Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Study the chilling logic Orwell tucks into the parenthesis. He first reassures us the diary is 'not illegal,' then quietly explains why: 'nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws.' In a place with no laws, there is no protection either, so the same act can still be punished by death. The long, calm middle sentence builds this trap clause by clause, and then the third sentence drops to a small, ordinary action, fitting a nib to a pen, as if Winston were doing something perfectly normal. The flat tone makes the danger more frightening, not less.
The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punis...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: on a bright cold day in April, when the clocks strike thirteen, a frail man named Winston Smith climbs to his flat in Victory Mansions past contrived posters of Big Brother whose eyes seem to follow him; a telescreen watches and talks and can never be shut off; at the daily Two Minutes Hate the crowd shouts and grimaces with abstract, switchable rage, and Winston is swept up against his will; later, in a corner the telescreen cannot see, he furtively opens a diary that could mean death and writes DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over; then a knock at the door fills him with terror. When you reach the diary, slow down and weigh the risk Winston is taking.
Discussion Questions
- Orwell opens not with action but with an unsettling image, the clocks striking thirteen, and a frail man fighting a vile wind. Why might Orwell introduce the world and Winston in this way, and what feeling does it create before any events unfold? Support your reading with the text.
- The Big Brother posters are contrived so the eyes seem to follow people everywhere. Do you read them mainly as a tool of fear that controls how people behave, or as propaganda that people might grow numb to over time? Defend one reading with evidence from the chapter, and explain why it fits better than the other.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary
Item 1
Deliberately and cleverly designed to produce a certain effect; the Big Brother poster is built so the painted eyes appear to track anyone who moves.
Item 2
Filled with a strong desire for revenge or to hurt; during the Two Minutes Hate the crowd's feeling turns this way, a fury aimed at the enemy on the screen.
Item 3
In a way that cannot be stopped or changed; the voice from the screen grinds on like this, continuing no matter what anyone does.
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 6 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free