Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Who from Winston's life is thrown into the cell with him?

In Part Three, Chapter One of 1984, there are two people from Winston's life who are thrown into his cell. The first is Ampleforth, a poet and co-worker of Winston's, who worked in the Records Department. He has been arrested for leaving the word 'God' at the end of a line in a poem he was re-writing. As Ampleforth comments, this was not deliberately done to flout party rules, but simply because there were no other suitable rhyming words to use. To the reader, it seems ridiculous that Ampleforth would be arrested for such a minor infraction, but it represents the nature of control in this totalitarian regime: that independent thought can be construed as rebellion and will be punished severely, no matter how trivial the 'crime' might appear.


Secondly, Winston also meets Parsons in his cell. This is quite a surprise because Parsons seems like such an enthusiastic and dedicated party member. In his conversation with Winston, however, Parsons reveals that, in his sleep, he had uttered the phrase, 'Down with the Party!' Parsons owns up to his 'thoughtcrime' and says he is grateful to Big Brother for arresting him before these rebellious thoughts progressed any further. 


The fates of Ampleforth and Parsons are never made clear in the book but they demonstrate the brutality of the party's regime and give Winston a strong idea of what lies around the corner. 

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