1984 Questions

1. What is the effect of the juxtaposition at the beginning of this section?

2. What is the effect of the syntax in Winston’s journal entry for April 4th, 1984?

3. How is the Junior Anti-Sex League sash an example of paradox?

4. What is the rhetorical effect of the word voluptuously on page 18?

5. What is the rhetorical effect of the physical description of Mrs. Parsons?

6. Explain the significance of Winston’s dream in the saloon of a ship.

7. Explain the effect of the allusion to Shakespeare on page 31.

8. What is the effect of the anaphora on page 35, in Winston’s explanation of doublethink?

9. What is the metaphoric meaning of the memory holes?

10. What is the effect of the tone in the paragraph that begins with “Winston dialed ‘back numbers’ on the telescreen” on page 38?

11. What is the effect of the oxymoron “armies of reference clerks” on page 42? 1984 Chapters 1.5-1.8 (pp. 48-104)

12. How is Winston’s prophecy of Syme’s imminent disappearance ironic?

13. What is the effect of comparing the man in the Fiction Department to a duck on pages 53-54? (Hint: Goldstein on page 12)

14. What is the effect of the repetition in this sentence from pages 59?

As compared with last year there was more food, more clothes, more houses, more furniture, more cooking-pots, more fuel, more ships, more helicopters, more books, more babies—more of everything except disease, crime, and insanity.

15. Why is it ironic that the Party puts forth the Aryan look (blond hair, blue eyes) as an ideal?

16. What is ironic about Parsons’ praise for the Ministry of Plenty on page 60?

17. How is humor used at the end of 1.5?

18. What is the effect of the whiff of genuine coffee at the beginning of section 1.8?

19. How is the Party interaction at the Community Center compared to a machine and what does this comparison suggest about these types of interactions?

20. Why does Winston purchase the piece of coral and what does this suggest about his feelings at this time?