Reading Guide – Goldstein’s Book KEY

TASK: Read each statement below and decide if they are supported by Goldstein’s book. Place Y (yes) before
statements that agree with Goldstein’s analysis and N (no) before statement that do not. Be prepared to explain the
reasons for your judgments.

War Is Peace
Literal Level:

Yes or No Statement:

No 1. The central purpose of war is to destroy human lives.

Yes 2. The central purpose of war is to destroy or consume the products of human labor to create
shortages.

No 3. War can be won by any of the superstates.

Yes 4. Most of the fighting takes place in the unorganized territories.

Yes 5. The three government systems Ingsoc, Neo-Bolshevism, and Obliteration of Self are incompatible
and distinct from one another.

Yes 6. War cannot be won by any of the superstates.

Yes 7. Each superstate is self-sufficient.

No 8. The superstates fight for ideological and materialistic reasons.

Yes 9. The superstates fight for possession of the slave labor (coolies) and resources of the undeveloped
territories.

Analytical Level:

Yes or No Statement:

No 1. Technology and industrialization threaten the Party by raising everyone’s standard of living.

No 2. In this novel, the future society will be poorer than the present one.

Yes 3. Scarcity of material goods helps to create class distinctions.

Yes 4. The psychological dimension of war is as important as the physical destruction of war.

No 5. The world of 1984 is less advanced and less affluent than the world before 1984.

No 6. Because war is continuous, it ceases to be dangerous.

Yes 7. More people were killed in past wars than in the present.

Applied Level: (Apply what you understand about the Party to our present society and government)
Yes or No Statement:

No 2. It is easier to control public ideas and opinions in our technologically superior society than in an
undeveloped third world society.

No 3. The Party would applaud our efforts to reduce the stockpile of our nuclear weapons.

Yes 4. Efforts to trim the military size and costs would not be tolerated by the Party.

Yes 5. The computer “information highway” would be seen as a threat by the Party.

Yes 6. When we are made to feel threaten by war, we willingly hand over our power to a small elite group
who will protect us.

Yes 7. War today could be not be waged for the same reasons as it is waged by the Party.
 Ignorance is Strength
Literal Level:

Yes or No Statement:

1. A person is born into the Inner or Outer Party.

2. A hierarchical society like the Party depends on poverty and ignorance.

3. Outer Party members have no freedom.

4. Inner Party members have total freedom.

5. Proles are usually selected to fill the ranks of the Outer Party.

6. Entrance into the Party is by examination.

7. The Proles are harmless because they are kept ignorant.

8. Collectively the Party owns everything in Oceania, but individually Inner and Outer Party menmers
own nothing.

9. In practice, bright Proles are eliminated.

10. A few foreigners are allowed to visit Oceania because the Inner Party wants the Outer Party to see
foreigners as friends who are similar to themselves and not as enemies who are different.

Analytical Level:

Yes or No Statement:

1. The higher up you are in the Party, the more enthusiasm, war fever, and mind control you must
show.

2. The higher up you are in the Party, the less loyalty and mind control you must show.

3. The Party is concerned with passing down positions from “father to son.”

4. The Party is concerned with keeping the Inner Party in control and maintaining the present structure
of society.

5. Collectivism has made every Party member equal and has destroyed class distinctions.

6. The Party must seem infallible.

7. A Party member must practice controlled insanity.

Applied Level: (Apply what you understand about the Party to our present society and government)

Yes or No Statement:
1. Technology today provides us with more privacy than ever before.

2. We only know how rich or poor we are if we have a standard of comparison.

3. It is conceivable that present-day politicians can practice doublethink in regards to their policies and
practices.
Questions: Answers:

1. What are two central goals of

the Inner Party?

2. How is perpetual war no

different than perpetual peace?

3. Why does the Inner Party -

alter the past? Provide 2
reasons.

4. Is it important that our

present society remember the
past?

5. What purposes do advanced

science and technology serve in
Oceania?

6. Would two-way or interactive

televisions be seen as progress
today?

7. What advanced technology -

today has limited your privacy or
freedom?

8. What is the greatest threat to

the Inner Party losing its power?

9. Would the Inner Party

authorized the military to bomb
its own people?

10. Would our government ever

do such an act?
11. Who determines what is
true, moral, and sane in our
society today?

12. Can what is true, moral or

sane today change in the future?