English Study Guide Essay

1984 by George Orwell

Understand the role the government plays on its citizens.
Government controls all aspects of life.Totalitarianism government.
Ex. Telescreen reinforces government power, thought police, children are spies, Ministry of Love,society flows in favor of them and for them.

Question the role of an individual in society.
They only live to serve the party.If they show any form of rebellion they are followed and later vaporized.

Question government propaganda.
Big Brothers face is plastered everywhere, Hate week, 2 min hate, prepares the young children for serving the party.

Discover the effect of propaganda.
Instills fear, people are enslaved to the government, people are brainwashed, if one hears the same thing long enough they begin to believe it- the propaganda eventually gets to them.

Understand and identify paradoxes within the novel.
The overall idea of doublethink: War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.

Understand and identify irony throughout the text.
Doublethink

Identify themes within the novel:

Power of language: Newspeak allows doublethink to occur easily, controls the way the people speak, if the people cannot use words to describe their feelings-it become more unlikely for them to rebel.Dumb them down, shows government's authority and power.

Power of government: Totalitarianism- Controls everything

Meaning of truth: Truth depends on the individual but the government controls the truth through History books,which keep on changing.

Weakness of an individual when confronted with the power of the state: Winston is a minority and is unable to make a change when everyone else blindly follows the party.

8.Define satire, dystopia, totalitarianism.
Satire: Use of humor, irony and exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize others.
Dystopia: Opposite of perfect society.Imagined place or state where everything is unpleasant or bad.
Totalitarianism: State holds total authority over society and controls all aspect of private and public life.

9. Understand and analyze plot events (who, what, where, how questions). Who: Winston Smith, Julia, O’Brien, Big Brother, Syme, Parsons, Emmanuel Goldstein.

What:

Where:

How:

Oral Tradition:
Oral tradition is the passing of stories from generation to generation by word of mouth. It often has the morals and values of the society the tradition is passed from.
Folk Tales
Myths
Proverbs

Dilemma Tale: A dilemma tale is a tale used to promote discussion and debate.

The Five Helpers
The Five Helpers is a dilemma tale about a girl who is taken by a snake on her wedding night.
The Five Helpers are
A man who can smell anything and takes them to the girl.
A man who drinks the whole lake.
A man who digs to the bottom of the lake
A man who stretches his arm to the bottom and retrieves the snake.
A man who has great medical power and brings the dead girl back to life.

Cumalative Tale/Chain Tale
A cumalative story is a story where after each incident all the previous incidences are repeated.

Talk A cumalative story about a man who is harvesting yams and his yam spoke, then his dog spoke, then the tree spoke, then the rock spoke. He ran to a fisherman in the village and recounted the entire story, and the fisherman had no reaction until his fish spoke. They both ran to a weaver an recounted the entire story from the beginning to the weaver. He too had no reaction until his cloth spoke. The three men then ran to a man in the river and told him the entire story. He also did not care until the river spoke to him. The group of men then ran to the chief of the village to seek his advice. He listened to their story from the beginning and told them to go on their way. As he sat down saying that stories like this cause problems in our community, his chair speaks.

Elephant Hunter Take your Bow
Traditional story

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English 1301 Study Guide