1984--Part III - Chapters 1-6 (end)

             As 1984 winds to a close, the reader sees an end to Winston and Julia's dreams of creating a more humane and livable society. Instead, Winston finds himself captured by the Thought Police, and reeducated in a prison. The metaphor of the prison structures the entire last half of the book. In this section, Winston is in a prison in a society that is itself like a monitoring prison. Winston finds himself trapped in a cell, with every move and breath carefully monitored by the authorities. The level of surveillance is total, as it can be seen if he is putting his hands in his pockets, concealing his body and thus possibly his thoughts, even in a gesture of defiance. But this is little different than Winston's monitored calisthenics at the beginning of the book.
             The purpose of prison is reeducation, but the citizens have already been living in a state of total and constant reeducation. The guilt instilled in citizens is total, as seen in Parsons' reaction to his own supposed crime. When Winston asks if he is guilty, the cowering man replies: "'Of course I'm guilty!' cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen.'You don't think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?' His frog-like face grew calmer, and even took on a slightly sanctimonious expression. 'Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,' he said sententiously. 'It's insidious. It can get hold of you without your even knowing it. Do you know how it got hold of me? In my sleep! Yes, that's a fact. There I was, working away, trying to do my bit -- never knew I had any bad stuff in my mind at all. And then I started talking in my sleep. Do you know what they heard me saying?'" (Part 3, Chapter 1, URL: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/18/)
             Submission is so total that even the subconscious is monitored in this prison-like society, and because of the constant sense of being watched, everyone lives in a total state of fear...

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