Characters

Wiston, O’Brien

Settings

Dark room

Summary

When he woke up, Wiston was still fastened.

Initially Wiston and O’Brien spoke about Goldstein’s book and Winston asked if O’Brien had read this book!

The man answered that he wrote a book with Goldstein’s collaboration and he stated that some parts of the text were invented but others were real.

Wiston was speechless!

Then he asked why the Party wanted to dominate the people and O’Brien answered  that the Party wasn’t  interested in the good of the others, but added that theirs was different from all the oligarchies of the past, for example German Nazism or Russian Communism, because the Party had the courage to declare their intention: the pure power.

The conversation in the second part of the chapter is not about the Party but about the relationship between the human beings and the Earth.

O’Brien claimed that the Earth beyond the human life could not exist because without the human mind nothing could exist.

The conversation continued for some time until O’Brien asked Wiston if he was reputed a man, because he was the last man, because people were not people but part of the Party.

However, Winston considered himself superior!

For this reason O’Brien ordered him to look at himself in the mirror.

He obeyed.

His imagine was horrible, he was all skin and bones, he had a little hair and a few teeth, his skin was grey and wrinkled, Wiston did not recognize himself.

At last O’Brien told Wiston that he was reduced to that when he rose against the Party.

Personal comments

This chapter is very interesting because it talks about the real intention of the Party and it compares the Party’s method with German Nazism and Russian Communism’s

Methods. This gives us an impression of the reasons that led to the flop of the oligarchies of the past.

In my opinion the Big Brother theory is more similar to the German Nazi ideology than  to the Russian Communist idea, because the Party uses a way similar to the Nazi one to expand its power.

The Big Brother as well as Nazism wanted to overcome the neighbouring nations through war and violence and he  controlled the people by means of brain washing, a method that Nazi force knew very well. In my opinion there is a book written by Hannah Arendt that explains very well this problem.

This book tells about the real story of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi officer who did some war crimes against the Jewish people during the  World  War II.

Eichmann was brought in front of the Jerusalem law court to be judged on May 11, 1961 and his only defence was: ”I was acting under orders.”

Through this answer we can understand that, by brain washing, the German army ordered his soldiers to carry out a terrible and despicable mission.

I think that this action is very similar to the behaviour that the Party keeps to control the people. 

In my opinion in this chapter there is also a philosophical and humanistic aspect when Orwell talks about the concept that O’Brien has about the humans.

Orwell describes an antropocentric society, characteristic of the humanistic-renaissance.

Some relevant quotations

   You believe that human beings are not fit to govern themself

   Not wealth o luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power

   We are the priests of power

   Yes, I  considerer myself superior

   Look at the condition you are in

 By Valerio