Vamanos, Vamanos (Reading Assignment 1)

1984

1. Quester: an average, mostly nondescript man who has a mind too thoughtful for his own good.  This thoughtfulness  even plagues Winston at times by leading his train of thought into questioning Big Brother and making Winston realize the obvious brutality of a totalitarian government.
2. A place to go: there is not one specific place to go.  However, there is the ultimate destination of the Ministry of Love. 
3. A stated reason to go there: though the Ministry of Love is not the intentional final destination, the closest to a stated reason to go there may be Winston's fatalism.  Towards the start of the novel, Winston accepts the inevitability of his own capture and accepts the idea that he will be taken to the Ministry of Love, tortured, sundered, and reeducated.
4. Challenges and trials: the thought police, Big Brother, and his own mind are just a few challenges Winston faces in his attempted defiance of Big Brother.  The omnipresent Big Brother glares piercingly over the denizens of Oceania by keeping an eye out for even the smallest sign of disloyalty or free thought.  If even an iota of free will is detected, the thought police crack down on the resident with brutal force, both physical and psychological.  Perhaps Winston's greatest enemy is his own mind.  Winston points out that even a tiny facial twitch could lead to arrest.  This makes a person's own nervous system an enormous enemy to himself or herself.  Also, thoughts against Big Brother, the Party, or in a way that is disapproved of is reason enough for the Party to terminate the person.
5. The real reason to go: to underscore the brutality measures taken by a totalitarian government to control its citizen's physical and mental existence.   (Something to note) 1984 was written after WW2 and during the Cold War.  This novel serves as an acute warning against the dangers of totalitarian governments.  Also, Winston's sundering in the Ministry of Love may be taken as a sign that totalitarian governments are vampiric in nature.  In example, Winston (a man full of life [despite his fatalism], free thought, and sense of independence) is taken in by Big Brother (the Ministry of Love being the tool, perhaps Big Brother's "fangs") and spat out as a thoughtless, nearly lifeless, indoctrinated member of the Party.  In the end, Winston is stripped of all that he held dear such as his sense of defiance and free will.