The 3 Stages of Reintegration

Winston is not in the best of places when we last read.  He has just been captured by the party and is now being held captive in the ministry of love.  Winston doesn’t know the time, day or how long he has been in the ministry.  The book describes the cell that Winston is being held in as “a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain”(Orwell 225).  After Winston is removed to go to room 101, he is greeted by a familiar face, O’Brien.  O’Brien performs 3 procedures on Winston.  1 is learing, 2 is understanding, and 3 is acceptance or the bond with big brother.  

During the torture, Winston is beaten.  He also doesn’t know how long he has been there for.  He is beaten till “he could not remember”(Orwell 240).  I think that this stage is to break in the subject.  To shatter that outer wall to get inside.  

The second stage is brainwashing.  For this experiment, O’Brien is in the room with him.  He is controlling the dial.  O’Brien’s says to Winston, “I shall save you, I will make you perfect”(Orwell 244).  O’Brien also reveals the photograph of the party function in New York.  “It exists, he cried.  No, said O’Brien”(Orwell 247).  In this moment, he was using double think on Winston.  He destroyed what he just had in his hand and said that “It does not exist”(Orwell 247).  The topic of 2+2=5 is brought up when O’Brien asks Winston how many fingers he was holding up.  This stage in my view is meant to clear out all of the info that might still be in Winston’s head to make room for what is about to happen for stage 3.

The third stage focuses on reintegrating information back into Winston’s head.  O’Brien had everything set up so that Winston would accept everything.  As this is happening, Winston is recovering.  I believe that this final stage is to set everything in stone for Winston so that is can’t be changed again.

The 3 stages of reintegration make the subject crippled only to set the information the party wants in their head.  each of the 3 stages have a purpose.  1 is to break them down, 2 is to wipe out all of the memory that they have of things, and 3 is to put back in new information that will stick.  Winston’s treatments are finished, the big question is, will they last?