Chapter 5

Summary

One of Winston’s colleagues, Syme, is missing from work, and after 3 days Winston notices that Syme’s name has disappeared from the list of Chess Committee members. For whatever reason, he has become an unperson. 

The escalation of rocket bombs continues and public places show a new poster, that of a Eurasian soldier with a Mongolian face and enormous boots.

Julia and Winston continue to meet in the room, nearly twice a week, and Winston feels much better in himself.  He has put on weight and his varicose ulcer has subsided. 

They seldom see Mr. Charrington. He virtually has no customers and spends most of his time in his back kitchen. 

The room itself is a sanctuary, although getting there is dangerous.

Strangely, the couple becomes more enthusiastic about the Party when with their colleagues.  During the Two Minutes Hate period, Julia would lead the shouting of insults at Goldstein, the supposed leader of the underground movement, The Brotherhood. She made the observation that the rocket bombs that fell daily on London were probably fired by Oceania itself, just to keep the people frightened. 

Winston told Julia about the newspaper article he had concerning Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford, Inner Party members who had been executed.  He had the proof of their innocence in his hands. Julia responded by saying that he should not worry about these things and that innocent people were being killed off all the time. She said to him “What could you have done with it, even if you had kept it?”  It might have been useful for the next generation to help with the revolution, but Julia was only interested in the present, not the next generation.

Interpretation

All this couple wants to do is to be left alone to live out their own insignificant lives peacefully, quietly, and with some happiness. 

Orwell’s Oceanic society forbids this desire and cannot tolerate anything but total allegiance by each individual to the Party. 

Orwell will illustrate the horror of this system later on in the book.

The couple’s wishes are a rebellion and Winston and Julia are not important parts of the system. They are very ordinary people, essentially middle-class people of today.