1984

Part Two, Chapter 9

George Orwell · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

It was like struggling with some crushing physical task, something which one had the right to refuse and which one was nevertheless neurotically anxious to accomplish. In so far as he had time to remember it, he was not troubled by the fact that every word he murmured into the speakwrite, every stroke of his ink-pencil, was a deliberate lie. He was as anxious as anyone else in the Department that the forgery should be perfect.

Chapter I, like Chapter III, had not actually told him anything that he did not know, it had merely systematised the knowledge that he possessed already. But after reading it he knew better than before that he was not mad. Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad.

In the second passage, Winston goes from “a minority” to “even a minority of one.” Why might he need to take the number all the way down to one?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences: first the week of rewriting after the rally, then Winston’s thoughts as he lies down beside the sleeping Julia at the end of the chapter. The first passage opens on a comparison that splits in two: “something which one had the right to refuse and which one was nevertheless neurotically anxious to accomplish”, two clauses joined by “and” and pulled apart by “nevertheless”. The second sentence opens on a hedge, “In so far as he had time to remember it”, holds back its point, and sets two parallel phrases, “every word he murmured into the speakwrite, every stroke of his ink-pencil”, before landing flatly on “a deliberate lie”. The third is short and plain, and its comparison, “as anxious as anyone else”, places Winston inside the crowd of workers. The second passage begins with a long sentence that joins two clauses with only a comma, so the correction, “it had merely systematised”, runs straight on from what the book did not do. Then “But” turns the passage, and the last sentence repeats a word and narrows it: “a minority, even a minority of one”. Students copying them practise a comparison that opens into antithesis, a main clause held back behind a hedge, parallel phrases that end on a short verdict, a comma that runs a correction on (and when that comma would need to be a semicolon in their own writing), and a phrase repeated and narrowed. For the talk prompt, listen for more than one reading. One says Winston takes the number down to one because one is what he is: Julia is asleep beside him, and after the week no document anywhere supports what he remembers. Another says he does it to make the rule as strong as it can be: if one person can be sane against everyone, numbers count for nothing, which is where his last words, “Sanity is not statistical”, arrive. A third sets the two passages side by side and notices that all week Winston was “as anxious as anyone else”, one of many, not one alone. All three serve the last written question, which asks whether the book has made Winston stronger or only more comfortable. Keep to the page: the chapter gives Winston’s certainty as his own feeling and does not say whether it is wisdom, and the talk should not reach ahead to what happens to him.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in the order things happened to Winston, from the rally in the square to the moment he falls asleep beside Julia.

The first thing Winston enjoys in this chapter is a word that fits how tired he is: “Gelatinous was the right word.” Why might Orwell begin with that small pleasure? Author's choice
At the rally, the speaker switches enemies in the middle of a sentence, “without even breaking the syntax.” Why is that what impresses Winston when he looks back? Character
For six days, the book lies shut between Winston’s feet while he rewrites the records, and under him while he sleeps. What is it doing for him while it stays closed? Inference
A few sentences into the book, Winston stops reading “chiefly in order to appreciate the fact that he was reading.” What is he enjoying at that moment? Character
Julia seems already “on the point of falling asleep” when she asks Winston to read the book aloud and explain it as he goes. He never stops to explain. Who is he reading for? Character

Make a Connection Think of a time a book, a song or a person said something you already believed, and said it better than you could. What did hearing it do for you?

Vocabulary

debauch: All the blood and lymph had been drained out of him by an enormous debauch of work, leaving only a frail structure of nerves, bones and skin. A bout of wild excess, usually of drink or pleasure, that leaves a person worn out (from French débaucher, to lead astray; debauchery is the habit). Orwell gives the word to work: “an enormous debauch of work”. Ninety hours of forgery become a binge the whole Ministry joined, and Winston is left drained, like someone the morning after.
syntax: The thing that impressed Winston in looking back was that the speaker had switched from one line to the other actually in mid-sentence, not only without a pause, but without even breaking the syntax. The way words are put together into a sentence: the order and links that make it grammatical (Greek syntaxis, arrangement, from syn-, together, and taxis, order). The speaker swaps enemies “without even breaking the syntax”: the sentence holds together while what it means turns over. A broken sentence would show a seam; an unbroken one hides it.
rectified: Reports and records of all kinds, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks, photographs – all had to be rectified at lightning speed. Put right; corrected (from Latin rectus, straight or right, as in correct and rectangle). Here the word does the opposite of what it says: the records were accurate, and rectifying them makes them false. The chapter admits that the work’s processes “could not be called by their true names”, and “rectified” is one of the names used instead.
neurotically: It was like struggling with some crushing physical task, something which one had the right to refuse and which one was nevertheless neurotically anxious to accomplish. In an anxious, driven way that goes beyond reason, as if a person cannot stop themselves (from neurotic, built on Greek neuron, nerve). Winston is “neurotically anxious” to finish a task he feels he could refuse: not a choice he weighs, but a pull he does not explain.
systematised: Chapter I, like Chapter III, had not actually told him anything that he did not know, it had merely systematised the knowledge that he possessed already. Arranged into an orderly system, so that separate pieces fit together (system, and -ise, to make; American spelling systematized). The book adds no new facts to what Winston knows; it puts what he knows in order. “Merely” makes that sound small, yet ordering his “scattered thoughts” is just what he could not do for himself.
statistical: He fell asleep murmuring ‘Sanity is not statistical,’ with the feeling that this remark contained in it a profound wisdom. Having to do with counting cases to find what is usual or average (from statistics, at first the study of facts about a state). Winston’s phrase means that sanity is not settled by counting heads: one person can be right when everyone else is wrong. The chapter gives it as a remark he feels holds “a profound wisdom”, and leaves the reader to weigh it.

Critical thinking

All week, every word Winston put into the records was “a deliberate lie,” and it did not trouble him. Then he reads aloud that doublethink means “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them.” How close did his own week come to doublethink?
Winston decides that the best books tell you what you know already. Has reading Goldstein made him stronger, or only more comfortable?