Tuesday, March 31, 2009
revised thesis
In the novel 1984, George Orwell uses the juxtaposition between victory gin and wine; victory cigarettes and Inner Party cigarettes; and Party chocolate and Inner Party chocolate to warn people not to accept what they are told as truth without thinking about what they aren't being told.
Dystopian Journal 3
The main character of George Orwell’s book 1984, Winston Smith, finds himself immersed in a futile struggle against a perfect socialist society. He becomes a victim of this society by being put under constant surveillance, and exposed to the other means of control the government of Oceania uses. Winston feels trapped and realizes that the government is destroying things like intelligence, history, logical reasoning, the common thought process and even the nature of a person’s sexual desire in order to gain complete control over the members of its society.
He chooses to resist the government in many ways and is to an extent successful. Winston develops a pure relationship with a woman, expands his intellectual capacity, seeks out the underground resistance, and even writes a journal. However in the end all of this is futile because he and the woman are arrested and Winston discovers that any rebellious actions he takes against the party accomplish nothing in the way of disrupting the government’s control over the people.
Because he chooses to resist the government, Winston is eventually arrested. After being arrested he becomes a victim of torture and the government works at forcing him to conform. Winston confesses to whatever crimes the torturers tell him to and ultimately surrenders all of his dreams, hopes, desires, and feelings in order to save himself from death. Orwell’s society does not use pain as its main form of torture; instead they target the person’s feelings, desires, reflexes, and personal thoughts. By doing this Winston and the other rebels are slowly forced to accept what they are told and to forget about logic.
Word Count: 269
He chooses to resist the government in many ways and is to an extent successful. Winston develops a pure relationship with a woman, expands his intellectual capacity, seeks out the underground resistance, and even writes a journal. However in the end all of this is futile because he and the woman are arrested and Winston discovers that any rebellious actions he takes against the party accomplish nothing in the way of disrupting the government’s control over the people.
Because he chooses to resist the government, Winston is eventually arrested. After being arrested he becomes a victim of torture and the government works at forcing him to conform. Winston confesses to whatever crimes the torturers tell him to and ultimately surrenders all of his dreams, hopes, desires, and feelings in order to save himself from death. Orwell’s society does not use pain as its main form of torture; instead they target the person’s feelings, desires, reflexes, and personal thoughts. By doing this Winston and the other rebels are slowly forced to accept what they are told and to forget about logic.
Word Count: 269
Dystopian Journal 2
The society that George Orwell created in his dystopian novel 1984 was in almost every way extremely powerful and very scary. The way that INGSOC controls its people is in every way extremely oppressive and corrupt. The government works toward the goal of complete and everlasting control. Orwell’s vision is so powerful because in it the people will lose there basic intelligence and with it their facility to deny what they are told is truth. Also their goals, independence, and purpose is taken away so the people have nothing to fight for and without intelligence nothing to fight with. This means that the government can completely solidify its rule and destroy all rebellious attempts.
The author’s alternatives is that the lower class, the majority of the population, will realize that they are not living how they should and they are being taken advantage of. Once they see this truth they will rise up and overthrow the government with their numbers. However the reason that the idea is so scary is because the lower class cannot compare their lifestyle to any lifestyle that people used to have. In fact they are told that their lifestyle has improved and because that lie cannot be proven false everyone accepts it to be the truth. So because the government keeps the lower class people happy and destroys any goals or dreams they have the government can keep the lower class from rebelling. This means that the government has become indestructible and not only has complete power but in fact everlasting control over the country.
Word count: 260
The author’s alternatives is that the lower class, the majority of the population, will realize that they are not living how they should and they are being taken advantage of. Once they see this truth they will rise up and overthrow the government with their numbers. However the reason that the idea is so scary is because the lower class cannot compare their lifestyle to any lifestyle that people used to have. In fact they are told that their lifestyle has improved and because that lie cannot be proven false everyone accepts it to be the truth. So because the government keeps the lower class people happy and destroys any goals or dreams they have the government can keep the lower class from rebelling. This means that the government has become indestructible and not only has complete power but in fact everlasting control over the country.
Word count: 260
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Dystopian Journal 1
TOPIC A:
As Wilson is eating lunch one day at the ministry he finds himself talking to another party member about newspeak, “In the end we will make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it,” (Orwell 52). This passage is an example of the party’s plan to take power away from the people of Oceania. We find that the purpose of newspeak is to make it impossible for people to think intelligently. By doing this the party can easily take advantage of the people and it would be nearly impossible for the people of the country to fight back in anyway.
This is one of the most important aspects of Orwell’s dystopia in 1984. The fear and dehumanization of the people is one thing but even over time history has shown us that societies that use fear for control do not last. Making the population incapable of deep thought is a tactic that could secure power over the population for a very long time. It is a philosophy that thoughts are constricted by vocabulary because people think in words. If this is true then if a government can deteriorate the language of their people then such thoughts needed to even contemplate rebellion would not even be possible in the minds of the rebellious.
As Wilson is eating lunch one day at the ministry he finds himself talking to another party member about newspeak, “In the end we will make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it,” (Orwell 52). This passage is an example of the party’s plan to take power away from the people of Oceania. We find that the purpose of newspeak is to make it impossible for people to think intelligently. By doing this the party can easily take advantage of the people and it would be nearly impossible for the people of the country to fight back in anyway.
This is one of the most important aspects of Orwell’s dystopia in 1984. The fear and dehumanization of the people is one thing but even over time history has shown us that societies that use fear for control do not last. Making the population incapable of deep thought is a tactic that could secure power over the population for a very long time. It is a philosophy that thoughts are constricted by vocabulary because people think in words. If this is true then if a government can deteriorate the language of their people then such thoughts needed to even contemplate rebellion would not even be possible in the minds of the rebellious.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Stranger 9
thesis: reveal that people are not able to see through their desires but once they let go of those desires they are not bound to acting according to what they want but instead they can decide how to act
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Stranger 8
The contrast between parts 1 and 2 in The Stranger is the change in Meursault. In part two Meursault becomes more concerned about the people and things around him and also his personal condition. The author also uses symbols like cigarrets to show the change in Meursault. In the first part he smokes in every chapter atlest once but in the second part of the book after they were taken away from him Meursault stops smoking even when the gaurd offers him a cigaret before the court hearing. Also in the second part he loses obsetion in Marie and nearly forgets about her during the court session. These changes are used to show how Meursault does not need certain things anymore and he is begining to overcome the influence of the physical world and his desires.