Oceania, 1984

• How does the novel give you a sense of place in the first few pages?
• How does the fear of constant surveillance effect the populace?
• Parse out the meaning of the three Party slogans?
• Why are there no laws anymore?
• What is doublethink? How is it used?
• What is thoughtcrime? Why is it death? Have you committed thoughtcrime?
• What is the Party's ultimate goal?

Family Ties

• What happened to Winston's family?
• How does he implicate himself in the loss of his mother and sister?
• What became of Winston's wife?
• How do the Parsons relate to their children? Why?
• How has the Party perverted family relationships? To what end?

Emotion

• What are the goals of the Two Minutes Hate and Hate Week?
• What kind of emotional outlet does Big Brother represent?
• How does Winston respond to the film clip of the murdered children? How was he supposed to respond? What does this clip recall to him?
• What does Winston do in the aftermath of the rocket attack? What does this demonstrate about his emotional capacity?
• Why are they constantly at war? What emotions does this state of being evoke?
• What kinds of emotions still exist? Which kinds do not?

Personal Relationships

• Why does Winston believe tragedy is no longer possible?
• Why don't people "have friends nowadays?"
• How prescient is Winston in his predictions of who will be vaporized? What does this tell us?
• Why are Party members never to be alone?
• Do you agree with Winston's view that it is better to imagine themselves as dead or Julia's embrace of life? Which approach is better in this world?
• What is the ultimate betrayal?

Sex and Gender

• How does Winston feel about women in general? Does the novel endorse his view?
• What attitude does the party encourage toward sexual intercourse? Why does it do this?
• What does Winston think was the worst thing about his marriage to Katharine?
• What is his first impression of Julia? What does he want to do to her?
• Why does he love Julia? What increases his love for her?
• How does Julia navigate her world? What are her limitations?
• What does it mean to be a woman in the Party? What is the role of femininity?
• How are women represented in this novel as a whole?

The Beautiful

• Why is Winston so drawn to the paperweight? What does it represent for him?
• Similarly, why is the "Golden Country" important? Are these things fading?

Class System

• What percentages of the population are made up by the Inner Party, Outer Party, and the Proles?
• Syme says "the proles are not human beings." What does this mean?
• "Proles and animals are free." (72) Explain.
• How are the Proles analogized to birds? Is this a hopeful sign or not?
• In what way does the book reconfigure the arguments of The Communist Manifesto?
• Does any hope lie in the Proles? Why or why not?

Language

• How is Newspeak designed to serve the goals of IngSoc and the Inner Party?
• Why is the destruction of words crucial to this goal?

The Role of the Individual and Humanity

• What is the only think that Winston believes still belongs to the individual?
• How does one succeed in remaining human?
• How is "nobility" and being "governed by private loyalties" important (164-165)?
• Which class has retained most of its humanity? What does that mean?
• What are the defining characteristics of humanity? Are any of these characters human?
• What is the aim of torture? The goal served by exercising power over others?
• Does Winston succeed in remaining human?

Empiricism

• Why the attack on empiricism and external reality? Do you think this approach is valid?
• How do you know the things you know? How does this differ from the way knowledge is constructed in Oceania?
• Is sanity statistical or not?
• If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Party answer, please.

Defining Freedom

• How does Winston define freedom? Does his definition change?
• What role does empiricism play here? Emotion?
• What is the last thing he loses? Is this significant?

Past, Present, & Future

• How does Party destabilize and negate history? And why?
• How have they rewritten their own history?
• How does this relate to the Party slogan?
• Why does Winston think it would be impossible to communicate with the future?
• What does Winston have in common with Comrade Ogilvy?
• Where does history exist? How can it be controlled?
• How does the Party imagine the future?
• What does the Appendix imply about the future? How do you think it might have come about?