Jun 10, 2011 19:07
Winston is called away from his diary by the neighbors, by Mrs. Parsons in particular, to fix the clogged kitchen sink. The scene flirts with becoming a situation-comedy set-up, in which we meet the wacky neighbors. However, in the world of Big Brother, a dark, sinister threat pervades the action, which is brought out beautifully when Winston meets the kids:
”Up with your hands!” yelled a savage voice.
A handsome, tough-looking boy of nine had popped up from behind the table and was menacing him with a toy automatic pistol, while his small sister, about two years younger, made the same gesture with a fragment of wood. Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, gray shirts, and red neckerchiefs which were the uniform of the Spies. Winston raised his hands above his head, but with an uneasy feeling, so vicious was the boy’s demeanor, that it was not altogether a game.
“You’re a traitor!” yelled the boy. “You’re a thought-criminal! You’re a Eurasian spy! I’ll shoot you, I’ll vaporize you, I’ll send you to the salt mines!”
Suddenly they were both leaping around him, shouting “Traitor!” and “Thought-criminal!”, the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gamboling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters. There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy’s eye, a quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do so.
Funny, those menacing kids remind me of nothing so much as our frat boys and crackling Ayn Randians, our rugged libertarians and Republicans browbeating us from the comfort of their overflowing wealth.
1984