1) I do not agree with the editors of my textbook that Blake had the ability to to enact social change with his poetry. I do not agree because I don't believe that anybody is capable of bringing that much power to people just through poetry. Most people don't know what is going in a poem they are reading, so I don't think that Blake's poems were able to make change in the society he was living in. '
2.) The editors may have included the Parliament transcript as a primary source to show that social change was actually occurring during the time of his poetry. This did not affect my reading of the poem because I don't believe that one poem was able to change the way society acted, I think it was clearly just a big coincidence that it all happened at the same time as Blake's poetry being released.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Jonathan Swift Teach Prep Work
A.) My groups main question was "Why are the Lilliputians doing this to Gulliver?" We wanted to know what Gulliver did to deserve this. Did the Lilliputians have something against him? Was it a power issue? Did the people of Lilliput feel intimidated because of their size compared to Gulliver's?
B.) The small teacher groups that we did this week were very helpful in going deeper into the story and helping us better understanding what was going on in the story. I think it was interesting to hear what my peers had to say about the story and their personal views of the story line. I would like to do something like this again in the future with other novels or stories.
C.) My group decided to first present our question with all of our predictions of what we believed was going on. Our group then went on to make assumptions as to what would happen and why.
B.) The small teacher groups that we did this week were very helpful in going deeper into the story and helping us better understanding what was going on in the story. I think it was interesting to hear what my peers had to say about the story and their personal views of the story line. I would like to do something like this again in the future with other novels or stories.
C.) My group decided to first present our question with all of our predictions of what we believed was going on. Our group then went on to make assumptions as to what would happen and why.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
1984 Final
O'Brien is one of the major characters in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The main character, and protagonist in the story, Winston Smith feels like he becomes very close with O'Brien, who happens to be an “inner party” member. In this novel the city is set up into a certain society where everything is suppsoed to “perfect” and where nothing can go wrong, and nobody does the wrong thing. Everyone living in this society always did the right thing because nobody knew what would happen if soemthing happened or if somebody did the wrong thing.
The idea of keeping their soceity in an “oligarchical collectivism” meant that everyone living there was under tight control and had little to no privacy and/or freedom. This type of living continued to go on as a result of everyone living in this society being too scared to speak up and say something about what was going on. The main reason was that no one knew what their fate would be if they acted against the party.
Winston always sort of suspected that O'Brien was secretly opposing the party and didn’t like what was going on. After a while O'Brien finally approached Winston and said some things to him that makes Winston think that what he was thinking about O’Briwn was acutally true. When Winston finally gets the urge to confront O’Brien about what was going on, O’Brien basically lets him know that he totally disagrees with the party and would be interested in overthrowing it. Winston believes O’Brien, only to later find out that O’Briwn was enitrely loyal to the party.
O’Brien says to Winston, “They’ve got you too! They got me a long time ago.” The party basically decides the fate of everyone living in their society and can maniupalte them with anything they feed to them. Towards the close of the book we find out that there acutally is no such thing as “Big Brother”, but it is only an imagainated thing to further scare the people living in the society and make them even more afraid to rebel against the party. Eventually, in Room 101, O'Brien does finally get to Winston and torture’s him to finally get Winston to grab on to the philosphy of “Big Brother” and the party, and Winston is finally brainwashed.
The idea of keeping their soceity in an “oligarchical collectivism” meant that everyone living there was under tight control and had little to no privacy and/or freedom. This type of living continued to go on as a result of everyone living in this society being too scared to speak up and say something about what was going on. The main reason was that no one knew what their fate would be if they acted against the party.
Winston always sort of suspected that O'Brien was secretly opposing the party and didn’t like what was going on. After a while O'Brien finally approached Winston and said some things to him that makes Winston think that what he was thinking about O’Briwn was acutally true. When Winston finally gets the urge to confront O’Brien about what was going on, O’Brien basically lets him know that he totally disagrees with the party and would be interested in overthrowing it. Winston believes O’Brien, only to later find out that O’Briwn was enitrely loyal to the party.
O’Brien says to Winston, “They’ve got you too! They got me a long time ago.” The party basically decides the fate of everyone living in their society and can maniupalte them with anything they feed to them. Towards the close of the book we find out that there acutally is no such thing as “Big Brother”, but it is only an imagainated thing to further scare the people living in the society and make them even more afraid to rebel against the party. Eventually, in Room 101, O'Brien does finally get to Winston and torture’s him to finally get Winston to grab on to the philosphy of “Big Brother” and the party, and Winston is finally brainwashed.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Writing In Repsonse to Orwell
The most interesting part of 1984, the novel, to me was the way it made assumptions to the future and guesses as to the way people will live their lives in the future. The author, George Orwell, talks about things that may happen in the future like new inventions and even a new way as to the way we speak. One major topic that 1984 examines is propaganda, which is a big part of our current world. So Orwell discussing propaganda was a good insight as to what did happen in the future. Some of the examples of propaganda in the novel are the messages that are displayed on the “tele-screens”, the names of the ministries, and the posters of “Big Brother” displayed all around the town. This was interesting to me because it shows the way the government and/or media can really change a person’s perspective of something in current events and pop culture. This same thing happens today, mostly with celebrities and tabloid magazines.
Another interesting thing I discovered about George Orwell was that he also wrote poetry, like the one in “Why I Write”. I think it’s cool that he has the passion to write both novels and poetry. The fact that Orwell writes both forms of literature is mind boggling to me because to me the two forms of writing are completely different and require a totally different mind set for each form.
Another interesting thing I discovered about George Orwell was that he also wrote poetry, like the one in “Why I Write”. I think it’s cool that he has the passion to write both novels and poetry. The fact that Orwell writes both forms of literature is mind boggling to me because to me the two forms of writing are completely different and require a totally different mind set for each form.
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