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.