This is the end my friends and Winston loves big brother. How did this happen? The truth is I don’t really know. In the previous chapters, Winston was threatened with his greatest fear which caused him to renounce his love to Julia. Somehow, he was forever changed both mentally and emotionally to being ambivalent towards her and the switch was flipped to his current thoughts and beliefs.

Because Winton now has a love for big brother, he got a new job and it seems a degree of new freedom. He even had the freedom to meet with Julia again. From the description in the book, it may be that she got some sort of lobotomy to change her behavior as he said that she had a big scar. For all we know, Winston did as well.

Belief is Reality – This is not a new concept in my ongoing review but it is one that Orwell keeps driving. It is the only way I can explain Winston’s behavior. Once he decides that he loves Big Brother all of his other beliefs fall into line. I suppose that it is the scientist in me that wants a root cause analysis of how did this happen and why it is true. I am probably lacking the psychological background to understand the effect of fear or maybe it is post traumatic stress?

I am going to cut Orwell some slack as this was written in the late 1940s. PTSD was recognized as psychiatric disorder in 1980. It seems like he got so much right in Parts One and Two. Maybe it was pure chance and possibly he had some clairvoyant capability, I am not sure. We know from the Nazis and the other Eugenics experiments of the early century that medical establishments were doing research on the brain and behavior. This is not a subject that I have put much effort into learning. I have to believe that information of the day colored Orwell’s presentation of Part Three.

I am the most important thing in my life – I think that this is probably the biggest and most often missed concept in this book. There are many connections to the Freudian School of psychology throughout the book. When Winston and Julia meet, the discussion was primarily around the betrayal of each to the other. Both are quoted as “You want it to happen to the other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.”

I am going to talk extensively about the Freudian connection in my final analysis next week. So, I am going to hit the surface today. The more that I have researched the Freudian school and Orwell’s biography, the more I am convinced that 1984 is not the book that I was expecting or was written as the tome of liberty that most believe that it is. I suppose we will see if I can make a convincing argument next week.

End Your Programming Routine: This has been an interesting experiment. I first read 1984 about four or five years ago. When I read it, I read it as a novel. This time reading it, I paused for a week at least on each chapter. Despite the fact that I knew what was coming next, I really thought about what was happening each week. I even looked back on my previous weekly analysis to see if I had conflicting opinions as the weeks progressed. This process had definitely given me a new outlook on the book, the process and hopefully it was enjoyed.