Category: 11 ENG 1

 

I just can’t bring myself to hate people. The worse they behave, the sorrier I feel for them. (Drummond)

Is hated at the root of war? Is hatred in conflict a weakness? Or a source of strength?

 

The beautiful English girl. [She is headed for the] Paradise Road … Sometimes God reaches down and pulls the wings off his butterflies … She doesn’t want to live anymore. (Dr. Verstak)

What in the end, is the greatest conflict we each face – according to Dr Verstak?

 

My husband is a medical doctor … I hurt no one, maybe I help. Is wanting to survive so bad? (Dr Verstak)

What do ‘Dr’ Verstak’s comments reveal about her actions? Do you despise her? Or approve of her decisions?

 

 

1. Julia copes better  than Winston with the reality of living in Oceania. Discuss.
2. Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian world devoid of any hope for future human freedom. Do you agree?

Choose one question to answer.

Here is an online timer (set to 75 minutes).

Good luck.

Below is a list of the things I found myself saying most often when marking you practice essays:

1. Remember to explain the author’s intent. Too often you would talk about the world of 1984 as though it really exists; it is the creation of George Orwell. Your job is to explain why he created a the novel in the way he did. Is he warning us against something? Is he making a comment about the corrupting nature of power? ALWAYS bring it back to the author and their intention.
2. The last sentence of each main paragraph needs to link back to the question. An easy way to ensure that you do this it to use key words from the question that have just been explored in that paragraph.
3. Ensure that the focus of each paragraph is totally clear in the topic sentence. Equally, make sure that the paragraph itself address the ideas that you set out in the topic sentence and doesn’t drift off on the something completely different.

EMBEDDING QUOTES

It is essential that you begin to embed your quotes in your writing rather than lumping them at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. Embedding quotes creates a sophistication and fluency in your writing and is something you should start practicing now in preparation for Year 12.

This is what embedding a quote looks like:

Shakespeare suggests that the supernatural is an evil force not to meddled with. Banquo recognises this when he refers to the Witches as ‘instruments of darkness’. This implies that the Witches embody darkness and are completely wicked. Furthermore, Shakespeare is suggesting that like music, the Witches’ evil nature will echo throughout Shakespeare’s tragedy.

This is what we don’t want:

Lump it in:
Shakespeare suggests that the supernatural is an evil force not to meddled with.‘Instruments of darkness’. This suggests that the Witches represent evil.

or

Repeating words:

Shakespeare suggests that the witches are agents of darkness by referring to them as ‘Instruments of darkness.’

 

 

 

Write three main body paragraphs for the following question:

 

‘1984 can be seen as an account of the forces that endanger liberty and the need to resist them.’ Discuss.

 

HMK

• Read 5 Important Quotes
• Get you quotes sheet organised and ready to be signed off on Monday
• It must contain no more than 10 quotes
• It can not have any other information on it (QUOTES ONLY)

 

Today we are going to:

• review the Lotus Diagram that you were asked to complete for homework
• review key themes in the novel
• understand what is meant by the term ‘dystopia’ and how that relates to 1984
• look at how to embed quotes properly

 

 

KEYWORDS   social control – making sure people think and act the way you want them to   conformity – fitting in, follows the norms and traditions of a culture   political control – advocating the merits of one particular political philosophy; controlling which political party people care about and therefore vote for	QUESTIONS   Is the politics of Oceania more of a concern than the control of its citizens?   Can you have one without the other?   Is totalitarianism, as seen in Oceania, ‘political control’ when there is not other ideology to steer people away from?   How does conformity link to social control?	IDEAS/EVIDENCE   2 minutes Hate – must participate Enemy of the war regularly changed Community volunteering – monitors use of free time   CONTENTION   Controlling society, forcing individuals into complete submission to the will of The Party, is the singular focus of the novel. Which present the desire to control society threw monitoring conformity as the logical end point of politics that is intent on achieving complete control of the political system.
CONCLUSION   Synthesise deeper meaning	1984 is a novel that is more about social control and conformity than it is about political control. Discuss.	INTRO   Background Question Signpost
MBP3	MBP4	MBP 1

 

09 3:10 – The Book

After a ninety-hour workweek, Winston is exhausted. In the middle of Hate Week, Oceania has switched enemies and allies in the ongoing war, heaping upon Winston a tremendous amount of work to compensate for the change. At one rally, the speaker is forced to change his speech halfway through to point out that Oceania is not, and has never been, at war with Eurasia. Rather, the speaker says, Oceania is, and always has been, at war with Eastasia. The people become embarrassed about carrying the anti-Eurasia signs and blame Emmanuel Goldstein’s agents for sabotaging them. Nevertheless, they exhibit full-fledged hatred for Eastasia.

In the room at Mr. Charrington’s, Winston reads through Goldstein’s The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, given to him by O’Brien. This lengthy book, with chapter titles taken from party slogans such as “WAR IS PEACE” and “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH,” traces a theory of social classes throughout recent history: High Class, Middle Class, and Low Class—the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. According to the manifesto, Eurasia was created when Russia subsumed all of Europe, Oceania was created when the United States absorbed the British Empire, and Eastasia is made up of the remaining nations. These three nations keep their respective populaces preoccupied with a perpetual border war in order to preserve power among the High class. Goldstein writes that the war never advances significantly, as no two allied nations can defeat the third. The war is simply a fact of life that enables the ruling powers to keep the masses ignorant of life in other places—the real meaning of the phrase “WAR IS PEACE.”

As Winston reads, Julia enters the room and flings herself into his arms. She is casually glad to know that he has the book. After half an hour in bed together, during which they hear the red-armed woman singing outside, Winston reads to Julia from the book. Goldstein explains that the control of history is a central tool of the Party. He adds that doublethink allows Inner Party members to be the most zealous about pursuing the war mentality, even though they know the falsity of the histories they write. Winston finally asks Julia if she is awake—she is not—and falls asleep himself. His last thought is that “sanity is not statistical.

In groups from yesterday, read The section of Goldstein’s book on page 12 of Nelson book and answer questions 1 and 2.

HMK — Goldstein’s book (p. 12)

•  Read above passage
• Answer questions 1 & 2

 

 

 

 

The relationship between Julia and Winston begins as a political act against the state but they end forming a deeper bond. Both say that they will always stay true to each other, but once captured they both succumb to torture and betray each other.

Read the following:

Julia is Winston’s lover and the only other person who Winston can be sure hates the Party and wishes to rebel against it as he does. Whereas Winston is restless, fatalistic, and concerned about large-scale social issues, Julia is sensual, pragmatic, and generally content to live in the moment and make the best of her life. Winston longs to join the Brotherhood and read Emmanuel Goldstein’s abstract manifesto; Julia is more concerned with enjoying sex and making practical plans to avoid getting caught by the Party. Winston essentially sees their affair as temporary; his fatalistic attitude makes him unable to imagine his relationship with Julia lasting very long. Julia, on the other hand, is well adapted to her chosen forms of small-scale rebellion. She claims to have had affairs with various Party members, and has no intention of terminating her pleasure seeking, or of being caught (her involvement with Winston is what leads to her capture). Julia is a striking contrast to Winston: apart from their mutual sexual desire and hatred of the Party, most of their traits are dissimilar, if not contradictory.

Write a half page response to the following question:

Does Julia or Winston have a better understanding of The Party and the society of Oceania?

 

Over the holidays you are expected to prepare your oral presentation. The presentation should run for a maximum of five minutes. To properly prepare for your presentation you must:

1. Research you topic/issue thoroughly. This should involve at least an hour of reading and collating information found online. You should have an A4 page of information you have found along with links to the sites you got the from by the time you are done.
2. Understand the key arguments in relation to your chosen issue. Although this isn’t a persuasive piece (you can do an expository or creative presentation if you wish) you should still have a position in regards to your issue. You may be simply presenting information on the history of torture being used to extract information from enemie’s of the state, but you will still have to make a statement about the extent to which you deem it appropriate – you don’t have to worry about including lots of persuasive techniques, but you will need to say what you think about the issue.
3. Identify the links between the issue and the novel. If you are doing something that is not directly related to the novel, like speaking as a citizen of Eurasia that is captured and questioned by Oceanian authorities, it is vital that you illustrate how your topic is related to the novel.
4. Draft your speech and get the timing right. By memorizing and rehearsing the first draft of your speech, you will be sure to come in at exactly five minutes. As you read it aloud, you will work out where you need to cut stuff out and put stuff in.
5. Deliver your speech to someone at home. This will help you overcome any nerves and help you to see if you need to use cue cards or not.
6. Find visuals to make your speech more interesting. This is where creating a PowerPoint is going to really help. Creating the PowerPoint after you have written the speech will allow you to make slides that have only the most important information.  Remember, the best PowerPoints have few words and lots of images.

YOU SHOULD HAVE READ 1984 COVER TO COVER AND/OR LISTENED TO THE AUDIOBOOK FROM START TO FINISH BY THE END OF THE HOLIDAYS!!