Name: _______________
Ms. Beaudoin
1984
Date: ________
English IV Honors
Study Guide – Book 1 Chapter I + Appendix pp. 299-300 only
The first chapter of 1984 introduces us to the world of Winston Smith—what it looks
like, how it is organized, and how he feels about it. We can get a sense of how different
his world is from ours from the first sentence. As this is a dystopian novel, which is a
warning about the future, we know that Orwell will be presenting a “worst case
scenario.” There is also a lot of information to digest. Responses to all questions should
be in complete sentences, typed or written neatly, on a separate piece of paper.
Identify the following terms:
Victory Mansions
Big Brother
Telescreen
Ingsoc (in Appendix)
Thought Police
Airstrip One
Oceania
The three Party slogans
The four Ministries
Newspeak
Doublethink
Two Minutes Hate
Junior Anti-Sex League
Emmanuel Goldstein
Eurasia and Eastasia
The Brotherhood
Thoughtcrime
Vaporized
Also, respond to the following:
1.) If Big Brother were to change his name to something more accurate, what do you
think he would call himself?
2.) What do you think the Prole woman said about the movie when she got home
that night? (pp. 8-9)
3.) In your opinion, what is the scariest thing about Winston’s world as Orwell
describes it?
4.) After he writes in his diary, Winston has a flashback to the morning and the two
people he saw during the Two Minutes Hate.
A. The dark-haired girl. Why does Winston hate her? Why would the Party want
to repress the normal human activity of sex? Winston says that girls like her
are great “nosers-out of unorthodoxy.” What does he mean by this? (p. 10)
B. O’Brien. Why is Winston drawn to him? (pp. 10-11)
5.) What do you think is the purpose of the Two Minutes Hate? Look at the
emotions that Winston experiences. Do we have any similar group activities? If
the United States were to institute this ritual, who or what would take the place of
Goldstein? (pp. 11-17)
6.) At the end of the flashback, Winston remembers his moment of connection with
O’Brien that Orwell records in a memorable sentence: But even that was a
memorable event in the locked loneliness in which one had to live.
How does the word choice help this line stick in our heads? (p. 18)
7.) After he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” Winston realizes he has
committed thoughtcrime. (p. 18) Winston’s first act of rebellion is writing in his
diary; predict two other ways he may rebel as the novel progresses.
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Study Guide – Book 1 Chapter II-III
Respond to the following for Chapter II:
1.) Imagine you are the telescreen in the Parsons’ apartment. Summarize what you
see Mrs. Parsons, Winston, and the two children doing.
2.) How has the Party perverted childhood and family life? What does a child have
to do in order to become a “child hero”?
3.) What dream of seven years ago does Winston recall? The phrase he hears in the
dream will be repeated throughout the novel.
4.) In this chapter Winston calls himself a monster, a ghost, and a dead man. Why?
5.) Another important fact of life in Airstrip One is expressed in this sentence:
Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your
head. Explain what this means for Winston.
Respond to the following for Chapter III:
1.) Winston has two dreams in this chapter, one of his family and one of the darkhaired girl, with another phrase that will recur throughout the novel, “the Golden
Country.” What message is his subconscious giving him in each one? How are
they connected?
2.) As Winston does his daily exercises he thinks about a past incident and we get to
understand what the phrase “mutability of the past” means. How does the Party
control the past?
3.) What does the last sentence of this chapter suggest?
Study Guide – Book 1 Chapter IV-VI
Respond to the following for Chapter IV:
1.) As concisely as possible, explain what Winston’s job is in the Records
Department. (pp. 37-40)
2.) Explain this sentence: Day by day, and almost minute by minute the past
was brought up to date. (p. 40)
3.) Look at the description of the kind of entertainment offered to the Proles. What
is the irony of Pornosec? (pp. 42-43)
4.) Why does Winston like his work? (pp. 43-44)
5.) What does it mean to be an “unperson”? (pp. 45-46)
6.) By reading Winston’s fictionalized biography of “Comrade Ogilvy” we infer much
about a perfect Party member. Write a list of these characteristics of the perfect
Party Member. (pp. 46-48)
7.) How is Ogilvy a perfect representation of the “mutability of the past” (p. 26)?
How is Ogilvy a perfect foil of Winston? (pp. 46-48)
Respond to the following for Chapter V:
This chapter does several important things: A.) It defines and explains Newspeak
and introduces several Newspeak words. B.) It introduces and contrasts two of
Winston’s co-workers. C.) It reinforces the “intolerable” quality of life in Airstrip
One. D.) It repeats Winston’s fear of the dark-haired girl.
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1.) In some ways Syme is a perfect member of the Party. He’s also something of a
sadist. Orwell uses Syme to explain how Newspeak works. What is ironic about
Syme’s project, the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak dictionary? (pp. 50-51)
2.) Syme says, “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.” In Newspeak, how
are the concepts of good and bad being changed? Why does Syme see this as
example of “beauty”? (p. 51)
3.) According to Syme, what is the aim of Newspeak? (It’s political rather than
linguistic) (p. 52)
4.) What is Syme’s attitude toward Proles? (pp. 52-53)
5.) What will happen to the literature of the past? (p. 53)
6.) What does Syme mean when he says “Orthodoxy is unconsciousness”? (p. 53)
7.) What sudden realization does Winston have about Syme? (p. 53)
8.) Winston expands on why Syme will be vaporized; list some of his reasons. (pp.
54-55)
9.) Syme’s polar opposite is Parsons; he is in fact, the walking embodiment of the
sentence “Orthodoxy is unconsciousness” – why? (pp. 55-56)
10.) Just as Syme has a shocking attitude toward the hangings, Parsons has a
shocking attitude toward his children. What is it? (p. 57)
11.) Winston claims to himself that “he knew instinctively who would survive and
who would be vaporized. Who will die and who will live, according to him? (p. 61)
12.) Why does Winston start to sweat when he notices the dark haired girl staring at
him? Do you think he’s right about her? (p. 61)
Read/respond to the following for Chapter VI:
This chapter puts together two of Winston’s women. The diary account of
Winston’s shameful encounter with a prostitute continues two important ideas:
the Party’s perversion of sex and the theme of deceiving appearances.
Paradoxically Winston’s memory of the prostitute, who provides sex for money,
brings back his memory of his wife, who provides sex as a duty to the party. Both
are joyless. Winston thinks about how the Party has perverted the sexual act. He
also comes to the conclusion that sex is a form of rebellion.
1.) How are these two women not what they seem?
Study Guide – Book 1 Chapter VII-VIII
Read/respond to the following for Chapter VII:
1.) Winston insists that “if there was hope, it must lie with the Proles.” Surprisingly,
the Proles comprise 85% of the population of Oceania. The Party, however, does
not fear them. Why not?
2.) Winston reads from a child’s history book about life before the Revolution, which
he is desperate to find the truth about. The excerpt is Party propaganda. How
does the excerpt distort history? Think back to what you were taught about
historical events like Columbus’s discovery of America, the Revolutionary War,
the Civil War; what was left out of those early accounts?
3.) Winston’s only proof that things were not always like this is a feeling in his bones.
The Party “spins” one vision of life while people live another. Winston has only
one piece of evidence that the Party lies about the past: the picture of the three
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traitors Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. Winston also thinks about their former
hangout, the Chestnut Tree Café and the song of treachery associated with it.
Winston’s photograph is proof positive that the past can be erased.
4.) Winston writes two important reflections in his diary, “I understand HOW: I do
not understand WHY” and “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two
make four. If that is granted, all else follows” At the end of the chapter, Winston
realizes that he is writing the diary for O’Brien. Compare this new thought to the
entry on p. 28.
Read/respond to the following for Chapter VIII:
5.) This chapter begins with a powerful memory jogger: smell. Winston smells “real
coffee” and is brought back to his childhood. He risks drawing attention to
himself by doing something alone, a concept known as “ownlife” and on impulse
goes into the Prole section. It is clear he is going on a fact-finding mission, a
journey for knowledge. Warned by a Prole about a “steamer” or rocket bomb,
Winston ducks. Later, walking past the rubble, he sees a human hand and kicks it
into the gutter. Winston overhears a conversation about the Lottery—the chief
obsession of the Proles. Despite their superficial interests, Winston still clings to
the belief that hope lies in the Proles. He goes into a pub and buys an old Prole a
drink and asks him about the man’s life when he was a boy. The old man cannot
satisfy Winston, although the old man’s garbled memories indicate that the
Party’s version of history may not be right.
6.) What are some of the old Prole’s memories that actually contradict the Party’s
view of history?
7.) Winston’s ambivalent about the Proles; he does not recognize the good in their
memories. Why might the old man not be able to answer Winston’s question?
8.) Winston goes into the shop where he bought the diary and spies another
important symbol in the book. Symbols are concrete objects that have meaning
beyond themselves. A good symbol will have various meanings at different times
in a novel. Make a list of the things that the paperweight might symbolize to
Winston at this point in the novel. How does the paperweight symbolize Winston
himself?
9.) The shopkeeper offers to show Winston a room above the shop that inspires
Winston with nostalgia. Winston thinks it would be a good place to rent,
although a dangerous act. What unusual feature of the room does Winston
notice? What does the nursery rhyme that the shopkeeper recites bring to
Winston’s mind?
10.)
When Winston spies the dark-haired girl, what is he tempted to do to her?
Winston rues his failure to act, blaming it on the “treachery of the human body.”
11.)
Although he tries to think of O’Brien, O’Brien’s face is displaced by that of
Big Brother—why might this be an important piece of foreshadowing?
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