1984

1. 1984 By George Orwell

2. New rules • 1. You may not speak in this room unless you are spoken to. • 2. You must ask permission from your teacher in order to communicate with others. • 3. You may not get out of your seat during class unless it is an emergency and you have asked permission. • 4. You may not speak without raising your hand. • If any of the above rules are broken or violated, a detention is automatic. Any further issues will result in a referral.

3. Answer the following questions: • What is your household income? • What will you be doing after school this week? • Who are your closest friends? Why? • What have you done in the past four years that your parents would deem as “bad” or inappropriate? • What is your biggest fear? Prepare to turn in your answers in 3-5 minutes.

4. Journal • How did the restrictive “new rules” and invasive questions make you feel? What would be the worst part of living in that type of environment on a daily basis? • As students and citizens, what freedoms are you granted? What freedoms or rights are you denied? Who controls the system(s) that govern us? • What can happen when the power to govern gets in the wrong hands?

5. Book one I-II • Complete the vocabulary pre-reading for One I-III (first two pages) • Read pgs. 3-32; use the questions as a guide to your reading. • Make a prediction for the rest of the story; what kinds of occurrences can you see potentially happening?

6. III-VI • Winston’s job at the Min. of Truth displays the Party at its finest—calculated propaganda, altered records, revised history. • Doublethink: The ability to believe and disbelieve simultaneously in the same idea, or to believe in two contradictory ideas simultaneously. • *This is the psychology key to the Party’s control of the past. All memory cannot be trusted, and slogans like “war is peace” can be easily accepted. • Not only mental but physical repression; what is the Party’s position on marriage, divorce, and children?

7. Winston’s sexual repression: last encounter with the old Prole prostitute • Aim is to repress individuality in terms of desire and ultimate emotional/physical pleasure • *proles refers to the working class of Oceania (i.e. the proletariat). • Oceania's society is divided into three distinct classes: Inner Party, Outer Party and proles (with their own upper, middle and lower classes). The proles constitute 85% of the population; they receive little education, work at manual labor, live in poverty (although in having privacy and anonymity, qualitatively better off than Outer Party members), and usually die by the age of sixty. “proles and animals are free” (80)

8. VII-VIII • 1. Where does Winston think hope lies? Why? • 2. What is the one piece of real evidence of an act of falsification that Winston finds? • 3. Winston wonders if he is a lunatic, but what bothers him more than that thought? • 4. What is the heresy of heresies? Why is it terrifying? • 5. For whom is Winston writing his diary? • 6. The party tells people to reject the evidence of their ____ and ______ (its final and most essential command). • 7. Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. What do you think Winston means by this? • 8. What does Winston buy from Mr. Charrington’s shop? Why does he feel compelled to make this purchase? What other info does he get from Mr. C? • 9. Who does he see on his way out? Reaction?

9. Book Two • Describe the poignant differences between Winston and Julia. • What is Julia’s summary of the meaning of the Party’s sexual puritanism?

10. Book Two I-III • Find one quote/passage to support a main point or event from each chapter. • Write a brief description as to its importance/relevance. • Form five small groups. • In your small group, share your quote analysis. Discuss which quote(s) you find to be most relevant and why. • Choose one quote to write on your group’s blank sheet. • All groups will analyze the other groups’ quote in a brief statement on the blank sheets.

11. Revised Reading Schedule • 5/7: Ch. 4-6 • 5/8: Ch. 7-8 • 5/9: Ch. 9 • 5/10: Ch. 10 (in class) & Book III Ch. 1 • 5/13: Ch. 2 • 5/14: Ch. 3 • 5/15: Ch. 4-6 (End) • 5/16: Review • 5/17: Test

12. Book Two IV-VI (149-174) • Why does Winston keep repeating “Folly, folly!” • How does Julia make this rendezvous different? (what does she bring/do) • Why is Winston’s reaction to the rats and his view of the crystal paperweight so significant? • What does Julia think about the history of war with Eurasia? • What finally happens in chapter VI? Describe the encounter. • Analyze Winston’s words: “The last step was something that would happen in the Ministry of Love. He had accepted it” (174).

13. Book Two Ch. 7-8 • After his father left: he, his mother, and his baby sister spent most of their time in underground shelters hiding from air raids, often going without food. • How would you describe Winston as a child? He is only able to connect to the truth in his subconscious (dreams). • W&J reassure one another that although the torture will undoubtedly make them confess their crimes, it cannot make them stop loving each other. They agree that the wisest course of action would be to leave the room forever, but they cannot. • Why do you think they resist leaving? • What does O’Brien do that shocks Winston upon he and Julia’s arrival? • O’Brien tells Winston that they might meet again one day. Winston asks if he means in the place where there is no darkness, and O’Brien confirms by repeating the phrase… How does this connection possibly exist between them? How would you describe O’Brien as a person? Why does he continue to be so attractive to Winston?

14. Book Two Ch. 9 (195-238) • Winston receives the book: Goldstein’s The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism • HW: Annotations (at least 8 “pieces of thinking”) • Compile a list (in your notes) of thoughts you have during your reading of tomorrow’s assignment • Your “thinking” can take the form of opinions, questions, vocabulary definitions, connections to prior chapters and/or other texts, etc. • Aim for eight pieces of thinking, including pg. #s. • Ex: The narrator writes, “Winston was gelatinous with fatigue. Gelatinous was the right word.” (195). • Why is “gelatinous” the “right” word? Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle, flavorless solid substance, derived from collagen obtained from various animal by-products. So Winston is feeling like “jelly” because of how tired he is. This is probably from all of the work in preparation for Hate Week.

15. Book Two Ch. 9-10 • What were some of your reactions to the turn of War events? • What is the real meaning of “War is Peace”?

16. War is Peace • "The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living." • If the general standard of living were to be increased, wealth could be evenly distributed and there would be no need for a hierarchical society. Hence, for the privileged minority to maintain their position, they need to make sure that the standard of living for the masses remains low.

17. Ignorance is Strength • Economic scarcity is artificially created to magnify the differences between the classes. War helps people to accept the existence of this social and economic hierarchy. • “The consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival." • *Technological development under the Party is virtually nonexistent; scientific breakthroughs require creative thought, a concept outlawed by the Party. • The Party wishes to first conquer the whole surface of the Earth and remain in power by killing any form of independent thought. Scientific research is limited to finding new ways of killing large numbers of people without warning, and finding new ways to control the mind of an individual.

18. Pause for Reflection • “[The Book] was the product of a mind similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less fear-ridden. The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.“ • Do you agree? • Julia arrives- “Oh you’ve got it? Good.”

19. Socialist Agenda • In some ways the Party did carry out the Socialist agenda. Nothing in Oceania is owned individually; everything is owned by the Party, able to dispose of things as they see fit. • Oceanian society is defined by three classes in a pyramid structure, with Big Brother, the face of the Party, at the top. No rebellion is possible. The Party members are completely controlled and the proles are not educated enough to realize that the world could be any different.

20. In review • The Party members live under the watchful eyes of the Thought Police. Law as we know it does not exist. • Arrest or torture by the Thought Police is not punishment for crimes, it is the active removal of people who are suspected of independent thought dangerous to the ideals of The Party. • Major mental training is required, starting in childhood, to ensure political orthodoxy. By dislocating the sense of reality, the Party may well be able to hold onto its power forever.

21. A sense of Comfort… • Winston understands _______ but not ______. • However, he’s not mad after reading The Book. • He resolves to pass on the secret of The Book to his generation and spark the rebellion. Eventually the revolution must come, perhaps when their lives are long past.

22. Book Two Ch. 10 • "We are the dead," he says. "We are the dead," repeats Julia behind him. • Suddenly an iron voice declares behind them, "You are the dead." • What does Julia say was probably behind the picture of St. Clements Church above Charrington’s shop in a previous chapter? Why is this ironic? • What is the irony in the last line of the St. Clements rhyme?