Chapters 7-8; Book 2 Chapters 1-2

"How could you tell how much of it was lies? It might be true that the average human being was better off now than he had been before the Revolution. The only evidence to the contrary was the mute protest in your own bones, the instinctive feeling that the conditions you lived in were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different. It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness." -pg.63

          Oceania is governed as an exaggerated form Communism where everything that is said and done is monitored by The Party. Everything is done in a routine way and the citizens' thinking is manipulated by propaganda and slogans, essentially, no one is allowed to have their own conscious thoughts. Winston is dumbfounded at the fact that any announcement made by The Party is believed by the people even though they had contradicted themselves in a previous statement. For example, even a normal person with a memory would know that The Party is full of lies. The Party claims that the living conditions in Oceania is way better than any time it was before. However, anyone with a conscious mind would know this is fallacious. The living conditions now are unbearable compared to how they were before, when they were free to think and say whatever they wanted. When they didn't have to live in fear of the Thought Police. However, no one but Winston seems to realize that there must have been a time where living conditions were better and all because some people are sheep and swallow all the lies they are being told. I personally believe that I would be a person like Winston because I always question everything and its credibility. I won't simply belief something just because it is being told to me and especially with a society like that. However, I know that if I were in that situation I would be vaporized almost immediately.

"It was a physical problem that had to be solved: how to get in touch with the girl and arrange a meeting. He did not consider any longer the possibility that she might be laying some kind of trap for him. He knew that it was not so, because of her unmistakable agitation when she handed him the note. Obviously she had been frightened out of her wits, as well she might be. Nor did the idea of refusing here advances even cross his mind." -pg.91

          This is one of the few if not, only moments that Winston strays away from the fact that he is supposed to be expressionless. A girl, which he suspected to be part of the Thought Police, gives him a note saying she is in love with him. This to Winston is unbelievable because he had hated her before the note, thinking she was with the Thought Police and wanted him to be vaporized. He even wanted to smash her skull with a cobble-stone. He is taken aback with this note and for the next few days he can't think straight or do his work well because that was all that was in his mind. I chose this quote because in the past chapters it talks about how The Party did not allow marriage between people who found sexual desires in the other person and that sex would be like an expressionless routine, with the sole purpose of reproducing babies, not pleasure. After this instance though, Winston becomes curious, often dreaming of her naked body. This reminds me of Romeo and Juliet because although they are prohibited from seeing each other, they still want to be with each other. In this case though, it is not the parents restricting them, but the government. It is a very risky chance to take too because she could have given the note to anyone else and they would have just as easy reported her to the Thought Police.