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Copywork
About This Passage
Winston is writing in his secret diary when this scary thought comes to him. In his world, the most dangerous enemy is not a soldier or a spy but your own body. The words 'nervous system' mean your own body and the signals it sends. The second sentence means that the tight, worried feeling inside you could suddenly show on the outside, where others could see it, like a twitch on your face. A face that twitches, or words spoken while you are asleep, could show the Party what you are feeling inside, even when you are trying very hard to hide it. The lines show how frightening Winston's world is: people must watch even the small things their own bodies do without meaning to.
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.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: Winston writes in his secret diary, trying to get a painful memory out of his head; he has a scary thought, that in his world your own body can be your worst enemy, because even a twitch you cannot control might give you away; he remembers a man in the street whose face suddenly twitched, and felt sure that man was 'done for'; he thinks about the Party, which does not want people to have their own close loyalties or warm feelings, but only to belong to the Party; he remembers his wife Katharine, who never had a thought of her own and only repeated the Party's slogans, so that he nicknamed her 'the human sound-track'; and at the end, even after writing everything down, he finds that it 'made no difference' and he still feels just as upset. When you reach Winston's thought that your own body could betray you, slow down and talk about how frightening it would be to fear your own self.
Discussion Questions
- Winston says the Party does not want people to have close bonds it cannot control. What does that show you about the Party, and why? What part of the chapter helps you decide?
- Winston remembers his wife Katharine, who keeps using the Party's slogans even when she talks with him at home. Why might the Party want people to talk and act the way Katharine does? What part of the chapter helps you decide?
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Vocabulary
Item 1
a job you are supposed to do whether you want to or not; Katharine treats having a baby as one owed to the Party, not as love.
Item 2
staying true and faithful to someone; the Party wants people to feel it for the Party even more than for their own families.
Item 3
a picture that appears inside your mind; Winston tries to squeeze a painful one out of his head.
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Critical Thinking
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