George Orwell

Terms to Know  dystopia – “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives; anti-utopia” “An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one”  oligarchy – “government by the few; a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes”  socialism – “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods; a system of society or group living in which there is no private property”  propaganda – “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person”

1984 Terms to Know  “INGSOC”  “telescreen”  “unperson”  “newspeak”/”oldspeak”  “thoughtcrime”  “doublethink”  “facecrime”  “proles”  “Golden Country”  “Oceania”  “Eastasia”  “Eurasia”  “Two Minutes Hate”/”Hate Week”  “orthodox”/”unorthodox”

Characters  Winston  Julia  O’Brien  Charrington  Syme  Katharine  Parsons  Emmanuel Goldstein

Part One Questions 1. Language/Logic, Setting: What does the opening sentence (“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”) suggest about the book? 2. Irony/Paradox, Language/Logic: What are the Party mottos? What is unusual about them? 3. Language/Logic, Theme: What is Newspeak? What is its purpose? 4. Language/Logic: Who is Big Brother, and what is the significance of his name? 5. Language/Logic: What is facecrime? Why is it so easy to commit? 6. Theme, Irony/Paradox: How does the Party control history? Why? 7. Plot, Theme: Who is Emmanuel Goldstein, and how is he presented to the people of Oceania? What is the probable significance of using the obviously Jewish name?

Part Two Questions 8. Character: In what ways are Julia and Winston alike? In what ways are they different? 9. Theme: Why does the Party permit couples to marry but discourage love? 10. Plot: O’Brien asks Winston and Julia what they are willing to do for the Brotherhood. What are they willing to do? What is the one thing they are unwilling to do? 11. Plot: Why are the three superpowers always at war according to the Brotherhood’s handbook? 12. Plot, Irony/Paradox: How are Winston and Julia betrayed?

Part Three Questions 13. Character, Irony/Paradox: How does Parsons feel about being imprisoned as a result of his own daughter reporting him for thoughtcrime? 14. Theme, Plot: Before Winston is interrogated, he sees many prisoners escorted to Room 101. From their reactions, he gathers the room is extremely unpleasant. What is in Room 101? 15. Plot: When and in what way does Winston betray Julia? 16. Plot: Why does O’Brien say prisoners are brought to the Ministry of Love? 17. Plot: What happens to Julia? 18. Theme, Irony/Paradox: How does Winston ultimately feel about Big Brother?

Propaganda “A new poster had suddenly appeared all over London. It had no caption, and represented simply the monstrous figure of a Eurasian soldier, three or four metres high, striding forward with expressionless Mongolian face and enormous boots, a submachine gun pointed from his hip. From whatever angle you looked at the poster, the muzzle of the gun, magnified by the foreshortening, seemed to be pointed straight at you. The thing had been plastered on every blank space on every wall, even outnumbering the portraits of Big Brother” (Part II, Chapter V)

Propaganda “On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns — after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war- criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces — at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally” (Part II, Chapter IV).

Activity Create a political cartoon that may have appeared in a secret publication of the Brotherhood or a highly publicized publication of the Party. (Do not simply recreate a Big Brother poster.) Use contemporary political cartoons from newspapers and magazines as models. See the handout for detailed instructions and a grading rubric.

Examples of Propaganda DISCLAIMER: The following imagers are simply examples of propaganda. The teacher is in no way advocating any particular political party, ideal, or product.

Camel Cigarettes Propaganda

WWII Propaganda