This summer, when you read 1984 by George Orwell, enjoy the book!
Get all you can out of it! Go beyond surface reading and become a thinking reader! Casual readers follow the storyline and can usually summarize story events. Thinking readers ask questions and notice patterns. They pay attention to literary techniques used by the author and they think about how those techniques reveal
characters, themes, and the author’s attitudes (tone). 1984 is full with techniques to notice: foreshadowing, irony, paradox and symbols, to name a few. Once you spot a literary technique, don’t stop there! Think about its purpose and effect. Here are some points and questions to help you with that kind of thinking:

What words and phrases describe the setting, characters, and action? Are there striking or powerful word choices? Are the verbs strong? Are the adjectives or adverbs precise?

Look closely at Winston, Julia, O’Brien, and other characters. Are they balanced with strengths and weaknesses or are they one dimensional with exaggerated traits? How does Orwell reveal traits? Is it gradual, revealing deeper layers, or is it immediate and less well-developed? For which characters are there figurative language and rich descriptions? Why? Do any characters surprise you? If so, how?

Think about the narration, or point of view. It’s third person limited, told by the narrator through the eyes of the protagonist, Winston. That means the reader sees through Winston’s eyes and gets inside his thoughts. The story unfolds for the reader just as it does for Winston. Explain why Orwell might have done this.

Really look at the places and objects in the story. Which places and natural objects have the richest, most detailed descriptions? Why is so much attention given to these places and objects? Some of the prominent objects and places, such as the glass paperweight, telescreens, posters, and St. Clements Church, are symbols. Some of the characters, like the red armed woman, are also symbols. What could these objects, people, and places represent beyond their literal meaning?

Just about all, if not all, of the Party slogans are paradoxical (hint). A paradox is a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. An example from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is “Cowards die many times before their deaths.”

What does Winston want? Need? Fear? How do his wants, needs, and fears create the conflict he feels? What is his big, internal conflict? What other kinds of conflict do you observe? Consider whether there are conflicts with nature, other individuals, and groups of people?

In Dystopian literature, common themes include dehumanization, isolation, loneliness, and repression. Notice ways in which Orwell’s style, characterization, point of view, and use of literary techniques develop these themes.

To help you dig into what you’re reading and note your thoughts along the way, your summer reading assignment is to annotate the text as you read and keep a dialectical journal. A section in the novel, pages 184 – 217, is very challenging. It’s even difficult for me! Lightly read that section and give it a go but don’t stress out over it. The annotated text and dialectical journal together are a major grade. Bring
the book and your journal to class on the first day of school. They are late if you don’t have them for the second day of class. You should have:
    *  five or more passages in each Book of the novel for fifteen or more total              passages you’ve closely read and annotated (1984 is divided into three        “Books”), and
     * five or more entries in your Dialectical Journal for each Book of the novel for         fifteen or more total journal entries.

When school starts after the summer break, be ready with notes and ideas that show you read 1984 as a thinking reader. Be ready to write too! On the second day of class, you’ll write an essay using your annotated book and journal as a resource.

Background Information
George Orwell’s 1984 was published in 1949 just a few years following World War II (1939 – 1945). The first half of the 20th century was a time when brutal dictators like Stalin and Hitler ravaged eastern and western Europe. It was a time when totalitarian regimes in countries like Germany, Italy, Russia, and Spain ruled with an iron fist and citizens endured severe deprivation, control, and oppression. It was a time, too, when Orwell was seriously ill, suffering from tuberculosis, the disease by which he died in 1950.

In 1903, Eric Blair, pen name George Orwell, was born in Bengal, India where his father worked for the British Civil Service. He was raised and educated in England. After finishing his studies, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. While in Burma, he came to hate imperialism, resigned, and returned to England in 1928. At times, he was homeless and lived for several years in poverty before becoming a
teacher. Illness forced him out of teaching, and he worked part-time in a econdhand bookshop. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Orwell volunteered to fight for the Republicans against Franco’s Nationalists. He was shot in the neck in 1937 and later that year fled Spain with his wife. Back in England, Orwell worked as a journalist. It is as a journalist and essayist that he was best known during his career. Today’s readers know him better as the author of the dystopian novels, Animal Farm and 1984.

Dystopia is a place where, at the hands of government or rulers with absolute power, people live in desperate conditions: hungry, deprived, controlled, repressed, and terrified. Fear and torture are used to control those who don’t conform. Dystopia is the extreme opposite of utopia which is the ideal place or society where people create a perfect world free of lack, strife, and suffering. Dystopian literature
explores the social and political structures that create the nightmare world and is usually a political statement that warns against oppressive regimes and modern trends. This is true of George Orwell’s work. In his essays, he declares that he writes to expose lies, draw attention to facts, and “push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive
after.”