Thursday, April 3, 2008

1984 Pgs. 37-69 Blog Question.

Our Blog Question is simple. It stems from Winston's story near the end of our reading; the one with the prostitute. Why is Winston so desperate to go to such lengths to try to find love, that he even tries sexual intercourse with a prole?

17 comments:

Caitlin said...

It seems that Winston wants to find love because he was never loved himself. He talks about how his wife never loved him, and their relationship seemed forced. Winston wanted to find someone who would like him for who he was, and would actually love him. I think that since his relationships were always strained and that love was never included, he wanted to find love, and was willing to go to such measures to find that love.
I also think that Winston went to such measures to find love, because he wanted to do something that was against the government. Since love was banned, maybe he thought that love was amazing, and only the very few could have it, so he wanted to experience it.

Lukez said...

I think that Winston is so desperate to find love because the society that they live in makes love such a miniscule thing. By the end of the reading it makes it seem like they would make it a thought crime to be in love or even have sex if in were not the only way to have children. Even with that they are trying to stop it with the anti-sex league for all the women and kids.

maddief said...

Wow, Caitlin, that was really deep, and I totally agree!! I think that it is hard for people to feel loved in that society, and I think that human affection is a strong desire for people. However, I don't think that he went to the prostitute to feel loved; I think that he just went for the sex. I don't think that some random old woman is going to embrace him and say, "It's okay, I care about you." It was her living, and her being with Winston was only business. Winston simply went there because he wanted that action.

chelseas said...

I agree with what everyone else has said. I think that Winston wants to feel loved. I think that he will go to such lenghts to feel loved because he likes to feel that someone loves him. I think that he chose this way because it is harder to be arrested for this than it is to be arrested for doing something with his job, or for thinking somthing. I think that this is also an outlet for his feelings/emotions. I also think that since Winston's wife never loved him, that he wanted to find someone who would truly love him, and this is why he went to such measures to find this long desired love. I agree with Caitlin about how this went against the government, so he therefore wanted to do it. This is Winstons's way of Challenging the System-trying to feel loved. Love was banned in their society, and was something that not many people experienced, so Winston chose to rebel in order to be loved by another person.

amyw said...

I think Winston is so desperate to find love because it's so rare in his society. The reason he has sex with proles is probably because he is confusing love with sex. Love is rare, and so he doesn't really know what it feels like or anything, but he knows about sex, so he confuses it with love. One could say that he has a hole in him where love is missing, and he is using sex to fill this hole. He doesn't know what love is like, but he has a huge desire to experience it.

stefo said...

Winston used the prostitute to try and feel love. The society in which he lives in is trying to erase all emotions other than hate to others and worship to Big Brother. But every human being feels that inner craving to be loved and to love and the only way that Winston can think of fulfilling that need is through sex.

KatherineM said...

I think he realizes that there's something missing in his life, and that's love. But because the government doesn't approve of love or showing emotions, he's not exactly sure what love is. Like Amy said, since Winston doesn't know a lot about love, he confuses it with sex, so that's how he tries to make up for the feeling that something's missing.

amandah said...

I agree with everyone else. I think that Winston wants to feel loved because he has never experienced love. I think he just wants to see what love is because the government does not allow affection or people showing emotion.

meganu said...

I agree with everyone else. It is human nature to want to be loved. In Winstons case, however, he doesn't know what love is. He has some idea that love is more about sexual matters. This causes him to go to great lengths to find that sexual pleasure.

nicolek said...

I think that Winston isn’t really trying to find love, he is just trying to find some other feeling that either victory or hate. He is consumed with all of these confusing feelings that Big Brother wants them to feel and having sex is a way of rebelling against them and feeling something other than what they want him to feel. It also may be a way to make him not feel so alone. He says over and over that the hope is in the proles and when he is with the girl, maybe he doesn’t feel so alone, and maybe he doesn’t feel like the only person doing something wrong. He did it as a way to escape from Big Brothers reality and rebel against the Party. He simply followed his natural instincts.

clarao said...

I think that Winston feels that love is a rebelious type of feeling in his society, and lately he has had feelings of hatred toward the government and big brother. Love to him might be his own personal way of rebelling.

MollyS said...

I think that Winston is looking for the one thing that the party cannot completely control. Love. I think that while he was with Katherine he may have been able to handle the Party's controling nature. Even though it wasn't perfect with her, I think he saw an escape in love. Winston seemed to just want that again, an escape from the party, he wants away from everything that is confusing him. And if having sex with a old, toothless, prole prostitute is one of the things that can do this for him, I think that he would be willing to try anything.

nilec said...

Winston is already challenging the sysem by writing in the diary. And love is another way for him to challenge the system. I also think that Winston is curious as to what love feels like, because he hasn't ever experiened it, and he knows it must be special if the government tries so hard to block it out.

alexd said...

I think he is because he does not know how else to function without it. It gives him a sense of stability and it makes him less lonely. ALthough it is not right, it is his way of funcitoning with his problems.

markg said...

I think that Winston is lost without feeling. He is really not feeling anything. I also think that he think sex is love. And because he does not know his parents he is trying to find something to love.

NickB said...

Winston wants love so much because it is a natural desire that the party can't control, and both of those aspects apeal to him

aaronw said...

I think part of the fact that has sex to find love is that there is no religion in this world. He needs to find a love that can fill up the hole in his heart, but nothing but God could really fill that up. That is why he goes to extremes like having sex with a prostitute