1984 Writing TASK OPTIONS ERWC

Writing Task 1: The Party and Power Core question: Can a society based on hate survive? The first task, “The Party and Power,” asks students to explore the motivations behind Big Brother’s totalitarian control of the population. Why run a society in this way? O’Brien’s answer is that Big Brother is completely motivated by power for the sake of power and that as such, it is the first society based entirely on hate, not love or justice. Winston argues against him. Students are asked to support either O’Brien’s view or Winston’s view. This topic is designed to cause students to imagine themselves living in a society driven by power and hate, without love or friendship, and to draw conclusions about whether such a society would be viable. Students are used to living in a society where the pursuit of “life, liberty, and happiness” is considered to be a human right. What would it be like to live in a society in which, as O’Brien says, “Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain”?

Writing Task 2: The Fall of Big Brother Core question: What might cause the fall of Big Brother? The second task, “The Fall of Big Brother,” takes its cue from the fact that the appendix implies that Big Brother eventually fell from power and a more normal society developed. This task asks students to analyze why the oligarchy controlling Oceania collapsed, using evidence from the novel to support their arguments. This topic is designed to cause students to comb the text looking for reasons and support for their arguments. It is the most text- based of the four prompts.

Writing Task 3: The Party and Objective Reality Core question: Can Big Brother decide what is real and what is not? The third task, “The Party and Objective Reality,” addresses a philosophical problem at the heart of the text: What is the nature of reality? O’Brien claims that reality is in the mind, and since Big Brother controls the mind, Big Brother controls reality, even gravity and the positions of the stars. Students are asked to imagine what it would be like to live in a society in which truth is whatever Big Brother says it is at the moment. Is it possible for a government to control the thoughts of its citizens so thoroughly? Is it possible to have scientific progress with this definition of truth? This prompt is designed to cause students to consider the philosophical question at the heart of the novel and apply it to our own society.

Writing Task 4: Surveillance and Big Brother Core question: Is our technology taking us closer to the world of Big Brother? Finally, the fourth task takes up one of the issues that is most commonly associated with the term “Orwellian,” the issue of surveillance technology and government control. This task adds two more texts designed to connect the novel to our own time and society. This topic provides many opportunities for further research because controversies about surveillance technology in the form of public cameras, unmanned drones, miniaturized cameras and microphones, cellphone records, Internet searches, and many other aspects of daily life are constantly in the news. Students are asked to compare Big Brother’s technology with our own.