1984 Book 2 Ch 1-10 Questions

(ch 5) Assess why Julia does not believe that widespread opposition to the government exists.

(She doesn't remember the initial struggle when the party came to power.) She grew up with Ingsoc so Big Brother and the Party are ingrained in her.

(ch 10) Infer what the prole woman's singing represents for Winston.

A sense of freedom to Winston

(ch 9) Contrast Winston's reaction to The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism with Julia's.

He is excited to read it and he engrossed himself in it but Julia dozes off while Winston is reading.

(ch 5) Generalize why Winston feels a sense of "impending death" while finding sanctuary in the room.

He knows that they could be arrested for being together. He is really worried that he will be arrested and killed for being with her and seeing his friends vanish reinforce that feeling.

(ch 10) Generalize how Winston's opinion of proles has changed since the beginning of the novel.

He now views them as humans (not like the automatons of the Party that he usually talks to.)

(ch 10) Explain how Winston believes that the dictatorial governments will eventually be overthrown.

He thinks all the proles in the world will become aware of the similarities of their lives and will come together to over throw the world.

(ch 6) Generalize why Winston does not plan to immediately retrieve the item from O'Brien.

He thought he was being watched by the thought police and he thinks O'Brien is going to give him more than just a dictionary.

(ch 9) Show how Winston is wrongly comforted by thinking, "Sanity is not statistical."

He was falsely lulled into thinking that he was in the right, even though he was in a very small minority. (right about what??)

(ch 5) Explain Winston's comment, "Dirty or clean, the room was paradise."

It gave him a break from the hate and danger of the outside world. Now Winston and Julia can be two people in love.

(ch 5) Examine why the Party hangs the posters of the Eurasian soldier.

It redirects the anger of the citizens onto the Eurasian soldiers so they won't get mad at the party or Big Brother.

(ch 7) Examine Winston's childhood reaction to the shortage of food. Do you believe that he was acting selfishly or appropriately toward his mother and sister?

It was selfish of him expect to receive more food than other members of his family

(ch 7) From Julia and Winston's perspective, explain the difference between confession and betrayal.

Julia and Winston both think they would confess to any crimes that they have committed. But if they betrayed each other that means they would no longer love each other.

(ch 5) Analyze how Julia accepts much of the Party's orthodoxy while rebelling against it.

Julia doesn't think a lot about the Party's orthodoxy. She is used to and accepts the government so she only cares about the Party when it personally affects her. (She may only claim to care about rebelling as an excuse to fool around)

(ch 7) Formulate how successful the Party was at ridding Winston of his feelings. How has this changed over the course of the novel?

The party successfully rid Winston of his feelings about his family and his thoughts about violence but since meeting Julia he has been experiencing more and more feelings.

(ch 9) Explain the Party's true meaning of the slogan, "War is Peace."

The war allows the ruling powers to keep the citizens ignorant of other people outside of their daily lives. This ignorance prevents the people from rising up so it keeps the peace.

(ch 9) Analyze the government's ultimate reason for perpetuating the war.

The war continually consumes items of industrial output without allowing the goods to be used to increase the world's wealth. Also the citizens remain ignorant and allow power to be contained by a small group of people.

(ch 5) Show what Winston means when he says, "Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."

There is no accurate past because the Party alters history to match up with what they say so that they will look good and always be right.

(ch 9) Generalize the Party's two key aims and the two problems that it tries to solve.

They aim to conquer the entire earth and extinguish all independent thought. And how to tell what another person is thinking and how to kill a million people in a few seconds without providing any warning.

(ch 8) What do Winston and Julia agree not to do?

They do not agree to separate and never see each other again.

(ch 8) Evaluate to what degree Winston and Julia should trust O'Brien.

They shouldn't trust O'Brien because they have no solid evidence to prove that he is against Big Brother, that he is a part of the brotherhood or even if there is a brotherhood.

(ch 8) Analyze what Julia and Winston agree to do in the name of the Brotherhood. How, if at all, could Julia and Winston help their society by performing these actions?

They're essentially agreeing to be terrorist of today. When they agree to do these things they commit some of the same outrageous things that are detested by Big Brother.

(ch 7) What does Winston expect to keep to himself when he is in the Ministry of Love?

Winston expects to keep the workings of his inner heart to himself.

(ch 7) Assess the irony in Winston's view of the proles.

Winston had looked down on the proles as lesser people when, in reality, the proles have acted much more human than he has.

(ch 7) Discuss how Winston had previously dealt with memories of separating from his mother.

Winston had restrained the memories and wrongly thought that he had killed his mother.

(ch 9) Why does Winston have to work ninety hours in five days?

Winston has to then change all documentation to make it seem that Oceania has always been fighting against Eastasia.

(ch 6) Describe how Winston is supposed to retrieve the item from O'Brien.

Winston is supposed to pick up the dictionary from O'Brien's home.

(ch 5) Contrast Julia and Winston's reactions to questioning the Party's teachings.

Winston questions how the Party's involved in everything (whether it involves him or not). Julia is only worried about how the Party affects her.

(ch 8) Summarize the secret information Winston shares with O'Brien.

Winston tells O'Brien about he and Julia occupying the room over Mr. Charrington's shop.

(ch 5) Describe the preparations for Hate Week.

processions, meetings, parades, lectures, new slogans and songs, faking new pictures and articles, and decorating buildings.

(ch 5) List two historical details that Winston questions, but Julia accepts.

the Party claiming to have invented the airplane, and the enemy changing from Eastasia to Eurasia.

(ch 6) What does O'Brien offer to Winston?

the tenth edition of the Newspeak dictionary

(ch 7) Compare the forced-labor camps and Reclamation Centers of Winston's youth to the Holocaust concentration camps of World War II.

Citizens were sent to forced-labor camps and Reclamation Centers by force and Jews were forced to concentration camps. (concentration camps were racially based)

(ch 9) Tell how the Party can control its citizens more effectively than past rulers could.

Current technology enables the Party to keep citizens under constant surveillance and to use technology to spread propaganda.

(ch 9) Describe the concept of doublethink and provide an example of it.

Doublethink is the ability to simultaneously hold two contradictory concepts in one's mind and to accept both of them. This is shown by the Ministry of Peace dealing with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.

(ch 10) From where does the voice speak to Winston and Julia? How might Winston and Julia have found the telescreen?

From the telescreen hidden behind the picture of St. Clement's Church. They could've found it had Julia cleaned behind the picture earlier like she had thought about doing.

(ch 8) Identify O'Brien's response regarding where he and Winston will meet again, as well as Winston's opinion of the response.

He agreed to Winston's comment that they will meet "in the place where there is no darkness." Winston sees this as confirmation that they will work together on the same side.

(ch 6) Show why going to O'Brien's home is important to Winston.

He has felt a link between them and since no directories exist he feels like being invited to O'Brien's house and being given the address are important.

(ch 7) What rare emotional reaction does Winston display when he awakes?

He is crying

(ch 10) Analyze the role that Mr. Charrington plays in Winston and Julia's arrest.

Mr. Charrington is and always has been a member of the thought police. He changed his identity and used O'Brien to give them a false sense of safety in the room.

(ch 10) Differentiate Mr. Charringon's current use of the poem about London's churches and the previous times when Winston had heard it.

Now the ending of the poem, "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head," sounds threatening but then the poem brought memories of pre-war London and historical churches to Winston.

(ch 6) Analyze how O'Brien flatters and tries to bond with Winston.

O'Brien mentions that Winston writes Newspeak elegantly. He also alludes to Winston's comrade, Syme.

(ch 8) Summarize the evidence that proves to Winston that O'Brien is a political conspirator.

O'Brien tells Winston of the Brotherhood and promises to send him a book.

(ch 8) Show how O'Brien makes Winston feel that he is part of a secret group without actually providing him with any concrete information.

O'Brien tells Winston that the Brotherhood exists, but does not tell him who else is in it or many details about how it works.

(ch 8) Tell which two comments O'Brien states, or restates from Winston, to appeal personally to him.

O'Brien tells Winston, "We are the dead." He also states, "The past is more important."

(ch 8) What action of O'Brien's shocks Winston and Julia?

O'Brien turns off the telescreen.

(ch 8) Contrast O'Brien's apartment building to Winston's.

O'Brien's apartment building has a doorman with plush interiors and a working elevator. And Winston's elevator is broken. The paint on the walls is also peeling. O'Brien's building smells like expensive wine and tobacco and Winston's smells like boiled cabbage.

(ch 7) Describe Oceania in Winston's childhood.

People were starving, there was unrest, gangs roamed the streets, air raids and machine-gun fire were frequent.

(ch 6) Evaluate Winston's belief, "The end was contained in the beginning."

Since the beginning of the book he thinks that he is going to be arrested by the thought police. He's encouraging it by continuing to write in his diary, having a relationship with Julia, renting a room, and responding to O'Brien's summons even though he knows that he could be killed for these things.

(ch 5) Tell how Syme became an unperson.

Syme vanished, and his name was no longer found in any records or postings.

(ch 9) Summarize the crowd's reaction when the speaker remarks that Oceania is fighting against Eastasia.

The crowd is embarrassed that all their signs say "Eurasia." They think that Emmanuel Goldstein has sabotaged them.

(ch 9) Show why the war continues, even though there is no chance of a decisive victory on either side.

The nations battle for control of cheap labor power to use to make armaments which the countries will then use to continue fighting the war.

(ch 10) Examine the symbolism of the thought police smashing the coral paperweight.

The paperweight represented a world before the Party to Winston. By smashing it, the thought police demonstrate that they control the current world and the history from before the Party gained control.