The following Inspiration diagrams have been posted to aid student preparation for the below in-class exam: Big Brother Stays in Control (smaller pic.), The Progress of Winston's Cure, Catholic Inquisition vs. Big Brother: Compare and Contrast, Winston vs. Julia, and Technology as Enemy of Freedom.

“They [the Party] could not alter your feelings; for that matter you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to.  They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable.”

“BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING!”

1984 ESSAY

   Although innocent of any wrongdoing, the Roman philosopher of late antiquity Boethius fell out of favor in approximately 525/26 AD with the barbarian Emperor Theoderic who slapped him in prison, tried and convicted him of treason and sacrilege, tortured him mercilessly for months, and finally killed him in the cruelest possible manner.  His body wracked by pain and his willpower and strength of spirit being strongly tested, Boethius nonetheless before his death wrote in his classic treatise The Consolations of Philosophy the following: “You cannot impose anything on a free mind, and you cannot move from its state of inner tranquility a mind at peace with itself and firmly founded on reason.”  Although he had no control over the physical circumstances of his imprisonment and death, Boethius held the sanctity of the mind to be inviolable.  He claimed the universe of a man’s intellect was impregnable and always under his dominion, if only self-control and reason were sufficiently employed.  A man could know the truth in his mind, and the truth would set him free and render him happy – no matter what happened to his body.  It is an optimistic message, in a difficult time.

The reality in George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 is otherwise.  In a 5-paragraph essay, write a letter to the philosopher Boethius explaining how Big Brother and the Party are able to effectively and completely control people’s minds.  Be sure to explain the different technologies available to the Thought Police, as opposed to the technology present during the time of Boethius (480-526 AD).  Make sure your essay goes into depth and is well written; use your best ideas and your best words.  In each body paragraph make sure and use one quote from the text to back up your topic sentence.  Make sure and list the page number where you found the quote.

Come into class on the day of the essay with your outline completed; you can use any and all notes that you can fit on the back and front of this sheet of paper as you write.  Good luck!

NOTE: Check out essay rubric here.