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Book 3 Chapter 4-6

"‘‘In your case,’ said O’Brien, ‘the worst thing in the world happens to be rats.’ ...
....’Do you remember,’ said O’Brien, ‘the moment of panic that used to occur in your dreams? There was a wall of blackness in front of you, and a roaring sound in your ears. There was something terrible on the other side of the wall. You knew that you knew what it was, but you dared not drag it into the open. It was the rats that were on the other side of the wall.’" (Part 3, Chapter 5)

Image result for ratatouille movie ratsAfter a series of torturing scenes by O'Brien, Winston is on the brink of converging back to The Party. Winston, in his resiliency, still admits hatred towards Big Brother and The Party. O'Brien sees this as an admission to the infamous Room 101. In this room, prisoners of The Party are faced with their greatest fear, and Winston has been dealt rats, his most feared object.
Author George Orwell may have used rats as a metaphor as a fear for Winston. To me, "rats" may be someone who betrays a companion. This can be interpreted to Winston fearing betrayal. He might fear that if he were to get too close to someone and spill his true persona, they could turn him in to the Thought Police. Though he got real personal with Julia, like really personal, he, himself, was not too loyal to Julia. He betrayed her quickly after being in Room 101.
Another reason why I chose this quote was the fact that O'Brien had access to Winston's dream. O'Brien only knew about the rats through the dreams of Winston and I thought the brain was the only thing ever private. It could be that O'Brien had read Winston's journal, but I thought Winston's fear was way before he got a diary.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 9, 2017 at 8:07 PM

    I agree the rats are meant to be a metaphor for betrayal and that's the reason why Winston is afraid of them. He did not want Julia to betrayed him yet he's the one that did the betrayal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. asantelizmchsDecember 9, 2017 at 9:43 PM

    Rats are sleek and clever but can also become violent when hungry and it's probably because of this that rats can be seen as terrifying. After a series of beating, being threatened by rats is what seemed to really have broken Winston's spirit and is where he lost his battle with the party.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JNguyenMiddleCollegeDecember 10, 2017 at 9:58 PM

    An interesting interpretation that Winston's fear is the notion of thought of betrayal and that rats symbolized that and that Winston might have became his worst nightmare by betraying Julia.

    ReplyDelete

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