DAY 5 - CYCLE 11 - SEMESTER 2

Today, Coordinating Conjunctions in the Sentence Diagramming Workbook. Questions? See me.

Then, it was on to discussion. The questions we covered:

• Why does Big Brother wait until the end of Hate Week to say that Oceania is at war with Eastasia and that Eurasia is an ally?
• “In so far as he had time to remember it, he was not troubled by the fact that every word he murmured into the speakwrite, every stroke of his ink pencil, was a deliberate lie” (162). Why not?
• What is Oligarchical Collectivism? Look up the words!
• Why does war exist in Oceania? What purposes does it serve? (See pages 165-167, 177.)
• Do you agree that a social hierarchy is necessary for society to function? Do you believe that true equality is possible? (169)
• Groups bonded by fanatical ideology (Taliban, Al Quaeda, etc.) are not limited to the borders of nation-states, and their ideologies are not grounded in economic concerns. Does Orwell’s message still apply to the modern world?
• Why doesn’t Julia care about the book?
• Who are the high, middle and low in Oceania. How do their interests compete?
  

Notes are on the wikispace.

Sure, Goldstein's book is not a riveting read, but the ideas are chock-full or remarkable assumptions. For instance: war is perpetuated because it deprive the nation of goods; this is necessary to keep people living on the edge of privation; this is desireable because comfortable living standards would give people the chance to become aware/smart; if that happens, they'll become politically active, and thus dangerous. So, to break that down further, if people have all of their needs and many of their wants met, they'll grow politically active. Hmmmm. Does our own experience bear this out? As always, it depends on how you look at it. That's the value of this novel, especially during these drier passages. No, it does not have the riveting plot twists of The Count of Monte Cristo, but it's rife with material against which we may sharpen our own values and understanding of the world we live in.

FOR TOMORROW
Read up through 194.

• Is Winston’s hope in the proles in vain?
• Why is the book a relief to Winston when its message is so bleak?
• Given what we learn in the book, is it possible for Big Brother to be defeated?