Matatov's 1984 Blog

  As I wrote my last post, I realised that I was only going into the book from Winston’s perspective. When I started to think from the mind of a loyal party member, such as Charringtion or O’Brien, I realised that, while to Winston, they had betrayed him, to them they were simply holding their loyalty to the party. Since we see the book from Winston’s perspective, we are likely to sympathize with him more, and perhaps see him as more of the “good guy,” but if you think like a loyal party member, Winston is just a criminal; he is the “bad guy” who went against the Party, against the order. On the opposite side of betrayal there is loyalty; just as Winston was loyal to his beliefs and the concept of the Brotherhood, O’Brien and Charrington were loyal to the Party. While I still am biased towards the Party and life in 1984 being quite terrible, I can see how each side would consider themselves the good guys. What do you think? Can you sympathize with O’Brien and Charrington?

  In the end of the second book, and the beginning of the third, there is the huge betrayal by Mr. Charrington, where Winston and Julia are stormed by the Thought Police and then jailed in the Ministry of Love. As I read this, I started thinking about the idea of betrayal, and more specifically why it is so prevalent. I think that betrayal is used so often because 1. It is one of the worst things that can happen to someone, and, as such it is an easy way to introduce tragedy into the story, and 2. Since the reader gets to know the character who commits the act of betrayal, it allows the reader to connect further with the story and sympathise with the betrayed. What do you think? Is it simply a mechanism to connect the reader to the story and introduce more emotion, or is there another reason why betrayal is such a popular trope?