1984

1. 1984 Recap – Chapters 6&7

2. Recap • Physical Jerks – keeping the entire population exhausted • Destruction of words – eliminating words that express rebellion. • 2 Minute Hate • The conditioning of young children • Thought Police- Thought crime • ‘Big Brother’ • Surveillance

3. Sex – why restrict it? Its obvious that in both a Handmaid`s Tale and 1984 that sex is regulated and restricted. Why do you think authoritarian governments have such strict regulations regarding sex

4. Article • Highlight the sentences that jump out at you.

5. Sex, being a highly personal and individualistic matter, is recognized as oppositional to the whole idea of strict governmental control and supervision of the individual.

6. Sex is the individuals output of selfish desire (impulse). • The government needs to condition it`s citizens to control their desires therefore it labels sex as sinful. • Sex = Rebellion

7. This helps explain the rigid censorship exerted by most totalitarian regimes over sexual expression. • A government that is obsessed with power, cannot tolerate the power the sexual impulse exerts on the population.

8. What do you think has greater influence over us.. • Impulse or conditioning?

9. Impulses • `` Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom``(67). • Quote 1

10. conditioning • “The women of the Party were all alike. Chastity was as deeply ingrained in them as Party loyalty. By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, by lectures, parades, songs, slogans and martial music, the natural feeling had been driven out of them” (71). • Quote 5

11. ... the party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort it and dirty it (69). • Look at entire quotation- #3

12. In Western Christianitysex in any form outside of marriage was evil and, within marriage, an unfortunate necessity for purposes of procreation rather than pleasure.

13. This attitude was particularly unfortunate for women, to whom most of the sexual guilt was assigned. Women, like the original temptress Eve, continued to attract men to commit sin. • Article • Popular culture

14. Adultery Crimes • In 1938, Frank Sinatra was arrested for adultery and seduction, a criminal offense at the time.

15. On the other hand… • There is a constructive need for regulation of sex. • Sex is regulated through education • Health- STI • Population control

16. Chapter 6 • Winston returns home and writes about a sexual encounter with a prole prostitute in his diary. Throughout the entry he stops and reflects upon sex in his society. • He remembers his relationship with his wife -#4.

17. Government makes sure that the only people who can be an outlet for sexual impulses are prostitutes who are part of the lower class. • Prostitutes – see quotation 2

18. Chapter 7 • Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious

19. This chapter begins with Winston thinking about how the proles could take over the Party considering their large numbers. • The Party cannot be defeated within. 

20. We learn that the proles do not live by the same rules as the Inner and Outer Party. (quotation #7)

21. We learn about the power of the capitalists before the Revolution. We learn that capitalists held all the power and everyone else was their slave. • There was something called jus primaenoctis.. It was the law by which every capitalist had the right to sleep with any women working in his factories. (76)

22. This section of the novel parallels A Handmaid s Tales with the idea that life post revolution was arguably better than life prior (#8). • Freedom to vs. Freedom from

23. Winston continues on discussing how the Party is constantly manipulating statistics to keep its population happy. • The past was erased and lie became truth.

24. Winston's frustration builds up as he considers how absurd the Party was. He knows he s right yet all teachings of the party were pinned against his idea of right.

25. Quotation 9 His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, and the ease with which any party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly and the true had got to be defended- 84

26. Court system • I would argue that the educated persons involved in the court system sometimes dismisses the obvious because of loop holes in the system.

27. Cases • OJ Simpson – murdered his wife- the glove didn’t fit

28. Casey Anthony- was acquitted of all charges with the murder of her young daughter

29. Her daughter Caylee was missing for weeks but was never reported missing • Casey Anthony LIED about dropping her off at a babysitters when confronted by her worried parents. • The babysitter never existed. • There was a story that she had drowned but that didn’t explain the duck tape on her face. • Circumstantial evidence

31. Oscar Pistorious

32. Neighbors heard him and her yelling at each other before shots were fired. • He claims he thought she was an intruder.

33. Rodney King

34. Construction worker who was brutally beaten by police officers and it was caught on time. • The cops were found not guilty.

35. Any other cases?

36. As you can see- in many cases the obvious truth isn't always recognized by a system that is supposed to impose justice.