ENGLISH 12 (CP) Test Review

2. “Early in life I had noticed
that no event is ever
correctly reported in a
newspaper.”

3. Context:
• Dictators such as Adolf Hitler in Germany
and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union
inspired Orwell’s hatred of totalitarianism
and political authority. 1984 was largely
written as a warning against totalitarian
society.
• In Spain, Germany, and the
Soviet Union, Orwell personally
witnessed absolute political
authority and how regimes
used technology as a tool of
repression.

4. Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political
system that strives to regulate nearly every aspect
of public and private life.
Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain
themselves in political power by means of an official
all-embracing ideology and propaganda
disseminated through the state-controlled mass
media, a single party that controls the state,
personality cults, control over the economy,
regulation and restriction of free discussion and
criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and
widespread use of state terrorism.

5. Joseph Stalin may have been Orwell’s
inspiration for Big Brother
“…the poster gazed from the wall. It depicted simply an
enormous face, more than a meter wide: the face of a
man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache
and ruggedly handsome features."

7. Social class disparity in Oceania

8. Synopsis
• 1984 was published in 1949 and is a
dystopian novel about a collectivist
totalitarian oligarchy called Oceania
• The Party, which is closely patterned after
Soviet Bolsheviks, is lead by Big Brother
• The novel opens with the protagonist,
Winston Smith, committing thoughtcrime
by keeping an illegal diary which describes
his nightmarish life and hatred of The
Party.

9. Synopsis cont…
• Winston falls deeper into his hatred of The
Party and begins to commit thought crime all
the time.
• He falls in love with a woman named Julia
who also hates The Party.
• Eventually they both attempt to join an anti-
Party group called The Brotherhood and this
leads to some major problems for Winston
and Julia.

10. Big Brother is Watching YOU
“The face of a man...with a heavy black
moustache and ruggedly handsome features”

11. Background to Nineteen Eighty-Four
• The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is
based upon two totalitarian
dictatorships, Soviet Russia and Nazi
Germany.
• The world of Ingsoc (English
socialism) bears strong resemblances
to the Soviet Union, but much of the
detail of the life comes from Germany.

12. EVER since I have been
scrutinizing political events, I
have taken a tremendous interest
in propagandist activity. I saw
that the Socialist-Marxist
organizations mastered and
applied this instrument with
astounding skill. And I soon
realized that the correct use of
propaganda is a true art which
has remained practically
unknown to the bourgeois
parties.
Nazi Germany
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
Volume One - A Reckoning

13. The Nuremberg Rallies
After 1933, the rallies were held in the
first half of September under the label of
("National Day of the (Nazi)Party of the
German People"), which was meant to
symbolize the [apparent] solidarity
between the German people and the Nazi
Party.

14. The Nuremberg Rallies

15. • Like Stalin, Adolph Hitler denied his
subjects access to the truth. His Third
Reich “can be read as a war against
memory – an Orwellian falsification of
reality...” (Primo Levi) Oceania conducts
an unceasing war on memory-evidence
that conflicts with the latest official line is
systematically destroyed & a false trail is
laid in its place.

17. •We do not intend to use the radio only for our
partisan purposes. We want room for
entertainment, popular arts, games, jokes and
music. But everything should have a
relationship to our day. Everything should
include the theme of our great reconstructive
work, or at least not stand in its way. Above
all it is necessary to clearly centralize all
radio activities, to place spiritual tasks ahead
of technical ones, to introduce the leadership
principle, to provide a clear worldview, and to
present this worldview in flexible ways.
- Goebbels

18. What does this remind you of?
“How easy it was, thought Winston, if you
did not look about you, to believe that the
physical type set up by the Party as an
ideal, - tall muscular youths and deep
bosomed maidens, blond haired, vital,
sunburnt, carefree –existed and even
predominated”

19. Nineteen Eighty-Four
• A novel that is also an essay
• Winston’s experience is typical of what
happens to people in Ingsoc.
• Winston’s journey to the Ministry of Love
(Torture Chambers) is inevitable from the
time he picks up the diary.

20. Why keep a diary?
Anne Frank keeps a diary to explore what she feels and
reflect on what she knows.
She also keeps it as a way of comforting herself.
This activity is difficult for Winston because the activity of
diary writing becomes impossible.
No privacy exists.
‘Big Brother is watching you.’

21. • Surveillance and Control
The people of this society are constantly being watched by
telescreens (monitors that have an ability to project images
and take in images)
They are also watching each other. Any
small facial gesture or sigh can give you away.
It doesn’t matter if you are innocent

22. Themes
The deprivation of privacy
The prohibition of sex.
The destruction of history.
The essential nature of memory.
An appreciation of the past.
The ultimate fallibility of the human mind.

23. The Human Need For Freedom
• In the society Orwell imagines, people
could not:
– Love who they want
– Work where they want
– Walk where they want
– Eat what they want
– Write anything down
– Weren't allowed to have memories
What is someone willing to risk for freedom?

24. From Nineteen Eight-Four
• Freedom is the freedom to say that two
plus two makes four. If this is granted, all
else follows.
• Thoughtcrime does not entail death,
thoughtcrime IS death.

25. Newspeak
The official language of Oceania.
Newspeak is "politically correct"
speech taken to its maximum
extent

26. Oceania –
One of the 3 Superstates. (Political System:
Ingsoc) Winston Smith's home. Comprised
of North and South America, Britain,
Australia, and southern portions of Africa.
Newspeak is the official language of
Oceania, but standard English is still spoken
by many.

28. • In the world of 1984, language is reduced,
so that thoughts are also reduced
Education
• Don’t you see that the whole aim of
Newspeak is to narrow the range of
thought? In the end we will make
thoughtcrime virtually impossible, because
there will be no words to express it.

29. • “In fact there will be no thought. Orthodoxy
means not thinking. Orthodoxy is
unconsciousness”
• People believe what they are told because
doubting a fact means death. People just
switch off

30. The importance of history
• One of Winston’s jobs is to change the
past so that it “fits into” the present beliefs
of those in power.
• No one values history, even personal
history is worthless.

31. Memory and creativity
Remembers his mother.
His mother’s suffering.
His adult awareness of his mother’s suffering.
His mother’s loyalties.
The impossibility of feeling sorrow.
Julia and he make love because it is a political act

32. Human connections
• Sex is seen as a nasty thing
you do to have babies.
• “When you make love…you feel happy
and don’t give a damn about anything.
They can’t bear you to feel like that….If
you are happy inside yourself why would
you give a damn about Big Brother”

33. Loyalty to the party
transcends even family ties.
All marriages are arranged to produce children
to serve the state. From the time that these
offspring are very young, they are trained as
spies. Many children, turn their parents in to
the Thought Police. Neither the parents nor
the children are supposed to have any love
for one another. There is no love in the world
of Big Brother.

34. Characters: Winston Smith # 6079
Buys diary to communicate with future.
Regimented life.
Main character and the narrator of the story.
39 years old. Low-ranking member of the ruling Party
He secretly hates Big Brother and harbors revolutionary dreams
Outraged by party’s attempt to destroy sexual instinct.
Relationship with Julia allows him to feel human.
Capable of recalling and thinking.

35. Characters: Julia
Julia is Winston’s 25 year old lover
She is a beautiful, dark-haired woman who enjoys
sex and claims to have had affairs with many Party
members
Natural, but not intellectual as is Winston
Resourceful, spontaneous, guiltless.
Falls asleep as Winston reads Goldstein.
She is optimistic and her rebellion is small & personal

36. Characters: O’Brien
• A mysterious, powerful, and
sophisticated member of the
Inner Party
• Winston believes O’Brien is a
member of the “Brotherhood” -- a
legendary group of anti-Party
rebels
• Winston trusts and admires
O’Brien, but never quite figures
him out

37. Characters: Mr. Charrington
• A kind and encouraging old man who runs a
second-hand shop in the prole district
• He rents Winston and Julia a room without a
telescreen so they can carry on their love
affair
• He seems supportive of Winston’s rebellion
against the Party

38. Characters: The Proles
• - Proletarians or lower, working classes. Approximately 85%
of Oceania's population are in this class. Members of the
party viewed them as animals. They are not as rigidly
observed as members of the party, and very few (if any)
have telescreens in their home. They are permitted to
indulge in pornography, prostitution, and other acts
considered thoughtcrime, simply because it would be
impossible to observe all of them as rigidly as the party
observes its own members. Plus, allowing them to indulge in
these "little joys" helps to keep the masses content.

39. Is Nineteen Eight-Four
a novel of despair?
NO – George Orwell offers a political choice
between the protection of truth and a slide
into expedient falsehood for the benefit of
rulers and the exploitation of the ruled.
It is a subversive novel, a protest against
immoral rulers, the authoritarian in every
personality and unquestioning conformism

40. Nineteen Eight-Four can be
seen as an account of the
forces that endanger liberty and
the need to resist them

41. Characters: Big Brother
• Big Brother is the perceived ruler of Oceania
-- he looks like a combination of Hitler and
Stalin
Big Brother’s God-like image is stamped on
coins and projected on telescreens -- his face
is unavoidable

42. 1984: Oceania’s Ranks
• Oceania is a huge country ruled by The
Party, which is led by a figure called “Big
Brother”
• The Inner Party (1% of pop.) control the
country
• The Outer Party (18% of pop.) are controlled
by the Inner Party
• The Proles (81% of pop.) are the labor power
who live in poverty
• The Brotherhood is an underground rebellion
organization lead by Emmanuel Goldstein

43. 1984: Newspeak
• Newspeak is the official language of Oceania
• The goal of the Party is to have Newspeak
replace Oldspeak (standard English)
• Newspeak eliminates undesirable words and
invents new words -- all to force Party
conformity

44. 1984: Doublethink
• Doublethink is the manipulation of the
mind by making people accept
contradictions
• Doublethink makes people believe that the
Party is the only institution that knows right
from wrong
• “The Ministry of Truth” (where Winston
works) changes history, facts, and
memories to promote Doublethink

45. 1984: Story Overview
• Winston is sick of his job fabricating and
changing history at the “Ministry of Truth”
• Winston has a sexual affair with Julia -- he
trusts her and shares his rebellious thoughts
with her
• Winston wants to get involved with O’Brien,
who he thinks is part of the Brotherhood
rebellion
• Eventually both Winston and Julia are
captured by the Party

46. POSSIBLE TEST QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

48. 10. Describe the aim of Newspeak and how it works.
The main aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought. Newspeak is the only language that
destroys words instead of adding new ones. The vocabulary continually gets smaller. When the
Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary is finished, every needed concept will be expressed by
exactly one word. All meanings will be rigidly defined. It will become impossible to commit
Thoughtcrime.
11. What is facecrime? Give an example.
Facecrime is having the wrong look on one’s face. One’s features are always to be under control. To
show surprise or disbelief when a war victory is announced is a facecrime.
12. Who is looking at Winston during lunch? How does this affect him?
The girl with the dark hair is looking at him. Winston is afraid that she is a spy, if not a member of the
Thought Police.
13. What is the aim of the Party with regard to male-female relationships and sex?
The Party wants to prevent men and women from forming relationships and loyalties that it might not
be able to control. It wants to remove all pleasure from the sexual act.
14. What is the Party belief about the proles?
The Party sees the proles as natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection. They should not have
strong political feelings. They do not need to be indoctrinated in Party ideology. They only need
enough patriotism to make them accept whatever the Party offers.

49. Section One: VII, VIII
15. What bothers Winston the most, along with the sense of nightmare?
He is bothered because he does not clearly understand why the falsifications take place.
He wonders if he is a lunatic.
16. What bothers Winston more than the thought that he might be a lunatic?
The thought that he might be wrong bothers him more.
17. What is the heresy of heresies? Why is that terrifying to Winston?
The heresy of heresies is common sense. It is terrifying to Winston that the Party
might be right in its ideas.
18. For whom does Winston realize he is writing his diary? Why?
He is writing for O’Brien because he thinks O’Brien is on his side.
Section Two: Chapters I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
19. Describe what happens when the girl with the dark hair falls on the floor.
Her arm is in a sling. She falls near Winston, and he helps her up.
While he is helping her up she slips a note in Winston’s hand.

50. 20. Describe their meeting in Victory Square.
They stand next to each other and watch a parade of prisoners go by. They do not look at each other.
The girl gives Winston directions for a place to meet the following Sunday. They manage to hold
hands for about ten seconds.
21. What emotions does Winston feel at first when the girl puts her arms around him?
What emotion didn’t he feel?
He feels incredulity and pride. He does not feel any physical desire.
22. Winston asks the girl what attracted her to him. What is her answer?
She says there is something in his face that shows he does not belong.
She knew right away that Winston was against the Party.
23. According to Winston, how has the Party used the instinct of parenthood?
Parents are still encouraged to be fond of their children. However, the children are
taught to spy on their parents, creating an arm of the Thought Police in every home.
24. What does Winston do the next time he visits the little shop? Why?
He rents the room above the shop. He plans to use it for a private place for himself and Julia.
25. According to O’Brien, what are the three stages of Winston’s reintegration?
Learning, understanding, and acceptance.
26. What does Winston find out about The Book?
O’Brien wrote part of The Book.
27. What is the number of the room where the guards take some of the prisoners? Room 101