1 Summer Reading Project Seniors, Before you come to school in the fall, you are to read Orwell s 1984 and complete this study guide. Please define all of the literary terms on page three and the vocabulary words on page fourteen (you may put these on a separate sheet). All of this material is due on the second day of the 2016-17 school year. Please keep in mind that I do expect each student to read the book and do his/her own work. Feel free to email me over the summer with any questions you may have about the reading. My email is melisa.marinelli@gmail.com Have a good summer! Mrs. Marinelli
2 George Orwell s 1984: Philosophy and Politics Objective: To introduce Orwell s combination of narration, description, and exposition. George Orwell (1903-1950), popularly known for his satiric fable Animal Farm and for his dire prognosis of the future in 1984, was a prolific essayist, reviewer, and letterwriter. His writings were seldom without political purpose. Admitting to sharing the combinations of motives of all writers sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose he critiques his own work as follows in an essay entitled Why I Write : I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I write lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally. Orwell defined the historical impulse as the desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity. He defined political purpose as the desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. He commented further that the opinion art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude. Orwell s method is more descriptive and narrative than argumentative. It is this very approach that makes his writing compelling. Orwell exemplifies the principle that criticism of something loved is not a contradiction in terms. His essay on the characteristics of the English people in The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius indicated the compatibility of pride and honest indictment. In the initial part of the essay, he presents the characteristics of the British people: he sees them as not gifted artistically or intellectually (in the sense of having a propensity for abstract reasoning), but gifted literarily, a gift not naturally transnational, as music is, for example. He also sees their penchant for flowers as an indication of their interest in private hobbies, such as dart playing, pigeon-fancying, and stamp-collecting. He further notes their old-fashioned outlook, snobberies, mixture of bawdiness and hypocrisy, extreme gentleness, and deeply moral attitude as major characteristics. Finally, he expands on their respect for constitutionalism and legality and their hatred of war and militarism in the context of their heroic patriotism and rallying around a national cause.
3 Vocabulary: Write concise definitions of the following terms. 1. narration 2. description 3. exposition 4. satire 5. ambivalent 6. aesthetic 7. prognosis 8. dystopia 9. futuristic novel 10. science fiction 11. theme 12. plot 13. conflict 14. setting 15. symbolism 16. irony
4 Though you may approach the study of 1984 in whatever way you choose, I would recommend keeping a notebook. For each page/passage that deals with one of the issues listed below, I would write down the page number and a brief note about the specific passage. -The symbolism of the glass paperweight -Meanings and interpretations of The place where there is no darkness -How has the party destroyed the family unit? -Purpose/effects of Newspeak - I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY. -Ancestral memory: book opinion and your own; explain -Julia s theory of the nature/purposes of sexuality -The nature and purpose of the war -The use of poetry and song in 1984
5 Study Questions Part I Chapers1-4 1. Describe the government of Oceania. 2. Why does Winston keep a diary? 3. How does the diary function as a literary device? 4. What is the purpose of the Two Minutes Hate? 5. How does Winston react to the Two Minutes Hate? 6. How does his momentary eye contact with O Brien affect Winston? 7. Who are the Parsons and what do they represent?
6 8. What is the significance of Winston s dream in which a voice speaks to him about meeting in a place where there is no darkness? 9. Why does Winston place a speck of dust on the cover of his diary? 10. Why does Winston choose dust as his means of detecting whether or not anyone had disturbed his diary? 11. What do Winston s dreams about his mother, the Golden Country, and the darkhaired girl reveal about him? 12. What are the Physical Jerks? 13. Explain the meaning of doublethink. 14. Describe Winston s job. 15. Does Winston like his job (why / why not)?
7 Chapters 5 8 1. What is revealed about Party philosophy in the discussion between Winston and Syme? 2. What do Winston s memories of Katherine and his visit to a prostitute reveal about attitudes towards sex in Oceania? 3. Why was the photograph of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford important? 4. How does Winston view the proles? 5. What does Winston think about after his conversation with the old man in the pub? 6. What does Winston discover at Mr. Charrington s shop? 7. What does Winston think when he sees the dark-haired girl outside Mr. Charrington s shop?
8 Part II Chapters 1 5 1. How does Winston react to the note from Julia, before reading it and after reading it? 2. What does Winston think when he sees the place Julia selects for their rendezvous? 3. What does Winston mean when he ways that he loves Julia all the more because she has had scores of previous sexual encounters? 4. What is the significance of the song the woman is the courtyard sings while Winston waits for Julia? 5. How does Winston react when Julia tells him about the rat she has seen in their room? 6. Why does Winston say that Julia is a rebel only from the waist down?
9 Chapters 6 10 1. What finally convinces Winston that O Brien is a member of the Brotherhood? 2. What does Winston realize about love and loyalty as a result of the dream about the paperweight? 3. How does the dream about the paperweight affect Winston s attitude toward the Party and the proles? 4. Why do Winston and Julia visit O Brien at his apartment and how does O Brien test them? 5. What is the significance of the wine which O Brien serves Winston and Julia? 6. Why are Winston and Julia convinced, after their meeting with O Brien, that he is a member of the secret Brotherhood? 7. Why does 1984 contain long passages from the book?
10 8. According the the book, what is the actual, although unstated, purpose of endemic war between the three superstates? 9. What is the meaning of the Party slogan War is Peace? 10. Why don t Julia and Winston realize they have overslept? 11. Summarize the elements of symbolism and irony in the arrest scene. Part III Chapters 1 6 1. Why are the common criminals and the political prisoners treated differently in the temporary lock-up? 2. What symbolic meaning can be drawn from the fact that the Ministry of Love has no windows and is kept artificially illuminated all the time? 3. Compare Ampleforth s and Parsons reactions to their arrests. 4. When does Winston first realize that O Brien is directing his torture?
11 5. How does Winston react to the first pain he suffers? 6. Why does O Brien wish to convince Winston that two plus two equals five? 7. What reason does O Brien give for Winston s being brought to the Ministry of Love? 8. Why doesn t the Party simply liquidate rebellious members? 9. What effect does the machine attaches to Winston s temples have on his brain? 10. How do O Brien and Winston each define existence? 11. Summarize the three stage of treatment at the Ministry of Love. 12. What does Winston find in Room 101? 13. What does the scene of Winston in the Chestnut tree Café reveal about him?
12 14. What happens when Winston and Julia accidentally meet? 15. How does Winston react to the news of victory in Africa? Appendix 1. What is the purpose of Newspeak? 2. Explain the differences between the three sets of Newspeak vocabulary. A. B. C. 3. Why is there no word for science in Newspeak? 4. Orwell quotes three sentences from the American Declaration of Independence. What ideas do these sentences express and how are they translated into Newspeak?
13 Part I 1. mutable 1984 Vocabulary 2. labyrinthine 3. palimpsest 4. incredulous 5. vapid 6. furtive 7. palpable 8. officious Part II 1. fatuous 2. obeisant 3. prosaic 4. ramification 5. feral 6. spurious 7. avaricious 8. livid Part III 1. illicit 2. insidious 3. prevaricate 4. equivocation