Book of Torture and Hatred: Study Questions

Book Three, Chapter Numero Uno

1. Winston is at the Ministry of Love. He is put into a barely furnished cell that is never dark. He is assigned a number and treated worse than a prisoner by today's standards. He isn't allowed to move and is always watched. No one gives him any food, so he wastes away.

2. Ampleforth has also been taken to Miniluv. He was detained because he kept the word "God" in a poem when he couldn't find any other suitable rhymes. Parsons is also in Miniluv. His kid heard him say "Down with Big Brother," in his sleep, and turned him in. However, this does not stop Parsons from being incredibly proud of his little spy.

3. The chinless man offered the starving man a piece of crust that he found in his pocket. The telescreen, seeing what was going on, started yelling. The starving man immediately retreated and put his arms behind his back. Officers soon burst into the room, pick up the crust, and beat the chinless man.

4. When he is told that he is being taken to Room 101, the starving man starts begging for mercy. He says he'll confess to anything they want him to; he'll do anything for them. He says that they can kill his whole family in front of his eyes as long as they don't take him to Room 101. The starving man tries to pin a crime on the chinless man in order to divert their attention to someone else. When he sees that the officers are still going to take him, he grabs ahold of the bench and howls, but is soon overpowered.

5. O'Brien is a member of the Inner Party and the Ministry of Love. Both he and Charrington get others to do their dirty work. They deceive people for power.

Book 3, Chapter 2

1. Winston is treated horribly in order to humiliate him and break him down to the point where he is unable to argue and reason. His torturers are cruel one moment, and kind the next. They make him confess to crimes he didn't commit and implicate other people that weren't even involved in anything. He suffers innumerable interrogations and beatings. Winston is allowed recovery periods, where he can sleep and eat, but is then subjected to torture again.

2. O'Brien is attempting to make Winsont "sane". He is trying to get Winston to believe that whatever the Party says is automatically reality and the past doesn't exist. He wants Winston to submit to and love Big Brother.

3. O'Brien explains that the Inner Party avoids the mistakes of past totalitarian governments by brainwashing people, basically. The Inner Party has created a world where there can be no martyrs, no inspiration. The Party alters the minds of the people in order to make them actually love Big Brother before killing them.

4. The shock treatment wipes out part of Winston's memory momentarily, allowing him to accept the answers of the Party because he can't remember otherwise.

5. Winston asks O'Brien what he has done with Julia. O'Brien replies, saying that Julia betrayed Winston immediately and was very easy to convert. Winston then asks if she was tortured, to which O'Brien does not reply. Winston asks if Big Brother exists and O'Brien says that he is an embodiment of the Party. To clairfy, Winston asks if he exists in the same way that he, Winston, exists. O'Brien retorts, saying that Winston doesn't exist. Winston then rephrases his question and asks if Big Brother exists in the way that he is matter that takes up space that only he can occupy at one time, that he is conscious, was born, and will die. O'Brien says that it isn't important. Winston asks is Big Brother will die; O'Brien asks, "How could he?" Winston asks if the Brotherhood exists. O'Brien tells Winston that he can will never know that, that that is the one thing that Winston will never be able to be sure of. Finally, Winston asks what Room 101 contains. O'Brien tells Winston that he knows, everyone knows what is in Room 101.

Book Three, Chp. Tres

1. According to O'Brien, the three steps of Winston's reintegration and learning, understanding, and accepting. Winston is about to enter into the "understanding" phase.

2. No one person wrote Goldstein's book; it was a collaboration of many people, including O'Brien. O'Brien says that the descriptions that the book includes are true, but that the process of rebellion through the proles could never be true.

3. The Inner Party seeks power simply for the sake of power. They have no real purpose, no actual cause, solely the want of power and control. They believe that "one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship", rather than establishing the dictatorship to make the revolution like in Soviet Communist parties.

4. Freedom is Slavery; Slavery is Freedom. Alone, humans are defeated by death, but when they are a part of the Party, humans are able to live forever as the Party is immortal and all-powerful.

5. One person asserts power over another by making him suffer. "Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation." "Power is power over human beings." Power is asserted over the body, but mainly over the mind. If you control the mind, you control that person's entire perception of reality and can alter it to your will. If you control someone's mind, you can rewrite the laws of nature. "Nothing exists except through human consciousness."

6. Oceania differs from other utopias because it is built on hatred. It continues to grow more powerful, more merciless, and more painful. It suppresses all emotions except rage, hatred, fear, and triumph. In Oceania, connections between people have been severed and are not allowed to be created. There can be no love, no laughter, no joy, no art, no science, only power and terror.

7. Winston feels that he is morally superior to O'Brien because he isn't a liar and he isn't cruel. He still has human spirit. O'Brien proves him wrong by playing the tape of Winston agreeing to to do all of those horrible things in the name of the Brotherhood.

8. Winston is frightened by his own appearance. He feels pity for himself. He now shows awareness of the situation. O'Brien tells him that that is what humanity looks like.

9. Winston hasn't betrayed Julia; he hasn't said that he doesn't love her.

10. Winston feels reverance towards O'Brien. He believes that he is intelligent and always knows what Winston means.

11. Winston asks O'Brien how soon they will shoot him.

Book III, Chapter 4

1. They treat Winston much better now. He gets to bathe, eat at regular intervals, wear comforatble clothes, regain his strength, get medical care, live in a better cell, and is even given cigarettes. In his time, Winston sleeps and dreams. He lies alone and dreams of the Golden Country. He can feel his health coming back to him. Winston has a new idea of how he feels towards the Innter Party. He is obedient to them because they treat him well when he behaves and torture him when he doesn't. He has been brainwashed by O'Brien. He writes the slogans of the Party and other Party phrases and believes that anything can be true.

2. Winston shows that he is not entirely true to Big Brother when he shouts out for Julia.

3. At this point, Winston still hates Big Brother.

Book Three, Chapter V

1. In Room 101, the worst thing in the world happens. This thing differs from person to person depending on their biggest fears. For Winston, his fear of rats is played upon. He is put in a chair and a mask that contain hungry rats is placed onto his face. If released, the rats will devour his face. Winston becomes so frightened that his ultimate survival instinct kicks in. He begs for them to force that rats upon Julia instead of him, anything to save himself. In Room 101, the only thing keeping Winston human is taken away: love.


Book III, Chapter Six

1. The Chestnut Tree Cafe, on a sunny day around 15:00. Winston is sitting at his usual corner table and music is streaming from the telescreen.

2. Winston has a job where he can do little work and still get payed a lot of money. He is part of a sub-committee of a sub-committee focused on the usage of commas and brackets in the 11th Newspeak edition.

3. When Winston and Julia meet again, they don't really care about each other. It's awkward and solemn. They admit that they betrayed each other, but it isn't really important because they have no feelings toward each other anymore. They say that they should meet again, but neither one of them really wants to or cares.

4. Winston doesn't care about anything anymore, especially rebellion. He has mastered the process of doublethink and believes in everything the Party says. He spends his days drinking gin and listening to the telescreen. Winston suppresses all of his emotions and believes that his memories of the past are false. He is excited when he hears about the victory over Africa and he now loves Big Brother.

5. In the last two paragraphs of the book, Winston is remembering his times in the Ministry of Love, all of the "confessions" and implications he made, and the process he went through to become a "better person". Winston is finally being shot. He thinks that everything is okay now, because he has finally learned to love Big Brother.