1984

Part One, Chapter 7

George Orwell · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness. Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that the Party was trying to achieve.

Of course, this was not in itself a discovery. Even at that time Winston had not imagined that the people who were wiped out in the purges had actually committed the crimes that they were accused of. But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of the abolished past, like a fossil bone which turns up in the wrong stratum and destroys a geological theory. It was enough to blow the Party to atoms, if in some way it could have been published to the world and its significance made known.

Winston thinks the true mark of life now is not its cruelty but its dinginess. Is that a stronger charge against the Party than cruelty, or a weaker one?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences. The first is Winston’s charge against modern life. Its opening sentence sets aside the obvious charge, “not its cruelty and insecurity”, and turns on “but simply” to a list of three nouns, each with “its” before it: “its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness”. A pair is set against a three, and the plainer charge is made to sound the heavier. The second sentence holds its verb back behind a clause between commas, “if you looked about you”, then climbs on “not only … but even”: life does not match the lies, and it does not match even the Party’s ideals. The second passage is the photograph’s meaning, set out as a concession and its answer. It opens “Of course” and grants the point: Winston already knew the confessions were lies. The second sentence is long and backward-looking, built on “had not imagined” and “had actually committed”. The third turns on “But” to what is new, and a semicolon joins the claim, “concrete evidence”, to two pictures of it: “a fragment of the abolished past”, then a simile in the present tense, “like a fossil bone which turns up in the wrong stratum”, a general truth set inside a story told in the past. The last sentence states the power first and then holds it back with “if”. Its last clause leaves out its verb, “and its significance made known”, which borrows “could have been” from before. A strong student may hear the echo of the proles: “If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning.” Both hopes hang on an “if”. Students copying them practise “not … but simply” used to correct a first idea, a list of three with a repeated small word, a clause held between commas before the verb, “not only … but even”, a concession answered by “But”, a semicolon that joins a claim to its image, and a closing “if” that holds the whole sentence back. For the talk prompt, listen for two readings. One says dullness is the stronger charge: the Party’s ideal is “something huge, terrible and glittering”, so cruelty fits its own picture of itself, while dullness gives the lie even to its ideals. The other says it is weaker: a dull life might still be a longer and better-fed one, and Winston himself admits “It might be true that the average human being was better off now than he had been before the Revolution.” Dullness, on that reading, is a mood and not a proof. A strong student may point to “the mute protest in your own bones” and ask whether a feeling like that can count as evidence at all.

Discussion

Narration Give a short account of the chapter: the proles and the saucepans, the textbook, the three men in the café, the photograph, and the last entry. Then pick the one sentence you think matters most, and say what it shows about the chapter as a whole.

At the market, a great cry of anger turns out to be over tin saucepans. The chapter says cooking-pots “were always difficult to get”. Winston wonders why the proles never shout like that “about anything that mattered”. Is he right that saucepans don’t matter? Inference
Winston copies from a school history book. It says old London was “a dark, dirty, miserable place where hardly anybody had enough to eat”. A little later, Winston looks at London as it is now. Set the two pictures side by side. What does that tell you about the book? Inference
A voice from the telescreen sings “I sold you and you sold me”. The three men never stir, but Rutherford’s eyes fill with tears. What do you think he hears in the song? Character
Winston wonders if he is a lunatic. That thought “did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong.” Why is being wrong so much worse to him than being mad? Theme
Winston writes that freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. “If that is granted, all else follows.” Who would have to grant it? Author's choice

Make a Connection Think of someone, in history, in a story or in your own life, who knew a thing was true and could not get anyone to believe it. What helped them hold on to it, or made them let it go?

Vocabulary

dinginess: It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness. The state of being drab, grimy and gloomy, dulled by dirt and age (from dingy). Winston chooses it over cruelty as the true mark of modern life. A Party that dreams of something “huge, terrible and glittering” can be cruel; what it cannot be, by its own ideal, is dingy.
stratum: But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of the abolished past, like a fossil bone which turns up in the wrong stratum and destroys a geological theory. One layer among layers, especially of rock laid down over time (Latin stratum, something spread out; the plural is strata). A bone in the wrong stratum is in a layer of time where it should not be. That is just what the photograph is: proof from a day the Party’s record says went otherwise.
sinecures: After confessing to these things they had been pardoned, re-instated in the Party and given posts which were in fact sinecures but which sounded important. Jobs that carry a title and pay but ask for no real work (Latin sine cura, without care). The three men are given posts “which were in fact sinecures but which sounded important”. The posts sound important and carry no weight, and the pardon that came with them did not last either.
imposture: What most afflicted him with the sense of nightmare was that he had never clearly understood why the huge imposture was undertaken. A deception carried out by pretending that something false is real; a fraud (Latin imponere, to impose on, to deceive). Winston calls the rewriting of the past “the huge imposture”: not a lie here and there, but a false past put in place of the real one. He understands how it is done and never why.
indoctrinate: A few agents of the Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false rumours and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous; but no attempt was made to indoctrinate them with the ideology of the Party. To teach someone a set of beliefs so that they accept them without question (Latin doctrina, teaching; a doctrine is what is taught). The Party does not trouble to indoctrinate the proles. It wants no “strong political feelings” in them, only “a primitive patriotism” it can call on when it needs to.
axiom: With the feeling that he was speaking to O’Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote: A statement taken as true without proof, the starting point an argument is built on (Greek axioma, what is thought worthy). Winston’s last line is “an important axiom”. Two plus two make four is not a sum he has worked out but the first step everything else must stand on.

Critical thinking

Winston asks how we know that two and two make four, that gravity works, and that the past cannot change. Then he lists the truths he will hold on to: “Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s centre.” The past is not on that list. Did he simply leave it out, or is the past a different kind of truth?
Winston held real proof of a Party lie for a few minutes, then dropped it into the memory hole. Does having once held it still matter?