Aim: How are the readers of 1984 warned about the power of manipulation?
Today’s lesson began with a do now in which we discussed internal manipulation and emotions. We discussed whether it was possible to alter your innermost feelings by force of will. I believed that it was not possible because feelings could only be altered if you really believed them and happened naturally. However, it is possible to alter someone else’s innermost feelings, although still not through brute force. Through discussions and reasoning, with enough logic people can be swayed for the most part. We saw this connecting to 1984 as there were many instances of manipulation, with the most prominent that comes to mind concerning the chocolate. The workers were told there was an increase in ration, however in reality it was a decrease. The people accepted this without question despite the obvious injustice in this action.
At this point, we split into groups and worked on creating questions to ask others about ideas we had throughout the book. For example, one question that I found interesting was someone asking where Winston’s dad was, as he was not mentioned in the book so far. This was interesting because parents are a very important part of everyone’s life, and the lack thereof was by no means a mistake or a careless detail. It made me think more about what could have happened to his father, as if he was vaporized or something else common, I feel like it would have simply been mentioned.
After that, we worked to describe the characters of Julia and Winston. I felt like they were very different people, with only the idea of rebelling against their society as their similarity. Julia believed that a large-scale rebellion would never be possible, and only worked to enjoy herself while keeping herself hidden from suspicion. Julia stays vocal at the Junior Antisex League, which diverts attention from her, allowing her to participate in buying things from the black market, as well as meet other people. However, Winston looked towards such a rebellion, and constantly feared being caught. He writes down ideas in a diary, for fear of losing them. He also is always thinking about freedom and overthrowing this totalitarian government. They were able to meet through their anger at society and their similar wants of a partner. As they both want sex and dislike the party, they are able to meet and rebel for their different purposes.
Next, we had to record what we did the Friday before.
Since I had no zoom calls that day, I went to Owl Hollow Soccer Fields with my friends at 9 in the morning, as there are less people there at that time and it is easier to secure a field. It was very nice to be able to finally play a little, although it is still hard to go consistently as some of my friends are in different schools and have different schedules.
Finally, we had to answer a few questions as a class.
1. Why was there such difficulty recording what happened?
It was hard to record what happened in this society because people were always being watched and listened to. This meant that them writing stuff, while not explicitly illegal, could lead to the government not being happy with your decisions and decide to punish you.
2. Why is it so easy to forget what transpired, even though only a couple of days had passed?
Everything was very forgettable because the people were constantly brainwashed and had nothing to look forward to every day. With nothing being different and memorable, people did not keep track of dates and remember them. With the government constantly adding changes to the world, the people did not bother to remember things because the government was always watching, and if people knew more than they should, they could get vaporized.
3. Forgetting leaves people vulnerable for many reasons. One of these is that you rely on others to tell you what is happening, and what has happened. This is a problem because while relying on others, people can lie and feed you the wrong information, and there is no way to confirm the truth. Another reason is that forgetting the past can lead to it repeating itself, as there are no measures in place to prevent them. When people forget the terrible actions of the past, people do not recognize the signs that indicate this repeating. This can lead to more consequences and more problems. For example, if people had not increased airline security after 9/11, this event could have easily happened again and again because people would not have learned or improved their measures against them.
STUDENT REFLECTION: In this cycle, I learned about manipulation and how easily it can happen once certain measures are put into place. With the lack of history and memory, people are forced to believe everything the party says. This leads to it being very easy for the government to do whatever they want to do, as the people are reliant on them and can not escape this cycle of manipulation. This made me realize how important it is to make sure your freedoms are never taken away, as once some of them are gone, it will only be easier to take more of them away.
Working from home has been an interesting and overall positive experience. I like being able to work at my own pace and on my own schedule, as it allows me to plan my day the way I want, rather than a generic way that “works” for all students. The downsides are, however, that it is easy to forget something or oversleep and miss an important deadline. However, still ensuring that I have alarms and waking up at 8 is useful because I still have an early start to the day, albeit I don’t have to wake up at 5:30 am anymore. I miss not being able to see my friends in person, but I am still able to communicate with them and hopefully, soon everything will be over.
No comments:
Post a Comment