6th Hour 1984 Scribe
Today we were very on topic and to the point. We started out the day by taking the reading quiz first thing. Then we circled up into our inner and outer circles. Then, Ms. Moritz reminded those of us who were scribing this week. Today's presenters were Natali, Kayla, and Liz. The inner circle was Shane, Henry, Kaytie, Rachel, Chelsea, and Chelley.
The questions:
1. How long do you think Winston was in the Ministry of Love?
Winston may have been there a long time because he got fatter and fit as time he was there, so he must have been fed a lot of meals.
2. How has Oceania changed since Winston has been released?
From Winston's point of view it is completely different because he himself is completely different. Things are really the same though.
3. What caused Julia's scar?
When Winston was pleading "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia!" the party may have actually hurt Julia. She also may have rebelled as she was being held.
4. What do you think Julia's Room 101 was?
It would be her not being desired by men or being disfigured in someway. She has always had an under lying fear of being alone, so if they got her confidence low enough it would be equal to Winston's rats.
5.Do you think Julia's abuse was worse than Winston's?
It may have been worse mentally or emotionally, but Winston's physical abuse was worse.
6.How does the party know the party members biggest fears?
Usually the more you think about something scary, the more you dread it, so members could have shown that they dreaded something. The party could also brainwash you to be afraid of one thing that they would use against you.
7.Do children realize/comprehend what consequences there are for turning their parents in?
The children don't have as good of a relationship with their parents as children do today. They probably don't care what happens to their parents, they see them as just another criminal.
8. Why does the victory finally make Winston love Big Brother?
It makes Winston realize that Big Brother will always be there to protect him in a weird kind of way.
9.Does the party suppress thought, or does it just redirect it?
The party teaches the members to repress their own thoughts, like Winston does.
10. What happens to prisoners, are they released back into the society as proles or as party members?
If they show constant improvement, they are probably released as normal party members. They also might be released as ex-party members.
That was the end of the discussion. Then we rearranged the desks. Ms Moritz then gave us an important reminder about our t-shirt designs.
REMINDER: When you put your designs into the drop box, make sure that the picture is reversed. This way when it is Xeroxed and transferred to the shirt, it will be facing the same way.
Have a great night everyone!
~Sarah
Question from Natalie, Kayla, and Liz:
What does love mean in the society of 1984?
The questions:
1. How long do you think Winston was in the Ministry of Love?
Winston may have been there a long time because he got fatter and fit as time he was there, so he must have been fed a lot of meals.
2. How has Oceania changed since Winston has been released?
From Winston's point of view it is completely different because he himself is completely different. Things are really the same though.
3. What caused Julia's scar?
When Winston was pleading "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia!" the party may have actually hurt Julia. She also may have rebelled as she was being held.
4. What do you think Julia's Room 101 was?
It would be her not being desired by men or being disfigured in someway. She has always had an under lying fear of being alone, so if they got her confidence low enough it would be equal to Winston's rats.
5.Do you think Julia's abuse was worse than Winston's?
It may have been worse mentally or emotionally, but Winston's physical abuse was worse.
6.How does the party know the party members biggest fears?
Usually the more you think about something scary, the more you dread it, so members could have shown that they dreaded something. The party could also brainwash you to be afraid of one thing that they would use against you.
7.Do children realize/comprehend what consequences there are for turning their parents in?
The children don't have as good of a relationship with their parents as children do today. They probably don't care what happens to their parents, they see them as just another criminal.
8. Why does the victory finally make Winston love Big Brother?
It makes Winston realize that Big Brother will always be there to protect him in a weird kind of way.
9.Does the party suppress thought, or does it just redirect it?
The party teaches the members to repress their own thoughts, like Winston does.
10. What happens to prisoners, are they released back into the society as proles or as party members?
If they show constant improvement, they are probably released as normal party members. They also might be released as ex-party members.
That was the end of the discussion. Then we rearranged the desks. Ms Moritz then gave us an important reminder about our t-shirt designs.
REMINDER: When you put your designs into the drop box, make sure that the picture is reversed. This way when it is Xeroxed and transferred to the shirt, it will be facing the same way.
Have a great night everyone!
~Sarah
Question from Natalie, Kayla, and Liz:
What does love mean in the society of 1984?
posted by mmoritz at
4/24/2007 04:30:00 PM
16 Comments:
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By
kyle, at 6:38 PM
I don't know what you mean by HOW ABOUT SOMEBODY ELSE? If you are asking someone outside of the presenters to ask a question then here is one:
What are everyones overall impressions of the book? Did you like it, dislike it?
I thought it was overall a kinda dull book that basically went in a circle, ending very close to where it started.
By
kyle, at 6:40 PM
Blog Question:
What does love mean in the society of 1984?
By
Liz, at 6:48 PM
In answer to Kyle:
In my (humble) opinion,
I loathe this book. I've read it twice before these past few weeks, both times for school, and it is a miserable book. Most of it is dull, and it doesn't hold the story for the last 2/3 of the book. Most of this is description about the system in Oceania. Orwell got carried away with the system in the story and forgot to tell the story itself.
To answer Liz:
Love means hate. The Party has abolished love, and so it is impossible for the people to love. Even the Ministry of Love deals in hate: hatred of the enemies in the war, hatred of any people who disagree with the views of the Party such as Goldstein, hatred of self. By abolishing love of anything but the Party and Big Brother, the Party has inadvertently destroyed all concept of love.
In order to feel emotion, one needs to be able to feel the opposite of that emotion. When no opposite exists, no positive or negative emotion is felt. If there is no love, if the people are not allowed to feel love, then they can love no group or person. Likewise, they can hate no group or person because they do not know what love and hate are, or what the difference between them is.
Winston cannot love Big Brother because he is not supposed to feel love at all. Neither can he feel hatred for Big Brother, because there is no love.
By
JoanneH, at 7:34 PM
To respond to kyle:
I liked certain parts of the book, but many times I found myself falling asleep *cough* goldsteins book *cough*. I felt that it was an ok read up until Winston got captured and just completely changed. This seemed very out of character for him.
By
Natalie Jones, at 8:38 PM
This is an answer to Kyles question:
I thought the book was extremely well written, but I disliked reading it. Since AHS did the play, most everyone knew what was going to happen, which took the suprise element out. Also, we had (what seemed to me as) large reading assignments each night, whcih I know should be standard by this point in our education, but I found myslef struggling to enjoy the book and just trying to get through the required pages each night. I thought that analyzing the book was intresting, but we often went over the same material after a while and that became a little bit boring. I thought that we have read much more interesting books.
By
sVanDenover, at 8:38 PM
In reply to Kyle’s question I do not like this book at all. It was so depressing and I think that it has a horrible ending.
In reply to Liz’s question I think that love means nothing. Love is nonexistent except for the Love of Big Brother that the party members have. I totally agree with Joanne in without love no hate can really exist because hate is not compared to anything. Hate is not really hate until it is defined and compared to other emotions. For the party members hate is normal for them because they are always surrounded by it.
By
Anonymous, at 8:42 PM
Kyle:
Like most of you said, this book was pretty hard to get through at times. I hate reading books for school because you have to read a certain amount of pages a night. I always find myself reading because i have to, not because i want to. Though, the idea of a society that was totally taken over by the government sounded interesting but Norwell could have done a bit more with the overall story line.
Liz:
I agree with dev. In 1984, feelings are non existant so love would be nothing. Love is a feeling, but in 1984 there are no feelings. The Party member are supposed to only feel love for Big Brother, though they are not certain of what love feels like. Love is non existant in the 1984 society.
By
haleycc, at 8:54 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
By
Lundgren, at 12:41 AM
From Erik's Dad: This was my 2nd time reading 1984. I found the 1st 2/3 compelling as we explore Winston's resistance to the Party. I was disappointed that he was never able to do anything actually subversive to the society before he got caught. He never got beyond his personal protest.
The use of nature as a symbol of freedom and individuality (such as the bird singing) could have been better developed. It occurred to me today that perhaps nature would always serve as an example of individuality for people in a society like Oceania and would be the trigger that would eventually cause enough people to rebel.
The book is an excellent handbook on what direction not to go if you want to have a free society. To stay free, we must always ask ourselves whether a given action will erode our freedoms. Any policy or action that looks at all Orwellian needs to be reworked.
I agree with dev that the book is depressing. From the torture section to the end I couldn't put the book down because it was so disturbing I just wanted to get through it. But seeing the last hope for individuality in humanity snuffed out would have to be depressing. I don't think the book could have ended any other way.
I enjoyed reading along with the class and had many interesting discussions with Erik in the evenings these past few weeks. I wish there had been more interaction between the bloggers, though. It might help if the blog was continued through the whole book instead of started new every day. I found I was often the last to post and therefore perhaps no one saw what I had written.
By
Lundgren, at 12:45 AM
Tis Erik
Answering Kyle's quetion:
This book needs work. Winston's biggest and most dreaded fear was rats. They only mentioned rats two or three other times throughout the book. I think they could have showed his fear for rats more since it was a big part at the end of the book in "room 101".
Also for this book I was expecting a huge, symbolic, thought provoking, meaningful ending. It hardly had that... i was very disapointed.
By
Lundgren, at 12:49 AM
Kyle:
I agree with you. I thought that the book kind of droned on and on at some points. I think that there was a good point behind the novel, but there didn't need to be so detailed.
Liz:
In 1984's society, I think that love means that you will follow that person and not ask queations. Winston didn't question anything about Julia and party members don't mquestion Big Brother.
By
SarahE2010, at 4:17 PM
Answer to blog question:
Love in the society of 1984 is disappearing slowly. The party is trying to eliminate it quickly. I think taht people don't feel love at all. WInston, when he was younger, didn't feel any love becuase he was to young to know really what love is. Now that he is older he has no opportunity to love from the government. Love means nothing. It will soon be nonexistent. The only love that there is, is the love of big brother, but that is not true love.
By
Anonymous, at 6:30 PM
In 1984, 'love' is unquestioning acceptance.
When I think about Newspeak, I wonder why the word 'love' even exists. It's only used when related to Big Brother, so it's evolving into a word synonymous with the Party. It doesn't mean anything similar to what love means today, which is to accept someone, flaws and all, and hold them dear. (Haha. I hate that phrase. 'Hold them dear.' Anyway.) In 1984, 'love' isn't used lightly. Today, we might say, "Oh! The new compact disc from my favorite musical artists! This is rad! I love it!", but in 1984, you wouldn't even think of using the word except to talk about B.B.
So. To sum up. Love means Party, loyalty, etc.
By
laura h., at 7:31 PM
This is a very open question.
I believe love has a physical as well as emotional meaning. Physically it is breaking free and allowing the body to do what it has been restricted from. It is like when winston begins to get better through his actions with julia. His body is redeveloping itself because something that it has been restricted from for all this time, it is now allowed to do. That is love in the sense that one loves going against what is set down in society and the norms that are required of each civilian. The emotional sense is truly caring for someone else. Children experience this when they are young. Truly caring and wanting to do something just cause the person you care about is interested or wants to do this. It is wondering what happens to someone when you leave. Wanting them to be okay, and putting them before yourself. Trying to better someone's life whether it is at your own expense or not is what I would deem to be love. In the book, Winston and Julia are not really feeling the emotional senseof love. They do not care a great deal for one another other than doing what they do and going against the party in any way possible. They, eventually, wish something upon the other. They betray eachother. And I think that had they felt real love, real emotional love, they would have died for eachother. Romeo and Juliet did. They would rather be together in death than not be allowed together in life. Winston and Julia simply loved going against the party. They did not love eachother...
By
Emma Grace, at 9:11 PM
I think love just means interest in the society of 1984. People who are curious or intrigued by another person then simultaneously fall in "love." I don't think they know what real love is because all they know is love for Big Brother.
By
jordanc, at 12:32 PM
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