Wesley

1984 

October 26, 2015

1. Rhetoric question about structure:  Why do you think Orwell decided to place approximately 30 pages of a book, "The Book," in the middle of his narrative? After all, it is a rather unorthodox move, and it interrupts the story of Winston and Julia and what will become of their love in a hopeless place.  Thinking as a writer, why would Orwell include this section?

1. With a partner, discuss "doublethink." Next, using your own words and short passages from the text, try to explain it in a paragraph with at least one example of doublethink.

2. We learn that The Party wants to control power forever: "For it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained indefinitely" (216).  Goldstein goes on to say"If human equality is to be forever averted - if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently - then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity."  Some people believe that society today lives under a form of controlled insanity. But that is for another discussion; Orwell continues: "But there is one question which until this moment we have almost ignored.  It is: why should equality be averted?"  

So why might some human beings not want equality?
Do all Americans want equality?
What do we mean by equality?

What did America's founders mean by equality? They wrote the following in the Declaration of Independence: WE hold these Truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and* [certain] inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles, & organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. 

Tonight: Mimicking the style of the above, type a preamble to The Party's version of 1984's Declaration of ___________________.

Also, read chapter 10 tonight.