Awakening from a troubling dream, Winston tells Julia that he is responsible for the death of his mother. He recalls being hungry as a child and begging for food. One day, he stole a piece of chocolate from his small, weak sister and ran outside to eat it, not returning for a few hours. That was the last time he saw his mother and sister. The memory of Winston’s mother holding his sister provokes him to think about the proles and the fact that they remain human, despite the society in which they live.
Winston and Julia discuss their relationship and how they will feel when they inevitably get caught. Julia is certain that, although both of them will confess, the Party is unable to make them believe their confessions, that it cannot “get inside you.” Winston agrees.
Winston and Julia go to O’Brien’s house, where they confess to O’Brien that they are enemies of the Party. O’Brien explains the secret Brotherhood, a loosely formed group committed to eliminate the Party, and initiates Julia and Winston into the group. The two swear to many perform many acts but refuse to never see each other again. O’Brien makes arrangements for Winston to receive a copy of “the book,” Goldstein’s heretical work. O’Brien says to Winston, “We shall meet again—” and Winston finishes the sentence, “In the place where there is no darkness?” O’Brien answers in the affirmative. Before Winston leaves, he asks O’Brien if he knows the last lines to the nursery rhyme that Mr. Charrington began for him earlier in the story, and O’Brien finishes it, much to Winston’s surprise.
