Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Penguin, 1946. Print

Oceania has defeated Eurasia! All of Africa has been liberated, the war could be over soon! Finally, Winston realizes that "He loved Big Brother." (297)

Quote: The last four words pose the biggest questions of the book. What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be happy? What price would you pay? It is the assertion that you can crack break and mold a person into someone else. That you can take their reality and twist it around your finger; you can play with it, make it yours to command. 

Analysis: The last paragraph strikes a tone of repentance and joy. It makes you happy for Winston, who just a moment ago was suicidal, and has now come happily into Big Brother's loving embrace. It uses old fashioned phrasing indicative of romance and happiness, of life and emotion. 

The Party states that reality is not objective, as O'Brien puts it, "'I could float off this floor like a soap bubble if I wished to. I do not wish to because the Party does not wish it. You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of nature. We make the laws of nature.'" (265)

Quote: This quote is important because it brings up some of the philosophy behind the entire book. That reality is, in fact subjective, and things exist only inside of your head. The idea that if everyone collectively and completely believes that something is true, then it simply is. Who could say otherwise?

Analysis: This presents a philosophical question in the form of a statement from O'Brien: is reality real? Orwell, I think, believes O'Brien. I do as well, if everyone could be made to think the same thing then that thing would be true. You could tell sad people that they are happy and it would be true, you could say that hunger does not exist, that everyone floats. I believe that the strategy of craft that Orwell employs here is to ask a huge question then provide an interlude of drawn out pain with arguments for and against the question. 

Winston and Julia have been captured by the Thought Police. Winston is currently in the Ministry of Love being tortured for days at a time. As it is put in the book, "There were times when he rolled about the floor, as shameless as an animal, writhing his body this way and that in an endless, hopeless effort to dodge the kicks, and simply inviting more and yet more kicks, in his ribs, in his belly, on his elbows, on his shins, in his groin, in his testicles, on the bone at the base of his spine." (240) 

Quote: I chose this quote because it best illustrates the point of the torture, which is to dehumanize the victim. If you break a person down, to the point where they can only think about when the pain will stop, what they can do to escape their tormentors, then that person become malleable. Malleablilty is the whole point of the Ministry of Love; they love their people so much that they will take the time to reshape defective people into perfect Party members before executing them.

Analysis: This quote makes effective use of lists. Typically lists are pretty generic, however Orwell takes advantage of this here to create a very long, seeming never-ending torrent of very descriptive pain (writer's craft) that helps convey the breadth of the torture that Winston is enduring. 

Winston finally manages to confirm that his idol, O'Brien, is indeed a member of the Brotherhood, an underground organization dedicated to defeating the Party. O'Brien grills Winston and Julia to make sure that they are prepared to do everything necessary for the Brotherhood.
"'You are prepared to cheat, to forge, to blackmail, to corrupt the minds of children, to distribute habit-forming drugs, to encourage prostitution, to disseminate venereal diseases --- to do anything which is likely to cause demoralization and weaken the power of the Party?'
'Yes'
'If, for example, it would somehow serve our interests to throw sulphuric acid in a child's face --- are you prepared to do that?'
'Yes'" (172)

Quote: I chose this passage because it illustrates how easy it is for idealism to turn to terrorism and that it is all a matter of perspective. This is the moment where Winston sacrifices his ideals to get revenge on the Party that made him sacrifice his humanity. 

Analysis: Orwell uses characterization to put his point across here. He uses O'Brien, who he writes as well educated and well-spoken, to speak casually of horrific acts, as if they are unfortunate but necessary minor unpleasantries. Orwell also subtly foreshadows O'Brien's true nature. O'Brien is testing Winston's conformity to his group's ideas, and Winston unthinkingly agrees to all of the atrocities suggested. O'Brien speaks at length while Winston only bleats out "Yes" at the proper intervals like so much cattle. This is much like the distinction between "freedom fighter" and "terrorist" today. French Resistance members are honored as heroes, despite having a hand in the deaths of many innocent French as well as Germans. They are heroes because they won. Al Qaeda are terrorists. They live in caves and they are hunted like rats by drones and soldiers in the mountains. They are terrorists because they haven't beaten us. To label any group or person one or the other, you must value someone's life above another's.

At their first meeting, Winston remarks about his surprise that Julia has sex and shops at the black market, since she wears her Junior Anti-Sex League sash all of the time. She reveals that she is very active in the league, advising "Always yell with the crowd, that's what I say, It's the only way to be safe." (122) 

Quote: This quote sums up Julia's character. While Julia is a personal pet peeve of mine while reading the story, she does serve a dual purpose as an outlet for Winston's pent up humanity, and as a holder of the other type of "unorthodox" person. This is the type that is not mentally rebellious, but physically, spiritually, youthfully rebellious. The maxim in this quote is an insight into how control over millions of people is possible. If you force people who wish to rebel to outwardly conform for safety, it is likely that that conformity will begin to creep inwards. Winston finds the ideals of the Party fundamentally horrendous, illogical, and immoral. Julia doesn't give a damn about the Party's politics, she is concerned with surviving while still having sex, eating food, and having fun. To juxtapose Winston and Julia through a relationship helps to show how the two mindsets are incompatible. If you are conscious of the injustices that the Party conducts, if you feel that history is objective, you cannot have happiness. If you want to be happy, you have to ignore what the Party forces you to think, or even accept it.