Blog #53 - Brian Luo - Period 7 - 6/13/2020

Brian Luo

6/5/20

Period 7

Sophomores 2020

Blogger 19

Aim: How is connotation, denotation, and paradox explicated through Orwell’s “doublethink?”

What is it like working from home?

Working from home is easier than going to school because instead of having all the work due the day after the lesson, we have more time to understand the lesson. In school, we have to finish the work quickly because if we don’t our grades would go down.

Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now.

I think that many people have begun ignoring the virus because the rise in cases has not been as severe as it was a month ago. People are gathering in large groups that could spread the virus. Also, people are protesting against our corrupt police force. We have normalized the use of lethal force by police as the U.S. is fourth in lethal police shootings.

What are the updates around the world/community regarding the virus?

Around the world, the rate of the virus’s spread was already declining, and now, it’s also slowing down here. Some countries have had no new cases, and countries are reopening some with restrictions, and some going back to normal life before the virus.

Lesson Summary

The lesson was about “doublespeak”, which is the use of euphemisms to turn the meaning of the words into something else. In 1984, it was used to manipulate what people think. In the lesson, we reviewed how it is used to trick people by having contradictory information be spread.

What did I learn?

I learned how doublethink was used by the Party as propaganda in contradictory information. I also learned that Winston Smith was named that after Winston Churchill because he fought against an oppressive government.

Why did I learn it?

I learned about this because the connotations we have associated with different things gives us perspective about things and changing the connotations can give us new perspectives that we hadn’t seen before. 

How will I use what I learned?

I can use what I learned from this lesson to see things from different perspectives that can allow me to understand more about it. Also, I can use what I learned to judge whether a source can be trusted because of their uses of things like connotations.