Winston asks O'Brien whether the Brotherhood exists. What does O'Brien tell him?

Please enter the first three words of a sentence that shows your answers is correct.

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Is there anything that is confusing or unclear in the book so far?

What is the main idea of this chapter?

Winston has no idea how much time has passed since he was arrested. He has not seen darkness or daylight, and his memories are not continuous: " There had been times when consciousness, even the sort of consciousness that one has in sleep, had stopped dead and started again after a blank interval."

What does"interval"mean?

Broken by the torture, Winston confesses to everything he is accused of: "He confessed to the assassination of eminent Party members, the distribution of seditious pamphlets, embezzlement of public funds, sale of military secrets, sabotage of every kind."

What does"eminent"mean?

Despite being attached to a machine that causes tremendous pain, Winston continues to see four fingers, not five: "The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision. The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four."

What does"pillars"mean?

O'Brien explains that the goal of the torture is not to make Winston submit, but rather to capture his inner mind, to eliminate all "erroneous" thoughts: "Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation."

What does"deviation"mean?

Winston asks O'Brien whether the Brotherhood exists. What does O'Brien tell him?

Were there any words that you did not know?
You can always list them here.

What is the main idea of this chapter?

O'Brien can read Winston's mind. He knows that Winston has been struggling with one basic question, even before his arrest: "You could grasp the mechanics of the Society you lived in, but not its underlying motives."

What does"mechanics"mean?

Despite O'Brien's badgering, Winston hangs on to what he knows is true, refusing to believe that man is the center of the universe: "The belief that nothing exists outside your own mind —— surely there must be some way of demonstrating that it was false? Had it not been exposed long ago as a fallacy?"

What does"fallacy"mean?

In the future society O'Brien describes, "There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness."

What does"distinction"mean?

O'Brien's explanation of the Party's agenda is full of doublethink: "The more the Party is powerful, the less it will be tolerant: the weaker the opposition, the tighter the despotism."

What does"tolerant"mean?

Winston insists that there is something at work in the universe that will prevent the Party from achieving its goals, but O'Brien believes otherwise: "You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable."

What does"malleable"mean?