Setting.

The descriptions of the scenery in the first chapter seem to be closely related to that of London during the 1940's, with bomb sites, power cuts, economoy drives and paternalistic propaganda (Big Brother). The Ministry of Turth is said to represent the Senate House at the University of London, where the Ministry of Information was housed during the second world war. This ministry was indirectly responsible for censoring Orwell's work as a broadcaster. The telegraphic address was "Miniform" and the Minister himself, Brendan Bracken was known to use initals as BB....ie: Big Brother.
 * List the images associated with “Victory Mansions”. How does Orwell convey the dreariness of the building? which senses are being evoked? **
 * note down the images associated with London in the novel. How is it described? What aspects are emphasized? **
 * When Orwell was writing this book in 1948, large stretches of the city were still scarred by bomb-sites and littered with dust and rubbish, but he chose to set the events of the story in the future, in a changed world. What aspects of this future world are introduced in the first chapter? **
 * It is important to puzzle out in class the meanings of the three slogans: War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; and Ignorance is Strength. Compare the slogan put out by the pigs in //Animal Farm//: “Four legs good, two legs bad”; and its amended version, when the pigs have learned to walk upright: “Four legs good, two legs better”. **