The Parsons children
Tom Parsons's son, a tough-looking boy of nine, and his sister about two years younger, both in the blue shorts, grey shirts and red neckerchiefs of the Spies. They ambush Winston Smith in their own flat with a toy pistol and a fragment of wood, shouting traitor and thought-criminal, and are sulking because nobody will take them to a public hanging. Their mother's eyes flit nervously between them and the visitor, and the boy gets Winston in the neck with a catapult on his way out.
To be taken to a hanging. It is the only thing either of them asks for in the book, and they both ask for it in the same minute.
The book
At a glance
- The son and daughter of Tom Parsons, Winston Smith's neighbour in Victory Mansions
- Neither child is named
- The boy is nine; his sister is about two years younger
- Blue shorts, grey shirts and red neckerchiefs — the Spies
- The Parsons flat, one floor of Victory Mansions away from Winston's
- Part One, Chapters 2 and 5, and again in Part Three, Chapter 1
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeThe two children belong to Tom Parsons, a colleague of Winston Smith's at the Ministry of Truth and his neighbour on the same floor of Victory Mansions. Neither of them is named. The boy is nine and the girl about two years younger. Winston meets them in Part One, when their mother calls him in to clear a blocked kitchen pipe, and the flat introduces them before they appear in it: it looks as though it has just been visited by some large violent animal. Hockey sticks, boxing gloves, a burst football and a pair of sweaty shorts turned inside out lie all over the floor, there are dirty dishes and dog-eared exercise books on the table, and the walls carry the scarlet banners of the Youth League and the Spies beside a full-sized poster of Big Brother.
They ambush him as he comes back from the sink. A savage voice yells "Up with your hands!" and the boy pops out from behind the table with a toy automatic pistol while his sister makes the same gesture with a fragment of wood. Both are in the uniform of the Spies, the Party's children's organisation: blue shorts, grey shirts, red neckerchiefs. Winston puts his hands above his head, and George Orwell records the reason he does it: the boy's demeanour is vicious enough that it does not feel altogether like a game. He is called a traitor, a thought-criminal and a Eurasian spy, and told he will be shot, vaporized and sent to the salt mines. Then both children leap round him shouting, the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. Winston's own reading of that is the closest the book comes to describing them: it is like the gambolling of tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters, and there is a calculating ferocity in the boy's eye and an evident desire to hit or kick him, together with a consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do so.
The reason they are in a temper is that nobody will take them out. Eurasian prisoners are to be hanged in the Park that evening, which happens about once a month and which children always clamour to attend, and their mother is too busy and their father will not be home in time. The boy roars the question in his huge voice; the girl chants it while capering round. On his way out Winston takes a catapult bullet in the back of the neck, a pain like a red-hot wire jabbed into him, and turns to see Mrs Parsons dragging her son back into the doorway while the boy pockets the catapult and bellows "Goldstein!" after him.
Their father supplies the rest himself, at the office, with pride. The two of them set fire to an old market woman's skirt with a box of matches because she had been wrapping sausages in a poster of Big Brother, and burned her badly. The girl slipped away from a Spies hike near Berkhamsted with two other girls, followed a strange man for two hours through the woods, and handed him over to the patrols at Amersham. And the Spies have been issued with ear trumpets for listening through keyholes; she brought one home and tried it on the sitting-room door, and reckoned she could hear twice as much as with her ear to the hole.
How the book draws them
- The boyHandsome and tough-looking, nine years old, with a huge voice and a savage yell. Winston Smith notices a sort of calculating ferocity in his eye, an evident desire to hit or kick him, and a consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do it.
- His sisterAbout two years younger, and small. She copies her brother in every movement, capering and chanting whatever he shouts. The book gives her no face and no description of her own; she is drawn almost entirely as a smaller version of him.
- The uniformBlue shorts, grey shirts and red neckerchiefs — the uniform of the Spies. The same organisation's scarlet banners hang in the family's living room next to those of the Youth League and a full-sized poster of Big Brother.
- The hold-upThe boy levels a toy automatic pistol from behind the table and the girl levels a fragment of wood. Winston is told he is a traitor, a thought-criminal and a Eurasian spy, and that he will be shot, vaporized and sent to the salt mines.
- The state of the flatAs though a large violent animal had just been through it. Hockey sticks, boxing gloves, a burst football and a pair of sweaty shorts turned inside out on the floor; dirty dishes and dog-eared exercise books on the table.
- The hangingTheir whole grievance that afternoon. The boy roars "Why can't we go and see the hanging?" and the girl chants "Want to see the hanging!" while capering round the room. Their mother says they are only noisy because she is too busy to take them.
- The catapultSix steps down the passage Winston is hit in the back of the neck by a catapult bullet, a pain like a red-hot wire. He turns to see the boy pocketing the catapult as his mother drags him inside, and "Goldstein!" is bellowed after him as the door closes. Told about it at the office the next day, their father says it shows the right spirit.
- What their father is proud ofThat the pair of them set fire to a market woman's skirt with matches for wrapping sausages in a poster of Big Brother, and burned her badly; and that the girl left a troop hike out Berkhamsted way with two other girls, trailed a stranger through the woods for two hours, and handed him to the patrols at Amersham.
- The ear trumpetThe latest thing the Spies have served out to their members, for listening through keyholes. The girl brought one home, tried it on the sitting-room door, and reckoned she could hear twice as much with it as with her ear against the hole.