Speech 1984

Question 1

what are the real weapons of thought control and oppression of individuals? who is it used by?

Answer 1

technology and indoctrination

used by Big Brother and the Inner Party

Question 2

recurring motif?

Answer 2

constant surveillance

Question 3

how is motif of constant surveillance evident?

Answer 3

the symbolic and almost personified telescreen where “whichever way you turned, the telescreen faced you”.

Question 4

what does Orwell draw on for the surveillance?

Answer 4

draws on the abuse of surveillance by Nazi Germany through police forces such as the Gestapo

Question 5

what does audience discover through limited third person omniscient narration?

Answer 5

the oppression and power of the Party

Question 6

hyperbolic metaphor?

Answer 6

“tearing human minds to pieces and putting them back together again in new shapes of your own choosing”,

Question 7

what does hyperbolic metaphor use?

Answer 7

uses aurally plosive sounds to mirror Orwell’s disdain at a Party’s manipulative power to yield complete and indestructible subjugation, where “thought crime IS death”.

Question 8

Orwell deliberately presents this idea as reminiscent of…?

Answer 8

the great purges between 1934 and 1938 of Stalinist Russia where thousands of people were murdered or sent to labour camps for holding their own opinions and the Night of the Long Knives in Hitler’s Nazi Party where all opposition was assassinated by the SS

Question 9

what does Orwell’s satirical exaggeration of a constantly monitored society in 1984 reflect?

Answer 9

reflects the absolute governmental control of daily life, and the systematic “vaporization” of individuality through the rise of technology