Julia feels Winston is obsessed with the truth. What do you think matters to Julia? Do either of them change their opinions by the end of the book? What are your thoughts about truth vs. feelings?

Julia feels Winston is obsessed with the truth. ("My feelings don’t matter in the least,"he tells her. "What matter is what’s true.") What do you think matters to Julia? Do either of them change their opinions by the end of the book?

What are your thoughts about truth vs. feelings? Can they be equally important?

Winston is tortured and brainwashed, so he did not change his mind, it was changed for him. Julia was never caught up the way Winston was in the ideas that Big Brother’s henchman O’Brien washed from his brain. But without giving away any spoilers, at the close of the novel she has changed her mind about both Big Brother and the resistance movement. Her eyes have opened to a bigger reality… What she does with that knowledge we don’t know. Newman left us with that challenge. What will we do? How far will we go?

First and foremost survival matters most to Julia. She wants to break free from the restrictive surveillance of Big Brother and the Party, but finds it impossible. She often struggles with maintaining the necessary pretense to avoid punishments- for example, when O'Brien wants her to "bring men in" she wants to decline..."She wanted foolishly to ask if she could still say no, if she could go back to her machines and her hostel...and still be let to live". But she knows that he does not want that and will not allow it, so she agrees.. truth and feelings fade in the face of death. By the conclusion of the new novel, Julia will never stop knowing what the truth is but she accepts that she "must do what is safe". At the end of "1984" Winston is dreaming of his death and he finally "knows" after 40 years that he loves Big Brother-which is naturally NOT the truth, but he is broken and it no longer matters to him what is true. I personally would like truth and my feelings to be in balance and feel they are equally important, it is something one has to work on constantly.

Survival is most important. The truth shifts in order for survival

Survival is suddenly important to Winston too when finally confronted with what he fears most - Sick the rats on Julia not on me.

At bottom, it's hard to know how any of us would react. Truth can become abstract in the face of torture.

Julia is a survivor and because of her life and prior experiences that the truth is what those in control wants it to be. Julia could "pretend" to be broken and also pick up on clues on those who have her life in their hands what their truth is and pretend that is is also her truth. And she will once again figure out how to survive each next step in her life.