1984 - Almost everything

Question 1

What did Marx’s illustrations mean

Answer 1

Mechanisation - robbed labourers of their individuality

Question 2

Give some facts about Stalin’s rule

Answer 2

Killed 22 million
Books burnt + rewritten
Anyone who spoke out disappeared

Question 3

Who was James Burnham

Answer 3

American political thinker
Stated that the future would belong to Hitler in 1942 and then to Stalin after his regime failed

Consequently predicted the world would become Tripartite, split into 3 superstates which would be unconquerable

Question 4

What negative effect did the Industrial Revolution have on the role of workers

Answer 4

Only supervised one part of the manufacturing process - limited in their work of the supervision of machinery

Robbed workers of an essential right to have pleasure and fulfilment in their work and for the products of their labour to be expressive of their individuality

Question 5

Give a book that expresses the distaste of Industrialisation and the author

Answer 5

“The Condition of the Working Class in England”

Friedrich Engels - co-authored the communist manifesto with Carl Marx

Question 6

Give a novel that depicts a utopian vision of an industrial society

Answer 6

Looking Backwards - Industry is nationalised and run by an ‘industrial army’ (set in 2000)

Critics saw this as an unrealistic solution to social evils as they saw the machine work as destructive and that such a society would be destructive of creativity and social solidarity - William Morris

Question 7

How is Fordism significant

Answer 7

Factories were the first to mass-produce cars

• In the late 1920s the American economy crashed as a result of ‘overproduction’ - they were producing plenty but unable to sell all the products as ordinary people were short of money
• Ford solution = pay workers enough so that they could buy mass-produced products (cars). Mean more consumers and fixes boredom of work on production line

Made it so products had to be replaced - cycle of consumption and production

Question 8

What novel did Fordism inspire

Answer 8

Brave New World - set in year 623 AF (After Ford)

The world statue is built upon the principle of Henry Ford’s assembly lone

Question 9

What is Freud’s theory on group psychology

Answer 9

A group is impulsive - it acts upon the urge and feeling like an infant

Led by the unconscious

Anyone willing to cause-effect needs no logic. Must paint in the most forcible colours, exaggerate and repeat the same thing again and again

Acts as a reflection the lowest denominator within it

Question 10

Who were Jones, Anderson and Rutherford

Answer 10

Based on confessions on a number of Bolsheviks in a series of show trials - being paid to undermine the Soviet Regime

Arrested during the great purges

Question 11

What were the Great Purges

Answer 11

Brutal political campaign led by Stalin to eliminate dissenting members of the communist party and anyone else he considered a threat

750,000 people executed during the Great Purge (1936-1938)

Question 12

How are the proles described as

Answer 12

“Free like animals”

Question 13

How are the working class presented in Brave New World and what does Lynsky state

Answer 13

Greek alphabet for classes - accepted inferiority and hierarchy

“Referred to 1984 and Brave New Wolrd as “awkward literary twins” - Huxley’s dystopia is written as a protest against the rise of capitalism and, along with it, mass consumerism (Fordism)

Question 14

How are the working class presented in ‘The Iron Heel’

Answer 14

“People of the abyss’ - nothing to say except about the pain and misery of their lives

Question 15

What does Lynsky state about the proles in 1984

Answer 15

“Is the least persuasive element of 1984…As Russia and Germany demonstrated, you can’t have totalitarianism without the masses…While the operation of the party represents totalitarianism, the world of the proles is a caricature of capitalism without its functions”,

Question 16

Lynsky - why does Winston believe that the proles are in fact superior to party members

Answer 16

” They had stayed human. They had not become hardened on the inside”.

Question 17

What are the confessions of the thought crime criminals based upon

Answer 17

Show trials of the 1930s, which included fabricated confessions by prominent Bolsheviks

• Bukharin
• Zinoviev
• Kamenev
  To the effect that they were being paid by the Nazi goverment to undermine the Soviet regime

Question 18

The thought criminals (Rufferford Aranson and Jones) exemplify the………………and distortion of the……..carried out by the party

Answer 18

Manipulation

Truth

Question 19

What was the Great Purge and how many died

Answer 19

Brutal political campaign under Stalin to eliminate dissenting members of the Communist Party and anyone else he considered a threat

750,000 were executed

Over a million sent to forced labour camps *Gulags)

Question 20

The cult of personality, rewriting of history, the obliteration of freedom of speech, suffocating climate of fear all reflect what

Answer 20

Soviet Russia + Orwell’s experience of it (Spanish Civil War)

Question 21

For Orwell, communism became “a form of……………..that makes mental………..impossible”, and it’s literature a “mechanism for explaining away……….”.

Answer 21

Socialism
Honesty
Mistakes

Question 22

Define dystopia

Answer 22

An imagined state in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian

Question 23

Give some context for the perpetual warfare in 1984

Answer 23

Orwell working for the BBC in WWII and forced to keep ordinary citizens in the dark about ongoing events (form of propaganda + keep productivity high).

Even today - warfare such as Afghanistan/Middle East were for little befit for the masses of society both abroad and home - despite the catastrophic killings binging much devastation

Causes 1984 to ring true today, and cements its role as a siren - a foreboding warning to future societies about the dangers of warfare and tyrannical governments

Question 24

The nouns ‘volunteers…banners…posters and streamers” create a semantic field of……and celebration whereas underneath it reeks of……….and……….

Answer 24

Joy
Venom
Hostility

Question 25

Give a novel that also depicts the separation of propaganda to the harsh realities of war

Answer 25

‘The Long Walk’ - Stephen King

Harsh gruelling trek of boys with only one survivor - reflects Vietnam in which war was romanticised and idealised to entice society into taking part (not too dissimilar to 1984)

Question 26

What does Freud state

Answer 26

“The experience of participating in a crowd or mob was one in which unconscious drives are expressed, aside from their usual forms of individualistic sublimation

Question 27

How does Winston describe Katherine

Answer 27

“She had a bold aquiline face, a face that one might have called noble until one discovered that there was nearly nothing behind it”

Question 28

Give some O’Brien quotes

Answer 28

“And remember that it is forever. The face will always be there to be stamped upon”

“We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull”

“The object of persecution is persecution. The object of power is power”

“You are a difficult case. But don’t give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you”.

Question 29

Naomi Jacobs - give several examples from 1984 in which a body is capable of resisting a dystopian force

Answer 29

Winstons’ rebellious body that refuses to submit to the everyday discomforts of life”

Julia’s naked body in lovemaking

The powerful body of the proletarian mother singing

Question 30

Naomi Jacobs - “Orwell’s final vision is of the body as inherently………,……………, incapable of sustaining any enduring opposition to social control

Answer 30

Flawed

Permeable

Question 31

What does Lynsky suggest about totalitarian leaders

Answer 31

“They can never admit an error…mass leaders in power have one concern which overrules all utilitarian considerations: to make their predictions come true”

Question 32

Give a quote from 1984 about Hate Week

Answer 32

“The rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns - after 6 days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax…it had been announced that Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally”

Question 33

What does Julia state

Answer 33

The Party is “sex gone wrong”

Question 34

Give a quote that highlights the luxury of inner-party members

Answer 34

“The richness of the dark blue carpet gave one the impression of treading on velvet”

Question 35

What does Steve Shazibhan state about the idea that ideas become unthinkable without words to express them

Answer 35

It’s false

Words are the expression of concepts which exist in the mind. Therefore no totalitarian regime could ever be total

Question 36

What does Smiths acceptance of extreme levels of inhumanity demonstrate (Steve Shazibhan)

Answer 36

The Party’s eradication of human feeling

Question 37

Why are the Proles reluctant to get involved with a rebellion

Answer 37

Only if it was in their interest to do so, this being unlikely due to the Partysconstant supply of goods to them
(Peace, Bread, land)

Question 38

Give two readings of W+J’s love

Answer 38

Even though their love is compromised, it stimulates a capacity for sympathy and care which is innate

Their relationship is just lust. They are using each other to satisfy sexual needs and the relationship is selfish in a way that agrees with the Party’s philosophy

Question 39

Give evidence for the positive reading of W+J’s love

Answer 39

Julia assures Winston that the party can’t strip them of their humanity and love

Golden Country romanticises its relationship

Julia cares little for resistance, thinks it’s futile

Question 40

Give evidence for the negative reading of W+J’s love

Answer 40

Desperation to have sex, despite the dangers

Can true love sprout in such a monitored and fearful society?

In the end, they betray each other - imperfect, weak

Question 41

“if you are a man, Winston, you are the….man. Your kind is……… we are the………..”

Answer 41

Last
Extinct
Inheritors

Question 42

When writing about propaganda, what did Orwel say

Answer 42

“The nightmare feeling caused by the disappearance of the objective truth”

Question 43

Give a quote that depicts Children acting as spies

Answer 43

“The children, on the other hand, were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them”

Question 44

What does Stephens suggest about O’Briens name

Answer 44

Irish - used to “suggest the absolute power of the Catholic church”

The danger of absolute power

Had already drawn extensive parallels between Catholic and Communist traits in ‘the Road to Wigan Pier’

Question 45

Why is nostalgia a key dystopian trope

Answer 45

Illustrates the stark differences between the presented society to the present day. By romanticising the past, the horrors of society are ever visible

Question 46

How is Charrington described as

Answer 46

“Mild eyes distorted by thick spectacles. His hair was almost white, but his eyebrows were bushy and still black”

Juxtaposition = two sides to his character

Reminiscent of BB and other European dictators

Question 47

Give a couple of lines from the ‘Shield of Achilles’ by Auden

Answer 47

“A million eyes, a million boots in line, without expression waiting for a sign. Out of the air a voice without a face”

Question 48

When was the Spanish Civil War and what happened

Answer 48

1936

Orwell fought for the POUM - supported by Russia

Russia switched sides and the POUM became illegal

Members of the party were tortured to death by Russian forces.

The press in Spain and England deliberately misreported key events, adding to the air of suspension and violence

Question 49

Give some context for Newspeak in “Politics and the English Language”

Answer 49

In an essay, Orwell analysed various abuses of language which he saw becoming more prevalent in political discourse. He thought that the degradation of language would become a vicious cycle

Question 50

Give two quotes from Noimi Jacobs about the body

Answer 50

“The resultant ‘mindless body’ serves the state as a productive and reproductive entity rather than serving the individual”

“Totalitarian propaganda presents healthy bodies as images of national strength and productivity, while in fact, individuals under a totalitarian regime endure a deliberating lack of access to the food and medicine needed”

Question 51

How does Zamyatin We link to imposed social conformity and structure and give a quote

Answer 51

The ‘Table’ controls the life of everyone.

Every hour and minute is dictated by the Table and must be obeyed with complete obedience

“At the very same hour, millions of us as one start work”.

Question 52

What did Orwell call the “The Iron Heel”

Answer 52

“A very remarkable prophecy of the rise of fascism”

Question 53

What movement was William Morris associated with

Answer 53

Arts and Crafts Movement + Pre-Raphelite

Concerned about the effects of industrialisation on design and craft

Golden Country

Question 54

What did Edward Bellamy write

Answer 54

Looking Backwards - a utopian vision about the future

Question 55

What was Orwell described as when at Eton

Answer 55

A ‘Bolshevik’ - distasteful of the upper and middle-classes

Question 56

What is room 101 named after

Answer 56

BBC room he worked in - bored during bureaucratic meetings