1984, PART TWO, CHAPTERS 1 - 9

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
Chapter 1
1. In your own words, make a short description of the incident with the
girl in the hall, especially the surprise.
At work one morning, Winston walks toward the men’s room and notices the dark-
haired girl with her arm in a sling. She falls, and when Winston helps her up, she
passes him a note.
2. Mention which group Winston suspects the girl belongs to.
At first he thought she belonged to the Thought Police. Later he imagined
she was part of the brotherhood
3. What does the girl’s note to Winston read?
“I Love You”
4. Who makes plans for their meeting?
One week after the incident, Winston looked for the appropriate moment to
approach Julia. Once he managed to speak to her, both of them arrange to meet in
a public place later on

Chapter 2
1. Where does Winston and the girl from the fiction department meet?
In the countryside
2. What is it that the girl provides as a treat?
A piece of good quality chocolate
3. How do Winston and Julia spend their time?
They talk, get to know each other, and become intimate.

Chapter 3
1. Where does Julia say they can meet once again? When?
In London, in an open market
 2. Does she arrange for more meetings?
yes
3. Although they never go back to the glen, in which place do they have a
similar meeting?
In an abandoned church
4. How old is Julia? Where does she work? What is her attitude toward
the Party?
Julia is 26, she works in the Fiction Department of the Ministry of Truth. Like
Winston, she hates the Party but is not interested in starting a rebellion

Chapter 4
1. From whom has Winston rented a room?
From Mr. Charrintong
2. When Julia arrives, what does she have in her bag?
Real sugar, white bread, a pot of jam, a tin of milk, real coffee, and a packet of tea.
3. While Winston is turned towards the window, what does Julia do?
She was wearing makeup
4. Do women in the Party wear makeup? Why/not?
No because it was against the rules
5. Describe how Winston reacts to the rats.
With panic since he is terrified of them
6. Mention what Winston compares the paperweight and the coral inside
to.
To the room he is sharing with Julia. It’s paradise to them since they can be free
there
Chapter 5
1. Who has vanished? What circumstances surround his disappearance?
Syme had vanished. A morning came, and he was miss ing from work: a few
thoughtless people commented onhis absence. On the next day nobody mentioned
him. On the third day Winston went into the vestibule of the Records Department to
look at the notice-board. One of the notices carried a printed list of the members of
the Chess Committee, of whom Syme had been one. It looked almost exactly as it
had looked before—nothing had been crossed out—but it was one name shorter. It
was enough. Syme had ceased to exist: he had never existed.
2. Mention what new poster is displayed all over London and its purpose.
A new poster had suddenly appeared all over London. It had no caption, and
represented simply the monstrous figure of a Eurasian soldier, three or four metres
high, striding orward with expressionless Mongolian face and enormous boots, a
submachine gun pointed from his hip. From whatever angle you looked at the
poster, the muzzle of the gun, magnified by the foreshortening, seemed to be
pointed straight at you.
Its purpose was to incite hate and anger towards a common enemy and not Big
brother
3. Do Julia and Winston meet during the month of June? Why/not?
Seven times they met during the month of June. They would have liked to meet
more often, but they were busy with preparations for Hate Week
4. How has Winston changed?
Winston had dropped his habit of drinking gin at all hours. He seemed to have lost
the need for it. He had grown fatter, his varicose ulcer had subsided, leaving only a
brown stain on the skin above his ankle, his fits of coughing in the early morning
had stopped. The process of life had ceased to be intolerable, he had no longer
any impulse to make faces at the telescreen or shout curses at the top of his voice.
5. Does Julia believe in Goldstein? Why/not?
During the Two Minutes Hate she always excelled all others in shouting insults at
Goldstein. Yet she had only the dimmest idea of who Goldstein was and what
doctrines he was supposed to represent.
In her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on
London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, ‘just to keep
people frightened’
 6. Mention what evidence of the past Winston says he possessed.
A slip of paper about the story of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford

Chapter 6
1. Whom does Winston meet face to face at the Ministry? What happens?
Winston finally meets O’Brien. He was walking down a corridor being followed by
O’Brien, who actually told him that wanted to talk to him for sometime
2. Mention the subjects of the men’s discussions.
About one of Winston’s Newspeak articles in ‘The Times’
3. Explain the reason why O’Brien gives Winston his address.
O’Brien invites Winston to see tenth edition of the Newspeak Dictionary that he
owns

Chapter 7
1. What are some of the images that Winston remembers from the past
when he was 10 years old?
His father had disappeared some time earlier, how much earlier he could not
remember. He remembered better the rackety, uneasy circumstances of the time:
the periodical panics about air-raids and the sheltering in Tube stations, the piles of
rubble everywhere, the unintelligible proclamations posted at street corners, the
gangs of youths in shirts all the same colour, the enormous queues outside the
bakeries, the intermittent machine-gun fire in the distance—above all, the fact that
there was never enough to eat. He remembered long afternoons spent with other
boys in scrounging round dustbins and rubbish heaps, picking out the ribs of
cabbage leaves, potato peelings, sometimes even scraps of stale breadcrust from
which they carefully scraped away the cinders; and also in waiting for the passing
of trucks which travelled over a certain route and were known to carry cattle feed,
and which, when they jolted over the bad patches in the road, sometimes spilt a
few fragments of oil-cake.
 2. Describe in your own words the event that prompted Winston’s
mother’s disappearance.
One day a chocolate-ration was issued. Winston heard himself demanding that he
should be given the whole piece. His mother told him not to be greedy. In the end
his mother broke off three-quarters of the chocolate and gave it to Winston, giving
the other quarter to his sister. Then he snatched the piece of chocolate out of his
sister’s hand and was fleeing for the door. His mother called after him. He stopped,
but did not come back. He turned and fled down the stairs, with the chocolate
growing sticky in his hand. He never saw his mother again.
3. When Winston says, “The proles are human beings. We are not
human”, what has he discovered?
Winston sees the proles, who do not have all the restrictions as Party members,
living lives that include these emotions despite their poor circumstances. He envies
the proles this emotional freedom.
4. Explain how Julia gives Winston hope about the future when they are
sure to be apart.
The Party may catch and torture them, but can never control their minds
5. Regardless of what the Ministry of Love did to you, mention the one
thing, according to Winston, that they could never do.
They cannot alter their feelings. They cannot make them stop loving each other

Chapter 8
1. Describe how O’Brien’s dwelling place was different from that of
Winston’s.
It is spacious, clean, bright, luxurious, and with servants
2. Why was Winston disappointed about the wine?
Winston was disappointed in the wine because he had been drinking gin so long
that it had no taste.
3. Explain what the Brotherhood is.
The Brotherhood is the anti-government underground group. This secret group's
mission is to undermine and sabotage any efforts on the Party's behalf in order to
bring down the current system.
 4. To which of O’Brien’s questions did Julia and Winston answer “no”?
Why?
“‘You are prepared, the two of you, to separate and never see one another again?”
They refused because now love each other
5. Martin is said to be unusual as a servant. Why?
Martin is an enforcer of the Inner Party. He is O'Brien's manservant and he follows
orders without question,
6. Explain why it is significant that O’Brien knows the last line of the
stanza.
Because it tells us that O'brien is well versed with the old things that Winston holds
sacred. It also is a bit of foreshadowing that O'brien is aware of Winston's talks with
Charrington. The stanzas work as a password to enter the Brotherhood

Chapter 9
1. Winston says that hope lies in… what? Why does he say so?
Winston says that hope lies in the Proles because they are may, freer, and in
contact with their own feelings.
2. Who says, “you are dead”? Where is the microphone?
Even though Winston reflects on how pivotal the Proles are to bring the Party down
he also acknowledges that they will not do it since they are not aware of their own
condition. This reflection made him say “we are dead”, Julia echoed the same
words and immediately another voice said “you are dead!”. It was a telescreen
hidden behind the picture of the St Clement Church. They had been observed all
the time
3. In the end, what do we find out about Mr. Charrington?
He is a member of the Though Police. Mr Charrington was still wearing his old
velvet jacket, but his hair, which had been almost white, had turned black. Also he
was not wearing his spectacles. He gave Winston a single sharp glance, as though
verifying his identity, and then paid no more attention to him. He was still
recognizable, but he was not the same person any longer. His body had
straightened, and seemed to have grown bigger. His face had undergone only tiny
changes that had nevertheless worked a complete transformation.