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Copywork
About This Passage
Study how calmly the narrator describes something deeply unsettling. The poster is not just decoration: the word 'contrived' tells us it was cleverly designed so the painted eyes seem to track you everywhere. Sentence by sentence, the threat grows quietly, from 'enormous face,' to eyes that 'follow you about,' to the blunt, shouting capitals of the caption. The author makes the menace land harder by reporting it in a flat, matter-of-fact voice instead of warning us how frightening it is.
On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG B...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: on a bright cold day in April, when the clocks strike thirteen, a worn, 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 rage, and Winston is swept up in it against his will; back in a corner the telescreen cannot see, his shaking, cramped hand opens a diary he secretly bought and, knowing the terrible danger, he writes DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over; then a sudden knock at the door fills him with terror. When you reach the diary, slow down and explain the risk Winston is taking.
Discussion Questions
- The book opens on a bright cold day in April with the famous line that the clocks were striking thirteen. What does that single strange detail make you expect about the kind of world Winston lives in, and why? What part of the chapter supports your reading?
- Big Brother's posters are described as so contrived that the painted eyes seem to follow you everywhere, beneath the words BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. What do you think living among these watching posters does to a person, and why? What part of the chapter supports your reading?
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Vocabulary
Item 1
Cleverly planned or designed to create a certain effect; the Big Brother poster is this, made so the painted eyes seem to follow you wherever you move.
Item 2
Extremely large; Big Brother's face on the posters is this, far bigger than any real human face, looming over Winston everywhere.
Item 3
A feeling or idea that is general and not aimed at one real thing; during the Hate the crowd's rage is this, able to switch from one target to another.
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Critical Thinking
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