Structure question 3

Structure question 3

1984

1984

His eyes re-focused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals -

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER 

over and over again, filling half a page.

He could not help feeling a twinge of panic. It was absurd, since the writing of those particular words was not more dangerous than the initial act of opening the diary, but for a moment he was tempted to tear out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether.

He did not do so, however, because he knew that it was useless. Whether he wrote DOWN

WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed -- would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper -- the essential crime that contained all others in itself.

Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed for ever.

20     You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.

It was always at night -- the arrests invariably happened at night. The sudden jerk out of sleep, the rough hand shaking your shoulder, the lights glaring in your eyes, the ring of hard faces round the bed. In the vast majority of cases there was no trial, no report of the arrest. People

simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word.

For a moment he was seized by a kind of hysteria. He began writing in a hurried untidy scrawl:

theyll shoot me i don't care theyll shoot me in the back of the neck i dont care down with big

30     brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother -- 

He sat back in his chair, slightly ashamed of himself, and laid down the pen. The next moment he started violently. There was a knocking at the door.

Already! He sat as still as a mouse, in the futile hope that whoever it was might go away after a single attempt. But no, the knocking was repeated. The worst thing of all would be to delay. His

35     heart was thumping like a drum, but his face, from long habit, was probably expressionless. He got up and moved heavily towards the door.

Open Ended

What is the opening narrative focus?

His eyes re-focused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals -

Open Ended

Where does the narrative shift to here?

WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed -- would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper -- the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed for ever.

Open Ended

Where does the narrative shift to here?

People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word.

Open Ended

What is the end narrative focus?

He sat back in his chair, slightly ashamed of himself, and laid down the pen. The next moment he started violently. There was a knocking at the door.

Already! He sat as still as a mouse, in the futile hope that whoever it was might go away after a single attempt. But no, the knocking was repeated. The worst thing of all would be to delay. His

35 heart was thumping like a drum, but his face, from long habit, was probably expressionless. He got up and moved heavily towards the door.

Multiple Select

Which is the strongest response?

• At the beginning of the source, the writer focuses attention on Rosabel, as she's introduced in the first sentence. This structure interests the reader as it could form a ‘bond’ between the reader and Rosabel; they immediately know a lot about her because she's the first thing introduced. As a result of this, the reader’s interested because they may want to see what happens to her in the rest of the text.

  The writer changes the focus in the middle of the text by changing the time frame in the story. The story returns to what happened before Rosabel was introduced. This change of focus interests the reader as they can link what they have read in the middle of the test to the beginning. It isn’t in chronological order, so the beginning is explained from the middle of the story. This interests the reader as it gives them the explanation from the mysterious beginning.

• At the beginning of the extract, the writer describes Rosabel’s physical state; mostly of hunger. This immediately shows her poverty and longing for wealth and luxury, as she describes how she would have ‘sacrificed her soul for a good dinner’. This foreshadows the anger she feels towards the wealthy girl later in the extract. The writer then goes on to describe her surroundings, contrasting them with Rosabel’s own state and once again emphasising the difference between Rosabel’s life and luxury. The writer then describes Rosabel’s memory of the day, and places her description of Rosabel’s feelings of anger just before the end of the extract to emphasise that her behaviour at the end of the extract is concealing her true feelings.