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Book 2, Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in 1984, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Totalitarianism and Communism
The Individual vs. Collective Identity
Reality Control
Sex, Love, and Loyalty
Class Struggle
Summary
Analysis
Winston meets the girl at the agreed-upon place, then follows her to a deserted clearing. They kiss and she tells him her name is Julia. He tells her that before he read her note he had wanted to rape and murder her, because he thought she was a spy for the Thought Police. She laughs and tears off her sash, then shares a block of black market chocolate with Winston. She explains that she disguises her illegal activities by working for the Junior Anti-Sex League. She says that she was attracted to Winston because the expression on his face indicated that he was against the Party.
Winston's violent fantasies indicate how sexual repression leads to violent desires, and suggests how the party therefore purposely interferes with the private sexual lives of its citizens through constant surveillance in order to more easily be able to whip them into war fever. From the first moment of their relationship, Winston and Julia see their relationship as a political act against the party. Even the food they share is illegal.
Themes
Literary Devices
They walk into the open and Winston recognizes the pasture that he has dreamed of—the Golden Country. A thrush sings in a nearby tree as they kiss passionately. Julia removes her clothing and tells him she has slept with dozens of Party members. Winston tells her that the more men she has had sex with, the more he loves her, because then more people are breaking the laws of the Party. They have sex and fall asleep.
Winston feels he is in a golden country as he experiences a moment of true private love, on the one hand, and is completely violating the rules and laws of the Party on the other. Even his normal feelings of human jealousy are overwhelmed by his desire to experience sex that is as anti-Party as possible.
Themes
Literary Devices
Half an hour later Winston wakes and lies looking at Julia's naked body. He considers the sex they have had to be a conscious political act, a blow struck against the Party.
