Classwork for Chapter #7

Class Close Reading as a Class

Read over this passage from Chapter 7: 161.10-163.5 “He wondered, as he had many times wondered before…”


1. Read the sentence from 161.10 to 162.3 below. Provide some summary or context of what is happening when these words appear in the story. Afterwards, interpret and explain its meaning in at least three sentences.

“Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”

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2. Read the sentences from 162.3 to 162.7 below. Provide some summary or context of what is happening when these words appear in the story. Afterwards, interpret and explain its meaning in at least three sentences.

“The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right.”

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3. Read the sentences from 162.7 to 162.8 below. Provide some summary or context of what is happening when these words appear in the story. Afterwards, interpret and explain its meaning in at least three sentences.

“The face of O’Brien, not called up by any obvious association, had floated into his mind. He knew, with more certainty than before, that O’Brien was on his side.”

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4. Read the sentences from 162.8 to 163.4 below. Provide some summary or context of what is happening when these words appear in the story. Afterwards, interpret and explain its meaning in at least three sentences.

“The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall toward the earth’s center.”

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This was the close reading we produced as a class. It was unfinished, but a good product nonetheless...


After reflecting upon his own participation of destroying history, Winston couldn’t understand why the government tried to falsify the past. Winston is doubting himself because he has no evidence to prove his beliefs about the party. Winston was writing in his journal and thought to himself, “Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one” (161.10). Orwell is saying to be a lunatic is to feel alone. The phrase “minority of one” means that Winston feels separated, different, or alone from everyone else in accepted beliefs. And Winston feels as if he’s alone in his beliefs against the party and the past. Therefore, he feels like a lunatic.


Winston’s doubt increases to the point where he thinks that the Party might actually be right. Upon his pondering, Winston suspects that “The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right.” According to Winston, the worst thing you can do is think clearly and logically. He believes that what was scary was not what the Party would do to you for independent thinking but that they might have evidence to prove that they are right. The Party is so good at controlling people’s thoughts that start to question what you once had evidence for and thought was true.

Since Winston had doubts about his thoughts, he decides that he is writing his diary to O’Brien. As he continues to write in his diary, all of sudden “The face of O’Brien, not called…”