Book assignment, own choice, 2020-2021

1. List details of the book:

● 1984
● George Orwell
● Date of first publication: 1949
● Short synopsis (in your own words): This novel is about Winston
Smith, who was a member of the party in 1984. He lives in a
totalitarian government, which means that the government attempts
to control everything and everyone. Winston works at a job he
hates. His job is to rewrite history when the party wants him to.
Winston bought a diary one day. He hid the diary in his room, where
he wrote down his secrets because he was against the party. This
book is about how Wilston begins to rebel against the party who is
in power.

2. Evaluate:
1. What characters, stories, or ideas from this book most stood out to
you? Why? Explain and provide context.
The characters Wilston and Julia stood most out to me, because they are
figuratively the example that there always will be people who will fight
and stand up for what they believe and their freedom. In the novel the
party gets rid of everyone that they think of as a threat. They torture and
brainwash them. Winston and Julia know that they are in danger. They
still continued rebelling against the party. Even though Winston and Julia
are fictional characters, there are a lot of people in real life who would do
the same as them.

2. What was most surprising, intriguing, or challenging to you about this

book? Why? Explain and provide context.
Something that is challenging about this book is the fact that it is almost
impossible to defeat the party. The party’s slogan is literally “who controls
the past, controls the future” on page 37. Which means if the citizens
wanted change, that it would never happen. It is even more depressing to
think about, especially with the way the book ends. Big brother controls
the media, all of the media. They control education. They control work,
food, everything. The only escape is death or surrender. Which Wilston in
the end does. The book also ends with “he loved big brother”which
indicates that he has surrendered in the end.

3. What did you make of the book? Did you like it or not? Explain in detail.
I liked it. It is not a happy book and sometimes there can be a lot of
difficult words. But the subject of the novel is very interesting and
important. The most interesting thing about the novel was that it is both a
look back and a foreshadowing. 1984 foreshadows the lack of privacy and
intense use of technology. There are almost no places to escape from the
Big Brother in the universum of 1984. Same as today for social media.
Cameras are everywhere, social interaction taking place online. You can
not escape from it if you want to function in today’s society,just like in the
novel.

3. Answer / complete the following questions / tasks:

1. Create a character map for your book. This is a sort of mind map
including the characters, their connection(s) and role(s).

2. Provide a brief analysis of the conflicts present in the book and their
relevance.
The novel takes place in a dystopian society. So the main conflicts in this
novel are man versus self, man versus society and man versus
technology. In man versus society, Winston has started to question and
rebel against the system which he lives in. He starts to write a diary
where he expresses his ideas against the party and his character slowly
starts to resist the system. In man versus technology conflict is
represented with the presence of the big monitor observing and listening
to every single thing citizens do, and the lack of privacy. In man versus
self you see that whenever Wilston starts to write in his diary, he
struggles with his mind whether to do so or not. Because the consequence
can be a life or death situation. The conflicts in the novel will always be
relevant, in the past, future and present. A perfect example that these
conflicts are relevant in our time is for example, the Black Lives Matter
protests. Because of these conflicts such as man versus society, we can
change and grow as a society. These conflicts are also the beginning of
where we set our boundaries.

3. Which themes were addressed in this work and what is their relevance?
Explain in detail.
One of the big themes in the novel 1984 is the lack of privacy. With the
influx of technology over the past decade, we are getting closer and closer
to one of Orwell's concerns for the future. Lack of privacy is now becoming
a problem as social media takes over our lives. This has become very
clear after watching the documentary of social dilemmas. And it gets even
worse since the covid- 19 pandemic. We literally have to do everything
with technology. For example, you have to work online, go to school
online, if you want to see your friends, family and relatives you have to
do it online. And even though we spend so much time online, we are not
guaranteed that we will have our privacy. Everyone is being watched at
every given moment. It may not be Big Brother, but it could still be
something we should be worried about. Because nowadays social media is
becoming more and more mandatory.
Another theme that is demonstrated in this novel is, how totalitarian
societies boosts the wealth of the ruling regime while decreasing the
quality of life of the citizens. This theme is pretty relevant in our world,
this literally the exact situation which a lot of third world countries are
facing right now. Especially with all the corruption going on. Even if we
look worldwide, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer,
and this being more encouraged and normalised nowadays because of
globalisation and the new technology.

4. Creative assignments. Pick two of the following assignments:

NOTE: for each task you have to write a rationale in which you explain
why you did what you did.

3. Vlog:
Make a vlog about the book in which you discuss the book and what you
made of it.
Length: 3 - 5 minutes
Requirements: think of which audience you are targeting and use
appropriate language. Also make sure the medium you use is accessible to
others.

5. Add a chapter: I chose this one, so I could make my own end of the
story. It is not a happy ending, because the novel in original content was
not positive in general.
It had been about a year since the incident at the Chestnut Tree Café,
when one of the three global superpowers, Oceania, had made a great
victory against another, and a certain Winston Smith had then truthfully
thought that he loved Big Brother, Oceania's political figurehead. Winston
woke in his cot, eyes gummed shut and back near-broken with pain,
barely able to sit up. The glass bottle and plain porcelain teacup gleaming
on his nightstand beckoned him to right himself, and if it were anything
else that was needed, he wouldn't have done it. But the Victory Gin and
cup- that was worth getting up for. Sitting up slowly, he reached over to
the bottle and uncapped it.

Almost immediately, the thick, oily, disgusting scent hit his nostrils, which
wailed in complaint as he poured a tiny amount into the teacup. It was
barely enough to get him through the morning, but it was enough- along
with visiting the Café. Even thinking about the Chestnut Tree had him
reminiscing. Bringing himself back into reality, he shakily raised the cup to
his mouth. Swallowing the mouthful of gin with a shudder, he sat up and
flicked the dim lights on. Blinking a couple times, he noted the dormant
telescreen in the living room. Normally it would be showing something at
this time due to the exercise program he committed to in the mornings,
but the plaque showed no signs of activity, not even the slight humming it
always produced.

He was free.

This barely even held any meaning to him anymore, considering

everything he had been through. His attempts at relearning the Parry
mentality had failed to stick overtime, despite how long he'd spent trying.
It was hard to keep track of time- he rarely, if ever, knew the date. But if
he was free for even a second, there may be hope to save a little of his
humanity before time was up.

Feeling much better after the morning gin, Winston crept over to his desk
and opened the drawer with his still-intact diary. The speck of dust he had
placed previously was still there.

Picking up the plain-covered book, he skimmed through his previous

entries. It contained writings mostly about how the proletariats were
really the only hope for revolution and the fall of the Party, about how
freedom was being allowed to say what you think, and other things of that
sort. His heart beat faster as he reached the end of the dull cream pages,
realizing what he'd become and what he'd allowed O'Brien and the
Ministry of Love to shape him into. He hadn't thought about this in a very
long time, and felt the lingering worry of being caught. Sliding the drawer
open, replacing the whitish speck and closing the drawer, he laid back
down on his gin-reeking cot to wait to return to his normal life, with
constant monitoring and no opinions, no thought of his own. He failed to
notice the return of the slight hum of the telescreen. Sitting back up, he
glanced at the drawer in which the book was stored. Not paying attention
to the fact that the screen was on or that he'd committed two different
crimes against the Party again, he was thinking about the new yet
indistinguishable day. IP

There was a knock on his door. He opened it. and there was one of his
neighbours, one he had never bothered to learn the name of. Before
Winston had a chance to react, the tiny beetle-like man reached to his
waist and pulled out a smooth, black handgun. He pulled the trigger,
barrel aimed at Winston's head. He felt a sharp pain and was shoved back
inside the house before everything went black.