tht and 1984 A05 historical and critical commentary

Question 1

Swift from Gulliver’s Travels
1726
(both)

Answer 1

‘difference in opinions has cost many millions of lives’

Question 2

Shelley from The Last Man
1826
(historical document)
(both)

Answer 2

‘i continued my war against civilisation and yet entertained a wish to belong to it’

Question 3

Fleischhacker and Hohn on Abortion, reproduction and healthcare in Nazi Germany
(tht)

Answer 3

‘increasingly severe destruction were placed on the availability of contraceptives… Vichy France and Nazi Germany were authorized to impose the death penalty for the illegal termination of unwanted pregnancies’
1988

Question 4

link both Lang (tech and lang) and Bernan (language)
(both)

Answer 4

1989-1990
Lang - “orwell was aware that the most dangerous potential of technology may be in the way of thinking”

Bernan - “offreds power is language”

Question 5

Goldbatt on sisterhood
(tht)

Answer 5

‘female culture is no guarantee of sisterhood’
1999

Question 6

chomsky on individuality and society
(both)

Answer 6

“people have to be atomised and segregated and alone”
2002

Question 7

Neuman on Offred and society

Answer 7

‘Atwoods novel requires that we pay attention and bear witness’
2006

Question 8

Weiss on relationships
(both)

Answer 8

dystopian heroes become involved in such relationships for other than purely political reasons “while the act itself may be subversive, it does not involve or lead to any real challenge to the state”
2009

Question 9

Greenwald on surveillance
(both)

Answer 9

‘surveillance breeds conformity’
(2013)

Question 10

Rule on dehumanisation and offred
(tht)

Answer 10

‘the tattoo around her ankle serves as a type of figurative shackle’
(2018)

Question 11

Hendershot on sisterhood and gender

(tht)

Answer 11

‘arguably condemns the betrayal of women by women even more strongly’
(2018)

Question 12

Kadhim on society
(link to any totalitarian regime)

Answer 12

‘in order to prove it’s right to rule, every regime must find its own scapegoat’
(2019)

Question 13

Lanter on individuality, society and totalitarianism
(tht)

Answer 13

‘spreading butter on her skin literally and figuratively loosens offred from societal expectations’
2022

Question 14

Howell on winston, julia and beliefs
(1984)

Answer 14

‘he could not die for Julia, and he could not die as a martyr’
(2023)

Question 15

Orwell on totalitarianism
(both)

Answer 15

‘from a totalitarian point of view, history is something that’s created not learned’
(1946)

Question 16

communist Romanian slogan reproduction and propaganda
(both)

Answer 16

“the state can take better care of your children than you can”
(1970s)

Question 17

Thorp on the party and propaganda
(both)

Answer 17

“the party (or the Gilead regime) determines what is truth”
(1984)