1984 – Study Guide Part 2
Efpatridis-ENG3UP
Chapter I
1) Identify and explain the significance of the piece of paper that Julia passes onto Winston: why is it
relevant, motivations for sharing it, and how it drives the plot, characters’ decisions, and conflicts in this
section of the text.
2) Who seems to be in control of the meetings that occur between Julia and Winston? Give evidence for
your opinions.
3) Select ONE quotation from this chapter and explain how it is significant to a theme developed in the
novel. Be prepared to share the quotation with page number and your explanation.
Chapter II
1) Explain the relevance of Winston’s thoughts about Julia that he shares with her. If you were Julia,
how would you respond. Why?
2) How are Julia’s actions in this chapter relevant and how does each major action or conversation
contribute to the development of several themes? Provide a list.
3)
At the top of page 130 a thrush appears. Orwell describes the thrush in detail. What do you think the
thrush symbolizes
4) In the context of the story, explain why Winston says, “I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don’t want any
virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones.”
5) Choose one or two lines that attracted your attention. Be prepared to discuss why.
Chapter V
1) Explain the situation and details surrounding Syme’s disappearance?
2) List 5 non-violent preparations being made for Hate Week.
3) List 3 acts of violence likely engineering by the Party for Hate Week.
4) List 4-5 things Julia believes that surprises Winston? (p160-61
5. Outline what is revealed about Julia in the following passages:
i) “Who cares?” She said impatiently, “it’s always one bloody war after another, and one
knows the news is all lies anyway.”
ii) ”And when he told her that aeroplanes had been in existence before he was born,
and long before the Revolution, the fact struck her as totally uninteresting.
iii) “She believed that the Party was invincible, that it would always exist, and it would
always be the same. [Julia] believes that you could only rebel against it by secret disobedience”
6) What does Winston mean when he says, “You’re only a rebel from the waist downwards.”
7) Choose one or two lines other than those already used or analyzed that are significant to this section of
the novel thematically. Explain.
PART II: Chapter VI
1) Under what pretense are Winston and O’brien meeting: O’brien approaches Winston at work
and compliments him on how he write Newspeak very elegantly. He then proceeds to inform
Winston on how he has a copy of the unreleased 10th edition of the Newspeak dictionary. He
asks Winston if he would be interested in seeing a copy of it. Winston tells O’brien that he is
interested and then O’brien writes Winston his address and tells him to come by soon some
evening.
2) What changes have been made to the 10th Edition of Newspeak? What might the Party’s
motive be in making this particular change? There is an “ingenious” reduction of the number of
verbs in the 10th Newspeak dictionary. The Party must be doing this because in order for there
to be less a chance of anyone with a sharp mind rebelling, they need have less words to
describe the actions of the Party. There needs to be no words describing what exactly the Party
is doing to the community, at least no words that could point out that the Party is doing
anything negative.
3) Choose one or two lines that attracted your attention. Be prepared to discuss why: “The
conspiracy of that he had dreamed of did exist, and he had reached the outer edges of it.”(166)
PART II: Chapter VII
1) When Winston thinks back to his childhood, how did he behave towards his mother and
sister? Provide details: Winston treated his mother quite unkindly, he was very selfish when it
came to meal time. He would scream and shout, complaining that there was never enough
food. He would yell at his mother to give him bigger portions of dinner, and he would steal bits
of food from his sisters plate, even though his mother constantly reminded him that his sister
was sick and also needed to eat.
2) What happens to his mother and sister? After Winston greedily took all of the chocolate
which he was to split with his sister, and ran out the door to eat it, he came back because he
was hungry once again and his mother and sister had just vanished, but had not taken anything
with them, not even his mother’s coat.
3) What does Winston mean when he says, “The proles had stayed human”? (p.172) Winston
means that the proles have stayed human because they have not been hardened inside, they
were not loyal to the Party, or to a country or an idea, they were loyal to one another. The
proles had held onto the emotions which are part of human nature, which Winston had had to
relearn with a conscious effort.
4) Re-read from the last paragraph of page 173 to the end of the chapter on page 174. Use a
sticky note to tag this part; it will become important later in the book. What do Julia and
Winston believe the Party will never be able to do? Winston and Julia believe that the Party
cannot stop them from loving one another, they can make them confess all they want, and Julia
and Winston are able to tell the Party whatever they want to hear, but with all the Party’s
cleverness, they had never mastered the secret of finding out what another human being was
thinking.
5) Choose one or two lines that attracted your attention. Be prepared to discuss why:
“Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter: only feelings matter. If they
could make me stop loving you–that would be betrayal.”(173)
PART II: Chapter VIII:
1) How is O’Brien’s room different from Winston’s flat? Give details: There is a rich blue carpet
and a table under a green-shaded lamp, and the telescreen was dimmed to a low murmur. The
Inner Party’s flats had a richness and spacious feel which Winston’s flat did not. There were
unfamiliar smells of good food and rich tobacco.
2) To whom do they raise their wine glasses? They raise their glasses to Emmanuel Goldstein.
3) State two things Julia and Winston are willing to do for the Party: They say yes that they are
prepared to lose their identities and and live out the rest of their lives as waiters or dockworkers. They also say they are prepared to commit acts or sabotage which may cause the
death of hundreds of innocent people, as well as giving their lives or committing suicide
themselves.
4) What does Julia say she will not do? Julia breaks out and says no, she is not prepared to
separate from Winston and never see him again.
5) Who wrote the book O’brien promises to send Winston? I believe that O’brien is telling
Winston that “the book” has been written by Goldstein himself.
6) Choose one or two lines that attracted your attention. Be prepared to discuss why: “The
Brotherhood cannot be wiped out because it is not an organization in the ordinary sense.
Nothing holds it together except an idea which is indestructible” pg 183