[Music] book 3 chapter 6 of 1984 is the last chapter in the entire book Winston sits in his usual corner of the chestnut tree cafe gin is his life now his death and resurrection and he's listening to the telescreen he awaits a bulletin about a battle between Oceania and Eurasia Winston is worried because he thinks the news will be bad as he plays chess he traces the equation two plus two equals five in the dust he knows that the party can get inside people's heads Winston and Julia had run into each other once after being released the thought police didn't care about them now they have talked even made love they were so completely changed that they didn't care about each other anymore and they admitted that they had betrayed each other they pretended they would meet again but neither actually cared enough to do so Winston has been promoted in the Ministry of Truth he still has memories of an earlier time but he pushes them out of his mind after all he knows now that they're false I'm the telescreen the announcer says that Oceania won the battle there's cheering in the street and Winston is relieved he has a waking dream in which she's back in the Ministry of love and it's been forgiven Winston walks down the hall finally the long hoped for bullet was entering his brain he looks up at Big Brother and wonders why he had ever rebelled against that loving face Winston's changes gradually revealed in the last chapter Winston believes in what the telescreen tells him he no longer cares whether he sees Julia again he sees a memory of his childhood as false he's lost the ability to think for himself beaten down and deadened inside by the party he believes that two plus two equals five and Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia how to interpret the end of the novel literally or metaphorically is still something that is a hallmark of dystopian fiction the narrator tells readers that a bullet is entering Winston's brain is this a real bullet or as the narrator speaking metaphorically the last chapter of the novel ends with the paragraph that says the struggle was finished he loved Big Brother therefore the best interpretation is to understand the bullet as a metaphor Winston's goal up until he was tortured in room 101 was for the party not to get inside of him to continue to believe that two plus two equals four no matter what the party said but Winston lost that battle he lost the love inside himself death was never Winston's concern he always believed he would be vaporized because death was inevitable it would not be a tragedy for him what he has lost is his humanity his independence and his knowledge of what is real now Winston is one of the people who is already dead he just doesn't know it this is the tragedy of 1984 and with this the novel ends