1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.1

Directions: In your Compbook, answer one question from each group.

A /
  1. Define ironic, first as it appears in the dictionary, then as you understand it in your own words.
  2. Why was “nothing illegal” and why were “laws no longer needed”?
  3. List three adjectives that describe Oceania as it appears in chapter 1. Choose the best adjective and explain how it most accurately captures Orwell’s world.

B /
  1. Contrast the emotions that the film shown during the Two Minutes Hate associates with Goldstein and Big Brother. Support your answers with specific details or quotations from the text.
  2. Describe Winston’s relationship with others and Oceania in general using a metaphor or a simile. Explain how it applies and provide examples that support your comparison.
  3. Summarize the notion of Thoughtcrime; include two examples from chapter 1 and explain what makes them Thoughtcrimes.

C / A “conditioned response” is defined as:
The learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. For example, let’s suppose that the smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus, a feeling of hunger in response to the smell is an unconditioned response, and the sound of a whistle is the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response would cause you to feel hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle. The conditioned response is the learned reflexive response.
Respond to the claim that everyone’s behavior during the Two Minutes Hate is a conditioned response. You may agree, disagree, or do both. Explain your reasoning, supporting your explanation with examples from the text.

1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.1

Directions: In your Compbook, answer one question from each group.

A /
  1. Define ironic, first as it appears in the dictionary, then as you understand it in your own words.
  2. Why was “nothing illegal” and why were “laws no longer needed”?
  3. List three adjectives that describe Oceania as it appears in chapter 1. Choose the best adjective and explain how it most accurately captures Orwell’s world.

B /
  1. Contrast the emotions that the film shown during the Two Minutes Hate associates with Goldstein and Big Brother. Support your answers with specific details or quotations from the text.
  2. Describe Winston’s relationship with others and Oceania in general using a metaphor or a simile. Explain how it applies and provide examples that support your comparison.
  3. Summarize the notion of Thoughtcrime; include two examples from chapter 1 and explain what makes them Thoughtcrimes.

C / A “conditioned response” is defined as:
The learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. For example, let’s suppose that the smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus, a feeling of hunger in response to the smell is an unconditioned response, and the sound of a whistle is the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response would cause you to feel hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle. The conditioned response is the learned reflexive response.
Respond to the claim that everyone’s behavior during the Two Minutes Hate is a conditioned response. You may agree, disagree, or do both. Explain your reasoning, supporting your explanation with examples from the text.

1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.2-1.3

Directions: In your Compbook, answer one question from each group.

A /
  1. Define the word annihilation, first as it appears in the dictionary, then as it is used on pages 27, 31, and 19.
  2. Summarize the following passage from Winston’s dream in your own words:
The girl with dark hair was coming towards them across the field. With what seemed a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him, indeed he barely looked at it. What overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With its grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid movement of the arm. That too was a gesture belonging to the ancient time.
B /
  1. Interpret the following line, supporting your interpretation with details from the text: “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull” (27).
  2. Interpret the line, “He was already dead, he reflected” (28). Explain what you think it means in the context in which Winston thinks it.

C / Of Hitler’s Junior Spies organization, one source wrote that “If parents did not register their children for the Hitler Youth they could possibly face fines or imprisonment. Also, questionnaires were distributed to high school students asking to list information on parents, teachers, or employers that interfered with the Hitler Youth duties. It was also helpful to turn in an anti-Nazi person to better their chances of promotion” (Hitler’s Children, 1998).
Compare Mrs. Parson’s children (23-24) to Hitler’s child spies; explain why you think this is or is not an accurate comparison, taking time to describe how the two groups are similar (or different).

1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.2-1.3

Directions: In your Compbook, answer one question from each group.

A /
  1. Define the word annihilation, first as it appears in the dictionary, then as it is used on pages 27, 31, and 19.
  2. Summarize the following passage from Winston’s dream in your own words:
The girl with dark hair was coming towards them across the field. With what seemed a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him, indeed he barely looked at it. What overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the gesture with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With its grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid movement of the arm. That too was a gesture belonging to the ancient time.
B /
  1. Interpret the following line, supporting your interpretation with details from the text: “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull” (27).
  2. Interpret the line, “He was already dead, he reflected” (28). Explain what you think it means in the context in which Winston thinks it.

C / Of Hitler’s Junior Spies organization, one source wrote that “If parents did not register their children for the Hitler Youth they could possibly face fines or imprisonment. Also, questionnaires were distributed to high school students asking to list information on parents, teachers, or employers that interfered with the Hitler Youth duties. It was also helpful to turn in an anti-Nazi person to better their chances of promotion” (Hitler’s Children, 1998).
Compare Mrs. Parson’s children (23-24) to Hitler’s child spies; explain why you think this is or is not an accurate comparison, taking time to describe how the two groups are similar (or different).

1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.4-1.5

Directions: In your Compbook, answer one question from each group.

A /
  1. On pages 51-53, Winston and Syme discuss language and the 11th edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. Summarize their discussion and predict what would happen in a society if it were to reduce all language as Syme suggests.
  2. On page 61, Winston lists all the people who will and will not be “vaporized.” What criteria for being vaporized (or avoiding that fate) can you infer from his list?
  3. Explain why it would be ironic, based on things Mr. Parsons says in chapter 5, if he were turned in as a traitor to the Thought Police by his children. Include details from the text.

B /
  1. Which of the following diagrams best represents the relationship between people in Oceania? Explain why your choice best illustrates the nature of that relationship; include details from the text.

  1. B. C.
  1. Read the following claim and respond as directed below:
The “little woman with the sandy hair” is complicit in the systematic murder of thousands because her job consists of “tracking down and deleting from the Press the names of people who had been vaporized” (42).
State and explain whether you (a) agree, (b) disagree, (c) both agree and disagree.
C /
  1. Winston’s job calls for him to fabricate a person to rectify a story. As Orwell says, “but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring [Ogilvy] into existence” (46), then adds, “Comrade Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago, was now a fact. It struck [Winston] as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones” (47). Explain in detail three ways you could create a person today who others would assume was real.
  2. Reread the discussion about “truth” and “facts” on pages 40-41. Generate three questions one can ask to determine (in our world today) with certainty if something is true; is a fact. Explain briefly how each question works to determine if something is true – and why you would be vaporized for even thinking them in Oceania.

1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.4-1.5

Directions: In your Compbook, answer one question from each group.

A /
  1. On pages 51-53, Winston and Syme discuss language and the 11th edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. Summarize their discussion and predict what would happen in a society if it were to reduce all language as Syme suggests.
  2. On page 61, Winston lists all the people who will and will not be “vaporized.” What criteria for being vaporized (or avoiding that fate) can you infer from his list?
  3. Explain why it would be ironic, based on things Mr. Parsons says in chapter 5, if he were turned in as a traitor to the Thought Police by his children. Include details from the text.

B /
  1. Which of the following diagrams best represents the relationship between people in Oceania? Explain why your choice best illustrates the nature of that relationship; include details from the text.

A. B. C.
  1. Read the following claim and respond as directed below:
The “little woman with the sandy hair” is complicit in the systematic murder of thousands because her job consists of “tracking down and deleting from the Press the names of people who had been vaporized” (42).
State and explain whether you (a) agree, (b) disagree, (c) both agree and disagree.
C /
  1. Winston’s job calls for him to fabricate a person to rectify a story. As Orwell says, “but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring [Ogilvy] into existence” (46), then adds, “Comrade Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago, was now a fact. It struck [Winston] as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones” (47). Explain in detail three ways you could create a person today who others would assume was real.
  2. Reread the discussion about “truth” and “facts” on pages 40-41. Generate three questions one can ask to determine (in our world today) with certainty if something is true; is a fact. Explain briefly how each question works to determine if something is true – and why you would be vaporized for even thinking them in Oceania.

1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.4-1.5

Directions: In your Compbook, answer TWO questions from each group, plus C.

A /
  1. Identify and contrast the emotions Winston feels about Katherine with those he feels toward the prostitute. Provide details from the text.
  2. Provide evidence from the text that the Party slogan, “Proles and animals are free” is an accurate statement.
  3. Explain why, on page 93, Winston muses that the proles were “like the ant.” Support your answer with details from the text.

B /
  1. Create a symbol that exemplifies the concept of love in Oceania. You may not use a heart.
  2. Winston thinks, “The Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort and dirty it. He did not know why this was so, but it seemed natural that it should be so.” Explain how this aligns with the Party’s aims as you perceive them.
  3. Summarize Winston’s reasons for believing that “If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”
  4. Review Winston’s transaction with the shopkeeper on pages 95-96. Summarize Winston’s reasons for wanting to own the paperweight, and propose a symbolic meaning for the piece of coral.

C / The 18th Century philosopher David Hume wrote, “By what argument can it be proved, that the perceptions of the mind must be caused by external objects … and could not arise either from the energy of the mind itself … or from some other cause still more unknown to us? It is acknowledged, that, in fact, many of these perceptions arise not from anything external, as in dreams, madness, and other diseases. … It is a question of fact, whether the perceptions of the senses be produced by external objects … But here experience is, and must be entirely silent.” (Enquiry Sec. 12) Compare this to Winston’s concerns about the power of the Party.

1984 Close Reading ResponsesChapter 1.4-1.5

Directions: In your Compbook, answer TWO questions from each group, plus C.

A /
  1. Identify and contrast the emotions Winston feels about Katherine with those he feels toward the prostitute. Provide details from the text.
  2. Provide evidence from the text that the Party slogan, “Proles and animals are free” is an accurate statement.
  3. Explain why, on page 93, Winston muses that the proles were “like the ant.” Support your answer with details from the text.

B /
  1. Create a symbol that exemplifies the concept of love in Oceania. You may not use a heart.
  2. Winston thinks, “The Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort and dirty it. He did not know why this was so, but it seemed natural that it should be so.” Explain how this aligns with the Party’s aims as you perceive them.
  3. Summarize Winston’s reasons for believing that “If there is hope, it lies in the proles.”
  4. Review Winston’s transaction with the shopkeeper on pages 95-96. Summarize Winston’s reasons for wanting to own the paperweight, and propose a symbolic meaning for the piece of coral.

C / The 18th Century philosopher David Hume wrote, “By what argument can it be proved, that the perceptions of the mind must be caused by external objects … and could not arise either from the energy of the mind itself … or from some other cause still more unknown to us? It is acknowledged, that, in fact, many of these perceptions arise not from anything external, as in dreams, madness, and other diseases. … It is a question of fact, whether the perceptions of the senses be produced by external objects … But here experience is, and must be entirely silent.” (Enquiry Sec. 12) Compare this to Winston’s concerns about the power of the Party.