Post #8 - 1984 Book 3.3-6 (due May 10)
Reactions, please! (to the reading and to each other) Oh, and what would you find in Room 101?

Post #7 - 1984 Book 3.1-2 (due May 6)
"We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness."
1. What symbolic meaning is there in the continuous artificial light--& no windows?
2. Winston's physiological instinct to survive overpowers his psychological need to hold on to the truth: 2+2=5. How is this so? (Recall here his quote on page 86: "It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy but always against one's own body.")
3. Why can there be no wrongthinking even in those they kill? Why does O'Brien want to convince Winston that 2+2=5?
4. Why do you think Orwell dedicated almost one-third of this novel to Winston's ordeal at the Ministry of Truth?
5. What do you think Orwell wants to show us with the arrrests of Ampleforth and Parsons?

Post #6 - 1984 Book 2.9-10 (due 5/3/10)
1. "It was only an 'opeless fancy, / It passed like an Ipril dye, / But a look an' a word an' the dreams they stirred / They 'ave stolen my 'eart awye!" Ironic? Symbolic? Care to discuss these song lyrics.
2. "We are the dead." "We are the dead." "You are the dead." What details come together as book 2 ends?
(Ashley--I can't post Tuesday's blog yet without giving away plot details...)

Post #5 - 1984 Book2.5-8
"They had done it! They had done it at last!" And who remembers Syme?
1. Discuss Hate Week and how it functions (what purpose it serves) in the year 1984.
2. How's the varicose ulcer of Winston's doing these days...what might it symbolize?
3. What do you find significant about the lifestyle of an Inner Party member?
4. What is the meaning of Winston's dream of his mother & sister (within the glass paperweight). What meaning does he find in it? And you?
5. Any predictions about what comes next?

Post #4: 1984 - Book 2.1-4
Whoa! that dark-haired girl becomes a major player. . . .the Golden Country. . . .and back to Mr. Charrington's again...
1. Does the world of 1984 encourage a sensory-rich or a sensory-deprived world? Discuss. (Compare/Contrast with the golden country?)
2. (103) Why did the thrush's song have such a strong impact on Winston? "Perhaps at the other end of the instrument some small, bettle-like man was listening intently--listening to that."
3. How does Winston's rebellion differ from Julia's? (109) (And why might Orwell's point be?)
4. That room above Mr. Charrington's shop. . . what strikes you as significant: detail? symbol? theme? etc.

POST #3 - 1984 1.7-8
By now, you should have a better understanding of just what kind of world it is in which Winston lives. Notice the words that close Book 1 of this novel.... The effect of this?
1. "If there is hope. . .it lies in the proles." (60) How realistic or futile is this hope?
2. "I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY." (68) What's he mean here?
3. Theme alert: That final quote from Winston's journal (69): Discuss what he means here.
4. Ownlife. What is it and how suspect is it in the world of 2010?

5. How about his hope in the proles? (73) How does this relate to his musings in ch. 7? To his attempts to learn of the past from the old man in the pub? How did that conversation leave Winston feeling--and why?
6. A new character: Mr. Charrington. Winston makes another purchase: discuss its significance to him; how is it related to the nursery rhyme? to Mr. C.'s shop with its upstairs bedroom?
7. Think about how this chapter ends. What do you predict about what happens next? (NO spoilers, please! If you've already read this or seen the movie or read the synopsis don't go near this!)

POST #2 - 1984 1.4-6
Are you beginning to "get" what life is like in London, Airstrip 1, Oceania? Lots to think about. You might want to comment on any or all of the following:
1. "It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones. Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar." (p. 43-end of chapter)
2. Think about the cafeteria scene (chap. 5): What's the significance of Syme, of the dark-haired girl? "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." (pp.46-47)
3. What about those Parsons children? "My kid made sure he was some kind of enemy agent...What do you think put her on to him in the first place? She spotted he was wearing a funny kind of shoes--said she'd never seen anyone wearing shoes like that before. So the chances were he was a foreigner. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh?" (p. 50)
4. Why/how does the Party attempt to subvert & control human sexuality?