Judaea, Kaila, Jasmine, Makeda -- use this space to begin your discussion of Divergent. You are responsible for reading the first 10 pages, asking a good Level 4 question, and answering it in CCEJ. You may also add on (new evidence) or disagree with another group member's post.
My Question :
ReplyDeleteWhat does the Thought Police symbolize in the narrators society? What does this tell us about his society and how is this similar to "Minority Report"?
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DeleteJASMINE'S answer to Kaila's question
DeleteIn my opinion, the thought police represent constant surveillance by the Government. In Oceania, it is Hate Week and the citizens are forced to sit in front of the telescreen (television) and listen to horrible sounds. The citizens must react a certain reaction to what they see on tv keeping in mind that the Thought Police are watching them. "Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull" (27). The thought police represent surveillance because they watch every movement and every thought. Nothing is secret.
Why Does Winston Not like mostly all women?
ReplyDeleteWinston does not like women because he feels that they are traders. He doesn't trust any of them, especially pretty ones. Winston feels that " women , and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthdoxy." He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. Winston doesn't believe that some women could be trusted.
Winston dislikes mostly all women because he believes they are spies working with the thought police. He feels that women, most likely the pretty ones, were the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy. George Orwell says " he (Winston) continued to feel a peculiar uneasiness, which had fear mixed up in it as well as hostility, whenever she was anywhere near him." Winston was paranoid at the thought of being reported to the thought police. His dislike for women comes from him believing most women were spies.
DeleteIn 1984 the society is a dystopian one because thought and free will is limited, or restricted. The Thought Police can tell the peoples’ thoughts at any given moment. The people can even be arrested for just thoughts. The main character, Winston, strongly opposes Big Brother, or the government, who basically watches your every move. During the book he recalls an incident when he was at work and believes a co-worker of his is a Thought Police. The text states “Once when they passed in the corridor she had given him a quick sidelong glance which seemed to pierce right into him and for a moment had filled him with black terror. The idea had even crossed his mind that she might be an agent of the Thought Police” (10 Orwell). Winston was scared because he constantly thinks “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”, and writes it in his diary. This could get him arrested, even though he doesn’t act anything out, limiting the free will of society. This society is similar to “Minority Report” because in the very first scene we watched a man be arrested for the “future murder” of his wife and her lover. The man didn’t commit a crime but because the pre-cogs envisioned it he was arrested just for planning the murder. There was no free will in this situation because that man could’ve been doing anything but killing the future victims, but no one would ever know because he was arrested before anything happened. The people in 1984 could be arrested with no questions asked as well even though they didn’t commit a crime yet.
ReplyDeleteJasmine Wills
ReplyDeleteMy Question: If Winston is aware that writing contemptuous phrases into his diary is punishable by death, why does he continue to write said phrases ?
Answer: Winston writes in his diary in hopes of keeping himself sane, and describing the political situation during the current time period. In Oceania, there are thought police that monitor all thoughts, 24/7, and if you are caught committing actions or thoughts that go against 'Big Brother' or 'The Party' , you will be put to death and the memory of you will be erased. "For the future,for the past, - for an age that might be imaginary. And in front of him there lay not death but annihilation.The diary would be reduced to ashes and himself to vapor.Only the Thought Police would read what he had written, before they wiped it out of existence and out of memory" (27). Winston continued to write in the diary even though it guaranteed his death because he wanted the future generation to know of the events of the current world.
Jasmine W:
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Kaila's question.
In my opinion, the thought police represent constant surveillance by the Government. In Oceania, it is Hate Week and the citizens are forced to sit in front of the telescreen (television) and listen to horrible sounds. The citizens must react a certain reaction to what they see on tv keeping in mind that the Thought Police are watching them. "Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull" (27). The thought police represent surveillance because they watch every movement and every thought. Nothing is secret.
What was the purpose of memory holes?
ReplyDeleteMemory holes were used for disposing of waste paper. Any item, don't matter what size, was tossed into the memory holes when it became trash. George Orwell said "When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building. In other words, memory holes were basically incinerators. The purpose of memory holes were for the people who worked in the office to get rid of anything that needed to be discarded.
Earlier in the text it is mentioned that Winston hates women. On pages 29-30 it explains that Winston lost his mother and baby sister between the ages of 9 and 11, almost 30 years ago, as he believes he is 39 going on 40 years old. This brings the assumption that Winston's hatred or resent from women might come from never really learning to accept the love of a woman or love one himself. In text it states, "His mother's memory tore at his heart because she had died loving him, when he was too young and selfish to love her in return, and because somehow, he did not remember how, she had sacrificed herself to a concept of loyalty that was so private and unalterable. Such things, he saw, could not happen today" (30). This hatred stems directly from never understanding how to love women or anyone at all since he lost the only people that had ever really loved him, at such a young age. He never learned how to receive or give love before or after his mother and sister's death.
ReplyDeleteWhy wasn't it easier to sneak around in the country of London?
ReplyDeleteLondon didn't have televisions (telescreens), but there were hidden microphones. Microphones were used to record conversations and be able to recognize who the voices were. George Orwell says " He and Julia had only spoken in low whispers, and it (microphone) would not pick up what they had said, but it would pick up the thrush." (124) Winston and Julia had been committing a crime being together, let alone having sex. Desire was a thoughtcrime, the party tried to kill the thought or act of sex.
What did Winston men when he said "We are all dead"?
ReplyDeleteWinston felt as though everyone in this time period, were better off dead and to think of themselves as dead. Winston assumed that Julia realized that in time she should be caught by the thought police will catch her & kill her. Winston said "She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war in the party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse."(136) Winston believed weather or not your human death and life are the same thing. Both,Winston &Julia feared the thought of being killed frightened them.
JASMINE:
ReplyDeleteWhy Does Winston Hate Women ?
Winston hates women because he can't sleep with them because sex is forbidden in the Party. Winston sees Julia wearing her anti sex sash and hates her. "He hated her because she was young, and pretty, and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her and never would do so..." Winston hated women because he couldn't have sex with them.