The prole prisoners

Section Three, Chapters I-II

1. How are the prole prisoners treated differently than the Party prisoners in the jail? What details from the novel so far explain why they are treated differently? (Think of information from past sections as well.)
2. Parsons was the last person Winston ever expected to be arrested, and yet we find out that he has. What does this tell us about life under the Party? What does Parsons’s reaction to his own arrest tell us about him?
3. Is it a surprise that O’Brien turns out to be a member of the Party? If not, what details earlier in the novel foreshadowed who he really was?
4. Why is it so important that the Party control not only what people say they believe but their actual reality as they perceive it? What is the difference? Do you think it’s possible to actually change someone’s reality by force?
5. O’Brien says he wants to make Winston “sane.” How do you think the Party defines “sanity”? Is their definition valid? Why or why not?
6. Predict: What happens in Room 101? What details tell you so?