Blog 2
Tyler Wong
6/22/2020
Lesson:
Aim: How do the historical allusions and connections in 1984 contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole?
In the lesson today, we discussed allusions and how they tied into the book that we were currently reading. Allusions are expressions designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference. The book 1984, contains many historical allusions and each of the allusions contributes to the overall meaning and the overall significance of the book. Allusions usually show in pop culture and art, but can also be connected to historical events like in 1984.
Do Now: Why do new and different ideas often provoke fear? Is Julia good for Winston?
Our class began discussion by saying that new ideas provoke fear because change is not always accepted. People see change as threatening their original ideas, traditions, and their foundation of what they think of life. Our class said that people were afraid of change because no one knows what would happen later. In the allusion powerpoint in class, we discussed different allusions in the current culture such as in family guy, the simpsons, as well as other famous works of art. We talked about four types of allusions; biblical, which refers to religious works, classical, referring to classical literature, literary, referring to any literary work, and historical, referring to an event in history. The first example we looked at was a Family Guy episode showing the Griffin children singing a song to their parents and Mr. Weed before they go to bed. The video showed us how using experiences with pop culture, music, and art can help us understand allusions in everyday life and in other works of literature to understand themes.
Group Work:
After discussing what allusions were and that they could be everywhere, we started to connect historical allusions to elements of 1984. We looked at the social class system of Ingsoc; Proles, Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein, the Telescreens, Junior Spies, and Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford, and they’re allusions to historical figures and events. We said that the proles were an obvious allusion to the working class of society, both the proles and the working class are not treated as well as any other class and are forgotten to an extent. The Outer Party is like the Middle Class of the society, and were spied upon the most. They work the parties, administrative jobs and were not given any luxuries. They weren't allowed to have any vices besides victory gin and victory cigarettes. The highest social class in Oceania was the Inner Party, these members of society were considered elite, they were high ranking officials that governed Oceania. Big brother is a historical allusion to Hitler/Stalin. Referencing Big Brother, like Hitler and Stalin, was the face of Ingsoc, and its citizens were told that he was the leader.
After discussing what allusions were and that they could be everywhere, we started to connect historical allusions to elements of 1984. We looked at the social class system of Ingsoc; Proles, Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein, the Telescreens, Junior Spies, and Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford, and they’re allusions to historical figures and events. We said that the proles were an obvious allusion to the working class of society, both the proles and the working class are not treated as well as any other class and are forgotten to an extent. The Outer Party is like the Middle Class of the society, and were spied upon the most. They work the parties, administrative jobs and were not given any luxuries. They weren't allowed to have any vices besides victory gin and victory cigarettes. The highest social class in Oceania was the Inner Party, these members of society were considered elite, they were high ranking officials that governed Oceania. Big brother is a historical allusion to Hitler/Stalin. Referencing Big Brother, like Hitler and Stalin, was the face of Ingsoc, and its citizens were told that he was the leader.
Takeaways: The lessons are that allusions are very important literary devices, it can help establish the theme, and it helps you relate to the text. It also can help the reader understand the book better and connect with the ideas in the text more easily.
Student Reflection
I have learned through this lesson that allusions are very important in books and in real life signaling something from the past and that allusions help people understand things in real life examples that may or may not have been good to society ensuring that the real life examples would never happen again, like Big Brother and World War 2.
- What are updates around the world regarding the virus?
The government is continuing to implement policies to restrict immigration, stopping the flow of foreign workers making the rules put in place as “emergency” restrictions for the coronavirus permanent
- What is it like working from home?
Since the last time I needed to blog, nothing has changed from working at home seeing that the circumstances are the same however, the marking period is coming to an end which forces me to think about my future and plans for the summer.
- Your personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening at the moment.
At the moment, the Black Lives Matter movement has come back in the recent killing of George Floyd and although COVID-19 is still going on, people are still lining the streets to protest. In my opinion, I believe that the Black Lives Matter movement is really important even so that protestors should protest through COVID-19 seeing that police brutality and racism is not a new thing and even in 2020 almost 60 years after MLK, people still see color and not who people truly are.
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