外国文学导读指南系列丛书之1984 BY GEORGE ORWELL.pdf

A T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E T O T H E S I G N E T C L A S S I C E D I T I O N O F GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 By LISA SESSIONS, Asheville Junior High, Asheville, NC S E R I E S E D I T O R S : W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of George Orwell’s 1984 2 I N T R O D U C T I O N George Orwell’s 1984 offers a thought-provoking learning experience for high schools students. It provides challenging reading, stimulating themes of dehumanization, isolation, repression, loneliness, social class disparity, and abuse of power, and a basis upon which students can form their own opinions about today’s society. 1984’s relevance to today’s world makes it an excellent choice for secondary school readers who hold our future in their hands, whether as tomorrow’s leaders or as followers. Some years ago, Americans envisioned a future that would evolve predictably from the past as a type of extension of the familiar. With the sixties, however, our idyllic dreams were shattered and new visions began to form. 1984, written in 1948 and published in 1949, was intended as a warning against totalitarian tendencies rather than as a prophetic work. Now that the year 1984 has passed, many may scoff at the warning, but those who do would be wise to look at the present a bit more closely. Currently, we have subliminal messages, two-way televisions, computer viruses threatening to endanger our much depended-upon information systems (with possible global impact), and countries all over t