1984: What is at stake?

 Pick out five moments of major conflict in the novel. Make a chart that illustrates what is at stake for the individuals presented in the novel in each moment you pick out. Describe, in each instance, what do the individuals stand to lose and what do they stand to gain? Follow up your thoughts with a hundred words on the motivations and forces that operate on a psychological level in the novel. Please complete and email before class starts.

 

Major Conflict #1: Buying the diary

Characters	Gain	Lose
Shopkeeper/Mr. Charrington	Monetary gain Advertising for sales Continuous customer?	Raising suspicion for thought police
Winston Smith	Outlet for emotions/thoughts/fears Sense of accomplishment Feeling of exhilaration from danger	Suspicion for thought police - loss of job, maybe life

Major Conflict #2: Meeting O’Brien’s gaze

Characters	Gain	Lose
O’Brien	Friendship	Suspicion by thought police
Winston Smith	Friendship, companionship, a path out of solitude An ally	Suspicion by thought police

Major Conflict #3: Meeting Julia

Characters	Gain	Lose
Julia	Another lover	Suspicion by thought police Heartbreak
Winston Smith	Friendship, ally, lover Closure from Katherine	Suspicion by thought police Heartbreak

Major Conflict #4: Going back to the shop/renting it

Characters	Gain	Lose
Shopkeeper/Mr. Charrington	Monetary gain Advertising for sales Continuous customer? Closure on death of wife	Raising suspicion for thought police
Winston Smith	Safe house, security against constant watch Love nest	Suspicion for thought police - loss of job, maybe life

Major Conflict #5: Treating the old man to the drink

Characters	Gain	Lose
Old man	A drink Reliving the past	Raising suspicion for thought police Bladder issues
Winston Smith	Confirmation of suspicions/fears More information on the Party Philosophical satisfaction	Suspicion for thought police - loss of job, maybe life

    Throughout the novel, much of what drives the plot are Winston’s fear and terror of the Thought Police and his desire to discover the truth about the past, whether the current standards of living really in fact exceed ancestral ones.  His rendezvous with Julia are marked by the constant fear of being discovered, arrested and executed, and they go to great lengths to avoid that inevitable fate.  Many plot points are driven by Winston’s fanaticism with the past.  He visits Mr. Charrington’s shop because of the antiques that are a remnant of what once was.  Curiously enough, his job concerns the alteration of events past, and yet, ironically he tirelessly seeks the truth.