1984 Book Two, Chapters 8-9

Book Two, Chapter 8
1. Contrast the living quarters and style of the Inner Party members with those of the Outer Party members and proles. The Inner Party members live in luxury compared to the Outer Party, and they live in downright paradise compared to the Proles. While the Outer Party is stuck with Victory Gin (and the Proles drink whatever they can get their hands on), the Inner Party has wine, and doubtless other fine liquors. The Inner Party has servants who basically do everything for them, while the Outer Party has no such thing, and the Proles do manual labor for more than twelve hours per day. While the Outer Party is rationed food (meager rations, at that), and the Proles rarely have enough to eat, the Inner Party has real bread, coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate, and other things (even real cigarettes!). Perhaps the most important distinction, though, is that the Inner Party has the ability to turn off their telescreens. True, it is not safe that they should turn them off for long, but they do have the luxury of privacy every so often, while no such notion exists in the other classes.
2. How does O’Brien test Julia and Winston? He asks them what they are willing to do. He uses a series of questions (whether or not they would throw sulphuric acid in a child's face, whether or not they would betray their country to foreign powers, etc.). He does this, presumably, for the purpose of making sure that they are serious about the resistance.
3. What information does O’Brien give them about the Brotherhood? O'Brien tells them all about the Brotherhood, while really telling them absolutely nothing. He says that there isn't much to be known about the Brotherhood, and that it was designed that way so that the whole "organization" wouldn't collapse if one or two people were captured. He says there is no way to know who the members are (beyond a handful of other people) or, indeed, how many members there are. There is no hierarchy of the system, there is no person who knows much more than another. They do, however, have the ability to change a person beyond recognition.
4. How will O’Brien get The Book to Winston? Winston is to forget his brief case one day. As he is walking somewhere, an anonymous man will tell him that he dropped his brief case, at which time he will receive a case that looks like his, but with the book inside of it.

Book Two, Chapter 9
1. Why does Orwell include detailed passages from Goldstein’s Book in 1984? Ostensibly, it is to illustrate how concretely different the principals of the Brotherhood are from those of the Party, to highlight the lies that the Party has told the people and will continue to tell them. However, subtly, I think that it is to show that the ideas of the Party and those of the Brotherhood aren't actually that different. They are both radical organizations who expect complete loyalty, and unquestioning faith from their participants.
2. What three classes of people have always existed? Upper, middle, lower.
3. In What ways have these three classes changed? Their names have changed during different periods in time, yet the classes themselves have remained the same.
4. What is the purpose of war in the world of 1984? The purpose is to keep the people under control. The government stays constantly in war-time in order to justify mass hysteria, two minutes of hate every day, rationing, nationalistic tendencies, fanaticism, and dropping bombs on their own people.
5. What are the two aims of the Party? The two aims of the party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought. There are therefore two greatest problems that the party is concerned to solve.
6. What are the two problems with which the Party is concerned? The two problems are taking over the few bits of land that aren't owned by one of the three superstates, and trying to ultimately and completely control its people.
7. Why do all three superpowers forbid their citizens from associating with foreigners? They are not allowed to meet because then citizens of each state would realize the supposed enemy are exactly like them, and that they are no better off than those who they are fighting. It goes along with dehumanization as a means of control. If we realize just how human, and how similar to ourselves, the "enemy" is, we will not support fighting with them.
8. 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? All of the superstates can basically be self-contained because of their natural resources. All of the governments operate basically the same way: utter control of the people through war and the removal of all independence. The conditions of life in all three superstates are basically the same (especially the class division). These similarities exist because, if one state were ever to very too much from the mold, they would either be at an advantage or a disadvantage, allowing the pointless war waged by the other states to take them over.
9. What is the real "war" fought in each of the three governments? Your answer will explain the party slogan, "War is Peace." The three governments are equally matched, so they would never hope to conquer the other two. The real war is keeping the people working so that society runs smoothly and like the government wants it to. The "real war" is keeping an entire people enslaved to a false ideology. The goal of the war is to weaken independence and intelligence and ideas, and force people to live in a constant state of propaganda-induced fear.
10. What are the aims of the three groups?
11. What changes in the pattern occurred in the nineteenth century?
12. How did socialism change in the twentieth century?
13. Why are the rulers in the twentieth century better at maintaining power than earlier tyrants? Speed.
14. What are the four ways an elite group falls from power? An elite group falls from power by: being conquered from without, governing so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to revolt, allowing a strong and disconnected Middle Group to come into being, or losing its own self-confidence and willingness to govern.
15. How does the Inner Party make certain it will not fall from power? The Inner Party brainwashes others into supporting Big Brother, almost worshiping him. They ration food, have a vast majority of people working for the government in one way or another, and take away their privacy. With ultimate control comes ultimate power. By making the populace totally dependent on the Party, it is impossible that they would fall from power because, if they did, society would fall apart or implode.
16. How is a person’s class determined in the 1984 world? The class of a person is determined according to the class one is born into and by ability as defined by the Party. There can be some upward mobility (if you are extremely valuable) but that is rare.
17. What is doublethink and what is its purpose to the ruling class?

Doublethink is the ability (forced or not) to hold two opposite views as being true without acknowledging that you are doing so. For example, if you have a memory which everyone around you insists is false, you can hold both of these views to be true in your mind. Its purpose is to provide a method of defending a totalitarian system of government that might otherwise be objectionable. It is used to alter the past, and reject rationality to protect the infallibility of the ruling party, whether or not they are actually correct.

18. Why is the mutability of the past important to the ruling class? To exert complete control over a people, they must be able to trust you completely. It is easier to trust somebody who is right all the time than somebody who is consistently wrong or changing their opinions. The Party must look like it never makes mistakes.

1984 Book 2, Chapters 3-5

Book Two, Chapter 3

1. How and where do Julia and Winston meet? They meet in a dilapidated church tower. It was in the same month that they met in the clearing in the woods, but that was the only other time that month they could meet in private. Other than that, they had to meet in the streets as often as they could (every 3-4 days or so) and carry on a fragmentary conversation as they passed each other. This is the only way they can arrange their meetings, as they can't very well call on each other or pass notes.
2. What is Julia’s job? She works in the fiction department on the novel-writing machines.
3. What is her background? She is 26 years old and lives in a hostel with 30 other girls. She has no memory of things before the early sixties. However, she used to have a grandfather who would talk often of times before the revolution, and he was vaporized when she was eight years old. She was captain of the hockey team and good at gymnastics. She was a troop leader in the Spies and a branch secretary in the Youth League before joining the Junior Anti-Sex League.
4. What is her attitude toward the Party? She hates them. She thinks they are all pigs. She fosters a special animosity towards the inner party. She thinks the party is all secrets and lies, and doesn't trust them at all. However, that's as far as it goes. She doesn't bother to think about how she could fix it or what she could do. She doesn't even believe that the Brotherhood exists. She just has her opinions, and that's good enough for her. And there is nothing wrong with that, ALEXIS!
   
5. Describe the quote “ With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality. As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness”. What does Winston think about Julia? He thinks that she only cares about sex. She doesn't care about much unless it affects her directly, and that is mainly sex. Her awareness doesn't travel much past her immediate situation. He doesn't believe that she is that bright, but can be intelligent when speaking about certain subjects. He feels that she is more practical than intelligent.
   
6. Why does the Party think the sexual impulse as well as the familial love is dangerous? They're both uncontrollable instincts. The Party would like to kill all emotions except loyalty and things like that. Those emotions that people are allowed to have must be controlled, as during the Two Minutes Hate. Sexual impulses and familial love also connect people to one another. That is the biggest sin in the eyes of the Party, because once people start connecting with one another, there is a greater chance of ideas being shared. Ideas are the Party's kryptonite.
   

Book Two, Chapter 4

1. How does Winston react to the singing Prole woman? He likes her. He thinks her singing is beautiful and innocent (even though he doesn't like the song), and a symbol of rebellion. It brings him back to a time when things were more free. I think he is attracted to the melancholy of it, the fact that the woman is singing words that she probably doesn't understand and seems happy to do so.
   
2. What pleasures of the senses are mentioned in this chapter? What is Orwell’s point in mentioning them? All five senses are touched upon in this chapter. Winston smells the real coffee, which brings him back to his childhood, when everybody could have coffee like that. He tastes and feels the sugar, which is so much better than the saccharine they have now. Again, it takes him back to a time before the revolution. Both the coffee and the sugar are highly nostalgic for Winston. He sees Julia with makeup on, which is something that Party women just don't do. It makes her more feminine, which brings up just another thing that the Party has taken away. To kill the sex instinct, they are even trying to make the genders more equal in appearance, so nobody is a man or a woman and everybody is just "Comrade". Winson hears the singing of the Prole woman, which (though he doesn't like the song) brings him back, again, to a simpler, more innocent time. All of these things are piling on top of one another to bring back Winston's memories and to make him question everything he knows about the society he currently lives in.
   
3. What is Winston’s reaction to rats? Julia’s reaction? Winston wigs out, and he covers his face and gets really tense. He sort of cowers and doesn't want to go near them or even think about them. He reaches this black wall of memory in his mind, which is nightmarish for him. Julia is indifferent, and doesn't mind the rats. They hold no significance for her.
   
4. 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? They are a symbol of childhood. They also represent connections between people, as most children learned this rhyme. Julia and Mr. Charrington both knew it, despite being raised in different places at drastically different times.
   
5. Winston sees the coral paperweight as a symbol of what? He sees the paperweight as the room he is in and the coral inside as his and Julia's life. He sees them separate from everybody else, because he has finally forged a connection with her, and that's forbidden. He likes the paperweight because it isn't really useful, and wasn't even in its own time.
   

Chapter 5

1. Who has vanished? How does Winston confirm this? Syme has vanished. Winston checks the list of the Chess Committee members, which Syme used to be on. Since his name is gone, Winston knows that Syme has become an unperson.
2. Describe the preparations for Hate Week. In what ways does the Inner Party excel in building spirit? They decorate everything with banners, posters, and other propaganda. They distribute pamphlets. They have meetings and lectures and processions. They show movies and telescreen programs with nothing but Party nonsense. Everything is propaganda, and it is proliferated at an alarming rate. It is spread into the public even faster than usual until it takes hold and everyone has worked up their hatred into a fever pitch. Then, we're ready for Hate Week.
3. Julia and Winston have some differences. Explain them. There is a big age gap between the two of them, which means that Winston has some vague memories of before the revolution, and Julia doesn't. Their ideas about the Party differ as well. Julia doesn't like them, but she only cares to the extent that it affects her. Winston thinks about the Brotherhood and rebellion and is constantly dreaming of ways that he can overthrow Big Brother. Julia is practical and Winston isn't, but Winston is more intelligent. He cares for reading and writing and getting away from telescreens, while Julia can't be bothered. Julia lives in the moment while Winston lives in the past and future.

Connect the chapters to two different themes and explain them.

1. Isolation and Social Class Disparity. Winston and Julia have to meet in places where they are sequestered off from everybody else. They don't get to have a public relationship. Even when they do get to speak in public, they must have a fragmented conversation as they pass in the streets. Once they've forrged this connection, Winston feels even more isolated because connections are such a rarity in this society. This is why he compares them to the paperweight, with Winston and Julia being the secluded coral inside and the glass around them being their room, their buffer from the world. The social class disparity comes in during the interaction with the singing Prole woman. Winston knows that if a Party member were to start singing to themselves, they would probably be carted off to the thought police. He realizes that singing (except patriotic songs) is an activity of times passed, and that only the naive Proles are allowed the luxury. This plays into his ideas that the Proles might actually be more free than the Party members. We also see the difference between classes when Julia puts on the makeup, which is something that Party women don't do. Winston automatically thinks of the Prole prostitute that he visited once.
   
2. The meaning of freedom. Well, the entire book pretty much discusses the meaning of freedom. However, Winston's lack thereof has been brought under the microscope when examining his relationship with Julia. They are rebelling by being together yet, if they have to hide it from everybody, is that really freedom? If they have to worry that, at any moment, the thought police could come barging in on their private santuary and take them away, is that really freedom? Again, in looking at the Prole woman, Winston feels that she is more free than he can ever be. This is because she can sing, she can put out laundry, and she seems to be happy doing it as well. True freedom is the ability to be happy despite your situation, and Winston sees that she is happy. Honest and pure joy is something that the Party has tried to rid its members of. This is why the Proles are more free than the Party members, because they don't live their lives under the watchful eye of Big Brother (for the most part). Even though they are poor and destitute, they are free.
   

1984 vs. Today's Reality

Ways in which our society is similar to the dystopia described in George Orwell's "1984":

1. There is no privacy. In "1984" it was telescreens that watched your every move, even the homeostatic signs that happened inside your body, and possibly monitored your thoughts as well. In our world, it is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogging: all of the various technologies we have at our disposal, and which we use to broadcast our every thought and action to the world. Our present has become very similar to Orwell's fictional future; the only difference is that the people in that world had invasions of privacy forced on them and we seem to welcome them.
2. We are turned against a "common enemy". In both "1984" and in the our world, hatred has become a valuable tool against the proverbial adversary. This is used as a tool to band people together, making them easier to control since they are of one mind. It also makes them easier to turn the tide against whomever it is that the government wants us to hate. While in the book it is due to the Two Minutes of Hate, in our society the hatred of the enemy is due to things such as the "War on Terror". Both are propaganda.
3. Newspeak. Speaking of propaganda and the War on Terror, both the government in "1984" and our own are using a dumbed down vocabulary to control their people. It is easier to control somebody who isn't as smart as you. When we use phrases such as "War on Terror" and "politically correct", we get a certain picture in our minds of exactly what that means. This is exactly what the people who came up with these phrases intended to do with them. They use the words to take away our vocabulary, making us less intelligent and less able to express our ideas. It's pretty hard to rebel against a government when you can't even express what it is you want to rebel against and how you want to do it.
4. Abrupt changes in "enemies". Our country abruptly changes who we support and who we are fighting with, and it expects the people to follow. This is the same as the changes between Eastasia and Eurasia in "1984". Example: the U.S. used to completely back Mubarak. This was, of course, until he was portrayed as a dictator. Just like that we turned against him, or at least our government told us we should. If you need further proof, just look at the current situation in Libya.
5. The government is keeping secrets. I think it's obvious (or it should be) by now that our government does not tell us everything. Much like Big Brother and the Inner Party in "1984", the government in our world tries to keep its people in the dark about certain subjects. Due to things such as Wikileaks, we are finally learning more about our government.

1984 Book 2, Chapter 2

• Why is Winston ill at ease once he is alone with Julia? He couldn't quite work up the courage to approach her, or get closer to her. He was worried that they may not be safe from observation in the clearing.
  
• What does Julia bring with her that she has obtained on the black market? Chocolate, real chocolate.
  
• What are Julia’s ideas about the Party? She hates them, especially the inner party. It seems to be a violent hatred, because she can't keep from swearing when she talks about them. She thinks they are all pigs.
  
• What familiar sign does Winston find? It was an old, close-bitten pasture, with a footpath and molehills. He sees it and is shocked, because it is almost exactly as he viewed Golden Country in his mind.
  
• What is the significance of the thrush music? It is a symbol of rebellion. It is natural music, something that is an animal instinct and something that happens on its own. It is a stark contrast to the music in Winston's world, especially of the proles, because that is computer generated and unnatural.
  
• What does Winston mean when he says that he loves Julia all the more because she has had scores of sexual encounters? He says it because her having sex with a bunch of people is a rebellion against Big Brother, and against everything the party stands for. This is especially true because the men she has sex with are party members. It is corrupt, dirty, and viewed as wrong in this society. That's why Winston loves it so much.