1984 Part two Chapters 2-5

Part 2, Chapter 2

Why is Winston ill at ease once he is alone with Julia?
He was glad that everything was happening, but he had no physical desire to be with her because she was too soon and her youth and prettiness had frightened him, and he was too used to living without women.

What does Julia bring with her that she has obtained on the black market?
A chocolate bar.

What are Julia’s ideas about the Party?
She hates them and uses foul language whenever she talks about them.

What familiar sign does Winston find?
The place that Julia had him go to reminded him of the Golden Country that he dreamed about.

What is the significance of the thrush music?
To show that even when something seems nice and peaceful, it could really be corrupt.

What does Winston mean when he says that he loves Julia all the more because she has had scores of sexual encounters?
Because it hinted at corruption. And he says that if he could have infected them all with leprosy or syphilis he would have.

Chapter 3

How and where do Julia and Winston meet?
They met in the Church tower.

What is Julia’s job?
Novel writing machines in the fiction department.

What is her background?
She had a grandfather who disappeared when she was eight. Captain of the hockey team and gymnastic trophy for two years running. Troop leader of the spies. Secretary in the youth league before joining the junior anti-sex league. She had been chosen to work in pornosec.

What is her attitude toward the Party?
She hated it and spoke of it in crude words, but made no general criticism of it. She only cared about the party where it touched her in her own life.

Describe the quote “ With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality. As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness”. What does Winston think about Julia?
That Julia only really cares about her sexual part of her life, and that it’s the only way to rebel against big brother.

Why does the Party think the sexual impulse as well as the familial love dangerous?
It connects people, and since sexual impulses mainly deal with feelings, the party doesn’t really have any control over them.

Chapter 4

How does Winston react to the singing Prole woman?
He said that the woman sang very tunefully and it made it so the foul lyrics were peaceful to listen to.

What pleasures of the senses are mentioned in this chapter? What is Orwell’s point in mentioning them?
Folly- Smelling the delicious coffee and perfume, looking pretty while the room is nasty, tasting the real sugar in coffee, Hearing the beautiful singing. They don’t really get to experience all these senses unless they are hidden away. Only in Winston and Julia’s paradise do they get to experience them.

What is Winston’s reaction to rats? Julia’s reaction?
Winston hates rats and is very scared of them. He closes his eyes because he is scared. Julia isn’t scared. She saw the rats come out of the whole and batted them away from her and Winston and then covered the hole as they left.

Winston is interested in the church bells that once played in the city even though he is not religious. What do church bells mean to him?
It is a connection to the time before the revolution when they rang.

Winston sees the coral paperweight as a symbol of what?
The paperweight was the room he was in and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.


Chapter 5

Who has vanished? How does Winston confirm this?
Syme. He looked at the list of the Chest people, of which Syme was a part of, and his name wasn’t on the list anymore.

Describe the preparations for Hate Week. In what ways does the Inner Party excel in building spirit?
Processions, meetings, military parades, lectures, waxwork displays, film shows, telescreen programs all had to be organized, stands had to be erected, effigies built, slogans coined, songs written, rumors circulated, photographs faked. Posters of Eurasian army men.

Julia and Winston have some differences. Explain them.
Julia doesn’t really care about the past, she falls asleep every time Winston starts talking about it, Winston is much older than she is, they have different ideas about how a rebellion should go, and Julia lives in the moment.

Connect chapters 2-3 in Book Two to two different themes.
Meaning of freedom: Julia would bring back good food which they would eat, they still got a chance to meet and hang out with each other, the prole woman singing, Julia painting her face, and the idea of the glass paper weight.

The responsibility of the individual in the Society: Winston, for one, destroys files and alters the past, people getting ready for hate week, working overtime, and Syme being there one day, and the next it was as if he never even existed.