The moving dream that Winston has in this chapter shows us
the true conditions of the time when Big Brother was establishing his power base and the
resulting hunger and general want that his citizens suffered. His memory of stealing the
small bit of chocolate that his mother insisted belonged to his sister and running away
shows his guilt about the disappearance of his mother and sister. Reflecting on his
mother, Winston thinks about her private standards and how they bestowed upon her a kind
of "nobility" and "purity." Note what he learns about love and loyalty from this
memory:
If
you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave
him love. When the last of the chocolate was gone, his mother had clasped the child in
her arms. It was no use, it changed nothing, it did not produce more chocolate, it did
not avert the child's death or her own; but it seemed natural to her to do
it.
Love is an instinctive
response, that, Winston reflects, has been bred out of life by the Party and Big
Brother. Love is something that is always there and can always be offered, even when
nothing else remains.
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