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Part I Chapter 4

What is the main idea of this chapter?

Winston is tasked with handling "…articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify."

What does"rectify"mean?

When Winston finishes rectifying each message, he feeds "…them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames."

What does"devoured"mean?

Not everyone in the Records Department does the same work as Winston. For example, a man nearby is " …engaged in producing garbled versions …of poems which had become ideologically offensive . . ."

What does"ideologically"mean?

One of the articles assigned to Winston must be entirely re–written. He enjoys this type of work the most, but he knows he is not the only one assigned to do it: "So tricky a piece of work would never be entrusted to a single person: on the other hand, to turn it over to a committee would be to admit openly that an act of fabrication was taking place."

What does"fabrication"mean?

In response to his most challenging task of the day, Winston invents a fictional hero for Big Brother to praise. He stops short of awarding " . . .Comrade Ogilvy the Order of Conspicuous Merit: in the end he decided against it because of the unnecessary cross–referencing that it would entail."

What does"entail"mean?

The messages that Winston receives to work on use many words of "Newspeak", which is the language of the Party. What is the Party's name for standard English?

Were there any words that you did not know?
You can always list them here.