1984

Instructions

Complete your reading of George Orwell's novel 1984 by Wednesday, December 3, 2008. When you reach one of the stopping points given below, respond to the Essential Question for that section of the novel. For each of the essential questions, you must respond to the question in 100-300 words and respond to the comments of at least one of your classmates in separate posts of the same length. Since this is a Web Log, your comments will not be nested, so be sure to identify the question and response you are addressing. Given that there are four stopping points and Essential Questions, I expect at least 8 responses from each of you.

NOTES: There is a cut-off date by which you must complete your responses to each essential question. I expect to read direct references to the novel and relevant discussion of pertinent ideas. Lastly, sign your posts with first name and last initial. Like this--John D.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Essential Question #1: Book I, Chapter 2

Respond to the following question by Monday, November 10, 2008. The cutoff for responding is midnight Monday night.

How extensive are the similarities between the totalitarian government of Oceania and contemporary governments, including our own? What are those specific similarities?

Essential Question #2: Book I, Chapter 8

Respond to the following questions by Friday, November 14, 2008. Again, responses to these questions will be cut off at midnight Friday night.

The world within which Winston lives is replete with contradictions. For example, a major tenet of The Party's philosophy is that War is Peace. Similarly, the Ministry of Love serves as what some would consider a department of war, others a department of defense. What role do these contradictions serve on a grand scale? Discuss the contradictions inherent in The Party's philosophy. What role does contradiction serve within the framework of Doublethink? How does Doublethink satisfy the needs of The Party?

Essential Question #3: Book II, Chapter 10

Respond to the following question by Friday, November 21, 2008. Remember that posting on these questions ends at midnight.

After his first formal meeting with O'Brien, Winston receives a book, ostensibly written by Emmanuel Goldstein. In reading passages from this book, Winston is further enlightened as to how the current society came into being. Focus on these passages, and in particular, on the theory of the High, Middle, and Low classes (p. 179). If true, what does this theory hold for the proles? Is Winston's plan for the proles now altered? Why or why not?

Essential Question #4: Book III, Chapter 6

Respond to the following question by Wednesday, December 3, 2008. Your comments must be posted by midnight that night.

Given Winston's acknowledgment that he is under constant surveillance, and that it would be only a matter of time before the Thought Police caught him, no one in his world could be trusted. Prior to his capture, which character or characters did you envision betraying Winston? How did you foresee his ultimate conclusion? Did you feel that he would overcome the forces aligned against him, and fulfill his wish to conquet The Party?

Monday, March 31, 2008

Food for Thought

Google has the capability to track every user's Internet use, not just those who are registered users. Recently, the government requested data from Google that the company refused to provide. What would happen to our privacy if Google and the government were to cooperate? Maybe the 21st century Big Brother is a hybrid of government and industry. I'm glad to see that Jewel is no longer using fingerprints in its payment system, but what if government and industry began to see eye to eye on the use of privately collected information? What if Jewel sold the government its fingerprint records? What if Google sold its Internet use information to the government?

Examples of Doublespeak

doublethink: "The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them ... . To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth."
facecrime: "It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called."
blackwhite: The ability to accept whatever version of the truth the party puts out, no matter how absurd it may be. Orwell described it as the "loyal willingness to say black is white when party discipline demands this. It also means the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know black is white, and forget that one has ever believed the contrary."
Airstrip One: England
abuse: torture
aerial ordnance (military): bombs and missiles
associate: a low-level employee
biosolids: sewage
death tax: estate tax
defense: war
downsize: fire employees
globalization: the expanse of corporations beyond their national borders
manifest destiny: imperialism
negative patient care outcome: death
pre-owned: used
wet work: assassination