sets this answer beside her first one, “Why did you murder her?”, asked “almost asleep.”

If stuck

• What does Julia call Winston?
• What does Winston start to say after “Yes”?
• Have you ever agreed with someone quickly so you could get to the part you cared about?

A strong answer A strong response says why Winston does not argue, and argues from the short exchange after he tells the story. One reader says the charge is true and lighter than his own: he did grab from his sister’s plate, and if the young are all swine he is ordinary rather than a murderer. Another says the boy is not the point: he gives up the charge in one word to get to his mother, and Julia sleeps through it. The best answers hear the “But” straight after the “Yes”, notice how sleepy she is, and neither adopt her verdict nor scold her.

What it asks It asks the student to set two memories side by side. In the hungry years Winston spent “long afternoons” with other boys “scrounging round dustbins and rubbish heaps, picking out the ribs of cabbage leaves, potato peelings”. Now, right after deciding that the proles “had stayed human” and “had not become hardened inside”, “he remembered, without apparent relevance, how a few weeks ago he had seen a severed hand lying on the pavement and had kicked it into the gutter as though it had been a cabbage-stalk.” Then he says aloud, “The proles are human beings,” and, “We are not human.” The student says what has happened to him between the cabbage ribs and the cabbage-stalk. The card must not say the proles will rise; here Winston values them for staying human.

One reading

He has grown hard. To the boy, a cabbage rib was food worth digging through rubbish for. To the man, a human hand is worth no more than a stalk you kick away. The life the Party made has hardened him inside, and “We are not human” is his own admission of it.

• They had not become hardened inside.
• had kicked it into the gutter as though it had been a cabbage-stalk

Another reading

Less has changed than it seems. The hardening began in the hungry years. The boy who took his sister’s chocolate had already learned to step past someone else’s need, and people vanishing was “already becoming normal”. Kicking the hand aside is the same reflex, grown up.

• He knew that he was starving the other two, but he could not help it
• This was already becoming normal at that time.

Listen for

• Hears “without apparent relevance”: the narrator says the memory seems beside the point. Is it?
• Notices where it comes: straight after “the primitive emotions which he himself had to re-learn by conscious effort.”
• Sets the hand he kicked beside the arm in the dream: one hand that shelters, one hand pushed aside.
• Keeps to the page: Winston values the proles here for staying human, not as a force that will one day rise.

If stuck

• What did the hungry boys pick out of the rubbish?
• What does Winston do with the hand on the pavement?
• Can you think of something that used to shock you and now doesn’t? What changed?

A strong answer A strong response says what has happened to Winston between the cabbage ribs and the cabbage-stalk, and argues from the paragraph on the proles. One reader says he has grown hard: the boy searched rubbish for a cabbage rib, and the man treats a human hand as rubbish, as “We are not human” admits. Another says the hardening began in the hungry years, with the boy who stepped past his sister’s need. The best answers hear “without apparent relevance”, set the hand beside the arm, and do not make the proles a force that will rise.

What it asks It asks the student to read Winston’s reply to Julia’s question. Right after the severed hand, he says aloud, “The proles are human beings,” and, “We are not human.” Julia, “who had woken up again”, asks “Why not?”. “He thought for a little while.” Then he asks: “Has it ever occurred to you,” and goes on, “that the best thing for us to do would be simply to walk out of here before it’s too late, and never see each other again?” He adds, “You’re young. You look normal and innocent. If you keep clear of people like me, you might stay alive for another fifty years.” Julia answers that it has occurred to her “several times. But I’m not going to do it, all the same.” The student says what his question has to do with hers. The card must not say that Winston caused his mother’s disappearance; the chapter shows his guilt, not a cause.

One reading

It is his answer. The proles, he has just thought, are human because “they were loyal to one another”. He cannot say why he and Julia are not, so he offers what a loyal person would. The boy ran to keep the chocolate for himself. The man offers to give up the one thing he wants so that Julia can live.

• If you keep clear of people like me, you might stay alive for another fifty years.
• they were loyal to one another

Another reading

It turns away from her question. He has just said they are not human, and what he offers is to run, as the boy ran down the stairs. Parting now would spare them the worst moment, when “there will be nothing, literally nothing, that either of us can do for the other.” This time it is Julia who stays, as the mother did.

• When once they get hold of us there will be nothing, literally nothing, that either of us can do for the other.
• He turned and fled down the stairs, with the chocolate growing sticky in his hand.

Listen for

• Hears the pause: “He thought for a little while.” Whatever the offer is, it is not a quick reply.
• Sets the man in the room beside the boy at the door: “He stopped, but he did not come back.” Is walking out of here the same move, or its opposite?
• Notices “before it’s too late”. The boy, too, ran from something “on the point of happening”.
• Weighs Julia’s answer: she has thought of parting “several times”, and chosen. “What you do, I’m going to do.” Keep to the page: the boy’s running did not cause his mother to vanish, and the chapter does not say what becomes of the two of them.

If stuck

• What does Julia ask, and what does Winston say next?
• What does Winston say Julia might gain if they part?
• Has anyone ever answered your question with a question of their own? What were they telling you?

A strong answer A strong response says what Winston’s question has to do with Julia’s, and argues from the talk of parting and the memory of the door. One reader says it is his answer: unable to say why they are not human, he offers to give up the one thing he wants so that Julia can live, the opposite of the boy who ran with the chocolate. Another says it turns away from her question: what he offers is to run again, before the moment when neither can help the other, while Julia, like the mother, stays. The best answers hear the pause before he speaks, weigh Julia’s “several times”, and do not say the boy caused his mother to vanish.

What it asks It asks the student to test the chapter’s last sentence against its first pages. The memory of the chocolate was one “that he must have deliberately pushed out of his consciousness over many years”, and it came back in a dream. The chapter ends: “They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable.” Just before that, Winston thinks, “They could not alter your feelings: for that matter you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to,” and also, “Perhaps that was less true when you were actually in their hands.” The student says whether a heart like that is a strength against the Party or a weakness. The card must not say that the two of them really cannot be made to betray each other, or what happens inside the Ministry of Love.

One reading

A strength. If even Winston could not reach the memory for years, no questioner can dig it out of him. What you cannot see in yourself, you cannot be made to hand over. A heart that keeps secrets from its owner keeps them from everyone else too.

• They could not alter your feelings: for that matter you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to.
• but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable

Another reading

A weakness. Winston thinks he must have pushed the memory out “deliberately”: the hiding was something he did to his own mind, which is close to what the Party asks of everyone. A heart that can bury one thing can be made to bury others. And if he cannot see into it, he cannot be sure it holds what he says it holds.

• It was a memory that he must have deliberately pushed out of his consciousness over many years.
• Perhaps that was less true when you were actually in their hands.

Listen for

• Hears who says it first: Julia, “They can’t get inside you.” Winston agrees “a little more hopefully”: hope, not proof.
• Notices “deliberately”: the hiding was his own doing, not the Party’s.
• Hears the “Perhaps” set in the middle of the comfort, before the list of what the Ministry of Love might use.
• Keeps to the page: the chapter gives their belief and does not show whether it holds. Winston can only guess what happens in the Ministry of Love.

If stuck

• What does Winston say no one can alter, not even you?
• How long had the memory of the chocolate been hidden, and how did it come back?
• Is there anything about yourself that you only found out by surprise?

A strong answer A strong response says whether such a heart is a strength or a weakness and argues from the memory’s return and the chapter’s last sentence. One reader says a strength: if even Winston could not reach the memory for years, no questioner can, and what you cannot see you cannot hand over. Another says a weakness: he thinks he hid it “deliberately”, a heart that buries one thing can be made to bury more, and he cannot be sure what it holds. The best answers hear Julia’s line become Winston’s hope, weigh the “Perhaps”, and do not treat “They can’t get inside you” as settled.

What it asks It asks the student to judge Winston’s rule about betrayal by his own memory. Julia says, “If you mean confessing,” and then, “we shall do that, right enough. Everybody always confesses. You can’t help it. They torture you.” Winston answers: “I don’t mean confessing. Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you – that would be the real betrayal.” The memory he woke with is of a deed: the boy “snatched the piece of chocolate out of his sister’s hand” and ran, and afterwards “felt somewhat ashamed of himself”. He had believed he “murdered” his mother, “Not physically.” The student builds a thesis on whether the memory supports Winston’s claim or breaks it, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say that the two of them really cannot be made to betray each other, what happens in the Ministry of Love, or that Winston caused his mother’s disappearance.

One reading

The memory supports him. The snatch changed little in the world: there was a quarter of a slab at stake, and the chapter never makes him the cause of what came after. What haunts him is what the snatch showed about his heart. His guilt was never for a killing deed, “Not physically.” It was for a failure of feeling, which is just the betrayal he now fears most.

• I didn’t murder her. Not physically.
• If they could make me stop loving you – that would be the real betrayal.

Another reading

The memory breaks his rule. The boy’s wrong was a deed: he took food from his sick little sister and ran down the stairs. If what you do doesn’t matter, the boy is innocent, and Winston does not believe that. His mother’s love was a deed too: an arm drawn round his sister, not only a feeling.

• Then with a sudden swift spring he had snatched the piece of chocolate out of his sister’s hand and was fleeing for the door.
• After he had devoured the chocolate he felt somewhat ashamed of himself

Listen for

• Hears “Not physically”: Winston’s guilt never rested on a deed that killed. What does it rest on?
• Notices what Winston is answering: Julia’s “You can’t help it. They torture you.” Set it beside the boy who “could not help it” with his hunger. Is a forced word like a hungry grab?
• Hears whose words the rule borrows. Earlier Winston thought that once the Party has you, “what you did or refrained from doing, made literally no difference.” Now he says it as a rule of his own: “What you say or do doesn’t matter.”
• Revises by pulling apart a word forced out by torture and a deed chosen freely. Keep to the page: the chapter gives their belief, and Winston himself allows, “Perhaps that was less true when you were actually in their hands.”

If stuck

• What does Julia say everybody does, and why?
• What does Winston say would be “the real betrayal”?
• In the memory, what did the boy do, and what did he feel afterwards?

A strong answer A strong response states whether the memory supports Winston’s claim or breaks it, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says it supports him: his guilt was never for a deed, “Not physically”, but for a failure of feeling, the very betrayal he fears. The strongest objection is the snatch itself, a deed against his sick sister, and the mother’s arm, a deed of love. A good revision may separate a word forced out by torture from a deed chosen freely, and it does not claim the two of them cannot be made to betray each other.

What it asks It asks the student to judge the thought Winston has once Julia is asleep. His mother, he thinks, had “a kind of nobility, a kind of purity, simply because the standards that she obeyed were private ones.” “When the last of the chocolate was gone,” his mother held his sister in her arms. “It was no use, it changed nothing, it did not produce more chocolate”; it averted nothing that was coming for either of them; “but it seemed natural to her to do it.” The refugee woman’s arm was “no more use against the bullets than a sheet of paper.” To people of two generations ago, “a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself.” Later he tells Julia: “The one thing that matters is that we shouldn’t betray one another, although even that can’t make the slightest difference,” and, “If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.” The student builds a thesis on whether a gesture that changes nothing can still matter, tests it against Julia’s sleepy reply and the vow the two make, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say that his mother and sister are dead, that Winston caused their disappearance, that the two of them really cannot be made to betray each other, or what happens in the Ministry of Love.

One reading

Yes. The arm changed nothing in the world, but it changed what that moment was for the little girl held in it. It told the boy the truth at the door, and thirty years on it is the thing his dream is made of. It is still at work in Winston, teaching him what the Party trained out of him, and it is what he builds his promise to Julia on.

• a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself
• The dream was still vivid in his mind, especially the enveloping, protecting gesture of the arm in which its whole meaning seemed to be contained.

Another reading

Not as much as Winston needs it to. A gesture that “can’t have any result whatever” is the comfort left to people with no power, and the Party loses nothing by leaving it to them. The people of two generations ago “were not attempting to alter history”; Winston once hoped to. To say “you’ve beaten them” by feeling alone may be accepting the Party’s own bargain: keep your heart, give up the world.

• If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.
• because they were not attempting to alter history

Listen for

• Hears the list of failures in full: “no use”, “changed nothing”, “did not produce more chocolate”, “did not avert”. Then one clause: “but it seemed natural to her to do it.” The case against is made before the case for.
• Weighs Julia’s sleepy reply as a test. She hears a greedy boy, not an arm. Does the gesture matter if no one but Winston sees what it meant? Be fair to her: she is half asleep.
• Sets the vow beside the arm: “The one thing that matters is that we shouldn’t betray one another, although even that can’t make the slightest difference.” Winston shapes his promise to Julia on his mother’s gesture.
• Revises with the chapter’s own doubts: the severed hand, which shows Winston has lost the gesture in himself, and “Perhaps that was less true when you were actually in their hands.” Keep to the page: the chapter gives their belief, not proof, and Winston does not know that his mother and sister are dead.

If stuck

• What did his mother’s arm fail to do? Find the list.
• What does Winston call “The one thing that matters” for him and Julia?
• Can you think of a kindness that fixed nothing but that you still remember?

A strong answer A strong response states whether a gesture that changes nothing can still matter, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says yes: the arm changed what the moment was for his sister, told the boy the truth, and still works in Winston thirty years on, shaping his vow to Julia. The strongest objection is that such comfort is all the Party leaves the powerless, and that “you’ve beaten them” may accept its bargain. A good revision weighs Julia’s sleepy reply and the severed hand, keeps the chapter’s “Perhaps”, and does not claim that the vow will hold.