Homework help?

[Kimi]

So, I'm about halfway through this book and there are some questions from a study guide I have that I didn't grasp at the time I read the section that are still a little fuzzy. If you could give input or a push in the right direction I'm sure i'l find my way. :] I'm not expecting huge analysis of each one.

Part 1 Chapter 2
1. What is the rhetorical effect of the physical description of Mrs. Parsons?
What I Have: It gives off the sense that she is a hardened women, but I don't really understand the significance of the "dust in the creases of her face".
http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/1984/1984_c2.htm

Part 1 Chapter 4
4. Why are people allowed to leave the Ministry of Love for a year or two before being executed for thoughtcrimes?
I feel like this one is simple, but I skipped over it and now I can't seem to word it correctly. I know it has something to do with the people forgetting who they are, or just not knowing what became of them to possibly induce fear?

Part 1 Chapter 5
4. What is newspeak a metaphor of on page 56-57? In other words, what is the aim of it?
My teacher kind of confused me on this one, I understand the aim of newspeak was to break down the thought process so people weren't truly understanding what they were saying. Or that it would eventually be impossible to really express feelings, but what is it a metaphor of?
http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/1984/1984_c5.htm (I believe the section where he wants us to focus on starts at "The Eleventh Edition, and ends at "he added as an afterthought")

Part 1 Chapter 7
2. What is ironic about the Party's claims that, before the Revolution, children had been sold into factories at age six?
Is it simply that the "Spies" are no better than a factory, and that starts at the same age? I feel as if I overlooked something.

Part 1 Chapter 8
1. What is the effect of the genuine whiff of coffee at the beginning of this section?
I really have no idea what the point of that was. The passage: From somewhere at the bottom of a passage the smell of roasting coffee -- real coffee, not Victory Coffee -- came floating out into the street. Winston paused involuntarily. For perhaps two seconds he was back in the half-forgotten world of his childhood. Then a door banged, seeming to cut off the smell as abruptly as though it had been a sound.

Part 2 Chapter 1
4. Explain the effect of the juxtaposition at the end of the section?
I believe whats being juxtaposed is the girls eyes, with the prisoners eyes, but I am not certain. Just a little confirmation if I'm right on this one would be nice. :]

Part 2 Chapter 4
2. How does Winston misunderstand the song of the Prole woman below the window?
Don't really get this one. Here's the passage: She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy. One had the feeling that she would have been perfectly content, if the June evening had been endless and the supply of clothes inexhaustible, to remain there for a thousand years, pegging out diapers and singing rubbish. It struck him as a curious fact that he had never heard a member of the Party singing alone and spontaneously. It would even have seemed slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to oneself. Perhaps it was only when people were somewhere near the starvation level that they had anything to sing about.

Part 2 Chapter 5
1. What is the effect of the increased bomb raids leading up to Hate Week?
I really don't get this one, so if anyone can input anything at all I'd be grateful.

The links after some of the questions are to an online version of 1984. Thank you anybody for any help at all. :]

[The Atheist]

So, I'm about halfway through this book and there are some questions from a study guide I have that I didn't grasp at the time I read the section that are still a little fuzzy. If you could give input or a push in the right direction I'm sure i'l find my way. :] I'm not expecting huge analysis of each one.

No worries; I'll play!


Part 1 Chapter 2
1. What is the rhetorical effect of the physical description of Mrs. Parsons?
What I Have: It gives off the sense that she is a hardened women, but I don't really understand the significance of the "dust in the creases of her face".
http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/1984/1984_c2.htm

Too busy to clean herself up - she's carrying around the dust she created.


Part 1 Chapter 4
4. Why are people allowed to leave the Ministry of Love for a year or two before being executed for thoughtcrimes?
I feel like this one is simple, but I skipped over it and now I can't seem to word it correctly. I know it has something to do with the people forgetting who they are, or just not knowing what became of them to possibly induce fear?

We've had some good discussions on this subject. The goal of people being sent to MoL is about Party purity. Once the person has been re-programmed to a state the Party desires, that person is quite harmless and there's no need for immediate execution. It seems quite perverse, but is actually logical - the Party


Part 1 Chapter 5
4. What is newspeak a metaphor of on page 56-57? In other words, what is the aim of it?
My teacher kind of confused me on this one, I understand the aim of newspeak was to break down the thought process so people weren't truly understanding what they were saying. Or that it would eventually be impossible to really express feelings, but what is it a metaphor of?
http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/1984/1984_c5.htm (I believe the section where he wants us to focus on starts at "The Eleventh Edition, and ends at "he added as an afterthought")

I'm not sure either. The object of Newspeak is indeed to remove the ability to form thoughts undesirable to the Party, but what your teacher's after escapes me right now. Hoepfully someone else will have a go.


Part 1 Chapter 7
2. What is ironic about the Party's claims that, before the Revolution, children had been sold into factories at age six?
Is it simply that the "Spies" are no better than a factory, and that starts at the same age? I feel as if I overlooked something.

Selling kids into labour at six never happened, but the Party starts to control kids when they're born, so it is pretty ironic to try saying capitalists were worse than the Party.


Part 1 Chapter 8
1. What is the effect of the genuine whiff of coffee at the beginning of this section?
I really have no idea what the point of that was. The passage: From somewhere at the bottom of a passage the smell of roasting coffee -- real coffee, not Victory Coffee -- came floating out into the street. Winston paused involuntarily. For perhaps two seconds he was back in the half-forgotten world of his childhood. Then a door banged, seeming to cut off the smell as abruptly as though it had been a sound.

Just another mechanism for W recalling the past and showing that it was real - he remembered the smell of coffee.


Part 2 Chapter 1
4. Explain the effect of the juxtaposition at the end of the section?
I believe whats being juxtaposed is the girls eyes, with the prisoners eyes, but I am not certain. Just a little confirmation if I'm right on this one would be nice. :]

Pretty sure you have that one.


Part 2 Chapter 4
2. How does Winston misunderstand the song of the Prole woman below the window?
Don't really get this one. Here's the passage: She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy. One had the feeling that she would have been perfectly content, if the June evening had been endless and the supply of clothes inexhaustible, to remain there for a thousand years, pegging out diapers and singing rubbish. It struck him as a curious fact that he had never heard a member of the Party singing alone and spontaneously. It would even have seemed slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to oneself. Perhaps it was only when people were somewhere near the starvation level that they had anything to sing about.

It shows the reality of the proles' life - they still carried on the same as Londoners during the blitz, or the Great Depression. The proles have the freedom to express themslves in song, no matter how awful the song itself might be.


Part 2 Chapter 5
1. What is the effect of the increased bomb raids leading up to Hate Week?
I really don't get this one, so if anyone can input anything at all I'd be grateful.

It's pretty well accepted that the war is a fabrication of the Party to control the masses, and this section bears it out. An enemy wouldn't arrange its attacks to coincide with Hate Week, but the Party would. They inflict severe damage on their own citizens so they can blame the "enemy" and create hatred. The flip side of the hatred is aways the love for BB.