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1984 by George Orwell: Part 1 and Part 2 (ch1-3)
Q1.Choose 2-4 meaningful quotes and analyze
"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" (Chapter 1): This is perhaps the most famous quote from 1984. 1984 depicts a totalitarian society in which people are always being watched. The name 'Big Brother' attempts to suggest that the leader takes a fatherly interest in his citizens although the reality is that most live in fear of being punished for the slightest infraction.
"With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible." (Chapter 2). Orwell's novel portrays a future in which children are more loyal to the state than to their own family. Children are blank slates and they are so corrupted they are without feeling when they see supposed traitors hung and they take delight in exposing their own family members. Dissent is so difficult to express because even family members cannot be trusted.
Q2. Construct three high -level questions
1984 depicts a society in which residents must believe contradictions like "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE...
Make a connection about this part of the reading to some other text or current events
Fortunately, becoming the type of totalitarian society as portrayed in 1984 is no longer seen as a meaningful risk for the United States as it was during the Cold War when the book was written. However, the concept of always being 'watched' is actually a part of contemporary society in a manner people have come to accept. People actually willingly post a great deal of private information online in a way that allows them to be watched by friends, relatives, employers, corporations, and the government. It could be argued that this would be the sneakiest way of all to enact a form of social control over people. Rather than using terror and enforcing people to do one's bidding, encouraging people to volunteer information and making it seem like a way…
Fortunately, becoming the type of totalitarian society as portrayed in 1984 is no longer seen as a meaningful risk for the United States as it was during the Cold War when the book was written. However, the concept of always being 'watched' is actually a part of contemporary society in a manner people have come to accept. People actually willingly post a great deal of private information online in a way that allows them to be watched by friends, relatives, employers, corporations, and the government. It could be argued that this would be the sneakiest way of all to enact a form of social control over people. Rather than using terror and enforcing people to do one's bidding, encouraging people to volunteer information and making it seem like a way of establishing social connections with others and a source of pleasure is much more effective. To some degree this can be seen in the children of the novel who enjoy informing on their parents and other adults because of the sense of empowerment it brings to them.
Q4. Make an insightful comment about this reading
Although the society portrayed in 1984 is depressing, the first chapters are uplifting because they suggest that Winston Smith is at least able to find some sense of rebellion within his own mind. Even if he is physically compelled to move as a group with others and as part of a faceless mass, he can at least find a sense of resistance psychologically. He is also able to remember a different time and a different way of being in the world. Although the political slogans all around him force him to believe nonsense, like the notion that Big Brother cares about people and that mindless obedience is a source of wisdom, Winston has the mental power to understand the disconnect between reality and propaganda. He remembers the contradictions and the lies Big Brother has told even though he cannot speak of them aloud.
In 1984, this idea is demonstrated with Thought Police. It is certainly bad enough to never feel alone in one's own community but it even worse to never feel alone in one's own head. This idea is maddening, as Orwell illustrates through Winston. He says, "At home and in bed in the darkness you were safe from the telescreen so long as you kept silent" (96-7). Here we see
The Party preferred that people use the services of the prostitutes rather than have a satisfying sexual life with a partner. Procreation was the only purpose for sex. Winston thinks that the proles alone have the ability to change life. They make up such a great deal of the population of Oceania and have been able to hold on to their emotions and some semblance of life without Big Brother
ORWELL George Orwell 1984 Eerie parallels with today's online economy of words and knowledge George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 functions as a satire of many of the excesses of 20th century communism, such as everyday citizens' communal, monotonous lives, its nonsensical wars to keep the people complacent, and the creation of 'Big Lies' that are accepted, simply because the government so totally dominates the media. A symptom of this totalitarian thinking is manifested
But that's where we are now. 'We have to look at this operation very carefully and maybe it shouldn't be allowed to go ahead at all'" (Nat Hentoff, p.A19). Today we find our system of government to claim that they are the only people who know the difference between right and wrong and thus while the entire world should disarm themselves of nuclear warheads, we should keep them. Our government
In Animal Farm, Orwell more directly satirizes real world events, as the overthrow of a farmer by his animals and the progression of the new order established there to a totalitarian dictatorship closely mirrors that of Russia's sudden transition to Communism and Stalin's iron-fisted rule. Whereas 1984 drops the reader immediately into the world of a government gone wrong, Animal Farm shows the emergence of such a government. Things begin
Many mental healthcare advocates supported this measure. However, the de-institutionalization under the Reagan administration became the criminalization of mental illness, largely due to tax-cuts and as much as 25% cuts in funding. Recently, the Bush administration announced his "New Freedom Initiative" that expands the failed policy of Reagan (Rosas and Jackson, 2004). According to Rosas and Jackson: "There are a few differences in approach, however. The most significant difference being,