Maxim Livit - Blog #51
Sophomores 2020 - Period 9
6/10/20
Aim - How are the readers of 1984 warned about the power of manipulation?
The lesson began with a Do Now consisting of two questions. These two questions were to be answered in correspondence and in understanding to a quote by Winston in the book: “They could not alter your feelings; for that matter, you could not alert them yourself, even if you wanted to.”
- Can you alter your own feelings by force of will? Why or Why Not?
In answering this question, there was a notable split in opinion among our class. Some students were first to point out that when it comes down to it, you are always set who you are at the core and you cannot force yourself to change what's at your core. However, on the other side of the question, we discussed how you decide what actions, words, and/or events affect you, so it is all in the hands of your perspective. With making yourself believe that something happened, you can do the same with making yourself believe that something wasn’t as bad as you first saw it as. Ultimately, if your force of will can make you have a completely negative or positive outlook on everything, you can alert your own feelings.
- Can someone else alert another person’s innermost feelings?
Again with this question, the class saw a split in opinions. Some answers came back to the topic of someone’s core, but the fact that only you know the scope of your innermost feelings, so only you can alert them. More technically, regarding one’s fight or flight bodily responses, those hormones and other feelings built into your human body are not something that someone can change. Furthermore, the class touched upon awareness of this happening, in which case knowing that someone is trying to alert your feelings, you become defensive and act as a barrier to that happening. However, the class did recognize that there are many manipulative and threatening people that are very much capable of shaping someone’s thoughts and feelings through fear and other such tactics. Adding to this side on a lighter note, someone that can distract you from a moment of sadness and weakness, bringing happiness to you, acts in alerting your innermost feelings even if it is just for some moments.
With the conclusion of the Do Now, our class transitioned to a discussion of 1984, but more specifically, coming up with questions you have thus far while reading the novel. The task is listed below and was done individually given our online circumstances.
The most interesting and thought provoking questions asked by our class were:
- Will we ever meet Big Brother for the rest of the book? If not, is there a significance to him never showing up (maybe he doesn’t really exist)?
- Do you believe that 1984 can be portrayed in and ever take place in our society today?
Our class then went into a class discussion regarding the characters (Julia and Winston), and really describing and comparing/contrasting them to each other. The assignment was as follows:
Julia: She seems to be rebellious and ignorant in that she doesn’t listen to or care about what Winston tells her. To build onto this, Julia is very practical in the sense that she is not a dreamer, but rather a survivor who wants to live her life without getting caught. It is noticeable that she is aware of the fact that she won’t be around at one point, so she lives in the present and doesn’t worry about the future Julia definitely thinks on a smaller scale where she thinks about rebelling against the government, but not doing it as a society or how it should be done at all. In addition, Julia doesn’t know life before the revolution, so she just sees Big Brother as this invincible force. Ultimately, it’s not the fact that she is not capable, but rather that she doesn’t care. Our class attributed this to her age (young) and lack of experience which sets Winston apart from her.
Winston: Due to Winston’s age and experience with life before the revolution, it is evident that he is more of a dreamer and wants to incite large-scale change. A major quality of Winston is his dual pessimism and optimism. Winston is pessimistic in knowing that whatever he does will lead to his death; however, he is still and will always be optimistic for change. Winston is also very concerned with humanity and seeing that Big Brother is changing everything from the past. Our class also noted that Winston is older than the majority of people he works with, suggesting that he does not have much time left.
Both: In comparing Julia and Winston, it is easy to see that both are outer-party members that want to rebel to a certain extent. Additionally, both characters are able to enjoy and take notice of the simple things in life.
With the conclusion of this class discussion, Mrs. Peterson engaged us in a Quick Write, simply asking the class to quickly jot down what we did last Friday. Immediately, people in the class exclaimed their confusion in difficulty to remember what happened just a few days prior to the lesson. The entire class ended up agreeing that no one could recall the events on the last friday. Of course, Mrs. Peterson already knew this was going to happen. We moved on to answering some questions in reflection to why this had occurred.
- Why was there such difficulty recording what happened?
There was such difficulty because we spent so much time trying to remember something we simply weren’t going to remember.
- Why is it so easy to forget what transpired, even though only a couple of days had passed?
It was so easy to forget what transpired because, especially during quarantine, nothing extremely memorable or special happened (such as someone’s birthday) that would stand out from the other days.
- How can forgetting leave people vulnerable?
Forgetting events can leave people vulnerable because it gives an opportunity to anyone to make up their own story on the events and manipulate you into believing whatever they say happened. For example, when you are a baby, you do not remember any of the things you did, but your parents always tell you stories when you grow up. You are going to believe whatever your parents tell you. Now although your parents would probably not lie about a baby story, this situation can occur with something else, leaving you no choice but to believe what they say.
This concluded the lesson, but Mrs. Peterson left two enrichment videos as a summary and analysis to chapter 4 and chapter 5 of 1984. The videos are below:
What is it like working from home?
With the school year winding down and our city beginning to reopen with the rest of the country, I now have a full understanding and opinion on how it has been like remote learning for 3 months of my sophomore year. The remote learning experience definitely changed a lot because as much as it is a new experience to us students, it is just as new to the teachers. They took some time to adapt and decide on the best way to teach their classes. In the beginning of this remote learning journey, I was still in the school mindset and found it even easier to get all my work done as sitting in my room with a computer at all times didn’t leave me much room for error. However, as the months went by, I definitely feel as if my mind transitioned to a feeling of being on break or vacation from being at home for so long. Due to this, I definitely noticed myself getting distracted from doing work and procrastinating a little more than before. On top of this, I lost access to a device on which I could do my work for a while, leaving me even more behind in many classes. Recently, however, I have been forcing myself to find the time to catch up on all the work and finish this school year with everything done.
What are the updates around the world/community regarding the virus?
Taking into account that we are halfway through June and have been sitting in our rooms for the most part for 3 months, it is amazing to hear that this season of Covid-19 is coming to an end. It has already been a while since states around the United States and countries have lifted their quarantine orders as they reached mandatory health expectations set in place by someone in charge. However, for us in New York City, we are still in quarantine but very near to being cleared in going anywhere. New York has already undergone a Phase 1 reopening on June 8th. With some research, I also know that our mayor and governor are looking for a Phase 2 reopening of the city near June 22nd at the earliest. This would include many hair salons, barbershops, and more that people have been waiting for.
Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now.
Assuming this is regarding my thoughts on the Covid-19 pandemic, I believe that although this season of the pandemic will be over soon, it will definitely come back once more and maybe again before scientists are able to develop a vaccine for it. This has been a terrible experience for everyone around the globe and will go down in the history books. I’m sure this is the craziest thing to happen for most people my age and we will be telling our kids about it in the future. However, with other recent events around the world such as the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the tragic death of George Floyd, it can definitely be said that our society is a mess at the moment with an urgent need for change. To not get political in discussing the death of George Floyd, I would like to point out my concerns for Covid-19 in relation to this because of the protests and riots. With protests around the globe consisting of hundreds and thousands of people, I am curious and worried to see how this affects the number of people with Covid-19.
My Reflection: The main purpose of today’s lesson and what I learned from it is the power of manipulation and how our class can apply it to our reading and understanding of 1984. After no one in our class could recall what they did just a few days prior to the lesson and Mrs. Peterson built on to this with a story of her childhood, I understood that there are so many things we forget in our lives. This however is a weakness leaving so much room for someone to manipulate you into changing your thoughts or believe only what they told you (as it is your only source). I applied this learning to my understanding of 1984 seeing that manipulation shows up as a major theme in the novel, with the government constantly changing their supposed history and altering the memories of their citizens. I learned this information, not only to build on my understanding of the book, but to become aware of the power you lose by forgetting and power given to someone by forgetting. I will definitely use this information, in more serious circumstances, to be aware of someone telling me a story or a space in which manipulation can be prevelant.
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