1984 Book 2, Chapter 3 Summary

  • Upon waking up, Julia instructs Winston on how to return to London.
  • Over the coming weeks, the two arrange several meetings but only succeeded in getting it on once during the month of May.
  • Engaging in what they call "talking by installments" in prole districts after work, Julia reveals that she is twenty-six-years-old, lives in a hostel with thirty other girls, and had her first sexual encounter when she was sixteen with a sixty-year-old Party member who later committed suicide to avoid arrest.

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  • Also, she is not interested in any organized revolt against the Party, but is always up for a some sex to quietly and personally rebel.
  • The two muse about the reasoning behind the Party’s anti-sex campaigns.
  • Winston tells Julia about a walk he once took with his wife, Katharine, three or four months into their marriage, during which he contemplated pushing her off a cliff to her death. Winston says that it would not have mattered whether he pushed her or not, because it is impossible to triumph over the kind of oppression the Party exerts over their lives.
  • Julia does not understand.