Even More Reasons Why The Party Sucks

"It was inconceivable that this was anything other than a reference to Syme. But Syme was not only dead, he was abolished, an unperson. Any identifiable reference to him would have been mortally dangerous....By sharing a small act of thoughtcrime he had turned the two of them into accomplices....O'Brien felt two of his pockets and then produced a small lether-covered notebook and a gold ink pencil. Immediately beneath the telescreen, in such a position that anyone who was watching at the other end of the instrument could read wheat he was writing." (157)

This big quote is a combination of two smaller quotes that both talk about the quick interaction between Winston and O'Brien. I got two things out of this quote. The first things is just another reason why the party SUCKS. The second thing is just something that I personally felt like pointing out. At his work place, Winston runs into O'Brien who starts talking about one of Winston's Newspeak articles. In their conversation, O'Brien makes a reference to Syme. Syme, as Winston believes, had recently been evaporated by the party. Winston's heart "stirred painfully" since he realized that O'Brien had just committed thoughtcrime (157). This just straight out baffled me. To know that someone you used to know has died and not be able to outwardly mourn their passing is just creul. Although Winston and Syme were never presented as being extremely close, for the reader of this novel, this is troubling. Imagine yourself in Oceania and someone ever close to you has just been vaporized. Would you be comfortable just holding that pain inside or would you want to mourn their death and show them the respect that they deserved through a funeral? I personally would be devastated and it would be bad for my health personally if I kept such powerful emotions bottled up inside of me.

The second thing was the fact that this little interaction was like that point of an action movie when the action really starts to build up. When first reading this, it was like Winston was meeting an ally that would be hand in hand with him in his struggle against the party. For some reason, I imagined an all out war with O'Brien and Winston in the front leading the rebels against the party. Did anyone else have a weird first impression of this scene? My imagination goes a little wild sometimes and when O'Brien pulled out the piece of paper two write down his address for Winston, my imagination went even further. O'Brien put the piece of paper in front of the telescreen to get rid of any suspicion that party might come up with. In doing so, I O'Brien was being slick because there definitely seemed to be something more than just an invite to his house.

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