"As for sending a letter through the mails, it was out of the question. By a routine that was not even secret, all letters were opened in transit. Actually, few people ever wrote letters. For the message that it was occasionally necessary to send, there were printed postcards with long lists of phrases, and you struck out the ones that were inapplicable." (page 110)
At this point in the novel, Julia has given Winston the note with the words on it that said, "I love you". This note has taken over many of Winston's thoughts and has started to drive him crazy because he does not know how to get in contact with this woman again. Big Brother's rules and surveillance has made it nearly impossible for him to figure out who she was. Rules like a man not being able to be alone with an unaccompanied woman. However at this point in the novel Winston is trying to figure out what he could do to see her again and find out more about her. The letter idea shows us a glimpse (again) at how controlling Big Brother really is. How do you think people would react today if the government began to open and read through all of our mail? Also, does it not seem like we are already heading in the direction of these printed postcards with the lists of phrases?
It's crazy to think that people actually have their mail read! if that happened in today's world people would go crazy, Big Brother really has these people under his thumb. I know the military is pretty close to this, as all the mail they send back to the states is censored first. I really like how you correlated these two things together from the book to the world of today!
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