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Ending ambiguity --Was Winston turned at the end?

posted 2 years ago by StannisTheMannis (143)
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In the book its clear that he's in favor of big brother as indicated by him smiling and the quote suggesting that the conflict in him was over since he loved Big Brother now. But in the movie it seems like it was deliberately left open for interpretation. For one, he didn't list the answer to 2 + 2 when he wrote it with his finger. This suggests that he's either struggling with himself internally to write tge answer 5, or he doesn't want to raise suspicion by writing 4. Furthermore, after the broadcast has ended, we see him looking off with a faraway look in the direction that Julia left towards and thinking, "I love you" out loud. This could be a form of acknowledgement in response to the vision of her saying that she loved him when he was in room 101. If he was enamored with Big Brother , it would've been more obvious that he was referring to the Party. What do you all think?

[–] thingmakersback (1375) 2 years ago

I still think he was as fully turned as a man gets. Any doubts - the tears in his eyes - are perfectly reasonable as an example of doublethink. He turns from the image of Big Brother and expresses his love, but it is not perfect or complete, except that it is the only love he is going to be capable of expressing ever again.

The novel has one thing that the movie would not even consider using; the Appendix. The appendix on the history of newspeak is written as from a distant future, looking back on the world of Ingsoc. As such it does provide a bit of hope, which is nowhere else in the novel.

[–] Dolemite (87) a year ago

In the novel he is saying that he loves Big Brother. The film, I think, leaves it open a bit more to interpretation. I would certainly like to think that he was talking about Julia. Someone whom I went to see the film with, when it was first released in 1984, said, "Good. He's beaten the b*stards. He's still in love with his girlfriend." at this final scene, without me saying anything. So it could be interpreted this way.