W12, #7: Seems Like A Lot of Effort

I'm sure you're not the only one to have asked yourself this question:

• If Big Brother controlled everything...
• If O'Brien had been monitoring Winston for years...
• If the thought police had plenty of evidence already...

...why go to all this trouble to a) trick, b) catch, and c) torture Winston?

5+ sentences, please.

Comments

[Student #1]

I'm not sure why they waited to catch Winston. O'Brien said that he had been watching Winston for years, even when he had boughten the diary years before. That is already enough evidence that Winston would be a thought criminal. When Party members can be easily replaced, why keep Winston alive. Was there something special about Winston, or do they monitor all the Party members the same way? Maybe they were waiting for Winston to do something big, or they weren't sure he was a thought criminal. They definitely wanted Winston to be a loyal party member, and they might have waited to see if he changed for the better, and started loving the party.

[Student #2]

I am not exactly sure why O'Brien went threw all this trouble of watching and catching Winston but he did. They needed to watch him for so long to know how he reacts to things and what his biggest fears were for the future of room 101. The best way of trickery was when Winston and Julia were in Mr. Charrington's room. This was the best way because Winston and Julia talked openly and freely about things. They thought they were truly in a safe place. When the time was right they captured them. The reason for torturing him was because the society Big Brother had created believed that it was wrong for the rebels to die standing up for what they believe in. Torturing and dehumanizing them was their way of making them believe what they had always believed in was wrong and eventually anyone will give in and change for all of it so stop. The main reason for all of this is to make sure Big Brother always has total control. And if taking people down one person at a time Big Brother will do it.

[Student #3]

I think O'Brien want to spend time to watching Winston for a year and threw all that trouble because he want to make Winston seriously believe and love Big Brother by broke his hopeful. At First they try to trick Winston was he can make a rebellion and destroy a Government but when Winston believe that will become a truth then they try to catch him. Such as Mr. Charrington who at first try to help Winston make a rebellion but at the end he turn around a catch Winston. And finally, they torture him in room 101. All the things they did just want to make Winston totally in the control.

[Student #4]

Why did they wait 7 years to catch Winston? O'Brien has been monitoring Winston for all this time and has enough proof to put him away for good and yet he doesn't. In a society like this there is no need to keep thought criminals like Winston alive because it just increases the chances of rebellion. I believe that O'Brien waited all this time basically to see if Winston would gather everyone similar to him and rebel against the party. Winston is the first person that O'Brien believes has the most potential to rebel against big brother but O'Brien waits just so that he could catch him in the act. As soon as Winston decides to rebel or even starts to hint towards it O'Brien takes him into custody and tortures him so that it will never happen.

[Student #5]

I think O’Brien had to trick Winston to make sure he was on board with being a true rebel unlike Julia. After O’Brien lets Winston read the book he has all the information that could be spread. O’Brien captures Winston to stop the spread and the ability for people to rebel. O’Brien tortures Winston because he cannot have hate for big brother. He makes the pain so painful to where it makes him forget, that is what O’Brien does by torturing him. No person is to die hating big brother.

[Student #6]

I don't understand why O'Brien watched Winston for a year. But he didn't do anything on him. I mean if he really did watch him for a year, that's mean he knew he brought the dairy and wrote on it. In my mind, I think if they catch Winston early then they do the brianwash on him so he would not hate BB that deeply. But also maybe he knew what did Winston wrote on his dairy, he wanted to see what Winston want to know. So that's why he made him in the brother wood and showed him the book. In the finally , they caught him and send him to room 101

[Student #7]

I think the reason why B.B. went through all the trouble to trick Winston was to see how far Winston got. B.B. wanted to test him to see how Winston would handle things, and how he was so different from the other party members. The reason for talking so long in catching Winston was so that O'brien could see how people above the normal I.Q. would react. I think that O'brien was honestly impressed with Winston and his tactics. Finally, the reason for Winston's agonizing torture was to see how long he would last compared to the others. Also because O'brien was impressed with Winston, yet enraged in his actions of "disrespecting" their government.

[Student #8]

i believe that O' brian and big brother watched winston for so long was to learn his habits.O' brian wanted to make sure that when he captured winston that he would be able to change his mind completly. This would allow o'Brian and Big brother to make an example out of winston and also use his habits to identify other possible throught criminals.The main question that bothers me tho is why did they keep torturing winston so much even after he had broken. And the other part that confused me was why did they let winston stay in society for quite a while before he was capture cause he could of effected other peoples thinking.

[Student #9]

I think that they went through all this trouble in order to make sure someone like winston doesn't exist ever again. I think they did it so that they could look at the way winston went about things and make sure they dont happen again. If someone like winston does come along later in time they'll catch it a lot quicker. Letting winston do all what he was doing was basically a learning experience for big brother and the thought police. Now they can assure that their thought criminals are caught that much faster.