1984 Quiz 1 (Chapter 1-7) Palmer

Chapter 1 from Crash Course

- Lives in airstrip one, formally known as england (Oceania) - Winston works in the ministry of truth dealing with erasing and replacing any media (like news, education, entertainment) that disagrees with the Party. -Ministry of Peace deals with war -Ministry of Law deals with law and order -Ministry of Plenty deals with economy -Winston lives in Victory Mansions where electricity is off and out, elevator doesn't work, and reeks of cabbage. -The main feature of the apartment is the telescreen which is a like a TV but can never be turned off (Transmits both ways meaning when you watch, it can watch you) -As long as Winston is in the field of vision, everything he does can be seen or heard. -Winston moves to an alcove in the apartment, where he cannot be seen by the telescreen and writes in a diary (WHICH IS ILLEGAL) -He writes a monologue including the two minutes hate about Goldstein (shown abusing a big brother figure) when he includes a dark-haired woman and O'Brien (member of the inner party). -Writes down "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" which is considered thoughtcrime and the punishment is to be vaporized. -People are fully controlled of the Party where there is no privacy or individuality. -Winston writing in a diary is a dangerous act and the words inside of it even more so. It shows his disagreement with the Party. -Society where people are expected to swallow the lies the Party tell them. -Encouraged to fear enemies that are real and imaginary. -Fear generates -> hate which leads to -> control -Winston associates two minute hate with fear which when it manifests it controls everyone.

Chapter 2

-After fixing Mrs. Parson's sink Winston is tormented by Mrs. Parson's children, who, being Junior Spies, accuse him of thoughtcrime. -Junior Spies is a program that teaches children to spy on their parents and adults and turning them in to the thought police if they believe they are guilty of being disloyal to the Party. -Mrs. Parson's seems afraid of her own children. -The children are very agitated because their mother won't let them go to a public hanging of some of the Party's political enemies in the park that evening. -Winston remembers a dream in which a man's voice—O'Brien's, he thinks—said to him, "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness."

Chapter 3

-He then dreams of a place called The Golden Country, where the dark-haired girl takes off her clothes and runs toward him in an act of freedom that annihilates the whole Party. He wakes with the word "Shakespeare" on his lips, not knowing where it came from. -A high-pitched whistle sounds from the telescreen, a signal that office workers must wake up. It is time for the Physical Jerks, a round of grotesque exercise. -Winston thinks about his childhood, which he barely remembers. Having no physical records such as photographs and documents, he thinks, makes one's life lose its outline in one's memory. -Winston remembers that no one had heard of Big Brother, the leader of the Party, before 1960, but stories about him now appear in histories going back to the 1930s. -Winston's fatalism is a central component of his character. He has been fearing the power of the Party for decades, and the guilt he feels after having committed a crime against the Party overwhelms him, rendering him absolutely certain that he will be caught and punished. -His general pessimism not only reflects the social conditioning against which Orwell hopes to warn his readers, but also casts a general gloom on the novel's atmosphere; it makes a dark world seem even darker. -An important aspect of the Party's oppression of its subjects is the forced repression of sexual appetite. Initially, Winston must confine his sexual desires to the realm of fantasy, as when he dreams in Chapter II of an imaginary Golden Country in which he makes love to the dark-haired girl. Like sex in general, the dark-haired girl is treated as an unfathomable mystery in this section; she is someone whom Winston simultaneously desires and distrusts with a profound paranoia.

Chapter 6

-He thinks about the Party's hatred of sex, and decides that their goal is to remove pleasure from the sexual act, so that it becomes merely a duty to the Party, a way of producing new Party members. Winston's former wife Katherine hated sex, and as soon as they realized they would never have children, they separated. -Winston desperately wants to have an enjoyable sexual affair, which he sees as the ultimate act of rebellion. In his diary, he writes that the prole prostitute was old and ugly, but that he went through with the sex act anyway. He realizes that recording the act in his diary hasn't alleviated his anger, depression, or rebellion. He still longs to shout profanities at the top of his voice.

Chapter 5

-Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. -Newspeak aims to narrow the range of thought to render thoughtcrime impossible. If there are no words in a language that are capable of expressing independent, rebellious thoughts, no one will ever be able to rebel, or even to conceive of the idea of rebellion. -Mr. Parsons comes into the canteen and elicits a contribution from Winston for neighborhood Hate Week. - Mr. Parsons apologizes to Winston for his children's harassment of him the day before, but is openly proud of their spirit. -Winston reflects that the alleged increase in the chocolate ration to twenty grams was actually a reduction from the day before, but those around him seem to accept the announcement joyfully and without suspicion. -Winston feels that he is being watched; he looks up and sees the dark-haired girl staring at him. He worries again that she is a Party agent.

What did Smith think about the dark-haired girl that worked in the Ministry of Truth?

He recognizes that she works in the fiction department at the Ministry of Truth. He hates, feels uneasy and hostile, and lusts for her while suspecting she is a spy.

What exactly did Smith do at his job?

His job is to rewrite history according to Party need.

Where did Winston Smith work?

Records Department in the Ministry of Truth or Minitrue.

Who was Goldstein?

"The Bad Guy" According to the Party, Goldstein used to be the legendary leader of the Brotherhood. He seems to have been a Party leader who fell out of favor with the regime. In any case, the Party describes him as the most dangerous and treacherous man in Oceania.

Chapter 5 Crash Course

-Syme is a co-worker or comrade, Winston meets in the lunchroom. -Syme is working on the 11th addition of the Newspeak Dictionary, eliminating words and reducing thought to simple party ideologies. -Syme says reading classic literature or having a conversation will be impossible one day. -Syme says that even the party slogans will change because if freedom is slavery, how can you define freedom if the word itself has been abolished? -Syme and Winston overhear someone parroting back words and Syme calls this duckspeak which then leads Winston to the conclusion that Syme will be vaporized for being too intelligent and says things he shouldn't. -Mr. Parsons joins the conversation and brags about how his 7 year old daughter turned in shady man to the thought police. -An announcement from the Ministry of Plenty comes on and Winston knows the scarcity of resources and the general bleakness in everyday life. -The Ministry of Plenty says that they are living in an age where the economy is at it's best but Winston remembers that just last week there was a shortage on chocolate so the ration amount decreased. -During this announcement there is a dark-haired girl who keeps glancing at Winston but hopes this will not be noticed. -But since Winston does see, this worries him. He thinks that his facial expressions or facecrime might give away his disagreement with the Party. -All the characters have some reasons to be worried about their survival: Syme is good at his job but he's too intelligent because intelligent people cannot be controlled. Parsons is proud of his kids reporting people but if kids are encouraged to report on their families, it is only a matter of time before something goes wrong. And his kids might actually report him and his wife. Winston is at stake too because without knowing his facial expressions might give away what he is actually thinking. -The dark haired girl that got caught noticing Winston in a way that is anything but unemotional or hateful could also get him in trouble with the Party. -Winston has no control over his facial expressions around her BUT he's trying to which foreshadows an IMPORTANT CONNECTION.

Chapter 1

-Telescreen is a screen uses propaganda, is never off, and it is through this the Thought Police are known to monitor the actions of citizens. -Proles are the people who are deemed so insignificant they are not watched by the Party. -Before the two minutes hate when people are getting wiped into a frenzy at the enemies of Oceania, Winston is disgusted with the people and sees in O'Brien's eyes (when they make eye contact) that he might feel the same way. -Freedom is a shocking and alien notion.

Chapter 7

-Winston believes that the Party cannot be destroyed from within, and that even the Brotherhood, a legendary revolutionary group, lacks the wherewithal to defeat the mighty Thought Police. -The proles lead brutish, ignorant, animalistic lives, and lack both the energy and interest to revolt; most of them do not even understand that the Party is oppressing them. -The Party claims to have built ideal cities, but London, where Winston lives, is a wreck: the electricity seldom works, buildings decay, and people live in poverty and fear. Lacking a reliable official record, Winston does not know what to think about the past. The Party's claims that it has increased the literacy rate, reduced the infant mortality rate, and given everyone better food and shelter could all be fantasy. Winston suspects that these claims are untrue, but he has no way to know for sure, since history has been written entirely by the Party. -Winston remembers an occasion when he caught the Party in a lie. In the mid-1960s, a cultural backlash caused the original leaders of the Revolution to be arrested. One day, Winston saw a few of these deposed leaders sitting at the Chestnut Tree Café, a gathering place for out-of-favor Party members. A song played—"Under the spreading chestnut tree / I sold you and you sold me"—and one of the Party members, Rutherford, began to weep. Winston never forgot the incident, and one day came upon a photograph that proved that the Party members had been in New York at the time that they were allegedly committing treason in Eurasia. Terrified, Winston destroyed the photograph, but it remains embedded in his memory as a concrete example of Party dishonesty. -Winston thinks of his writing in his diary as a kind of letter to O'Brien. Though Winston knows almost nothing about O'Brien beyond his name, he is sure that he detects a strain of independence and rebellion in him, a consciousness of oppression similar to Winston's own. Thinking about the Party's control of every record of the truth, Winston realizes that the Party requires its members to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears. He believes that true freedom lies in the ability to interpret reality as one perceives it, to be able to say "2 + 2 = 4."

Chapter 7 Crash Course

-Winston believes that the hope lies with the proles. Since they are the majority of 85% they can overthrow the Party. -Winston then takes out a children's history book loaned by Mrs. Parsons and copies a passage that describes the horrors of capitalism. Which then leads him to wonder how much of what he's copying is actually true. -Winston believes what he's has held in his hand proof the Party's history is not true because in the 1960s many original leaders of the revolution were declared traitors or killed. Few went into hiding like Goldstein. -Three men who survived were Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford who confessed and were temporarily paroled. -Five years later a photograph came across his desk rolled inside another piece of paper. It showed the three at a party function on which they confessed to having been on enemy soil. -This was proof that the Party did lie about history. -Winston put it in the memory tube so it can be burned, but never forgot about it. -At this point, Winston starts to question his sanity even though his job entails of rewriting documents, history should not be alterable. EVEN if the Party thinks it is -IF he is right and the Party is wrong, does that make him crazy? -If there is only one person that believes in something does that make that person a lunatic OR does it simply make that persona minority of one? -Winston admits that if the photo came across his desk now he'd keep it. -Winston reflects on how much he's changed and his desire for an engaged rebellion is growing. -Before the revolution, the Party declares that London was not as beautiful as it is today. -IF PEOPLE TELL A LIE OFTEN ENOUGH AND THERE ARE NO OTHER OPINIONS PROVING OTHERWISE, PEOPLE WILL START TO BELIEVE IT IS TRUE -This shows up in one of Orwell's themes of being vigilant -> remember the past and recognize lies

Chapter 4 Crash Course

-Winston changes what was written in past newspapers, films, and photographs. -Workers are creating truth. -He corrects the media so it appears that the Party always predicts the outcome. -The old copy is placed in the memory hole to later be burned in an incinerator and replaced by its new and improved copy. -Any reference to people who have been killed by the party has to be removed and as a result forgotten. -Vaporized people are now labeled as unpersons who are deleted from text and therefore deleted from history. Showing how much power the Party actually holds being able to have people born and die by their hands. -They even rewrite poems that are ideologically offensive to the Party. -Winston partly likes this because it does allow for some creativity like when he is replacing Withers (an unperson) with an imaginary person called Ogilvy. -The Ministry of Truth also creates entertainment for Proles (regular people not watched by the Thought Police because they are deemed insignificant) like alcohol, pornography, and gambling. -People should always question what they read. Because subtle changes in word choice can change the perception of truth. -People are enslaved to the Party by being forced to altering media and by burning the original copy. -The concequences of remembering the past as it actually was, is dangerous and dire. -People must hand over their power to the state or they lose the power to live their lives.

Chapter 3 Crash Course

-Winston dreams of his mother, father, and little sister. -During one of the earlier purges, his sister and mother disappear. -Because of this he believes his mother and sister have been sacrificed so he can live. -This was a time of love and privacy when now there is only pain, fear, and hatred. -Winston feels bad for not treating his mother better and not being able to make amends before her disappearance. - Oldthink are illegal memories prior to the Party are introduced here. -Then the telescreen calls for 30 to 40 year old to do exercise during so Winston cannot remember a time where Oceania was not at war. -He also remembers that not even 4 years earlier Oceania was allies with Eurasia (now their enemy) BUT according to the Party they have always been at war with them. -He then reflects that if you tell a lie often enough, it will be accepted as the truth. -As the woman in the telescreen yells at him, Winston hides his emotion so he does not give away his disdain for the party. -Reflecting on his memories of his mother and sister, he realizes people do not remember the past the way it actually was. -Foreshadows that Winston will not be able to remember the past down the road. -The Party rewrites history so they can control people's thoughts. (An evil enemy must be only seen as absolute evil) -A current enemy is a past ally must have some good qualities but Winston cannot fully remember. -If true this means that evil cannot be absolute. -Winston is terrified that the Party can rewrite history so it can be as it never happened. -This creates inner conflict with Winston as it is his very job to rewrite history. -The Party convinces the people that the way things are now is better than when it was under capitalism.

Chapter 6 Crash Course

-Winston is writing in his diary about the time he hired a prole prostitute. -The practice is forbidden and if Winston been caught he would have spent 5 years in a forced labor camp. -Sexual urges can be indulged as long as the sex is joyless -Sex is discouraged -Couples need the approval of the Party to even get married. And the only reason to get married is to have kids as a result. -The Party is trying to kill human instincts. -Winston recalls that the prostitute was old and toothless which caused the experience to be dreadful. -He writes down the experience to help him forget of the memory BUT it doesn't. -Winston is also said to have been married to a woman named Katherine for 15 months. She is a Party puppet and is incapable of original thought. -Divorce is unlawful and separation is discouraged but after 15 months the marriage became intolerable so they were allowed to separate, and have not seen each other in 11 years. -It is revealed that the dark haired girl of Chapter 5 is a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League which encourages celibacy and promotes that sex is ugly. -Winston knows that sex could be more and we learn that he actually yearns for more (love or intimate connection) -Shows how the Party has taken all the joy out of life and turned one of humankind's best gifts into something loveless and repellent. -The narrator tells the reader that the sexual act preformed successfully IS rebellion.

Chapter 2 Crash Course

-Winston opens the door to see Mrs. Parsons and not the thought police. -Mrs. Parsons is his neighbor who asks Winston to fix her plumbing (sink). -As he is finishing fixing it, he sees Mrs. Parson's kids running around and shooting each other with fake guns. -Winston believes children are horrible and an example he uses is that they would renounce their own parents to the thought police. -Then there is a news flash that shouts success against the Eurasian army who are the enemies of Oceania. -Because of this the patriotic song "Oceania, tis for thee" comes on the telescreen as bombs explode in the distance which is a common occurrence. -Winston returns to his diary and knows he will die for his rebellion for thoughtcrime and will be vaporized. -Winston then remembers a time when London was a very different place. -Winston realizes the Party controls reality itself and seeks to control his own reality by recording his thoughts in his diary.

Chapter 4

-Winston works with a "speakwrite" (a machine that types as he dictates into it) -Big Brother can never be wrong Even when the citizens of Airstrip One are forced to live with less food, they are told that they are being given more than ever and, by and large, they believe it. -Since Comrade Withers was executed as an enemy of the Party, it is unacceptable to have a document on file praising him as a loyal Party member. -Thousands of workers correct the flow of history to make it match party ideology

What did Smith mean when he thought, "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

Smith is showing the problem Winston is facing. Winston believes that the only answer is for the people to stand up to abusive Party. He then realizes that the people are in an impossible situation. Nothing but the act of rebellion will actually wake them up to the situation they are in, but they must be made aware of their situation in order to want to rebel.

What do you think Winston meant when he wrote "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."

Winston's saying that freedom is being able to speak the truth without fear of punishment. To be able to separate your ideology, or the way you think, from what benefits the Party at the time.