In response to his most challenging task of the day, Winston invents a fictional hero for Big Brother to praise. He stops short of awarding " . . .Comrade Ogilvy the Order of Conspicuous Merit: in the end he decided against it because of the unnecessary cross–referencing that it would entail."

What does"entail"mean?

Winston explains that "the Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort it and dirty it."

What does"distort"mean?

What is the main idea of this chapter?

What is the main idea of this chapter?

Winston and the girl with the dark hair know they have to be very careful not to show what they are thinking and feeling as they make their plans, but they are used to this: "Not to let one's feelings appear in one's face was a habit that had acquired the status of an instinct…."

What does "status"mean?

Winston is frightened by having received the message from the girl with the dark hair. He thinks she might work for the Thought Police. "But there was another, wilder possibility that kept raising its head, though he tried vainly to suppress it."

What does"suppress"mean?

Eventually Winston decides that the girl with the dark hair is not a member of the Thought Police, even though "only five nights ago he had contemplated smashing her skull in with a cobblestone . . ."

What does"contemplated"mean?

Winston and the girl with the dark hair arrange to meet in the midst of the crowd gathered in Victory Square. Just before they leave to go their separate ways, "…her hand felt for his and gave it a fleeting squeeze."

What does"fleeting"mean?

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

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

What do you think will happen in the next chapter?
(This is just a spot for you to jot some notes for yourself.)

Julia is younger than Winston, and this makes a difference between them. Unlike Winston, "She had grown up since the Revolution and was too young to remember the ideological battles of the fifties and sixties."

What does"ideological"mean?

What is the main idea of this chapter?

Another prisoner is led into the white–tiled room. It is apparent that he is being starved to death: "Because of its thinness the mouth and eyes looked disproportionately large, and the eyes seemed filled with a murderous, unappeasable hatred of somebody or something."

What does"disproportionately"mean?

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?