4. Chapter 2

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Goals for today 

What is the significance of this image to your reading of chapter II?

What do we think of the character of Winston? What does Orwell want us to think?

Make a speculation – how would you act in Winston’s situation?

Goals for today 

Information on Free indirect discourse 

Complete consideration of the function of the diary

You will explore the inner and outer world of Winston 

You will consider a symbol in the novel and the role of satire

Homework watch and take notes 

1. What is the function of Winston’s diary?​
2. Why is writing it such a risk?​
3. Why might the party not want people to reflect on their existence?​
4. Why does Winston continue on with his diary despite the danger?​
   

Divide these questions up in your groups. Each member answers one question then share your answers.

1.  Escapism from the social pressure and his mask of obedience​; rebellion reflecting his interior life​, cathartic release​
2. Physical evidence of rebellion, undermines control​ from the party, undermines trust in the party or from comrades. 
3. Prompts questions on the system, highlight errors in party propaganda​, increases self-knowledge, confidence and identity​. 
4. Possibility of future connections​ after his death or in the Brotherhood; release of emotion; it is hard to stop​

Feedback to the class 

What is the function of Winston’s diary?​

Why is writing it such a risk?​

Why might the party not want people to reflect on their existence?​

Why does Winston continue on with his diary despite the danger?​

Orwell's techniques

• Description mainly focussed on setting
  
• All the senses are appealed to in the descriptive imagery
• Characterisation of the girl from the fiction department and O’Brien are symbolic of certain ways of being in this society. 
  
• Third person narration
  
• Use of free indirect discourse (speech)- see next slide 
  
• Link to contextual knowledge that the readers would recognise - London after the 2nd WW
  
• Elements of satire - making a recognisable political point 
  

free indirect discourse describes moments in a third-person narrative when the narrator becomes 'infected' by the perspective of one of its characters. The third-person narration drops into one of the characters internal perspectives. 

adapted: Raymond Malewitz Oregon State University 

Protagonist – memory is integral – “London had always been like this”​

Anger – jealousy, state of need, frustration, violence ​

Diary symbolises a private rebellion, remaining true to own soul, escape​

Hypocrite – purely private​

Discontent​

Relationships are brief and distant connections​

Parsons – dismissive​

O’Brian – connection imagined? ​

Misogyny – Orwell or character?​

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Ulcer – repression, poverty, rot​

‘Smallish and frail’ – anti-hero​

‘Ministry of Truth’ – ironic​

Gin, dark hunk of bread, cigarettes - poverty

In your group 

For the character(s) your group has received,  make notes on their depiction in chapter two and consider why Orwell has introduced these characters at this point in the novel? 

Group 1: Mrs Parsons 

Group 2: Mr Parsons 

Group 3: O'Brien 

Group 4: The Parsons' children