{"id":245529,"date":"2017-01-27T18:43:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T18:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dreyercoaching.com\/beardeddragonmedia\/learning-resources\/1984-student-packet\/"},"modified":"2017-01-27T18:43:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T18:43:59","slug":"1984-student-packet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreyercoaching.com\/beardeddragonmedia\/learning-resources\/1984-student-packet\/","title":{"rendered":"1984 – Student Packet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The novel 1984<\/em> is a classic written by George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm<\/em>. If you are looking for books about totalitarianism, mind-control, and the twisting of language to keep people stupid and under control, then these two books are for you.<\/p>\n

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Since Orwell was British, he wrote with British English, which you will often find in 1984<\/em>. (flat = apartment; spanner = wrench, lorry = truck). Orwell wrote the novel in 1948, when memories of WW II and Nazism were still painfully fresh, Joseph Stalin oversaw a totalitarian state in the USSR, and the Cold War was heating up.The book was published in 1949 (the same year the Berlin Airlift ended, Germany was officially split into East and West, the USSR tested its first atomic bomb, and Mao Zedong made China communist). We believe Orwell got the title from twiddling the numbers from the year of his authorship: 1948. The main character is Winston Smith, a bright man who is suffocated by the oppression and stupidity all around him. He is haunted by the question: Have things always been this bad?<\/em> It’s set in London, on Airstrip One (England), part of a totalitarian state (Oceana) that includes North America. “Utopia” means “a perfect place,” so 1984<\/em> is a dystopian<\/em> novel, a scary book about a terrifying place in a horrifying future. There is constant war, lying, propaganda, and shortages. A hallmark of Orwell’s is his ability to show how people can twist and manipulate language to control people and their thinking. In this book, the Ministry of Peace oversees War, the Ministry of Plenty oversees famine and shortage, the Ministry of Truth (where Winston works) oversees propaganda and the rewriting of history, and the Ministry of Love is where the state conducts torture. The book is so powerfully written, several words and phrases that Orwell created here have found permanent places in the English language: Big Brother, Big Brother is watching you, thoughtcrime, Thought Police, unperson, newspeak, doublethink, 2 + 2 = 5, telescreen, <\/strong>and memory hole.<\/strong> Even Orwellian<\/strong> has become an adjective, meaning “an insane, frightening situation marked by absolute control and absurdity.”<\/p>\n

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(Speaking of “newspeak,” Orwell’s classic essay “Politics and the English language”<\/a> goes into further detail about how English words and phrases can be twisted by linguistically-clever people to manipulate and mislead people. Take a look.)<\/p>\n

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This has long been one of my favorite books, and I had often heard mention made of it while growing up. When Christmas break 1983 at William and Mary<\/a> was approaching, I stopped by the library right after exams and before going home, so I could get a copy of the book to read as the world entered the year 1984. During the Summer of 1984 (ironically), I had the opportunity to join a Christian choir that traveled behind the infamous Iron Curtain<\/a> and we gave performances in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. In an irony that Orwell would appreciate, two of those three countries no longer exist (having broken into smaller countries). Later I had the opportunity to travel to other Marxist countries, including East Germany, the USSR, Bulgaria, Romania, China, and Vietnam. Traveling in those communist countries, especially the more politically-rigid ones, showed me many comparisons to the novel. One Sunday afternoon I had had lunch with an older man in Eastern Czechoslovakia. He spoke no English, and I spoke no Czech, but we could both communicate in German, which he had learned under the Nazi occupation of WW II. (A good example of the importance of learning foreign languages!) He explained the daily indignities of living under communism. He pointed to a green bottle on the table. “What color is the bottle?” he asked me. “Gr\u00fcn” [green] I replied. He responded: “You know it’s green, I know it’s green, but if the Party says it’s yellow, we have to say “it’s yellow.” As a humanities teacher, I have often assigned or encouraged my students to read both Animal Farm<\/em> and 1984<\/em> (usually in that order). During the years I had the pleasure of teaching the elective class I had envisioned and created, “20th Century European Totalitarianism,” this was required reading. I co-wrote this packet in 2004, and am pleased to now be able to share it on my blog with a wider audience, with some updating for 2015. Sadly, over the eleven years since I wrote this packet, I have observed more “Orwellian” trends around the world, including here in my native country of the USA.  But don’t take my word for it. Read 1984<\/em> for yourself, keep an eye on the daily news, and make your own connections and come to your own conclusions. Source and to learn more: click here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Part One, Ch. I<\/h3>\n

Vocab: meagerness sanguine  <\/p>\n

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  1. Read the first paragraph only. What impression does it give you? How<\/li>\n
  2. What are the 3 slogans of the Party? What impression do they give you about this place?<\/li>\n
  3. Why is Winston afraid to write in a journal?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Part One, Ch. II<\/h3>\n

    Vocab: flat (noun–British) spanner (British) = wrench (American) unorthodoxy (the stem “ortho” means “straight,” [as in “orthodontist”] and “doxy” means “teaching or belief” [as in “paradox”])   As I love to tell my students, “vocabulary is everywhere,” and once you learn a new word, you often see or hear it used. Check this news article<\/a> from January 2017, the first week of the Trump presidency. What vocabulary word to you see in the second paragraph? 4. Who was Mr. Parsons, how does Orwell describe him, and why does “the stability of the Party” depend on people like him? 5. Describe the Parsons’ children and their behavior. Writing Workshop:<\/span><\/strong> One of my favorite passages in this book is the beginning of this chapter, where Orwell describes Winston’s neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Parsons and their children. What are some examples of description, word choice, imagery, punctuation, etc. that Orwell uses to create this vivid scene? How does he use dialogue and thought-shots in this passage to make his points? How does he engage four of the five senses with his words?<\/em><\/p>\n