Notes

I

1. What is the effect of the juxtaposition at the beginning of this section?

2. What is the effect of the anaphora in this sentence? “You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized”.

3. How is paradox involved with the descriptions of the government ministries?

4. How is paradox found in the description of Victory Gin?

5. What is ironic about the statement that “nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws”?

6. What is the effect of the syntax in Winston’s journal entry for April 4th, 1984?

7. How is the Junior Anti-Sex League sash an example of paradox?

8. What contradictions appear in O’Brien’s physical description?

9. Why does Goldstein’s influence never seem to decline? Why doesn’t the government ever capture him?

10. What are some techniques used on the telescreen to encourage the Party members’ hatred of Goldstein?

11. What is the source of the power behind the hatred that the viewers feel?
12. Explain the allusion in Chapter I.

13. How does syntax reflect Winston’s sexual frustration with Julia?

14. Why does the “B-B” chant fill Winston with horror?

15. What is the rhetorical effect of the word voluptuously in Chapter I?

II

1. What is the rhetorical effect of the physical description of Mrs. Parsons?

2. Explain the meaning behind the statement “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness”.

3. How can the reader tell that Winston has become desensitized to the war?

4. How does Winston’s descent into thoughtcrime give his life more urgency?
III

1. Explain the significance of Winston’s dream in the saloon of a ship.

2. Explain the effect of the allusion to Shakespeare in Chapter III.

3. What is the most powerful element of Julia’s careless nudity?

4. Why does the Party never acknowledge when it changes from fighting Eurasia to Eastasia?

5. What is the effect of the anaphora in Winston’s explanation of doublethink?
IV

1. What is the metaphoric meaning of the memory holes?

2. What is the effect of the tone in the paragraph that begins with “Winston dialed back numbers”?

3. What is the effect of the oxymoron “armies of reference clerks”?

4. Why are people allowed to leave the Ministry of Love for a year or two before being executed for thoughtcrimes?

5. What is the effect of Winston’s inner debate over how to honor Comrade Ogilvy?

V

1. In our own time, what might Syme have used to start his conversation with Winston?

2. What is perhaps the most grotesque sign of the desensitization that has taken place in Oceania with regard to violence, in Syme and Winston’s conversation?

3. Is “ungood” clearer in meaning than “bad”? Why or why not?

4. What is Newspeak a metaphor of?

5. How is Winston’s prophecy of Syme’s imminent disappearance ironic?

6. What is the effect of comparing the man from the Fiction Department to a duck? 7. What is the effect of the repetition in this sentence?

As compared with last year there was more food, more clothes, more houses, more furniture,

more cooking-pots, more fuel, more ships, more helicopters, more books, more babies—more of

everything except disease, crime, and insanity.

8. Why is this plenty not sufficient for Winston?

9. Why is it ironic that the Party puts forth the Aryan look (blond hair, blue eyes) as an ideal?

10. What is ironic about Parsons’ praise for the Ministry of Plenty?

11. How is humor used at the end of this section?

VI

1. Why is the memory of the prostitute so frustrating for Winston?

2. According to the Party, what is the most harmful part of the sex act?

3. What has Winston come to want most about sex? What is the significance of this?
VII

1. Why is it ironic that the proles get so outraged by a shortage of cooking pots?

2. What is ironic about the Party’s claims that, before the Revolution, children had been sold into factories at age six?

3. Why are the Party’s statistics meaningless?

4. Identify the foreshadowing in Chapter VII.

VIII

1. What is the effect of the whiff of genuine coffee at the beginning of this section?

2. How is the Party interaction at the Community Center compared to a machine?

3. What, to the proles, is a “serious piece of news”?

4. What is the effect of the old man’s complaints about the change from pints to half-liters of beer?

5. Why does Winston purchase the piece of coral?

6. Why is it ironic that Winston chooses not to buy the picture on the wall?