In Chap­ter 2 of 1984, Win­ston Smith is over­whelmed by anx­i­ety after real­iz­ing he has left his diary open, con­tain­ing a clear con­dem­na­tion of Big Broth­er. This moment of pan­ic sets the tone for his grow­ing fear of the Par­ty’s con­trol over his every action. As Win­ston steps out of his flat, he encoun­ters Mrs. Par­sons, a neigh­bor, who asks for his help with a blocked kitchen sink. She refers to him as “com­rade,” though she inad­ver­tent­ly uses “Mrs.” out of habit, sub­tly reveal­ing the deep-seat­ed soci­etal con­ven­tions ingrained by the Par­ty. Mrs. Par­sons’ behav­ior reflects the Par­ty’s oppres­sive influ­ence, shap­ing how peo­ple inter­act and think. The Par­sons’ apart­ment, which is larg­er but more chaot­ic than Win­ston’s own, is filled with chil­dren’s toys and posters pro­mot­ing Par­ty pro­pa­gan­da. The unpleas­ant smells in the build­ing add to the dis­com­fort of liv­ing in Vic­to­ry Man­sions, fur­ther empha­siz­ing the stark con­trast between Win­ston’s small, cramped apart­ment and the clut­tered, noisy space of his neigh­bors.

Reluc­tant­ly, Win­ston agrees to help Mrs. Par­sons with the sink, while also lis­ten­ing to her talk about her hus­band, Tom, an enthu­si­as­tic Par­ty mem­ber. She prais­es Tom for his prac­ti­cal skills, not­ing that he is sur­pris­ing­ly good with his hands, despite his fer­vent sup­port for the Par­ty. As Win­ston bends down to address the block­age, he resents the phys­i­cal labor, which feels like an exten­sion of the Par­ty’s demands. The man­u­al work he is forced to do is sym­bol­ic of the Par­ty’s con­trol over every aspect of life, turn­ing even basic tasks into an expres­sion of pow­er­less­ness. The apart­ment is filled with the heavy ten­sion caused by the children’s frus­tra­tions, espe­cial­ly when Tom isn’t around to han­dle them. These chil­dren, raised under the Party’s strict indoc­tri­na­tion, rep­re­sent the regime’s inva­sive reach, not just into the lives of adults but into the very hearts and minds of the younger gen­er­a­tion.

The sit­u­a­tion esca­lates when the Par­sons’ chil­dren sud­den­ly burst into the apart­ment, ener­get­i­cal­ly accus­ing Win­ston of being a trai­tor, mim­ic­k­ing the Par­ty’s lan­guage as they threat­en him with toy weapons. Their wild, uncon­trol­lable behav­ior reveals the depth of the Par­ty’s indoc­tri­na­tion, as they are so ful­ly aligned with Par­ty ideals that they would read­i­ly turn on any­one they per­ceive as dis­loy­al. The children’s ener­gy is unset­tling for Win­ston, as he real­izes that they are a direct reflec­tion of the Party’s influ­ence on soci­ety. Their abil­i­ty to threat­en him, even in jest, exem­pli­fies the fear that par­ents now live with, as they are no longer the sole author­i­ty in their homes. The chil­dren have become tools of the Par­ty, capa­ble of betray­ing their own fam­i­lies at the slight­est sus­pi­cion of non-con­for­mi­ty. The fright­en­ing pos­si­bil­i­ty of betray­al by those clos­est to him weighs heav­i­ly on Win­ston as he expe­ri­ences this encounter.

After endur­ing the chil­dren’s threats and final­ly leav­ing the Par­sons’ apart­ment, Win­ston is hit by a cat­a­pult thrown by one of the boys. This small but painful inci­dent sym­bol­izes the con­stant threat Win­ston faces, not only from the Par­ty but from the very peo­ple around him, even inno­cent chil­dren who have been thor­ough­ly brain­washed. As he walks away, Win­ston reflects on the harsh real­i­ty of life in a soci­ety where chil­dren are raised to be loy­al to the Par­ty, ready to report any devi­a­tion from con­for­mi­ty. He feels increas­ing­ly iso­lat­ed, know­ing that he, unlike the Par­sons fam­i­ly, is not under the Party’s pro­tec­tive favor. Win­ston also con­nects this unset­tling feel­ing to a vague mem­o­ry of O’Brien, a Par­ty mem­ber who once made a cryp­tic state­ment about meet­ing in “the place where there is no dark­ness.” This haunt­ing ref­er­ence fuels Winston’s fear, mak­ing him ques­tion where he can ever be free from the Par­ty’s unyield­ing sur­veil­lance.

Winston’s thoughts turn dark­er as he con­sid­ers the all-encom­pass­ing sur­veil­lance and con­trol of the Par­ty. The Party’s omnipres­ence is sym­bol­ized by the ubiq­ui­tous cur­ren­cy stamped with their slo­gans, a reminder that no one can escape their influ­ence. The para­noia that Win­ston feels is inten­si­fied by the real­iza­tion that even his thoughts are being mon­i­tored, and any sign of rebel­lion would be met with severe pun­ish­ment. The chap­ter ends with Win­ston reflect­ing on his own sit­u­a­tion as he writes in his diary, express­ing the chill­ing belief that he is already dead in the eyes of the Par­ty. This acknowl­edg­ment of “thought­crime” reveals the extent of the Party’s con­trol over indi­vid­ual lives, as even inter­nal, unspo­ken dis­sent can result in death. Winston’s deep­en­ing sense of hope­less­ness marks a piv­otal moment in his jour­ney, as he con­tem­plates the total­i­tar­i­an regime that dom­i­nates every aspect of exis­tence.