1984 Post #1

Welcome to the first blog post of my second novel, 1984, a dystopian classic by George Orwell! I have recently read from page 1 to 200. Today, I just want to share a passage that was extremely significant to me. After I share the passage, I'll take some time to explain why it was meaningful. The passage is from page 195, which is when Winston Smith observes a man who is about to enter the dreaded Room 101. Here's the passage:

The door opened. With a small gesture the officer indicated the skull-faced man.
"Room 101," he said.
There was a gasp and a flurry at Winston's side. The man had actually flung himself on his knees on the floor, with his hands clasped together.
"Comrade! Officer!" he cried. "You don't have to take me to that place! Haven't I told you everything already? What else is it you want to know? There's nothing I wouldn't confess, nothing! Just tell me what it is and I'll confess it straight off. Write it down and I'll sign it - anything! Not room 101!"
"Room 101," said the officer.
The man's face, already very pale, turned a color Winston would not have believed possible. It was definitely, unmistakably, a shade of green.
"Do anything to me!" he yelled. "You've been starving me for weeks. Finish it off and let me die. Shoot me. Hang me. Sentence me to twenty-five years. Is there somebody else you want me to give away? Just say who it is and I'll tell you anything you want. I don't care who it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife and three children. The biggest of them isn't six years old. You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not room 101!"
"Room 101," said the officer.

This passage is significant because of two main reasons. First, it accurately portrays just how much humans hate pain. Second, it demonstrates just how far humans will go to get away from pain. After reading this passage, I was shocked and surprised at the same time. How could the skull-faced man do something like this? Though I was shocked, I was pleasantly surprised to see that George Orwell knew just the right way to show the reader exactly what we'll do to escape pain.

The passage accurately portrays how much humans hate pain. The skull-faced man actually flung himself on his knees and begged for mercy. He didn't just ask the guard whether he could stay in his cell and not go to Room 101. The man didn't just frown and say, "That's a bummer." No, the man threw himself down, put his knees on the floor, and cried out for mercy. Even now, I can imagine a skeleton flying towards the ground and weeping for grace. This shows how much humans can't stand to be in pain, so this passage was meaningful to me.

Orwell didn't only demonstrate how much we hate pain. He also effectively showed us how far we'll go to get away from it. In the passage, the man sobbed and pleaded in a variety of different ways to get away from pain. At first, he cried out and promised that he would confess to anything as long as he didn't get to go to Room 101. The guard could have made the skull-faced man confess to the murder of 300,000 people, and even though he (the man) knew that was false, he wouldn't have cared because he wouldn't have to go through pain. The man then asked the guard to kill him because death would at least be painless (because the man would either be hanged or shot). However, this is nothing compared to what finally happened.

The skull-faced man told the guard that he would allow him to take his wife and children and cut their throats in front of his (the man's) eyes! Now, this shows just how low humans will go to escape pain. The man said that he would sacrifice his family members! This despicable act of selfishness accurately portrays the lengths we'll go to.

Because of these two reasons, this passage from 1984 is meaningful to me. Thank you for reading my first post for 1984.