1984 CHAPTER 9. An Overview of The Book

Transcription

1 1984 CHAPTER 9 An Overview of The Book

2 LISTENING AND THINKING Please answer the following questions in your notebook as we listen to the beginning of chapter 9, starting on page 148. What change was announced on the 6 th day of Hate Week without any admission from the Party that a change had occurred? After the announcement, who was blamed for the posters now incorrectly showing Eurasia to be the enemy? What was Winston given during the Hate Week demonstration? Why had Winston worked so hard that his body felt gelatinous?

3 THE THEORY OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM Author is listed as Emmanuel Goldstein, supposed leader of the Brotherhood What does the title mean? Oligarchy: a government where power rests with a few Collectivism: when everything is owned by the collective community together The book is broken into chapters titled with the names of the Party mottos.

4 WHY IS THE BOOK IMPORTANT? The book is a manifesto for the Party s ideology. Overall, Goldstein discusses how the different countries merged or separated and major underlying themes of the government: Classism Necessary Ignorance Poverty Warfare

5 CHAPTER 1: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH Winston reads part of this chapter, and then comes back to it again after chapter 2. Here are the key points: Throughout history there have always been three groups of people: high, middle, and low. The goals of these three groups have always been irreconcilable.

6 Society is structured in the following way: The High o Goal: Remain where they are. The Middle o Goal: Change places with the high. CHAPTER 1: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH The Low o Goal: Abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men should be equal. o (when they have the notion of anything outside their lives.)

7 CHAPTER 1: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH The Inner Party is the minority, yet they hold all the power. Fear and manipulation are used to keep those beneath in place. Propaganda creates ignorance, and ignorance means your thoughts are not your own.

8 CHAPTER 1: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH The High: Inner Party Meant to be obeyed o Big Brother The Middle: Outer Party Execute the rules laid down by the Inner Party o Administration The Low: Proles Do all of the work o With a smile

9 CHAPTER 1: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH How does the Inner Party keep their power? Through ignorance! Crimestop The discipline of simply stopping any dangerous thought (like hating Big Brother) Protective Stupidity

10 Blackwhite: CHAPTER 1: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH To any enemy: contradiction of plain facts o You re wrong because you re an enemy To a Party member: If the Party says it is, it is ( loyal willingness to say black is white. ) o Even if you know it s wrong! Party rules!

11 CHAPTER 1: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH Doublethink A continuous alteration of the past In order to keep everything in line, we have to change our past. You let go of unimportant facts, believe lies when you just learned they weren t right, and overall contradict basic facts o Again, ignorance is bliss for the Party

12 CHAPTER 2: WAR IS PEACE THE SUPERSTATES According to the Book the splitting up of the world into 3 superstates was foreseen before the middle of the 20 th century. The superstates are divided by geographical lines: Oceania Americas, Atlantic Islands (including Britain), Southern Africa Eurasia Europe and Northern Asia Eastasia China, Japan, Southern Asia These superstates are permanently at war with each other.

13 CHAPTER 2: WAR IS PEACE GOALS OF WAR Contrast between goals of earlier wars: the superstates: Can t beat each other There is no material cause except labor There are no great ideological differences Fighting takes place in distant borders, so few see war. The war involves few people. What is visible in towns: Rocket bombs Shortage of goods Hysteria

14 CHAPTER 2: WAR IS PEACE PRIMARY GOAL OF WAR Development of machines created the potential for the universal standard of wealth to increase. This would eliminate social hierarchy. Those who are stupefied by poverty would become literate and learn to think for themselves; and once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. Primary goal of war: to use up the products of the machine so that the general standard of living doesn t increase.

15 CHAPTER 2: WAR IS PEACE INNER PARTY MEMBERS Even inner party members are given less material goods than before. A general state of scarcity increases the importance of small privileges and thus magnifies the distinction between one group and another. Inner party members frequently know that the war is untrue, but due to doublethink they never waver in their mystical belief that the war is real.

16 CHAPTER 2: WAR IS PEACE SCIENTIFIC GOALS There are only two: How to discover what another person is thinking, even when he/she doesn t want to reveal it. To develop rapid weapons of murder. All three superstates already possess atomic weapons. They have been used, but at this point they keep making more and just storing them.

17 CHAPTER 2: WAR IS PEACE COMPARING SUPERSTATES The conditions in all three superstates are the same. The philosophies are also very similar: Oceania: Ingsoc Eurasia: Neo-Bolshevism Eastasia: Chinese name meaning Obliteration of the Self The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.

18 Julia falls asleep while Winston is reading the book. Winston remarks that he understands the how, but not the why? What does this mean? REACTIONS TO THE MANIFESTO