1984 · Web viewWhat good thing can Winston say about himself at the end of this chapter? How...

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1984Study Questions Part I, Ch. 1

Directions: Answer the following questions; you will probably have to have more than a single sentence answer for these questions. Be sure to include page numbers, when needed.

1. Who is Big Brother? Describe what he looks like. Is he a real person or just a representation of something more? If yes, what is that something more? Why is his face everywhere?

2. What is the caption under Big Brother’s face? What feeling does this instill in the characters? What about Winston?

3. What is the telescreen? Who is in charge of the telescreen? What is its purpose?

4. How many Ministries are there? What is each in charge of?

5. What are the three party slogans? What literary term does this connect to?

6. What does Winston do when he returns to his home? Why does he have to hide to do this? What does his entry entail? In his flashback he discusses the Two Minute Hate; how does this relate to his entry?

7. How does Winston feel about the society in which he lives? What do you think he will do about it? How would you feel in this society?




1. Who are the Parsons? How does Winston describe Mr. Parsons? Why does this make him the perfect person for the Party?

2. How do Parsons’ children behave? How does Winston describe them?

3. Why are children to be feared? Why are they more dedicated to the party than adults?

4. What is Winston's dream about O’Brien? Where does he say they will one day meet?

5. What is announced on the news?

6. What are the principles of INGSOC? How does this fit with the Ministries?

7. What does Winston do with the diary? How will he know if someone has touched it?



1. Describe Winston’s dream. How does this correlate to his memory of the atomic bomb?

2. According to Winston, what must one have to have a tragedy? Why are there no more tragedies?

3. What does Ingsoc stand for?

4. Define, in detail, doublethink. How is the Party’s slogan “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” doublethink? Paraphrase the paragraph on doublethink that begins with “Winston sank his arms to his sides and slowly refilled his lungs with air. His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink.”

5. What is Winston doing as his mind in wandering through doublethink and the dream?



1. Describe Winston’s job. According to the Party, why is this necessary?

2. Speculate on why Winston likes his job. Give 3 reasons.

3. As Winston must change BB’s speech, what does he do? Why does he feel this is necessary? Be sure to mention what he is changing (include page number).

4. What special literature, music, and entertainment is produced for the proletariat (proles)?

5. Explain Winston’s thought: “It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones” (43).

6. How does Winston’s job force him to create doublethink, and at the same time force him to commit thoughtcrimes?



1. Who is Syme? What is his job in the Party? What does Winston believe will happen to him? Why? What does this reveal about the Party?

2. Describe the idea behind Newspeak. Create your own Newspeak word and explain it. Be prepared to share your Newspeak word. What does it connote?

3. Syme says “the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought” (46). Why is this a scary concept? Who is the Party trying to control?

4. Define orthodox from a dictionary. How does this correlate to the definition or idea of orthodoxy in the novel?

5. According to Winston, who will be vaporized and why?

6. Describe the people of the Party. What does Winston believe the physical type ideal of the Party members should be? Speculate as to why it is not this way. What does Big Brother look like? Does this go along with the Party’s physical make up? Why not?


1984Study Questions Part I, Ch. 6-7

1. What is the purpose of marriage in the state?

2. What do Winston’s memories about visiting a prostitute reveal about his attitudes towards sex in Oceania?

3. How does Winston view the proles? Use at least 2 CDs. Include page numbers.

4. How are the proles controlled (prole control)?

5. What lies/half-truths does the Party teach about history? Cite examples.

6. Winston suspects that the Party lies about progress made since the war. What Party claims does he doubt?

7. What is the story of Aaronson, Jones and Rutherford?

8. Why is this story so meaningful for Winston?

9. What is Winston’s unanswered question?



1. Why does Winston go off on his own? What activities is he missing out on?

2. What is life like in the proles’ end of London? Include at least 3 CDs, including page numbers.

3. What does Winston think about after his conversation with the old man in the pub?

4. What does Winston discover at Mr. Charrington’s shop?

5. What is Mr. Charrington like? Use at least 2 CDs. Include page numbers.

6. What does Winston think when he sees the dark-haired girl outside Mr. Charrington’s shop?

7. How does one’s own body betray a person?

8. Why does Winston wonder about church bells ringing in London?


1984Study Questions Part II, Ch. 1


8. Explain how this statement is doublethink: “In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him; in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone” (88).

9. Who does Winston run into (literally) in the hall? What does she give him? What does it say? How is this against Party rules? What emotions does this bring about for Winston?

10. What different ways does Winston think of to meet with the dark haired girl? What does he think when he does not see her again?

11. What is the plan for Winston and the girl? What happens at this time? How does Winston act that is different from the way he would normally act? What is the new plan? What do they do that is forbidden in the crowd?




1. Why is Winston ill at ease once he is alone with Julia?

2. What does Julia bring with her that she has obtained on the black market? What is Julia’s philosophy? (More about his in chapter 3)

3. What familiar sign does Winston find?

4. What is the significance of the thrush music? Use at least 2 CDs to support your answer.

5. What does Winston mean when he says that he loves Julia all the more because she has had scores of sexual encounters?


1984Study Questions Part II, Ch. 3- 4


Chapter 31. How and where do Julia and Winston meet?

2. What is Julia’s job? What is her background? What is her attitude toward the Inner Party?

3. Describe Winston’s marriage.

4. What do Winston and Julia disagree about?

Chapter 45. How does Winston react to the singing prole woman?

6. What pleasures of the senses are mentioned in this chapter? What is Orwell’s point in mentioning them? Use CDs to explain your answer.

7. What is Winston’s reaction to rats? Julia’s reaction?

8. Winston is interested in the church bells that once played in the city even though he is not religious. What do church bells mean to him?

9. Winston sees the coral paperweight as a symbol of what?


1984Study Questions Part II, Ch. 5-6


Chapter 5-61. Who has vanished?

2. Describe the preparations for Hate Week. In what ways does the Inner Party excel in building spirit? Use CDs to support your answer.

3. Julia and Winston have some differences. Explain them. Use a T-diagram to brainstorm. Then construct your answer in complete sentences.

4. What finally convinces Winston that O’Brien is a member of the Brotherhood?




Chapter 7

1. What does Winston remember about his family and his relationship with his mother?

2. What does Winston realize about love and loyalty as a result of his dream?

3. What is the difference between confession and betrayal?


1984Study Questions Part II, Ch. 8-9


Chapter 8-91. Contrast the living quarters and style of the Inner Party members with those of the Outer Party

members and proles.

2. How does O’Brien test Julia and Winston? What information does O’Brien give them about the Brotherhood? How will O’Brien get The Book to Winston?

3. What are the ways in which the Inner Party builds spirit during Hate Week?

(Ch. 3 “War is Peace”)4. Why does Orwell include detailed passages from Goldstein’s Book in 1984?

5. What is the purpose of war in the world of 1984?

6. Why do all three superpowers forbid their citizens from associating with foreigners? The governments of the three superpowers are alike in essence even though their forms of government have different names. Identify these similarities and explain why they exist? What are the aims of the three groups?

Continued on the next page…..

7. What is the real "war" fought in each of the three governments? Your answer will explain the party slogan, "War is Peace."

8. What are the two aims of the Party? What are the two problems with which the Party is concerned?

Ch. 1 Ignorance is Strength 9. What three classes of people have always existed? In what ways have these three classes changed?

10. What changes in the pattern occurred in the nineteenth century? How did socialism change in the twentieth century? Why are the rulers in the twentieth century better at maintaining power than earlier tyrants?

11. What are the four ways an elite group falls from power? How does the Inner Party make certain it will not fall from power? Why will this ruling class live on while earlier tyrants fell?

12. How is a person’s class determined in the 1984 world?

13. What is doublethink’s purpose to the ruling class? Why is the mutability of the past important to the ruling class?




1. What understanding does Winston gain about the common people?

2. What is the significance of the glass paperweight here?


1984Study Questions Part III, Ch. 1


1. Where is Winston? How is he treated there and why?

2. Which of Winston’s acquaintances is in the same place and why?

3. What happens between the starving man and the chinless man?

4. What effect to the words "Room 101" have on the skull-faced man?

5. Who truly is O’Brien? What do he and Charrington have in common?


1984Study Questions Part III Ch. 2


1. What sort of treatment does Winston receive from the machines in the Ministry of Love?

2. What is O’Brien attempting to teach Winston?

3. O’Brien explains how the Inner Party avoids the mistakes of past totalitarian governments. State in your own words what O’Brien means.

4. What effect does the (painless) shock treatment have on Winston?

5. What questions does Winston ask O’Brien and what are the responses?




1. According to O’Brien, what are the three stages in Winston’s re-integration, and which stage is he about to enter?

2. Who wrote Goldstein’s book? Is what the book says true? (Notice the answer in its entirety)

3. Why does the Inner Party seek power and how does this reason differ from the reasons of the Soviet Communists under Stalin and the Nazis?

4. Explain the slogan, "Freedom is Slavery."

5. How does one person assert their power over another?

6. How will Oceania differ from all traditional utopias?

7. Why does Winston feel he is morally superior to O’Brien and how does O’Brien prove that Winston is wrong?

Continued on the next page…….8. How does Winston’s physical appearance affect him?

9. What good thing can Winston say about himself at the end of this chapter?

10. How does Winston feel about O’Brien? Why?

11. What final question does Winston ask O’Brien?




1. How has Winston’s environment changed? What does he do with his time? How does he show his obedience to the Inner Party?

2. How does Winston show that he is not entirely true to Big Brother?

3. How does Winston feel about Big Brother?

4. Give 3 examples of Winston committing doublethink in this chapter. Cite page numbers.

5. Have they broken Winston? Explain your answer with 2 CDs.


1984Study Questions Part III, Ch. 5-6


Chapter 5

1. What happens in Room 101 and how does this "cure" Winston?

Chapter 6

1. What is the setting?

2. What is Winston’s job? (Look up "sinecure" if you don’t know it)

3. How did his meeting with Julia go?

4. How is it evident that Winston really is a different person?

5. What is happening in the last two paragraphs of the book?

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