George Orwell’s
1984
Part One

A Quick Word on Etymology and Genre…..
Etymology - study of the history of words, their origins, how their meanings have changed over time
•
UTOPIA - Greek origin
“ no place” “no such place” “nowhere”
Utopia : a place/world where everything seems ideal or perfect
•
DYSTOPIA- dys- “ ill” or “bad”
Dystopia: a highly imperfect place/world where everything is nightmarish and dark.

A Quick Word on Etymology and
Genre…..
Dystopian literaturegenre used to explore social and political structures in dark, nightmarish worlds
1984 portrays an example of a dystopian world …..
The protagonist of 1984 lives in a dystopia….

Characteristics of a Dystopia
• Propaganda- spread of ideas/information for the purpose of a specific cause- method of control.
• Information & thought are restricted.
• Individuality & dissent are ‘bad.’
• A figurehead or concept is worshipped.
• Citizens under constant surveillance.
• Citizens live in ignorance /fear about the outside world.
•
Society- an illusion of an orderly world.
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.

Part One, Chapter I
•
Winston Smithprotagonistname translates roughly to “from a friendly town”, “of the people.” Common surname shows that he can symbolize everyman.
•
Opening lines- strangeness/darkness of
Smith’s dystopian world; ex: “clocks striking thirteen.” (military time- Oceania is constantly at war…)
•
Victory Mansionname of Smith’s broken down building. (Victory Cigarettes, Gin…)
•
No electricity due to Hate Week (Basic necessities always in short supply).

Part One, Chapter I
•
Overall landscape- “grimy” and depressing.
• Smith is ‘broken down”- seems older than
39- varicose ulcer, rough skin, wears ratty blue overalls as part of Party Uniform.
•
Big Brother watches everyone, everywhere. No one can escape the propaganda.
• All citizens’ homes have telescreens to monitor their every movement and read their thoughts.

Part One, Chapter I
•
4 main buildings of Airstrip One: Ministry of Truth (Winston’s place of work,) Peace,
Love, Plenty
•
The Ministry of Truth- Minitrue *
Concerned w/ news, entertainment, etc
•
The Ministry of Peace- Minipax *
Concerned w/ war
•
The Ministry of Love- Miniluv *
Concerned w/ law and order
•
The Ministry of Plenty- Miniplenty *
Concerned w/ economic affairs
*
Their names in Newspeak, the language of Oceania

Orwellian?
•
This word comes directly from Orwell’s writing in
1984 . It carries a negative connotation (perception, feeling) and refers to anything involving systematic controlling/monitoring of the individual.

Part One, Chapter I
• Winston’s secret act of rebellion- writing in his diary obtained in the “free market.”
This is an act punishable by death or decades of work in a labor camp.
•
Note how difficult it is for him to actually write- no one seems to do it anymore.

Part One, Chapter I
•
Party slogans- WAR is PEACE,
FREEDOM is SLAVERY, IGNORANCE is STRENGTH
•
The slogans are really paradoxes.
•
Setting- England, now Airstrip One in
1984no one is sure of actual dates anymore; gov’t trying to wipe history/past clean. Airstrip One- part of Oceania, as
Europe is now known.

Part One, Chapter I
•
Diary entry- Winston’s account of a disturbing war movie “flick” – only people who have a normal reaction are the proles
•
Proles-
‘proletariat’ or member of the working class
•
Winston has flashback - thinks back to being forced to watch Two Minutes Hate at work- sees coworker with dark hair wearing scarlet (deep red) sash . She is a member of the Anti-Sex League. Winston seems to abhor her- has thoughts of murdering and raping her. (Should we trust
Winston?)

Part One, Chapter I
•
Flashback continues- Winston remembers seeing coworker
O’Brien
( Inner Party member) and sharing a look with him that seemed to say “I hate this Party too!”- huge turning point for Winston.
•
Reader meets Emmanuel Goldstein-
“Enemy of the People”mythical figure who led a revolution/resistance movement against the Party- the Brotherhood.
He represents everything the gov’t of Oceania is against (freedom of speech/thought, etc.)

Part One, Chapter I
•
Emmanuel Goldstein
’s thoughts, beliefs are all rumored to be written down in the booka collection (“compendium”) of – anti-Party or anti-Big Brother thoughts that the Party feels is highly ‘dangerous….’
•
EG- object, the focus of the daily Two
Minute Hate exercise.
•
Winston continues to reflect on his
‘moment’ w/ O’Brien- writes DOWN
WITH BIG BROTHER all over his diary…..

Part One, Chapter I
•
Anyone guilty of committing a thoughtcrime is “vaporized” or
“annihilated.”
•
Winston continues to reflect on his
‘moment’ w/ O’Brien- writes DOWN
WITH BIG BROTHER all over his diary…..

•
Citizens are constantly
•
Laws are enforced by the asked to show their allegiance by engaging in
Thought Police, who arrest and “vaporize” rallies and meetings to support Big Brother anyone who even thinks
•
Hatred for the enemies of disruptive thoughts
Big Brother is encouraged
•
History is constantly through the use of propaganda rewritten so that the predictions of Big
•
The society of Oceania is constantly at war with
Brother will never be other countries: Eurasia wrong and Eastasia --- or so Big
Brother says.

A few terms from 1984
•
Doublethink – the ability to believe two contradictory things at the same time (“reality control”)
•
Newspeak – the language of Oceania
•
INGSOC – Oceania’s totalitarian form of government (English socialism)
•
Police Patrollike a secret police stalking citizens
•
Thoughtcrime
– thinking anti-Party thoughts
•
Inner Party/Outer party
– those closest to Big
Brother and those on the outside- (O’Brien is Inner;
Winston is Outer)
•
Proles – the lower classes who live in a separate part of the city

Chapter 2
• Winston answers the knocking at his door.
It is his neighbor Mrs. Parsons, the wife of his coworker, Tom Parsons.
•
Notice they address each other as
‘ comrade
’- a word typically associated w/ the Communist Party.
• The Parsons’ flat is just as dingy and broken- down as Winston’s.

Chapter 2
• Tom is the average citizen- a ‘model’ or ideal Party Member- does everything he should, questions nothing.
• The Parsons’ children- like all children in
Oceania- are Spies , indoctrinated at a young age to report on everyone- who could be a threat- including their parents.
• They accuse Winston of being a “Traitor” and “Thought-Criminal.”
•
Parents are actually scared of their children now.

Chapter 2
• Parson children are upset b/c they did not get to see the hanging of the Eurasian
‘criminal’. (Oceania at war w/ Eurasiasupposedly)
• Watching public executions is a popular activity in Oceania.
•
Back at his apartment, Winston thinks back to a dream he had in which O’Brien had said to him “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness…”

Chapter 2
• Yet another way the Party/Big Brother controls the people- rationing of material goods….
• Winston hears more from the telescreen: the amount of chocolate being given out
(rationed) is to be reduced- 30 g to 20g.
•
Winston sadly realizes that his thoughts in the diary cannot last: his thoughtcrime
WILL be the end of him.
“Thoughtcrime is death”

Chapter 3
• Winston dreams ( flashback) about his family, specifically his mother, father, and sister. It appears they are gone- a victim of one of the purges in the fifties. (veiled allusion to …?)
• It is not clear why/how they died: all we can tell is that Winston seems to be alive b/c they are dead. They saved him in some way.
“They were down there because he was up here….in some way the lives of his mother and sister had been sacrificed to his own.”

Chapter 3
• Dreamy sequence continues…Winston sees coworker (girl w/ scarlet sash) in Golden
Country. He is not aroused by her body but by what about her exactly?....- her rebellious nature, seeming willingness to oppose the
Party
•
Cut to telescreen again- Winston has to perform Party-ordered weird exercises
“Physical Jerks”- We learn he is a member of the Outer Party.
•
Winston continues to reflect- Oceania has always been at war in one way or another….

Chapter 3
• The Party controls all thoughts- can even
‘change’ people’s memories of the past.
Reality Control/Doublethink :
“ Who controls the past controls the future.”
• How have Winston’s thoughts become dangerous? What does he know that all other average citizens do not?

Chapter 3
• “
The past, he reflected, had been destroyed.”
The Party/Big Brother destroys facts- ‘falsifies’ the past. The past has become mutable.
•
The Party said that it had never been in an alliance w/ Eurasia. Winston remembers that Oceania had been in an alliance w/
Eurasia as short a time as 4 years agodangerous knowledge for Winston to remember since he knows that the Party really does ‘change’ the past and current reality to suit its needs….

Chapter 4
• Winston’s job at Ministry of Truth is strange: he helps Big Brother falsify and change the past. Keep in mind that Winston is not entirely sure of where all this
‘information’ or “nonsense” even goes….
“
It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech in such a way as to predict the thing that had already happened
.”
•
This process applies to ALL written or spoken documents in Oceania.

Chapter 4
• Winston’s “ greatest pleasure in life was in his work.
” Why might this be?
•
Notice that no one has any real relationships anymore: emotional connections are in opposition to the Party.

Chapter 4
• Winston’s new task: rewrite the history of
Comrade Withers, who is now an “ unperson.”
•
Winston must change history to show that
Withers never existed. According to an old news report, Withers had been honored by the Party in some way. That fact has to be destroyed since the Party (Big Brother) can never be ‘wrong’.
• The answer to the ‘problem’: Winston invents a person on paper- Comrade Ogilvy to ‘erase’ the problem of Withers….

Chapter 5
• Winston meets his co-worker Syme in the
Ministry of Truth cafeteria- “canteen.” Note the reference to the fact that no one has friends anymore, just “comrades.”
•
Syme is a philogist: a linguist who studies written texts. His job is to “ destroy words” as he rewrites Newspeak, working on 11 th edition. He loves his work.
•
Why does Big Brother want words to be destroyed, want the actual language to become smaller? What is said about the proles? Why does Syme refer to them as
“ not human beings
”?

Chapter 5
• The Party seeks to destroy any sort of free thought and the ability to communicate by actually- literally- destroying language.
Anything written- esp. great literature- will be a thing of the past.
•
Syme: “ The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought….make thoughtcrime literally impossible.” (52)
Winston recognizes that Syme is brilliant
(irony?) and will most likely be vaporized.
•
Why should someone like Winston be on guard around people like Syme?

Chapter 5
• The people have become so mentally dead that they do not realize the news report on chocolate rationing makes no sense. Big
Brother misreported the figures, and no one can tell the difference except Winston.
•
People had been thanking Big Brother for raising the rations of chocolate to 20g.
Winston knows that “only yesterday” the rations had been REDUCED to 20g from 30g.
• “He alone is in possession of a memory.”

Chapter 5
• Winston realizes that his neighbor, Tom
Parsons, is too ‘dumb’ to be vaporized. He could never catch onto what Big Brother is doing to Oceania.
•
Winston thinks that Mrs. Parsons, Syme,
O’Brien, and he himself will be vaporized.
Why?.....
•
Narration reveals another type of crime: facecrime . Citizens cannot show any kind of “abnormal” emotion: surprise, disbelief, anxiety, etc.

Questions for Review
1. 1984 is based on a dystopian world. Based on our reading so far, list 5 characteristics that appear common to a dystopia.
2. Where are flashbacks present in 1984?
3. What is doublethink, and how is it present in the story thus far?
4. How would you characterize the portrayal of the proles? Offer 3 examples as support.
5. Explain the context of the following: “
The chosen lie would pass into permanent record and become truth.” (45)

Chapter 6
• Opens w/ yet another flashback- Winston records a memory involving a woman.
•
Notice his fear and apprehension. He might be committing a facecrime as he writes!
•
What is dangerous about sleeping,
“the most deadly danger of all”?
What can happen?.....
•
Reader learns that Winston is married to a woman named Katharine. The marriage is dead: she is probably alive, but they have no communication.

Chapter 6
•
Flashback being recorded in diary concerns his experience w/ a prostitute 3 yrs ago.
• Being w/ a prostitute was a ‘rule’ that people occasionally broke. (Party almost encourages prostitution as an outlet, but one should not get caught).
•
Forbidden- promiscuity, finding sex pleasurable. The Party seems to think it’s acceptable for ‘lower class’ types- the prolesto be promiscuous and actually be prostitutes.
•
Why does the Party/Big Brother care about people’s sex lives?.....

Chapter 6
• Big Brother/ The Party seek to control people’s sex lives and emotional relationships- people of Oceania cannot be distracted from always following the Party.
•
Sex should not be pleasurable, even between married couples.
•
All marriages between Party members have to be approved by the State.
• What’s the point of marriage?- producing more children who can be brainwashed by the Party- be turned into “Spies.”

Chapter 6
•
Artsem - having children only by artificial insemination is even suggested by the Junior
Anti-Sex League. Sex would be eliminated!
•
Winston thinks again of his wife, Katherine; he has not seen her in about 10 yrs.
•
Their marriage- and esp their sex life- was
“ embarrassing” and “ terrible
.” She was completely devoted to the Party/Big
Brother. Sex was a ‘means to an end’ for her- just a way to become pregnant.

Chapter 7
• Winston writes in his diary, “
If there is hope it lies in the proles…...”
•
Proles- 85% of population of Oceania
•
Winston- the proles are the only social force capable of overthrowing the Party/Big
Brother. “ if they could they could blow the
Party to pieces tomorrow morning.”
•
Why might Winston think this?....There are several reasons.

Chapter 7
• Note how the proles have been portrayed so far…..
----“flick” incident
----encounter btwn Winston/Syme regarding the destruction of language. Winston believed the proles would be able to understand what the Party is doing to the language- destroying it by literally getting rid of words. (52)
--- The proles are the largest social force in terms of actual numbers.

Chapter 7
• What could hold back the proles? They do not seem to be aware of their potential.
“….
if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength.”
(69)
•
Notice the reference to doublethink (70)
•
Winston remembers a scene in which the proles fought over pots, pans. What does this scene show? Why is Winston a bit saddened, disgusted by what he sees?

Chapter 7
• Why is it truly unlikely that the proles could rebel?...How powerful is Big Brother?
•
What has the Party convinced the proles of?- their lives have been improved by the
Party. Party maintains that capitalism was bad for Oceania.
•
It becomes clear to the reader that the proles’ lives are rather miserable.
•
Note all the ways that the Party has kept down, or supressed, the proles. (“animals”)
“Proles and animals are free.”

Chapter 7
• The destruction (literally) of the past complicates any efforts to rise up against the
Party.
•
History books are useless in uncovering the truth as to whether or not life is better under the control of Big Brother.
•
Note the reality of life in current London
(Airstrip One) as recorded on p. 74.

Chapter 7
• The narration explains yet another dangerous memory in Winston’s possession: he remembers how the Party changed the actual recording of history. He had actual proof this time!
3 men- Jones, Aaronson, Rutherfordconfessed and were pardoned by the Party for their role in the great purges of the 60s .
Winston saw them at the Chestnut Tree Café with broken noses….

Chapter 7
• However, they all were rearrested and
‘executed.’
•
5 years later- Winston found actual photo which confirmed the Party ‘falsifies’ the past- changes it to serve their interests.
•
Photo- proved confessions were lies. (Photo placed the 3 men in NY at time they were supposedly committing treason in Eurasia).
•
11 yrs ago, Winston destroyed photo by throwing it down the “memory hole.”

Chapter 7
• Winston understands how the Party
‘changes’ the past- destroying documents, editing news reports, etc, but he does not know why they actually do this.
“ I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY.” (80)
•
Winston- the Party could make people believe that 2+2= 5.
•
Winston- the most important freedom is being able to speak the actual truth. (I can say 2+2 +4 b/c I KNOW it is; Party cannot convince me otherwise even though they may try to control my mind).

Chapter 7
• Winston thinks of O’Brien as he writes in his diary…..
He believes that O’Brien is his only hope in uncovering the real truth of the Party- how they actually control people’s minds, change the past, etc.
• Winston’s diary is really an appeal to the
“future, ” the “unborn,” (those who will be born into the Party system), and O’Brien himself.

Chapters VII, VIII Review
1. Find 2 examples of doublethink.
2. How are the lives of the proles actually less restricted (more free) than those of the upper classes like the Inner/Outer Party?- Give 5 specific examples.
3. Could the Party exist without the proles?
4. Why do you think Winston destroyed the photo from the Ministry of Truth?
5. What is ownlife , and how is it present in
Chapter VIII?

Chapter 8
• Winston walks through the prole part of the city. (How can you tell this section of the city is different?)
•
Leisure time (free time) of all Party members is carefully monitored- just like all other aspects of their lives. Winston should be at Community Center, so this short walk is actually quite dangerous.
•
Ownlife - Newspeak term meaning individualism- is dangerous, in violation of the Party (sort of like thoughtcrime, facecrime)…..

Chapter 8
• Notice how the prole women view/treat
Winston. His Party overalls show he is not a prole.
•
2 key clues into the misery of life in
Oceania, esp for the proles- bombs
(“steamers”) constantly bombarding the streets and the Party’s Lottery that no one ever really wins.

Chapter 8
• Winston wants to confirm his suspicions about what life had been like under capitalism. (What are his suspicions?)
•
To find answers, Winston seeks out an old man (prole) at a pub. Unfortunately, the man is so drunk that Winston could not hear his testimony.
“
He and a few others were the last links that now existed with the vanished world of capitalism….”
“ The old man’s memory was nothing but a rubbish heap of details….” ( 92)

Chapter 8
• “
He was standing outside the junk shop where he had bought his diary.” (93)
•
New character introduced- shopkeeper or
“proprietor” named Mr. Charrington
•
Winston likes this shop since it has so many old things, treasures from the past.
•
He buys a glass paperweight made of some sort of sea coral. It is pink.
• Why might this be a ‘dangerous’ object for
Winston to buy?

Chapter 8
• Oddly enough, the shop has no telescreen.
•
Winston notices the print of St. Clement’s
Dane, which had been a beautiful church at one time.
• “Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St.
Clement’s!”
Winston likes this rhyme since it makes him think of a time when beautiful architecture actually meant something to people…. (99)

Chapter 8
• Chapter ends with Winston seeing his coworker with the scarlet sash, or “ the girl from the Fiction Department, the girl with the dark hair…” (100)
• He’s sure that she is spying on him.
•
Chapter ends on a creepy note- Winston is in a bit of a tailspin-; he thinks of his death by the Party, O’Brien and his famous quote, and Big Brother….The 3 slogans of the
Party haunt him…..

Book 1- Key Characters
Winston
Girl w/ dark hair
O’Brien
Emmanuel Goldstein
Spies
Katharine
Syme
Mr. Charrington
Proles
‘Female Prole’
Comrade Parsons
Comrade Withers
Comrade Ogilvy
Mrs. Parsons
Jones, Aaronson, Rutherford

Book 1- Key Terms
Airstrip One Newspeak
4 Main Buildings (Ministries) ‘Comrade’
Oceania Inner Party/Outer Party
Reality Control
Doublethink
Thoughtcrime
Facecrime
Ownlife
Physical Jerks
The Book
Hate Week
Telescreen
Speakwrite
Unperson
INGSOC
Golden Country
Party’s Slogans?
‘Steamers’---Flashback, Protagonist, Dystopia, Irony