1.How would you feel if you were in Winston's shoes at the start of Book III? Are there any parallels that you can draw in your own life to try to understand his situation? Write a 300 word response in which you consider these questions.
I would feel frightened and terrified of not knowing where I was or what day is it or even how I got to wherever I was . Especially not having food in my stomach and not knowing when I’ll receive another meal would make me feel even more panicked than what I already was. Winston was actually brave for all this to be going on although he mostly thought of food over everything else. If I was put in that predicament I would not have handled it so well, I would probably be kicking and screaming and most likely have a mental break down. I don’t know how Winston could have been so calm especially when that one guy got hit In the face for trying to give a starving man food, I would have freaked out and try to run out of the cell screaming. I would probably get vaporized on the spot or tortured to death. Knowing what Winston went through I can’t think of any of my life situation’s that could be similar to that of his situation.
2. What devices did the state have for enforcing total control?
The most important device for enforcing total control is the Telescreen. They can see what everyone was doing and what they were potentially thinking and they can use it against you.
3. What is Big Brother?
Big Brother is the embodiment of the party. He exists for the party’s uses but not in the same way as that Winston exists.
4. What thoughts did the woman hanging clothes in the yard cause Winston to have?
Winston had a few thoughts when he heard the woman outside singing while she was hanging clothes. He wondered whether or not she washed clothes for a living. He wondered if she was a slave to several grandchildren. He thought she was beautiful and very hard working.
5. How had Winston and Julia been spied on?
Winston and Julia had secret meetings above Mr.Charrington’s shop. They were spied on by a telescreen they knew nothing about. It was hid behind a picture mounted to the wall. Also Mr. Charrington was a member of the thought police and was spying on them as well.
6. Describe Winston's cell.
Winston didn’t know where he was; he figured he was in the Ministry of Love. His cell was high ceiling and windowless. With concealed lamps the cell was lit by cold light. He heard a low humming sound thought to be the air supply. There was a bench or shelf that was wide enough to sit on that ran around the wall. There were four telescreens, one on each wall.
7. What crime did Winston's first cell mate commit? His second?
Winston’s first cellmate was Ampleforth. Ampleforth is a poet that was composing a piece, and then he allowed the word ‘God’ to remain at the end of a line. The reason for doing so, he says, is because that it was impossible to change the last line. Nothing rhymes with ‘rod’ besides ‘God’, he claims. His second cellmate was is neighbor Mr.Parsons. Parsons says that he is there for Thoughtcrime. His kids turned him in for saying ‘Down with Big Brother!’ in his sleep.
8. What appears to be the ultimate torture?
The ultimate torture varies from individual. O’Brien says, “…it may be burial alive, or death by fire, or impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.” For Winston, the ultimate torture is rats. O’Brien sets a cage of rats on Winston’s head causing him to submit and give in to O’Brien, but most of all, to betray Julia. The most common method they use, before Room 101 where the ultimate torture takes place, is placing each limb in a separate cuff, and then when the dial is turned, each cuff pulls on the limbs. They make the person believe that they’re pulling them apart.
9. What methods of forcing confessions are used in the Ministry of Love?
Number one, which pretty much was the method for everything that they did, was torture. They would beat anyone into believing that they had committed the crimes that they were accused of. The ministry of Love also had a time of machine that would shock you throughout your entire body and the amount and shock would keep growing more and more if you said something wrong. Another device was room 101, they wanted to know just how far you would go, and that room would make anybody admit anything.
10. What is O'Brien's job? How does this change our opinions of him?
O’Brien’s job was to find the most loyal brotherhood members and turn them into the Party. He was to make them believe in everything the Party did. He had tricked Winston all along; he had been a member of the Ministry of Love the whole time. My opinions of O’Brien have changed but not dramatically. I think he’s a trader and he’s a horrible person. However, he thinks what he’s doing is right, and he believes this is the only was to help Winston. So really when everybody thinks what he’s doing to Winston is mean and out of hatred, O’Brien really thinks that he’s helping Winston, and that this is the right thing to do. So he’s not entirely horrible for that. If he were doing it to be mean, then that would be a completely different story.
11. Give one of Winston's "hallucinations" about the past?
One of Winston’s hallucinations about the past was when he thought he saw a picture of Aaronson, Rutherford, and Jones (men who were executed for treachery and sabotage after making the fullest possible confession) at a party function in New York. The same day they had been committed of their crimes.
12. Why does the party cling to power?
O’Brien says: “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.” The party isn’t particularly interested in the good of other; they are only interested solely in power. With all this power they can control the mind, everyone and everything. They are god, anything they wish can happen.
13. What is the picture of the future according to O'Brien?
A bleak place where people only grow more merciless as time goes on. A world where people will only have three emotions, fear rage triumph and self-abasement. No one will trust anyone else, the ties between even mother and child will be broken. There will be no loyalty or lover unless its to the party and BB. However there will always be this : power.
14. What demonstrates the ultimate breakdown of Winston's rebellion?
“He presented himself with propositions-“ The party says the earth is flat,” “The party says that ice is heavier then water” and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them.” Winston used a simple technique to train himself in crimestop. Just like completing a worksheet in school, one that focuses on a single subject so the student can learn. He presented himself with a series of problems and practiced with them.
15. How did Winston train himself to crimestop?
Winston taught himself to stop believe his own thoughts and just believe what the party tells him to believe.
16. What sent Winston to Room 101? What is his ultimate terror?
Winston woke up crying out his love for Julia. That meant that he still had not completely committed to BB.
17. Why did Winston and Julia not carry on their relationship after meeting again?
They both betrayed each other and were not able to love anymore. The party had stopped them from being able to love anyone but Big Brother.
18. People are often shocked at the sexual content in 1984. Why does sex play such a large role in the novel? What could Orwell be suggesting by having Big Brother try to manipulate and control that part of people's lives?
It plays such a large role in the novel because today we can do pretty much whatever we want and no one can say anything to us about it. Sex just so happens to be one of those freedoms. People do it in some of the most private moments in their life. By having Big Brother control this aspect of someone’s life is to show just how much conrol Big Brother has over everyone in Oceania.
19. What is the last sentence of 1984? What does it mean?
The last sentence in 1984 is “He loved Big Brother.” It means that in the end Winston lost and they brainwashed him into being like everyone else, following the rules and believing in everything The Party did and said.
20. What are your final thoughts after having read the book? Write a 300-word minimum response in which you can discuss thoughts, feelings and details about the novel that you found difficult, interesting, profound, etc.
George Orwell's novel, 1984 was extremely profound, if a bit overly politically charged. The fact that the Party controls anything and everything, is , I think, the theme of the whole book. Independant thought and language are controlled by the Thoughtpolice and a new language called Newspeak that deletes words and makes many avenues of speech imposible, especially thoughts that contradicted the ideas and teachings of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. The fact that the Party can control and limit thought and the language that these thoughts are expressed in, is so different from the way of life that we have, that it's difficult to wrap our minds around such a concept.In the beginning of the novel, Winston begins to resist the Party. He writes in a diary, thinks things that are against the Party,and falls in love with Julia. Winston thinks that although these things are illegal and he knows that he will get caught eventually, that his resistance is going unnoticed. Later on in the story, we find out that Winston had been watched by the Party for many years. They knew his every thought, every action, every desire. Winston is captured and totured for his "crimethink." The fact that the Party can watch anyone at any given time is very disturbing.Orwell's 1984 is very unique, in that it introduces to us concepts that are foiegn to our way of life, but based on totalitarian regimes of the past. We, living in a nation where our rights are protected find it profoundly disturbing that what we feel are basic haman rights are being violated by the government, without resistance from the public. The book was extremly different from anything I have ever read, because the concept of government control is different and more disturbing, to me, than anyhting I have ever heard about.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Book 1 of 1984
1.Read the biography of George Orwell at the following link: http://www.george-orwell.org/l_biography.htmlOnce you have done so, read the semi-biographical Orwell short story "Shooting an Elephant" at the following link: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/When you have completed these two readings, you will begin to understand the political backdrop for Orwell's writing.Write a 300+ word response to the two readings linking them to your first impressions of 1984.
George Orwell may not have had a long life but I feel that he accomplished many things. In the life that he lived, he experienced many different ways of life and truly got to see the world up close. HE was very bright which gave him many advantages and took him to many different places where he studied. He saw firsthand many different systems of government, and the effects that they brought. He lived through and overcame great hardships in his writing during the times such as The Spanish Civil War, World War II and the Great Depression. With him living through this and still managing, you can see how the complexity of his life ties into some of his deeper novels such as 1984.As his many characters convey, I feel that George Orwell is a brave and strong powered guy. There were many points in his life when he was in poverty or even homeless, but through it all he stayed strong and continued writing the truth. It wasn’t until his novel Animal Farm that George Orwell became financially stable in his writings. In his short story Shooting an Elephant, his character is far from happy about having to kill such a creature as an elephant. Yet he knows that he has to do it because it’s what the people want. In 1984, the main character Winston is constricted and not able to think freely, yet he stays strong in his opinions and writes the truth in his diary. I feel that all in all George Orwell is a man of rebellion and in his many writings, his characters are unhappy with the government and the state that they are in. Winston is unhappy with the party and feels the need to go against it. In Shooting an Elephant, the character hates his job and what the government stands for. I think that this roots back to George Orwells many different governments and his unsatisfaction in them.
2. How is the name of Winston's apartment ironic? How might it indicate that things are not always what they seem in Oceania?
Winston lives in Victory Mansions, although the name leads on, Winston's apartment is far from luxurious. Its in bad condition with a terrible odor, paint peeling from the walls with posters tacked from them. This is a prime example of how things in Oceania aren't always what they seem.
1. Describe the opening setting.
The story begins on a bright, cold day in April. Winston hurries into Victory Mansions trying to escape the dusty wind. Upon entering, the hallways smell like boiled cabbage and old rug mats. Everywhere he looked the eyes of Big Brother seemed to be following him from the posters.
2. Privacy is something that seems to be missing from the opening of the novel. Why is privacy so important to the human existence? Do you have privacy in your life?
In the novel, Winston is always watched by telescreens and the Thought Police. The book says, “Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed---no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic meters inside your skull.” Humans need privacy. People need to have their own possessions and thoughts. Without them, you have no purpose or feeling and you might as well not exist. Thankfully, I do have privacy in my life. I have my own room, my own things, and I can think freely and share or choose not to share my thoughts whenever I want.
3. What does Winston Smith do that is illegal?
Winston unconciously scribbles, "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER", repeatedly in his book, and officially committed a thought crime. Any malice towards the government is considered punishable by jail or worse. But because of the layout of his room and telescreen, he avoids the thought police.
4. What does his room look like?
His room is very empty, and quite bleak. It doesn’t seem welcoming what so ever, definitely not a place you would hangout in your spare time. It’s very small, and his telescreen is placed in an awkward place. The position the telescreen is in allows Winston to sit beside it, and not be seen.
5. What does Winston write in his diary? Why is this problematic?
Winston writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” repeatedly. He also writes down things that are punishable by death. He commits thought crime by saying things that are against the government. Thought crimes are punishable by death.
6. What are some ways in which the party controls the people in the story?
They put telescreens in peoples house to limit all of the privacy they then change all of the past in the ministry of truth to there likings and if anyone goes against them they vaporize them where they erase them like they where never born.
7. Who is Big Brother?
Big Brother is the government as a whole.
8. What does one do during 2 minutes of hate?
Enters a room with a giant telescreen, there the rebel leader is demonized making the people present grow very angry at him. Eventually one is consumed by unrelenting rage and begins to shout and throw thing at the telescreen.
9. What does it mean to be vaporized?
Erasing all forms of existence within you. You forget everything and nobody remembers you.
10. Who are the following? Describe them in detail:
a. O'Brien-
A member of the inner party, a member who’s post was so high and discreet Winston new very little about it. He is a large, charming man with a big burly face and glasses. Winston thinks highly of O’Brien, even hoping that maybe, just maybe he too questions the power of Big Brother.
b. Parson Family-
The Parson family is a small family who reside in the flat down the hall from Winston. Mrs. Parson is described in the book as a woman of about 30, who appears much older than she is. It is even rumored that dust can be found in the creases that line her face. She seems to be frail and have no control over her children. Mr. Parson, though he is not present when the family is first introduced in the novel, is described as a large, ignorant man who is very good with his hands. A great repair man.
c. dark-haired girl-
Mentioned in the story worked in the fiction department of the ministry of truth. Winston had an instant hatred against her, because he thought that she was a member from the thought police. He also thought that she was following him, and kept her eye on him. He believed that she was trying to get him to mess up.
d. Comrade Withers-
A former inner party member. He was found guilty of going against Big Brother, so he was vaporized for his so called crime.
11. Who is Katherine? What happened to her?
Katherine was Winston wife. They were together for 11 months
12. Define the following:
a. Double Think-
Holding to contradictory beliefs about something.
b. Newspeak-
The official language of Oceania
c. Duck Speak-
To speak or act without thinking before doing so.
d. Thought Crime-
A thought that consists of a crime, and by crime it means anything that could be issued as a threat to Big Brother.
13. What is Winston Smith's job? What exactly does he do?
Winston works at the Ministry of Truth's Record Department where he is a Propaganda Officer. He works with a machine that destroys documents. He than updates them with Big Brothers orders and Party records to match the new developments.
14. In what context is the Chestnut Tree Cafe mentioned?
The Chestnut Tree Café is mentioned in the context of a song lyric. The lyric would be played in between the bulletins the party gives out.
15. What are the slogans of the party?
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
16. What is the antique shop and why is it unique?
The old antique shop was called a secondhand store. This is where Winston bought his diary and bought a clear glass paperweight with a pink coral center from Mr. Charrington, the proprietor. This is where he leads Winston up to a room with no telelscreen and shows him a print of the St. Clement’s Church looks down from the wall, saying the old rhyme: “Oranges and lemons, say the bell of St. Clement’s. You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin’s.
17. Describe Winston Smith's encounter with the prostitute. Why is this relevant to the story?
The Party has very harsh hatred against sex, so one must just fantasize about it. So, Winston gets a prostitute and has sex with her. Winston says that the prole prostitute was old and ugly, but he went through the sex act anyways. This is relevant to the story because he is going against the Party, which means that he is threatening himself to get vaporized.
18. What are proles? Inner Party? Outer Party?
Proles are the common people, they are not considered Party members.
The inner party is the upper class.
The outer-party is the middle class.
19. Describe your reaction to the novel after reading the first Book.
It makes me realize how great it is to be an american and have freedom. I now value even the smaller things like being able to think what you want without being vaporized. I also Am able to value more the privileges of privacy and democracy. I think that Gorge Orwell has written a great book. He is very insightful about how power can corrupt peoples hearts. I would never want to imagine a world like the one in George Orwells book.
George Orwell may not have had a long life but I feel that he accomplished many things. In the life that he lived, he experienced many different ways of life and truly got to see the world up close. HE was very bright which gave him many advantages and took him to many different places where he studied. He saw firsthand many different systems of government, and the effects that they brought. He lived through and overcame great hardships in his writing during the times such as The Spanish Civil War, World War II and the Great Depression. With him living through this and still managing, you can see how the complexity of his life ties into some of his deeper novels such as 1984.As his many characters convey, I feel that George Orwell is a brave and strong powered guy. There were many points in his life when he was in poverty or even homeless, but through it all he stayed strong and continued writing the truth. It wasn’t until his novel Animal Farm that George Orwell became financially stable in his writings. In his short story Shooting an Elephant, his character is far from happy about having to kill such a creature as an elephant. Yet he knows that he has to do it because it’s what the people want. In 1984, the main character Winston is constricted and not able to think freely, yet he stays strong in his opinions and writes the truth in his diary. I feel that all in all George Orwell is a man of rebellion and in his many writings, his characters are unhappy with the government and the state that they are in. Winston is unhappy with the party and feels the need to go against it. In Shooting an Elephant, the character hates his job and what the government stands for. I think that this roots back to George Orwells many different governments and his unsatisfaction in them.
2. How is the name of Winston's apartment ironic? How might it indicate that things are not always what they seem in Oceania?
Winston lives in Victory Mansions, although the name leads on, Winston's apartment is far from luxurious. Its in bad condition with a terrible odor, paint peeling from the walls with posters tacked from them. This is a prime example of how things in Oceania aren't always what they seem.
1. Describe the opening setting.
The story begins on a bright, cold day in April. Winston hurries into Victory Mansions trying to escape the dusty wind. Upon entering, the hallways smell like boiled cabbage and old rug mats. Everywhere he looked the eyes of Big Brother seemed to be following him from the posters.
2. Privacy is something that seems to be missing from the opening of the novel. Why is privacy so important to the human existence? Do you have privacy in your life?
In the novel, Winston is always watched by telescreens and the Thought Police. The book says, “Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed---no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic meters inside your skull.” Humans need privacy. People need to have their own possessions and thoughts. Without them, you have no purpose or feeling and you might as well not exist. Thankfully, I do have privacy in my life. I have my own room, my own things, and I can think freely and share or choose not to share my thoughts whenever I want.
3. What does Winston Smith do that is illegal?
Winston unconciously scribbles, "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER", repeatedly in his book, and officially committed a thought crime. Any malice towards the government is considered punishable by jail or worse. But because of the layout of his room and telescreen, he avoids the thought police.
4. What does his room look like?
His room is very empty, and quite bleak. It doesn’t seem welcoming what so ever, definitely not a place you would hangout in your spare time. It’s very small, and his telescreen is placed in an awkward place. The position the telescreen is in allows Winston to sit beside it, and not be seen.
5. What does Winston write in his diary? Why is this problematic?
Winston writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” repeatedly. He also writes down things that are punishable by death. He commits thought crime by saying things that are against the government. Thought crimes are punishable by death.
6. What are some ways in which the party controls the people in the story?
They put telescreens in peoples house to limit all of the privacy they then change all of the past in the ministry of truth to there likings and if anyone goes against them they vaporize them where they erase them like they where never born.
7. Who is Big Brother?
Big Brother is the government as a whole.
8. What does one do during 2 minutes of hate?
Enters a room with a giant telescreen, there the rebel leader is demonized making the people present grow very angry at him. Eventually one is consumed by unrelenting rage and begins to shout and throw thing at the telescreen.
9. What does it mean to be vaporized?
Erasing all forms of existence within you. You forget everything and nobody remembers you.
10. Who are the following? Describe them in detail:
a. O'Brien-
A member of the inner party, a member who’s post was so high and discreet Winston new very little about it. He is a large, charming man with a big burly face and glasses. Winston thinks highly of O’Brien, even hoping that maybe, just maybe he too questions the power of Big Brother.
b. Parson Family-
The Parson family is a small family who reside in the flat down the hall from Winston. Mrs. Parson is described in the book as a woman of about 30, who appears much older than she is. It is even rumored that dust can be found in the creases that line her face. She seems to be frail and have no control over her children. Mr. Parson, though he is not present when the family is first introduced in the novel, is described as a large, ignorant man who is very good with his hands. A great repair man.
c. dark-haired girl-
Mentioned in the story worked in the fiction department of the ministry of truth. Winston had an instant hatred against her, because he thought that she was a member from the thought police. He also thought that she was following him, and kept her eye on him. He believed that she was trying to get him to mess up.
d. Comrade Withers-
A former inner party member. He was found guilty of going against Big Brother, so he was vaporized for his so called crime.
11. Who is Katherine? What happened to her?
Katherine was Winston wife. They were together for 11 months
12. Define the following:
a. Double Think-
Holding to contradictory beliefs about something.
b. Newspeak-
The official language of Oceania
c. Duck Speak-
To speak or act without thinking before doing so.
d. Thought Crime-
A thought that consists of a crime, and by crime it means anything that could be issued as a threat to Big Brother.
13. What is Winston Smith's job? What exactly does he do?
Winston works at the Ministry of Truth's Record Department where he is a Propaganda Officer. He works with a machine that destroys documents. He than updates them with Big Brothers orders and Party records to match the new developments.
14. In what context is the Chestnut Tree Cafe mentioned?
The Chestnut Tree Café is mentioned in the context of a song lyric. The lyric would be played in between the bulletins the party gives out.
15. What are the slogans of the party?
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
16. What is the antique shop and why is it unique?
The old antique shop was called a secondhand store. This is where Winston bought his diary and bought a clear glass paperweight with a pink coral center from Mr. Charrington, the proprietor. This is where he leads Winston up to a room with no telelscreen and shows him a print of the St. Clement’s Church looks down from the wall, saying the old rhyme: “Oranges and lemons, say the bell of St. Clement’s. You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin’s.
17. Describe Winston Smith's encounter with the prostitute. Why is this relevant to the story?
The Party has very harsh hatred against sex, so one must just fantasize about it. So, Winston gets a prostitute and has sex with her. Winston says that the prole prostitute was old and ugly, but he went through the sex act anyways. This is relevant to the story because he is going against the Party, which means that he is threatening himself to get vaporized.
18. What are proles? Inner Party? Outer Party?
Proles are the common people, they are not considered Party members.
The inner party is the upper class.
The outer-party is the middle class.
19. Describe your reaction to the novel after reading the first Book.
It makes me realize how great it is to be an american and have freedom. I now value even the smaller things like being able to think what you want without being vaporized. I also Am able to value more the privileges of privacy and democracy. I think that Gorge Orwell has written a great book. He is very insightful about how power can corrupt peoples hearts. I would never want to imagine a world like the one in George Orwells book.
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