Finished 1984 a few days ago, and this question has always been at the back of my mind. I’m new to this sub and so far I haven’t seen it asked, so here goes! Why would the Party (need to?) vaporize people that they re-educate? Before we see Winston undergo his re-education it seems like the question was “why torture if they’re just going to kill them anyway”—the answer to which we got from O’Brien explaining the effect of the whole dying a martyr thing. After we’re treated to Winston’s entire stay at the Minilove, I was kind of expecting Winston to wonder why it wouldn’t be more beneficial to the Party to just utilize the people they’ve converted. O’Brien could have been telling the truth when he said that the Party’s surgeons could reconstruct a face to make it virtually unrecognizable: perhaps then they’re just reassigned to another sinecure or something.

One could say that Winston’s death at the end of the book was a metaphorical one rather than being an actual bullet to the back of his skull, but we’re also given the premise (well, through Winston) that Jones, Aaron, and Rutherford (and all other unpersons) went through the same thing and were invariably killed off.

Thoughts? Does the Party really vaporize re-educated persons?

Wouldnt your first idea be to just assume they aren't around or didnt come to work that day etc? Asking about someone who doesnt exist would be dangerous but its not you would have any reason to know they dont exist at that point?