BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING • BIG BROTH
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS WATCH
BROTHER IS WATCHING • BIG IS WATCHING • BIG BROTH ER WATCHING • BIG BROTHER
IS WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
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1984
Part Three: Chapters 1-2
Literary Archetypes
Literary works frequently pattern themselves after widely-known literature, commonly-held
human beliefs or feelings, and historical models.
Archetypes include a character, setting, theme, or symbol that has a common or
recognizable meaning in an entire culture. Archetypes, also called universal symbols,
can include colors, themes, familiar characters such as the villain in a black cape, or the
young star-crossed lovers, or recurring images such as a snake or a ruined tower.
These archetypes add an additional layer of meaning to a novel, and thus, allow the
reader to analyze a novel in regards to the emotions and ideas engendered in the
archetypes themselves.
Directions: For each archetype, locate a passage or passages in Part Three: Chapters
1-2, and explain how the passages exemplify the archetype. Then think of other literary
examples for each archetype.
When describing Winston’s relationship with O’Brien in Part Three: Chapter Two, Orwell frequently refers to the archetype of a Christian savior. On page 244, O’Brien tells Winston:
Don’t worry, Winston; you are in my keeping. For seven years I have watched over you. Now the
turning point has come. I shall save you, I shall make you perfect.
A. Locate and write down one other passage or example from the text that portrays
O’Brien as Winston’s savior. (Include the page number for reference)
He [Winston] had the feeling that O’Brien was his protector, that the pain was
something that came from outside, from some other source, and that it was O’Brien
who would save him from it.” (p. 250)
B. Explain how these passages use Christian or “savior” archetypes to interpret or reveal
Winston and O’Brien’s relationship.
“You are in my keeping”- God protecting his children; “seven years I have watched you”seven symbolizes spiritual perfection with 7-day creation, seven is used throughout
Revelation, Joshua marched around Jericho 7 times before the walls fells, seven feast days; “I
shall save you. I shall make you perfect”- Christ personally saving his followers and making
them perfect; “O’Brien was his protector”- God protecting his followers from harm; “it was
O’Brien who would save him from it”- O’Brien as savior
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C. Work with a classmate or as a class to come up with other literary works or movies that
utilize Christian or “savior” archetypes.
Answers will vary. Possibilities include Prometheus suffering to bring fire to humanity,
Fawkes the Phoenix saving Harry Potter from the basilisk in Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets
The telescreens throughout Oceania represent the archetypal instrument of surveillance.
On p. 226, Winston is reprimanded through the telescreen when he puts his hands in his pockets.
A. Locate and write down one other passage or example from the text in which the
telescreen is used to monitor and reprimand the prisoners in the Ministry of Love.
(Include the page number for reference)
They talked desultorily for some minutes, then, without apparent reason, a yell
from the telescreen bade them be silent. . . The telescreen barked at him to keep
still. (p. 231)
B. Explain how these passages use the telescreen as an archetypal instrument of
surveillance and control.
The telescreen provides the main means by which the Party uses to watch its
citizens. Thus, the telescreen also enables the government to persecute its citizens
for seemingly private behaviors.
C. Work with a classmate or as a class to come up with other literary works or movies
utilize archetypes of surveillance.
Answers will vary; Possibilities include Philip Dick’s The Minority Report and A
Scanner Darkly, Lois Lowry’s The Giver
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1984
The government of 1984 places itself in the tradition of the literary archetype of totalitarian control.
When O’Brien compares Ingsoc’s government to that of Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, and the
Spanish Inquisition, he compares the fictional Oceania to historical models.
A. Locate and write down one other passage or example from the text that portrays
Ingsoc as a totalitarian society. (Include the page number for reference)
“We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject
submission. . . It is intolerable to us than an erroneous thought should exist
anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be.” (p. 255)
B. Explain how these passages use the Oceanic government as an archetypal
totalitarian society.
Ingsoc takes the methods used in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, and the
Inquisition to greater levels and demands more obedience of its citizens. By
demanding complete submission in thought and action, the Party
C. Work with a classmate or as a class to come up with other literary works or movies
utilize archetypes of totalitarian governments.
Answers will vary; Possibilities include Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Huxley’s Brave
New World, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
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1984
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING • BIG BROTH
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS WATCH
BROTHER IS WATCHING • BIG IS WATCHING • BIG BROTH ER WATCHING • BIG BROTHER
IS WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
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1984
Part Three: Chapters 3-4
The Anti-Hero
Novels frequently place a hero as the protagonist in a novel. In 1984, Orwell chooses to
portray Winston as an anti-hero. While a hero frequently displays superior moral qualities,
an anti-hero seems morally flawed and occasionally unlikeable. Despite these less than
desirable aspects of his personality, the reader still wants Winston, the anti-hero, to succeed
and triumph over the Party.
Directions: Using the clues, locate specific quotes or descriptions about Winston to show
examples of his behavior or personality throughout the novel. Be sure to include the page
number after the excerpt.
Winston’s first experience openly rebelling against Big Brother (Pt. 1, Ch.1)
His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals—
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.
Page
18
Winston’s modest physical appearance (Pt. 1, Ch. 1)
Winston, who was thirty-nine, and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle (1); a smallish, frail figure, the Page
meagerness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the Party. His 1,2
hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades.
Winston takes actions that he knows will result in his arrest and death (Pt. 1, Ch. 2)
He was already dead, he reflected. It seemed to him that it was only now, when he had begun to be able Page
to formulate his thoughts, that he had taken the decisive step. The consequences of every act are included
28
in the act itself.
Winston recognizes that his work creates an incorrect record of history (Pt. 1, Ch. 4)
But actually, he thought as he readjusted the Ministry of Plenty’s figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely Page
the substitution of one piece of nonsense of another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no 41
connection with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie.
Winston pays a prostitute for sex (Pt. 1, Ch. 6)
When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least.
But I went ahead and did it just the same.
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Page
69
Winston recognizes that Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford were innocent, but destroys the
evidence which would exonerate them (Pt. 1, Ch. 7)
It was a half-page torn out of the Times of about ten years earlier . . . and it contained a photograph of the
Page
delegates at some Party function in New York. Prominent in the middle of the group were Jones, Aasonson,
78-79
and Rutherford. . . Then, without uncovering it again, he dropped the photograph into the memory hole,
along with some other waste papers. Within another minute, perhaps, it would have crumbled into ashes.
Winston thinks about killing his wife, Katharine (Pt. 2, Ch. 3)
28
“Why didn’t you give her a good shove?” said Julia. . . Yes. On the whole I’m sorry I didn’t.”
Page
135
Winston falls in love with Julia (Pt. 2, Ch. 4)
The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of
eternity at the heart of the crystal.
Page
147
Winston steals food from his mother and sister (Pt. 2, Ch. 7)
Then with a sudden swift spring he had snatched the piece of chocolate out of his sister’s hand and was
fleeing for the door.
Page
163
Winston agrees to commit violent acts in support of the Brotherhood (Pt. 2, Ch. 8)
“You are prepared to cheat, to forge, to blackmail, to corrupt the minds of children, to distribute habitforming drugs, to encourage prostitution, to disseminate venereal diseases- to do anything which is likely
to cause demoralization and weaken the power of the Party?” “Yes.”
Page
172
Winston does not attempt to help Julia when she is attacked by the thought police (Pt. 2, Ch.10)
One of the men had smashed his fist into Julia’s solar plexus, doubling her up like a pocket ruler. Winston
dared not turn his head even by a millimeter, but sometimes her livid, gasping face came within the angle
of his vision.
Page
223
Winston is repeatedly tortured in the Ministry of Love (Pt. 3, Ch. 2)
How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had continued, he could not remember . . .
left to recuperate for a few hours, and then taken out and beaten again.
Page
240- 241
Winston does not betray Julia (Pt. 3, Ch. 4)
And yet in the sense in which he intended the word, he had not betrayed her. He had not stopped
loving her; his feeling toward her had remained the same.
Page
274
Winston refuses to fully accept the Party’s mantras (Pt. 3, Ch. 4)
Page
He obeyed the Party, but he still hated the Party. . . He knew that he was in the wrong, and he preferred 280
to be in the wrong.
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1984
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING • BIG BROTH
WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS WATCH
BROTHER IS WATCHING • BIG IS WATCHING • BIG BROTH ER WATCHING • BIG BROTHER
IS WATCHING • BIG BROTHER IS
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1984
Part Three: Chapters 5-6
Analyzing Quotations
When writing, authors frequently compose well thought-out passages that summarize
major ideas or provide a glimpse into a character. Analyzing these passages can help the
reader to grasp complexities or nuances within the character or the novel itself.
Directions: Analyze each quotation by answering the questions that follow it.
PART ONE
QUOTE 1
QUOTE 2
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two
plus two make four. If that is granted, all
else follows.”(81)
Under what circumstances and in what
situation does Winston think Quote #1?
Winston has not yet begun his affair with Julia or
rented the room from Mr. Charrington. Winston
is thinking about how the Party alters and forces
the citizens to accept its version of history.
What does this quote symbolize to Winston?
It represents the freedom to think
independently.
“TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE.”(277)
Under what circumstances and in what
situation does Winston think Quote #2?
Winston is in the Ministry of Love and is
trying to accept the Party’s beliefs.
What does this symbolize to Winston?
At this point, it represents capitulation to
the Party and their way of thinking.
Explain how the two quotes parallel Winston’s emotional journey from the beginning to the end of the novel.
At the beginning of the novel, Winston is rebelling against the Party as evidenced by his insistence that
2+2=4. After being broken by the Party, he agrees that 2+2=5, a symbol of Winston’s rehabilitation.
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PART TWO
QUOTE 3
Under the spreading chestnut tree; I sold you and you sold me. . . (77, 293)
In what situation does Winston first hear
these lyrics?
Winston recalls hearing the lyrics when he saw
Aaronson and Rutherford in the Chestnut Tree
Café before they were rearrested.
How do the lyrics and Winston’s first hearing of
them intensify his dislike of Big Brother?
Winston knows that Aaronson and Rutherford
were really innocent of the crimes of which
they were accused.
Explain the situation in which Winston last
hears these lyrics.
Winston hears the lyrics after he has been
released from the Ministry of Love. He has also
seen Julia again, but neither of them has any
feelings for the other.
How do the lyrics relate to Julia and Winston’s
relationship?
Julia and Winston each sold out and betrayed
the other in the Ministry of Love.
Explain how the quote exemplifies Winston’s experiences throughout the novel.
At first, the quote represents Winston’s anger with the Party. At the end of the book, the quote
shows that Winston and Julia both sold out to the Party.
PART THREE
QUOTE 4
QUOTE 5
theyll shoot me i dont care they’ll shoot me
in the back of the neck i dont care down
with big brother they always shoot you in
the back of the neck i dont care down with
big brother (19)
Explain the context in which Quote #4 appears.
Winston writes the quote in his diary at the
beginning of the novel.
When he writes the first quote, how does Winston
feel about being shot by the thought police?
Winston thinks that he will inevitably be
shot for his anti-Party thoughts. He is not
willing to bow to the Party, though.
He had won the victory over himself.
He loved Big Brother. (298)
Explain the context in which Quote #5 appears.
The second quote appears at the end of the
book after Winston has been rehabilitated
by the Ministry of Love.
When he thinks Quote #5, how does Winston feel
about being shot by the thought police?
Winston wants to be shot while his mind is
perfect and while he loves Big Brother, just
as O’Brien predicted he would.
Explain how the quotes parallel the transition Winston undergoes in the novel.
At first, Winston acts defiantly against the Party, as evidenced by the first quote. He later
accepts the Party’s propaganda, as evidenced by the second quote.
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1984