Which aspect of Julia’s world did you find most frightening?

Which aspect of Julia’s world did you find most frightening? Why?

Oh, there were a bunch of things, but I think the one that upset me the most was how doing something innocently - something tiny - could get you picked up and sent to the Ministry of Truth. It plays into my basic insecurities - the movies that bother me the most have always been those where an innocent person is accused of a crime (e.g., Sandra Bullock in The Net). Probably some leftover damage from my childhood. :)

As kimk stated, there were many things that were frightening in "Julia". The most alarming to me personally was the cruel violence that was unleashed by the members of the Party. Vicious beatings, horrible torture and unspeakable mental torment. Even pregnant women and children were not safe from attack. It is a stark reminder that humanity can be evil and this scares me, for myself and all the people I care about.

I think one aspect of Julias life that was frightening to me was the swift and unusual disappearance of colleagues and "friends". Often there were many rumors about the disappearances but some were never really known.

The Ministry of Love. Required 2 minutes of hate.Hate Week. Constant surveillance by Big Brother. The three slogans of the Party:
WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Thought police.the First Patriotic Purge. Rats.

Apart from all the violence and repression and boredom and loss of privacy… I think the most chilling thing was how a woman would be coerced into a sexual relationship with a high party official, and then suddenly “disappear” with her name erased as though she’d never existed.

So many things. You cannot trust anyone. You never know when someone will turn you in

The suffocating nature of Julia’s world. This book is so good at portraying the feeling of the walls fully closing in on you. It’s scary and makes me cringe. That’s one of the many talents of this book, the authors ability to make the reader feel Captured.

That words have no meaning anymore. That you can't honestly have a civil discussion with people with differing political views.

Where does one begin to describe frightening in Julia's 1984 world? All I know is that I can't limit it to one aspect, other than the fact that threats, hate, danger, and monitoring N-E-V-E-R end.

I think not being able to trust anyone is the most frightening. With no trust, you worry that you could be turned into the party at any time. You would be completely alone with constant paranoia.

It is impossible to pinpoint one aspect of Julia's life that is not frightening. However, being unable to trust anyone has got to be the worst. How can you live a fulfilling life knowing that any kind of mistake, innocent or purposeful can get you erased from existence and record? How do you live with that?

I think the lack of any privacy, the fear of everyone who might turn you in even your own family and the inability to ever think freely are horrific. To me this is even more horrific than the specter of torture because you have no freedom in your daily life at all and lose any sense of individual identity.

The lack of privacy for simple needs for using the bathroom, bathing, etc. and the need to just humiliate others.

Julia's entire world was frightening from Page 1 to Page 385. At the end she has agreed to collaborate with the new regime doing anything "to cause demoralization and weaken the power of the Party." The cycle continues.

Without question the ARTSEM aspect. It was reminiscent of so many dystopian visions of human reproduction where women are nothing more than breeding “machines” ala The Handmaids Take and the “Breeder” harem of Immortan Joe in Mad Max stories. It’s so dehumanizing and painful to read the experiences of Victoria in the early portion of the book.

It’s hard to pick one aspect that was most frightening, which is why I think Lynne z said it most concisely: “pages 1 - 385.” All the points made about the lack of privacy, lack of trust, fear, women as breeding machines, the hate and anger were very frightening. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need has five basic levels which includes physiological needs (food, water, clothing) safety, love and belonging, esteem and self- actualization. It’s equally frightening that the most basic level of need was not met for either the Outer Party members or the proles. I can’t imagine having to live every day perpetually dirty, have only dirty water for bathing and drinking(and when you do bath, it’s often cold), food that isn’t nourishing, etc. And let’s not forget the gin that didn’t taste like gin if you wanted an alcoholic drink to help one escape the drudgery of the world.

The complete denial of truth that was grounded in reality. Perception of truth changed according to political circumstances and logistics and was entirely dependent on the need for self-preservation.

The most frightening thing for me was that in the end both the Party and the Free Men had a lot in common in how they controlled people.

Like Lynne z said, "pages 1-385" would be my answer. Whether it was Orwell or Newman, the gradually way that people are conditioned to believe what someone wants them to believe or hate whatever "they" want you to hate. In today's version of American politics, even the prevalence of the word "hate" is a little too close to the worlds described by these two authors.