Aim: How are the readers of 1984 warned about the power of manipulation?
Do Now:
Winston thinks, “They could not alter your feelings; for that matter, you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to.” Think about and discuss the nature of feelings and emotions.
- Can you alter your own feelings by force of will? Why/Why Not?
Yes, you can alter your own feeling by force of will by doing actions that are associated with another emotion. Listening to music is one way of doing so especially if it is a song that you can’t help but sing along to, therefore help evoke a happy emotion. Although there are times where this may not work, it still goes to say that there are ways of making you feel differently when you want to.
- Can someone else alter another person’s innermost feelings?
Yes, because we as human beings rely heavily on socialization which means that we need people around us. The people around us can easily influence our emotions as well as us to them. Friends and family and even strangers can change how we feel about certain situations and what to choose in decisions.
Classwork
We had a group discussion on how the book uses its characters to warn the readers about manipulation. Using characteristics of both Julia and Winston, we discovered that while they are both against the Party, they have differing views on how to rebel. Next we had an activity to try to remember what we did last Friday morning and found that some people had a hard time remembering. This activity was used to show how bad and unreliable our memory is since nothing had significantly impacted our life that day so we don’t tend to remember as easily.
Write about what you learned in your online English lessons.
What I learned during this online English lesson is that we cannot rely on our memories but when we start to forget, our memories can be easily manipulated. Just like in Animal Farm, where the pigs convince the rest of the animals that Snowball was a traitor to Animal Farm by working with Jones during the Battle of the Cowshed, the Party in 1984 uses the people’s bad memories to brainwash them and keep them weak so they don’t fight back.
What is it like working from home?
Working from home is both hard and easy. It is more comfortable to work at home but that also makes it easier to forget assignments and to procrastinate more often. While having my pets with me is great, it is also very distracting.
Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now.
Everything that is happening right now is very overwhelming, with the riots and the virus and people pushing others to donate or go to protests. It feels like the world is suffocating and we never have any time to breathe and relax. People are angry and fearful which is shown through these protests. People banning together because of a man’s murder at the hands of the police is great but also people are using this as an excuse to destroy other people’s lives by burning down buildings and workplaces.
Reflection
This lesson showed that our memories aren’t the best but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t complicit and let the government or others manipulate us so easily. The world right now is so filled with misinformation and facts that are used to manipulate people to a side but the world isn’t so black and white so there never are two sides to an issue like we are led to believe. Winston realises this as it is impossible to truly remember everything in your life. And so in forgetting the past, your emotions and memories are susceptible to manipulation and you can’t really see it coming until it’s too late.
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