1984 (Penguin Readers) by George Orwell

Author:George Orwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Published: 1947-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

7

Our Leader, Emmanuel Goldstein

They vaporized Syme. One morning he was not at work; a few careless people talked about his absence. On the next day nobody talked about him. His name disappeared from lists and newspapers. He did not exist. He had never existed.

Parsons was helping to organize Hate Week. He was completely happy, running around painting posters, singing the new Hate Song, smelling even more strongly of sweat in the hot weather.

Daily life no longer caused Winston pain: He had stopped drinking gin at all hours and his knee felt better. He did not want to shout angry words at the telescreen all the time.

He met Julia four, five, six – seven times during the month of June. It was so hot at the end of the month that they lay on the bed in the room over Mr Charrington’s shop without clothes on. The rat had never come back.

Sometimes they talked about a more open war against the Party, but they did not know how to begin. Winston told her about the strange understanding that seemed to exist between himself and O’Brien. He sometimes felt like going to see him, telling him he was the enemy of the Party, demanding O’Brien’s help. Strangely, Julia did not think this was a wild idea. She judged people by their faces and it seemed natural to her that the look in O’Brien’s eyes made Winston believe in him. Also, she thought that everybody secretly hated the Party, although she did not believe in Goldstein and the Brotherhood; she thought the Party had invented them.

And then at last it happened. All his life, it seemed to him, he had been waiting for this: there was a message from O’Brien.

♦

Winston was outside his office at the Ministry when he heard a small cough behind him and turned. It was O’Brien.

“I was reading your Newspeak article the other day. You know a lot about Newspeak, I believe.”

“Oh, not really. I’ve never invented any of the words…”

“But you write it very well,” said O’Brien. “That is not only my own opinion. I was talking recently to a friend of yours who knows a lot about Newspeak. I can’t remember his name at the moment.”

Winston’s heart jumped. This could only mean Syme. But Syme was not only dead, he was vaporized, an unperson. It was dangerous to talk about an unperson; they could kill you for it. O’Brien was sharing a thoughtcrime with him.

“In your Newspeak article you used two words which we have recently taken out of the language,” said O’Brien. “Have you seen the new tenth edition?”

“No,” said Winston. “We still have the ninth in the office.”

“The tenth will not be sent to offices for some months, but I have one. Would you like to see it, perhaps?”

“Yes, very much,” said Winston, who could see where this was leading.

“You will be interested, I’m sure. You will like the smaller number of verbs. Shall I send someone to you with the Dictionary? But I always forget that kind of thing.

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