I am running late today, so trying to get this in before the day ends. Last night I read chapter seven so hopefully it is fresh in my mind.

This chapter is a trip into Winston’s thoughts and he is having an awakening. Intertwined in his inner dialogue, it is implied that he is writing in his diary. It seems that the process of writing is having a stimulating effect on his self analysis.

This chapter is deep as there are more than one line, vocabulary concepts. There is a good quote and some hard philosophical analysis. So, let’s tackle the quote first.

And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus on petty grievances. The ‘they’ in this context is the ‘Proles’. Winston is talking about the differences between life in the Party versus being on the outside and how the party is outnumbered by a four to one ratio. If they really wanted to rise up, they could easily overtake the government. This sentence validates one of the things I have been saying about politics. People that are focused on the left/right dichotomy are too busy fighting for their side and against the other that the politicians are robbing them blind.

Seeing is believing- Winston starts to realize that no matter how much someone can say something that is not true if you are seeing yourself, you can figure out someone is lying. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall to the earth’s center. All of those things are verifiable without too much effort an no one can convince otherwise.

Need to corroborate- Toward the end of the chapter, Winston states that he is writing this for O’brien. Despite his inherent distrust of O’brien, for some reason Winston is being drawn towards him. I think that this validates the point that we need people to socialize and empathize our situation. We will see if this is happens later in the book

There were other things of interest going on like the portrayed image of capitalist, the fate of some of the revolutionary founders and a little bit more about the life of the proles. There is one more chapter left in this section and then the book is going to make a turn.