Chapter 8

Winston smelled real coffee in the air and not fake victory coffee, but actual coffee. This led him to follow the smell far past his normal path. In Newspeak this was called ownlife and was frowned upon by the government; the government believed that all officials must be part of the community all the time except when they are working, eating, or sleeping.
Winston was walking somewhere north, near Saint Pancras Station - this was a Prole district. The windows were broken and boarded up and there was yelling everywhere. A government official was not usually seen in places like this and Winston was the only one with the Party's official blue overalls. It was not illegal for him to be near the Proles but if spotted, he would be questioned by the patrols.
Soon the street was in commotion, the people were yelling "Steamer", a nickname for rocket bombs. The proles always knew when they were about to be bombed, almost unnaturally. The bomb had destroyed two houses a few blocks away, in the center of the crater was a human hand that was burnt and twisted. Within 20 minutes everyone went back onto the street as if nothing had happened.
There were men talking about the lottery, which is the only thing the Proles talked about, or cared about. The lottery was handled by the Ministry of Plenty and claimed to give massive prizes away but really all the people that received these prizes did not exist and those who really won only got small prizes.
Winston goes into an old pub and sees a very old man - a possible link to the future. Winston bought the old man multiple drinks and tried to get some information about the past. Winston wanted to know about the Capitalists and was life really worse back then or now. But the man gave no useful information everything he said had no importance to Winston.
At his point Winston gave up talking to the old man but saw the old store where he bought the diary from. Winston went in the shop with the excuse he was looking for razor blades. The man inside the shop was around 60, had white hair, and looked like an intellectual - or a musician. The man knew Winston and remembered his last purchase. The man says business is bad because no one wants antiques and artifacts anymore and he can not get any new products because the government destroys everything. In the shop Winston found coral from the Indian Ocean. Winston bought it for 4 dollars because he was interested in the fact of owning an object from a different age.
Winston was now looking at prints - one of Saint Clement's Dane church. The old man sang a song about the church: "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s.You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin’s.”
Winston decides not to buy the print because it would be too hard to hide. After leaving the store he sees they girl from the fiction department and decides she is definitely spying on Winston. Winston thinks about killing the girl with a rock but decides he is too weak to do so. And so he goes home for peace and quite and believes he will be killed soon by the thought police at night. Winston tries to think of his diary and how he is writing it for O'Brien. He thinks of his dream and when he will meet O'Brien in a place where there is no darkness. Winston pulls out a coin and looks into the face of Big Brother he then thinks of the Party Slogans:
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength

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