I have learned alot from posting on all of these blogs, whether it be my own, or responding to my classmates'. By responding to "1984" via my blog, and getting other ideas from other students reading the same book as myself, it helped me better with understanding what exactly I was reading and writing about. Also, when comments were made on my own blogs, when other students spoke their minds on what I had to say, it helped me better with what I had to work on, which mainly was to elaborate more on what it was I was trying to say, use more examples in my responses to back up my answers, and to read more closely on what exactly I am writing about.
What mainly helped me out with better understanding of the novel, came from a few of my classmates' responses to one of my posts. My teacher, Mr. Miller, told me that in my post I had raised some questions, and that I should try answering them by searching the book for clues that would help. I did this, and so I then had more knowledge of what I was speaking on. Also, other students reached out with their own ideas and shared them with me, and also said they could relate to what I was talking about, and this helped me out as well. Falstaff had told me, in response to my "Two Minutes Hate" post, to think of one of the characters that I mentioned as "the opposite political candidate, Al Gore to our George Bush...", and that just in general filled me in more on what I was reading about in "1984". Shane had told me that once I read on more, I would question more about some things going on, and then went on and said that he had done that. This let me know that I wasn't alone with my thinking. However, as for my posts in general, criticism helped me improve responses alot as well, when Will J. said that some of my descriptions were too vague. All in all, blog postings were more so of a help than anything else.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Living In A Dystopia (Part II)
From reading "1984", I have learned that many of our rights and freedoms could one day be taken away from us, all by the power of the government. However, even today there are some actions taken by the goverment in our country, that could lead to similar things from "1984" in our real future, and they are related to what is predicted in the story.
In "1984", in the society that Winson and everybody lives in, everybody has telescreens in all of their homes, and so the government can monitor their every move at all times. In a way, our homes could aslo be "monitored" daily as well, and it is because of something we have called the Patriot Act, which enables our own private home phone lines to be tapped. The police, FBI, or government can tune in on any of our conversations that we have via telephone, at any given time. This law was passed after September 11th, and the claim of this Act is simply to tap phones, to try and catch conversations with terrorists. However, there has also been debate that the Patriot Act is being abused, and that some of the wrong people at random, could have had their phones tapped. Also, in "1984" there are the thought police, and they can hear everybody think, and that is also just like our phones being tapped, since we can be heard speaking freely.
So with this, one could think of our phones being tapped in the same breath as the telescreens in "1984", because it invades privacy in the comfort of our homes, whether it be with visual, or just audio.
In "1984", in the society that Winson and everybody lives in, everybody has telescreens in all of their homes, and so the government can monitor their every move at all times. In a way, our homes could aslo be "monitored" daily as well, and it is because of something we have called the Patriot Act, which enables our own private home phone lines to be tapped. The police, FBI, or government can tune in on any of our conversations that we have via telephone, at any given time. This law was passed after September 11th, and the claim of this Act is simply to tap phones, to try and catch conversations with terrorists. However, there has also been debate that the Patriot Act is being abused, and that some of the wrong people at random, could have had their phones tapped. Also, in "1984" there are the thought police, and they can hear everybody think, and that is also just like our phones being tapped, since we can be heard speaking freely.
So with this, one could think of our phones being tapped in the same breath as the telescreens in "1984", because it invades privacy in the comfort of our homes, whether it be with visual, or just audio.
Living In A Dystopia (Part I)
In the novels "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451", the future of our society is predicted to be a "dystopia", or an undesirable world that is imperfect, and nobody wishes to live in it. Many ideas that are raised in both stories from the authors can come off as possible warnings for the real future in our world, and we should possibly take them into consideration that they could possibly happen to us one day.
The main warnings that the author in "1984" is trying to send, is that in the future, we as human beings may not control our own lives anymore. They will all be in the government's hands, and we will all be in one big "party" together, and those who are not with us will be "prones", or outsiders. Also, in the future, we will no longer have the privacy that we were once blessed with. There will be telescreens that monitor us in all of our homes, so we are not exactly free to do whatever we want anymore, not even in the privacy of our own homes. This is not even the worst that could happen to invade our lives, because also in the future, "thought police" come into play, and with them, the government can basically read our minds, and know what we are thinking 24/7. In other words, if one were to think something wrong, and maybe not even have ment it, they could face harsh consequences and cruel punishment for it.
In conclusion, the author is basically trying to warn us that one day in the future, our lives could possibly change, and we all will be living in a dystopia, and these are all prime examples of what could happen.
The main warnings that the author in "1984" is trying to send, is that in the future, we as human beings may not control our own lives anymore. They will all be in the government's hands, and we will all be in one big "party" together, and those who are not with us will be "prones", or outsiders. Also, in the future, we will no longer have the privacy that we were once blessed with. There will be telescreens that monitor us in all of our homes, so we are not exactly free to do whatever we want anymore, not even in the privacy of our own homes. This is not even the worst that could happen to invade our lives, because also in the future, "thought police" come into play, and with them, the government can basically read our minds, and know what we are thinking 24/7. In other words, if one were to think something wrong, and maybe not even have ment it, they could face harsh consequences and cruel punishment for it.
In conclusion, the author is basically trying to warn us that one day in the future, our lives could possibly change, and we all will be living in a dystopia, and these are all prime examples of what could happen.
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