In Chap­ter 5, Win­ston enters a dim­ly lit can­teen locat­ed deep under­ground, where the lunch queue moves slow­ly, filled with noise and ten­sion. The atmos­phere is thick with the unpleas­ant, metal­lic smell of the stew, which mix­es with the sharp scent of Vic­to­ry Gin, cre­at­ing an almost suf­fo­cat­ing air. Among the crowd, Win­ston spots Syme, a fel­low Par­ty mem­ber who is work­ing on the Eleventh Edi­tion of the Newspeak Dic­tio­nary. Although they are not close friends, Syme stands out for his unset­tling enthu­si­asm about the Par­ty’s oppres­sive meth­ods, par­tic­u­lar­ly his fas­ci­na­tion with its bru­tal tac­tics, includ­ing exe­cu­tions and pun­ish­ment. Syme’s com­mit­ment to Newspeak, a lan­guage designed by the Par­ty to lim­it thought, is clear in his words. His pas­sion for the Party’s con­trol over lan­guage and expres­sion is deeply con­cern­ing to Win­ston, but Syme seems to take pride in the Party’s abil­i­ty to con­trol every aspect of thought.

The con­ver­sa­tion takes an unex­pect­ed turn when Syme casu­al­ly asks Win­ston for razor blades, an every­day item that has become increas­ing­ly rare in a soci­ety strug­gling with short­ages. Win­ston, who secret­ly hoards two unused blades, denies hav­ing any, feel­ing the weight of the Par­ty’s decay­ing grip on soci­ety. This moment of scarci­ty serves as a sub­tle reminder of how even the most basic human neces­si­ties have been com­pro­mised under the Party’s rule. The top­ic soon shifts to a recent set of exe­cu­tions, and Syme open­ly express­es amuse­ment at them, demon­strat­ing his com­plete align­ment with the Party’s bru­tal meth­ods. He explains that Newspeak, by con­tin­u­al­ly shrink­ing the vocab­u­lary, will ulti­mate­ly elim­i­nate the very pos­si­bil­i­ty of rebel­lion. By restrict­ing the range of lan­guage, Syme believes that the Par­ty can ensure com­plete con­trol over the minds of its cit­i­zens, mak­ing it impos­si­ble for any­one to even think of dis­sent.

Syme becomes even more ani­mat­ed as he dis­cuss­es the pow­er of Newspeak. He claims that the Party’s shrink­ing of the lan­guage will lead to a world where com­plex thoughts and ideas will no longer exist. In fact, he believes that by 2050, the lan­guage will be so lim­it­ed that peo­ple will no longer have the capac­i­ty to form thoughts that go against the Par­ty. This chill­ing per­spec­tive on Newspeak reveals Syme’s unwa­ver­ing belief that the Party’s meth­ods are not only effec­tive but essen­tial in main­tain­ing con­trol. Win­ston, how­ev­er, sees a dis­turb­ing clar­i­ty in Syme’s fer­vor. Syme’s cer­tain­ty and pas­sion for erad­i­cat­ing free thought raise alarms for Win­ston, who real­izes that Syme’s unre­lent­ing zeal may very well lead to his down­fall. The Party’s unyield­ing com­mit­ment to con­trol­ling lan­guage is not just about lim­it­ing communication—it’s about eras­ing the very pos­si­bil­i­ty of inde­pen­dent thought.

Just as Win­ston is con­tem­plat­ing the impli­ca­tions of Syme’s words, the con­ver­sa­tion is inter­rupt­ed by Par­sons, Winston’s ever-cheer­ful neigh­bor from Vic­to­ry Man­sions. Par­sons eager­ly recounts how his chil­dren have become enthu­si­as­tic spies for the Par­ty, embody­ing the blind loy­al­ty the Par­ty seeks to fos­ter in the younger gen­er­a­tion. His pride in their will­ing­ness to inform on any­one who devi­ates from Par­ty doc­trine high­lights the extent to which the Par­ty has suc­cess­ful­ly turned even fam­i­ly bonds into instru­ments of con­trol. In stark con­trast to Win­ston’s grow­ing dis­il­lu­sion­ment, Par­sons rep­re­sents the type of per­son who will like­ly nev­er be tar­get­ed by the Par­ty. His unthink­ing loy­al­ty is a form of pro­tec­tion, while Win­ston, with his crit­i­cal thoughts, feels increas­ing­ly at risk of being purged.

As the con­ver­sa­tion shifts, Winston’s para­noia height­ens when a young girl from anoth­er table stares intent­ly at him, mak­ing him feel self-con­scious and uneasy. He won­ders if he is being watched and real­izes how any small sign of rebel­lion could lead to severe con­se­quences. Winston’s fear of sur­veil­lance is a con­stant, omnipresent force in his life, remind­ing him that the Party’s reach is not lim­it­ed to phys­i­cal actions but extends to every thought and emo­tion. The con­stant sur­veil­lance and mis­trust force Win­ston into a state of para­noia where even the sim­plest actions can car­ry dan­ger­ous impli­ca­tions. This real­iza­tion rein­forces the oppres­sive envi­ron­ment in which Win­ston lives, where pri­va­cy is nonex­is­tent, and even the small­est devi­a­tion from loy­al­ty to the Par­ty can lead to destruc­tion. The sense of being under con­stant scruti­ny is over­whelm­ing, and it ampli­fies Winston’s under­stand­ing of the Par­ty’s absolute pow­er over its cit­i­zens.