Background and Historical Context
Full text:
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Introduction:
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Newspeak Dictionary:
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Introduction to Propaganda:
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Excerpt from Finding George Orwell in Burma:
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Topics in 1984
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Assignments
Passage Analysis Assignment:
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Literary Analysis Group Project:
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Group Activity:
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Coldplay - "Spies" Analysis:
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1984 in the 21st Century:
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Discussion Questions
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1-6_part_3.docx |
Close Readings
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Literary Connections
Kurt Vonnegut: "Harrison Bergeron"
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Philip K. Dick: "Minority Report"
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W.B. Yeats: "The Second Coming"
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Rainer Maria Rilke: "The Panther"
His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else. It seems to him there are a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world. As he paces in cramped circles, over and over, the movement of his powerful soft strides is like a ritual dance around a center in which a mighty will stands paralyzed. Only at times, the curtain of the pupils lifts, quietly--. An image enters in, rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles, plunges into the heart and is gone. 1. Who or what in 1984 is like the panther?
2. Consider the "tensed, arrested muscles" and the feeling of imprisoned energy the poem conveys. Does anyone in the story contain that same type of power? Maya Angelou: "Caged Bird"
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own. But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom. 1. Compare and contrast the caged bird to characters in the story using specific pieces of evidence from the story or the poem.
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W.H. Auden: "The Unknown Citizen"
(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State) He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be One against whom there was no official complaint, And all the reports on his conduct agree That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint, For in everything he did he served the Greater Community. Except for the War till the day he retired He worked in a factory and never got fired, But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc. Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views, For his Union reports that he paid his dues, (Our report on his Union shows it was sound) And our Social Psychology workers found That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink. The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way. Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured, And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured. Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan And had everything necessary to the Modern Man, A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire. Our researchers into Public Opinion are content That he held the proper opinions for the time of year; When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went. He was married and added five children to the population, Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation. And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard. 1. How does the society in this poem compare to the society in 1984?
2. How is this society different from the one in the novel? Osip Mandelstam: "If Our Enemies"
Mandelstam died in a Stalinist labor camp in 1938 for “counter-revolutionary activities” that no doubt included writing poems like this one.
If our enemies took me prisoner, And people stopped talking to me; If everything in the world were banned-- The right to breathe, to open a door, To assert that life will continue to be, And that the people, like judges, will judge; If they dared keep me like a wild beast, Throwing my food on the floor-- I would not stay silent or dull the pain’s edge, But say what I’m free to say by choice; Swinging like a naked bell from the wall, Waking the dark, hostile corner, I would yoke—will yoke—ten oxen to my voice And sweep the dark with the plough of my hand; An ocean of brotherly eyes will hold me fast, And with the full weight of a harvest I’ll fall, Then rush into the distance with the released Compression of an oath—deep in the watchful night The eyes of the earth’s workers will ignite, The flaming years flash by—Lenin Like a ripe storm will thunder past-- But on this earth, which escapes ruin, There will be—destroying life and reason—Stalin. 1. What statement is this poem trying to make about Communism?
2. How would 1984 be different if more characters took the speaker's attitude? 3. Compare and contrast this poem's treatment of the theme of totalitarianism with Orwell's. 4. How did Mandelstam use the genre of poetry to his advantage when writing about this theme? In other words, what did this poem accomplish that a novel probably couldn't? |
Ancillary Materials
News Literacy PowerPoint:
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"Control the Language, Control the Masses" Close Reading:
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"JFK, Thought Control, and Thought Crimes":
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government_surveillance_ted_talk_discussion.docx |