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.
great resourse
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