Part Three, Chapter 2

1984

Mountaineers · 10th–12th

Copywork

We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him.

The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision. The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.

Every sentence in the first passage begins with “We.” By the last sentence, who belongs to that “We”?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences: O’Brien on what the Party does with a heretic, and Winston under the dial with the four fingers before him. The first passage is built on one word. Each of its four sentences opens on “We”, and each verb goes further than the one before: “destroy”, then “convert”, “capture” and “reshape”, then “burn” and “bring him over”, and last “make him one of ourselves”. Its first sentence turns on a colon and a reversal, “so long as he resists us we never destroy him”. Its third holds a semicolon and an antithesis, “not in appearance, but genuinely”, then closes on a doubled phrase, “heart and soul”. The last sentence is the shortest, and it saves “before we kill him” for the end. The second passage is a picture seen through pain. Its first sentence fills the frame with two things, the face and the fingers. Its second piles up a simile and three loose adjectives, “like pillars, enormous, blurry and seeming to vibrate”, and then sets “but unmistakably four” against all of them. Students copying them practise anaphora that climbs, a colon that turns a sentence round, an antithesis inside a semicolon, a short sentence that ends on its sharpest words, and a long sentence whose last two words hold out against everything before them. For the talk prompt, listen for more than one answer. One student hears only the Party: O’Brien and the men around him, speaking as one. Another hears the heretic pulled in by the last sentence, “one of ourselves”, for a moment before he is killed. A third may notice that Winston, strapped to the bed, is the “him” of every sentence. Each helps with the last written question, since the passage says what the Party wants from the man who counts the fingers. Keep to the page: the chapter does not show Winston converted, and it does not say how his story ends.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in order, from the first blow on Winston’s elbow to the needle that sends him to sleep.

1. Winston confesses to murdering a wife who is still alive. Then we read, “Besides, in a sense it was all true.” Whose voice do you hear in that sentence?Inference

2. During the questioning, Winston feels O’Brien behind everything: “He was the tormentor, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend.” Once O’Brien is in the room, which of those four words fits him best?Character

3. When O’Brien says he does not remember the photograph, Winston thinks that if he could be sure O’Brien was lying, “it would not have seemed to matter.” Why would a lie be easier to face than a real forgetting?Inference

4. Winston says no one can control memory, then cries, “You have not controlled mine!” O’Brien answers, “you have not controlled it.” Who understands Winston’s memory better, Winston or O’Brien?Theme

5. Near the end of the test, Winston says, “in all honesty I don’t know,” and O’Brien answers, “Better.” What has Winston given him that “Five! Five! Five!” did not?Character

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in history, when people were made to say in public what they did not believe. Did saying it change them over time, or did they stay the same inside?

Vocabulary

heretic We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him.

unmistakably The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.

prevaricate If you tell me any lies, or attempt to prevaricate in any way, or even fall below your usual level of intelligence, you will cry out with pain, instantly.

deranged You are mentally deranged.

metaphysician ‘You are no metaphysician, Winston,’ he said.

overt The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about.

eradicate It set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it.

forsook There were times when his nerve so forsook him that he began shouting for mercy even before the beating began, when the mere sight of a fist drawn back for a blow was enough to make him pour forth a confession of real and imaginary crimes.

Critical thinking

1. Winston decides that O’Brien’s mind “contained” his own, and so “It must be he, Winston, who was mad.” Where, if anywhere, does that reasoning break?

Thesis

Objection

Revision

2. Winston tells O’Brien he wants really to see five fingers, not just say it. Is that answer a surrender or a kind of honesty?

Thesis

Objection

Revision