1984 Flashcards
What are the 3 slogans of the Party and explain them?
- War is Peace - The people think it means that world peace is maintained through war. Without war, their security would be threatened
- Freedom is Slavery - They have been taught that freedoms act actually tend to enslave one too sentimental a non-essential vices and emotions. To the Party, a free person represents the removal of their power.
- Ignorance is Strength - Being ignorant about the true condition of things is beneficial because it helps them remain happy, optimistic, and strong.
Describe Big Brother. Explain the importance of this character and concept throughout the movie.
He is the face of the party, the leader behind the greater power. He is the person that everyone trusts and he reassures them. It helps that his name is inviting. He is controlling and worshipped as a god. We later discover that he doesn’t really exist.
Describe thoughtcrime and give an example of it from the movie.
- It is a crime where the offender thoughts conflict with the current laws and benefits of the society. They can be caught by someone turning them in or being caught on camera.
- When Winston thinks over and over again “Down with Big Brother”
What is Winston Smith’s job?What happens to the rewritten news articles after he places them in the pneumatic tube? Why is this significant?
- He burns documents
- They burn and get the past caught up with the future. This way, every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct.
- It gets rid of the evidence of data being altered and they send it to a large furnace in the middle of the building
What is the purpose of Newspeak? How does it work?
- It is supposed to make thoughtcrimes impossible there will be no words in which to express it.
- Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its secondary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.
What is the aim of the Party with regard to male-female relationships and sex?
He thinks about the Party’s hatred of sex, and decides that their goal is to remove pleasure from the sexual act, so that it becomes merely a duty to the Party, a way of producing new Party members. The Party prohibits sex in order to channel the sexual frustration of the citizenry into fervent opposition to Party enemies and impassioned worship of Big Brother.
How are children used as spies in this society?
They are used to monitor the adults and turn them in if they are being disloyal to the Party and Big Brother.
Winston writes in his journal, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four.” What does he mean by this? How does this statement come back to haunt him towards the end of the book?
- We have the freedom to say that, so the freedom that he is talking about is the freedom we have.
- By the end of the movie, he is tortured to the point that he believes two plus two is five.
What is the difference between how Julie and Winston view rebellion towards the Party?
Julie justs likes sneaking out and outsmarting the Party. Her “meetings” with Winston are her form of rebellion. Winston hates the Party and views rebellion as a way to test the limits of the Party’s powers.
What does Winston say real betrayal is? How can the Party not win against them?
- Winston says that real betrayal will be if the Party could make them actually stop loving one another. “Confession is not betrayal. what you say or do doesn’t matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you- that would be the real betrayal.”
- They can beat the Party if they can feel on the inside that staying human is worthwhile.
What happened to Parsons, Winston’s neighbor?
Parsons is arrested because his 7 year old daughter reported that she heard his say “Down with Big Brother” in his sleep. Parsons believes that he is guilty because he believes that the Party wouldn’t arrest an innocent man.
What happens to Winston in the Ministry of Love? What is O’Brian’s goal for Winston?
- Winston was physically and mentally tortured by O”Bien. He was to believe that 2+2=5, not 4. Also, he was to believe in the Party and make sure that he would not have thoughts against the Party. Winston was not given food all the time and was not given good sleeping quarters. He was also sent to Room 101 when he didn’t cooperate.
- O’Brien wanted winston to learn to love Big Brother
According to O’Brien, what are the three stages to Winston’s reintegration?
- Learning
- Understanding
- Acceptance
What is Room 101 in general? What is this for Winston?
- It is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love, in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia, with the object of breaking down their resistance.
- It is the place that holds Winston’s greatest fears, like rats. O’Brien knows that Winston will break under his greatest fears.
Describe the scene with the cage. Tell what is in the cage. Tell the outcome of the scene.
- The cage is a face mask. O’Brien tells Winston he will put the mask on Winston’s face if Winston doesn’t do what he says. Winston asks what he is to do, but O’Brien does not answer.
- The cage is filled with rats that could bite through the metal and eat Winston’s face.
- As the mask is closing on his face, Winston screams that they should put the mask on Julia instead. He betrays Julie, just like O’Brien wanted. This allows the Part to succeed.
