Book 2, Chapter 8 & 9

1. Contrast the living quarters and style of the Inner Party members with those of the Outer Party members and proles.

The Inner party members have nice homes. good food, servants, and are capable of turning off their telescreens. Outer party members have none of these things and live in run down apartments.

2. How does O’Brien test Julia and Winston?

He asks them a series of questions to test the extent of their dedication, they answer all their questions willing except when he asked if they were willing to split up.

3. What information does O’Brien give them about the Brotherhood?

That they will never know how many people are in it, that Goldstein is in charge, and in they end they will be caught at some point and they will be killed.

4. How will O’Brien get The Book to Winston?

One day he is supposed to go to work without his briefcase and someone will discreetly give him another one with the book inside.

Book Two, Chapter 9

1. Why does Orwell include detailed passages from Goldstein’s Book in 1984?

To help reinforce Winston’s assumption that the Party is corrupt and why the major powers are a war.  

2. What three classes of people have always existed?

The three classes are the upper, middle, and lower classes.

3. In What ways have these three classes changed?

The only way these classes have changed over time are their names, in 1984 the classes are the inner party members, outer party members, and down to the lowest class the Proles.

4. What is the purpose of war in the world of 1984?

To gain resources from unclaimed territory, but mostly to keep the class system in place because there is more than enough resources everybody in Oceania but instead they put it towards the war so that the powerful stay in power.

5. What are the two aims of the Party?

To take control of the whole world and to eliminate free thought in it’s citizens.

6. What are the two problems with which the Party is concerned?

How they can keep people from thinking negatively against the thought police and how to wipe out millions of people without warning.

7. Why do all three superpowers forbid their citizens from associating with foreigners?

Because they would find out that they are no so different from each other and that their governments have been lying to them.

8. The governments of the three superpowers are alike in essence even though their forms of government have different names. Identify these similarities and explain why they exist?

They’re all similar because otherwise the other two superpowers could take them out, they are all similar in the way that they are all able to create more than enough resources to maintain themselves and they all have complete control over their citizens.

9.. What is the real "war" fought in each of the three governments? Your answer will explain the party slogan, "War is Peace."

The three governments never invade each other the “war” is used to unite the people against a common enemy so that they are less likely to act out against the party, which causes “peace” within the party..

10. What are the aims of the three groups?

The upper class wants to stay where they are, the middle class wants to switch with the upper class, and the lower class doesn’t want a class system in place at all.

11. What changes in the pattern occurred in the nineteenth century?

This pattern had become so obvious that some people said inequality was “the unalterable law of human life.”  The High had always claimed this, but now the Middle, looking forward to getting power, was saying the same thing and abandoning their claims that they were fighting for brotherhood.

12. How did socialism change in the twentieth century?

They stopped trying to establish liberty and freedom, and instead decided the government should have absolute power.

13. Why are the rulers in the twentieth century better at maintaining power than earlier tyrants?

Because previous tyrants didn’t have constant surveillance on their citizens and did not use brainwashing tactics.

14. What are the four ways an elite group falls from power?

It is conquered from without, it governs so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to revolt, it allows a strong and discontented Middle Group to come into being, and It loses its own self-confidence and willingness to govern.

15. How does the Inner Party make certain it will not fall from power?

The convince everyone to believe in Big Brother, they ration people the bare minimum, and the history records have been rewritten so there is nothing to compare their situation to.

16. How is a person’s class determined in the 1984 world?

By an examination at age sixteen.

17. What is doublethink and what is its purpose to the ruling class?

It’s the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them. It allows them to erase history.

18. Why is the mutability of the past important to the ruling class?

Changing the past allows them to rewrite events to favor the party at all times.  Changing the past also takes away the people’s frame of reference, so they cannot study any other time or system when things were different, causing them to lose sight of the possibility that it could be different.