Brave New World Part III

Why does John choose to kill himself instead of trying to change the ways of the World State?

Is the World State actually based on science, or the happiness of the citizens?

How do 1984 and Brave New World develop into dystopias in a similar way?

Brave New World Part 1

How have they created equality or conformity? How have they reduced conflict, specifically in regards to religion, relationships, and individual rights? How have they created or forced happiness/conformity? Make a claim about this society as either a utopia or a dystopia based the rest of your blog entry.


In "Brave New World" the society has created equality in several different ways. One of those ways is by the Bokanovsky Process. This process includes shocking an egg so that it produces ninety-six identical human beings. This way, they can have more people doing the same exact job at identical machines. They have reduced conflict by placing each fetus in a certain caste. Once they are in this caste, they are practically brainwashed to believe that their caste is the only one that they would want to live in. They are given reasons as to why they would want to be in their caste so that they aren't jealous of any other caste. This society appears to be a utopia on the surface because it appears that their systems of living are working perfectly fine and the citizens seem to be under control. However, it has the potential to become a dystopia based on the fact that they have complete control over everybody, which could eventually be the cause for rebellions to occur.

1984 Journal Part 3

Has Big Brother won? Why/Why not? Propose a way that the One State can be brought down. What do you think happens to Winston Smith at the end of the novel? Support your answer with analysis of specific quotes from the text.

• I think that Big Brother has succeeded in overcoming Winston's rebellion against the Party because Winston no longer feels the urge to think rebellious thoughts or try to deceive the Party. At the end, Winston finally realized that "he loved Big Brother." This was the goal that O'Brien said they were trying to reach. They would make Winston love Big Brother, but they would kill him anyway.
• The One State can be brought down by people refusing to believe the Party. Everyone in this society acts so dependent on Big Brother and they all act as if they cannot think for themselves, which they don't. If people bagan to be more independent, then they would realize how horrible they are being treated by the Party and they would start to take action.
• At the end of the novel, I think that Winston had been released from his torturing in the Ministry of Love for learning how to control his rebellious thoughts. He had been allowed to continue his life normally because he could be trusted enough. However, he wasn't going to be ignored completely. It was inevitable that he was going to be killed. O'Brien had told him that "We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them." Their goal was to make Winston see how he was wrong, but they would still have to terminate him regardless, because he had once intended to overthrow the Party. They decided to kill him at the end of the novel because he had finally realized that he loved Big Brother.

Woodie Guthrie- "This Land is Your Land"

His message seems collectivist in the beginning because he is talking about everyone sharing the land which is an ideal of a collectivist culture. However, his main message is individualist because in the second to last verse, he says "Is this land made for you and me?" He is questioning whether our country is truly collectivist or not.
This song is anti-government because he is talking about the fact that "nobody living can ever stop me" which is what government is there to do. Control people.

The Egg

1. The author's father was modest and content with what he had before he was married. "He had at that time no notion of trying to rise in the world" (Anderson 1). After marriage, he became ambitious. It was said that "The American passion for getting up in the world took possession of them" (Anderson 1). This was caused by his late nights in the restaurant spent thinking. He came up with an idea that he thought would benefit their business.
2. The author feels that chickens and eggs bring about hard for his family. In this story, the eggs represent a hampering of success for the family.
3. The father's collection of grotesques symbolize his underlying insanity. He keeps them with him all the time. At the end, he has them on display for Joe Kane, which reveals his insanity because he is going crazy trying to impress this man.
4. "The complete and final triumph of the egg" means that the hard times that the egg brings has finally succeeded in driving the father to insanity and taking away their opportunities.

1984 Journal Part Two

Winston Smith is torn between his personal guilt over commitment to his job and his traditional trust/belief in the One State, and his overwhelming curiosity which is fueled by other relationships and a yearning for something more/better. In your opinion, why is Winston having a difficult time buying in to what Big Brother and the State are selling? Are his small acts of defiance (questioning) a form of protest? Why/Why not? Compare/contrast Winston's small rebellion to a more current act of rebellion within the United States (think Tea Party Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Anti-War Protests) in all facets - what they are fighting for, who they are rebelling against, the way their protests seen by the government, the way their protests are seen by the masses. Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to examine how Orwellian we have become.

I think that Winston is having a difficult time buying into what Big Brother and the State are selling because he is able to see past the lies that they are feeding the citizens of Oceania. He also remembers the time before the Revolution when the Party hadn't come into existence yet. This allows him to see that the Party has been changing history and this makes him think that everything is a lie and is not logical. His small acts of defiance, like writing in the journal, are a form of protest. The Party would not approve of these actions because they like their citizens to be ignorant and to not feel and express their emotions. This makes these acts protests if the Party does not approve of them. These acts, may be small, but they are still protests. They are not quite on the same scale as most protests we see now, like Occupy Wall Street, where people are making large demonstrations of their anger towards Wall Street. Winston's protest are much more modest, but all the more dangerous. He is committing acts that intend to bring down the Party and Big Brother, which is much more than the protesters of Occupy Wall Street intend to do.

Aristotle

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-Aristotle

I think this quote is saying that an educated person is able to understand a certain point of view without agreeing with it. I agree with this thought because some people are able to see why other people think the way they do, but also be able to still disagree with it. However, most people who oppose an idea fail to understand why others might agree with it.

Individualist vs. Collectivist

 1) In a collectivist culture, what personality traits are likely to be considered ideal? What about an individualist culture? 2) In what type of culture might elders or people who have professional distinction receive more respect and less challenge from people lower on their culture's/group's hierarchy? Explain your answer. 3) Create a specific problem a teacher may encounter when he/she moves from teaching in a collectivist culture to an individualist culture or vice verse. Explain the specific values/influences/obligations/desires caused by the clash. Propose a way for the conflict to be resolved. 4) What is an acquaintance? Does the word have a positive or negative connotation? Explain.
1. Individualist: independent, self-reliant, responsible
    Collectivist: modest, benevolent, loyal
2.I think that an individualistic culture values status more. The individual person is more important than in a collectivist culture, so it would be valued more for a person to want to become more important and successful than others in their society. In a collsectivist culture, people value working together and being similar to everyone else. In a society like this, there wouldn't be much diversity in status if everyone is striving to be similar to one another.
3. A teacher may encounter opposition to group work and more fighting because the students wouldn't know how to interact with each other as well as students from a collectivist society. The teacher would have to slowly ease the students into group work to avoid the disagreements that could occur.
4. An acquaintance is a person with whom you interact commonly, but are not particularly close to. I think the word has a neutral connotation because it doesn't necessarily have a positive connotation, like the word "friend" does. It also doesn't imply anything negative.

Radiohead "2+2=5"

-What is this song talking about lyrically?
-How does the music mirror or help push the message?
-The title is an allusion to *1984*; explain the connection.

The song is talking about how what the singer is saying is the absolute right answer and there is no other answer. However, he starts to change his mind at the end. The music supports this because it is very spastic. The tempo is fairly fast, which makes it sound like the singer is very passionate about what he is saying. The title alludes to 1984 because it is like how the citizens believe everything that "The Party" says, even if they told them that two plus two equals five.

Globalization and Conflict

Identify the conflict. Is this an internal or external conflict? How/Why does globalization create conflict? In the speaker's opinion, globalization has flown in only one direction what does she mean by this? Although the speaker feels globalization has been one-sided, she notes there has been one benefit related to the process. What benefit does she mention? The speaker says Muslims and westerners live by/are obligated to two different sources of truth. What two sources (two texts) does she mention?

The conflict is that people in western society are very critical of the Muslim tradition and that they do not accept the traditions of Islamic women. This would be an external conflict.
Globalization causes conflict because western society is not accepting of other traditions or cultures. When she says that globalization has flown in one direction, she is saying that the Muslims generally accept our culture, but that we are not accepting of theirs.
The benefit that she mentions is that in the media, there are strong female role models to look up to.
The two sources that she mentions are the Quran and the Constitution.

1984 Part One Reading Journal

The first 1984 reading journal should deal with the structure of the society by specifically addressing the last slide of the power point (what utopias have in common). It should thoroughly (in multiple sentences and with evidence from the text) address the following: how have they created equality or conformity? How have they reduced conflict, specifically in regards to religion, relationships, and individual rights? How have they created or forced happiness/conformity? Make a claim about this society as either a utopia or a dystopia based the rest of your blog entry.

In 1984 the government believes that they have created a utopia, when there is really a dystopia lying right beneath the surface. They created equality by providing all of the citizens with the same rights, products, and anything else that could possibly be different. They reduce conflict by taking away all of the citizens' ideals on religion and anything else that could cause any type of conflict. "The Party" tells the people in the "utopia" that they are happy, and so they believe it. They have bee living there so long that they just believe what they say by now.

Utopias

What is a utopia? What is your ideal world? Explain. What type of music would be the soundtrack for your Utopia?
A utopia is a world where everything is calm and paceful and controled. My ideal world is where there is no confrontation and people do not have to have a great amount of interaction with other people to be successful. This would be appealing to me because people wouldn't have to rely on others to accomplish anything. The music in my utopia would Celtic music. I would have this as my soundtrack because people don't commonly listen to this type of music today, so I would like to hear it all the time if I had my own utopia.

Chuck Baird

Make a claim about the author's voice. Support with facts.
-Identify a culture within these paintings.
-Write a claim you could make about this culture based on the paintings.

The author's voice is expressed through the elements of art that he uses. He uses a variety of different colors, which makes him seem cheerful and expressive. His culture probably includes expressing one's self. His culture is boundless and expressive. The wide range of color show that he uses color to express himself.

"You Were Right"

make an inference (claim) about the lyrical content of this song and support it, write one analytical statement about a musical part of the song and explain it, and make an evaluative statement about the overall effectiveness of this song and explain it.

The lyrics symbolize that life is mundane until the end. One line of the song is, "All that glitters isn't gold." It is taking usually upbeat sayings, and turning them around so that the message comes across as life being dull and pointless.

The tempo of the song shows how dull life is. When the verses are sung the tempo slows down so that when the words are sung, they sound like they are just being dragged along. This helps the main point that life is dull and should not be taken too seriously and one should not be an optimist.

The lyrics along with the musical choices effectively created a sense of hopelessness. At times, the tempo of the song sped up, while the lyrices remained dreary and pessimistic. These two elements work together to create a sense of irony, which was interesting to listen to. Overall, the song was pleasing to listen to and had an interesting message.

Reading Critically

In this passage, the author dexcribes a certain way to read that will benefit the reader's understanding of the text. To read critically, the first step is to find a quiet place to read without any distractions like TV or music. Before you start reading a piece of writing you can take in the information that is given to you already, like the title, which can reveal the author's tone, purpose, subject, method, or thesis. It is also a good idea to try and think of all the information that you know about the author because this will help you guess something about the writing before you even start reading. Looking at where a work is found can tell you who the piece's audience is as well. Knowing when the piece was written can also give you some insight to understanding it. Once you start reading, if you come across a word that you don't know, you shouldn't stress about it. Try to figure out what it means from its context. Also, if you read with a pencil, you can circle the words you don't know, as well as marking up the writing with your thoughts or questions about the text. After reading a work, you should summarize it to be sure that you understand it. Critical thinking includes operations such as analysis, inference, synthesis, and evaluation. It will also help you to ask questions about the work like, "What is the writer's purpose?" These questions will help you better understand a work of literature.

"Young Life" by Bo Bartlett

Claim: The older man and woman are dating. Fact: The woman is hugging the man.
Claim: The painting is trying to show the recklessness of young people. Fact: The man is holding a rifle and the boy is holding the stick in a defensive pose.
Claim: The man wants to show off. Fact: He has the deer displayed on top of the truck instead of in the truck bed.

In the painting, "Young Life," by Bo Bartlett, the older man has a strong sense of pride and wants to flaunt his achievements. He has the deer on display on the top of truck insteads of in the bed of the truck. Most people would have a first instinct to put the deer in the bed of the truck so that the deer would not fall off. Having the deer on the roof of the truck would allow everyone who passes the truck to see and appreciate the hunted deer, thus gaining the man glory.

"Eleanor Rigby" : Beatles vs. Dubstep

I prefer the classic version over the Dubstep version of "Eleanor Rigby" because I don't like it when songs are made to sound different from what they were originally intended to be. Also, in the original, you can hear more of the instrumentation, instead of hearing them in the background covered up by electronic, synthesized sounds. Although the Dubstep version was interesting to listen to, I still prefer the original.
I feel like more people would prefer the Beatles version just because it is The Beatles, but if it was just based on the sound of the song, more people would like the Dubstep version. This song would appeal to more people because it has a more pop-y, almost dance-like tone to it.

Kandinsky vs. Pollock

I prefer the Jackson Pollock painting over the Kandinsky painting because of the technique used to create it. By splattering the paint, he creates images that aren't realistic in any way and he can't control much of how the painting will end up looking except for the colors. It is much more spontaneous than the Kandinsky, which is obviously more planned out.
However, the Kandinsky is more pleasing to look at and would be more appealing to the majority of people. The bright colors attract many people and the curves and swirls make it look silly and exciting. This is easier for people to look at than the dark, mysterious Pollock painting.

"Sign Language"

The single effect from this short film is that there is so much opportunity under our noses that we don't go after.

•  Ben obviously wants to go talk to Anya working across the street, but he won't do it.
• The sign on the street flashed wait, which made it seem like it was telling Ben to wait and not say anything to Anya.
• At the end, however, his watch started beeping, telling him to go talk to Anya and not wait any longer.

If I could change one aspect of this short film, it would be the quick shots of all the other things going on around Ben. This wouldn't be a positive change, however, because it would take away some of the meaning of the single effect.

Shooting an Elephant

The subject of George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" is a man who struggles with his own morals and the peer pressure of the Burmese to shoot a rogue elephant. His struggles to make the right decision are illustrated because he has difficulty making the right decision because he knows that the elephant most likely won't hurt him but he thought he would look like a fool to the Burmese people if he just let the elephant be.

"Shooting an Elephant" was written in 1936, several years after the elephant-shooting incident had happened. The essay's time of creation is conveyed by the fact that the British had control over Burma at the time this essay was written. The probable place of the essay's creation is in Britain. Orwell would have had time to process the events that happened in Burma and come back home to write this essay about the horrible thing that he witnessed.

George Orwell's specific audience for "Shooting an Elephant" is the people who implement imperialism. The author's target audience is exhibited by his pointed display that imperialism is a detrimental system. He tries to make these people feel remorse for implementing this by showing the pain and suffering of the elephant.

George Orwell's purpose in "Shooting an Elephant" is to show that imperialism is a detrimental system. The pain that imperialism causes is illustrated by the elephant itself. The elephant is reckless and destructive, killing people and destroying villages. This shows that imperialism is not a reliable system and can cause harm to the people living in it.

George Orwell, after witnessing the death of this elephant, believes that it would be hard to take down imperialism, but it must be done because it is harmful to societies. This value is illustrated by the elephant's long, painful death. When the elephant is shot, it's strong facade fades and it starts to show all its weaknesses, like imperialism.

George Orwell articulates a feeling of remorse about the shooting of the elephant, but also a feeling that justice has been done. Even though the shooter was reluctant to kill the elephant, you feel as if it had to be done, because if the elephant stayed alive, it would have continued to hurt the village and the people living within it. This represents imperialism perfectly.

Harry Nilsson's "Good Old Desk"

Subject: God
Occasion: the speaker is relying on God
Audience: people who also put their faith in God
Purpose: to show that one's faith can be put in God because he is sturdy like a desk
Speaker: a person who loves and appreciates God
Tone: comforting, appreciative

This song is talking about the reliability of God by comparing Him to the sturdiness of an old desk. Knowing that this song is talking about God doesn't change my impression of it that much because I already thought of it as being comforting and talking about something reliable, which is what God means in my mind.

"It's waiting there for me to keep my hopes alive"
"It's always there it's the one thing I've got"
"It's dependable and slow"

Rockwell's "The Runaway"

In the 1950's, Rockwell made painting that held messages about the culture in America. This painting shows that the counter culture occurring in America wasn't taking over. The little boy in the scene is happily chatting with the police officer, which is the opposite of what counter culture was all about. Rockwell's "The Runaway" overlooks the fundamental rift that was rising in America throughout the 1950s - an emerging counter culture that was not concerned with how things were in America but rather how they are.

"Across the Universe" The Beatles

Three of the images from this song were:
"Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes"
"Pools of sorrow waves of joy"
"Words are flying out like endless rain into a paper cup"
The third image symbolizes the words that keep coming from an inspirational person. The rain symbolizes wisdom. One symbol in my life would be the symbol of the Deathly Hallows  that represents my love of Harry Potter. The three aspects of the symbol don't just represent the images from the story, but they also represent the different aspects of all of the Harry Potter culture. They represent the books/movies, the parodies, and the music made for Harry Potter.

"Inspiration Information" Shuggie Otis

This song gives the feel of being lazy and calm. It also just makes the listener feel joyous when listening to it. The artist made this song feel that way by putting the song in a major key, so that it wouldn't have a morbid sound. Also, the lyrics are simple and just talk about being happy.

SOAPSTone: "Semeadores" by Diego Rivera

Subject: Mexican laborersOccasion: Communism in Mexico
Audience: Higher-class Mexicans
Purpose: Shows higher class Mexicans the hardships that the farm laborers had to do
Speaker: Diego Rivera wanted to support the communist movement in Mexico
Tone: Calm, but frustrating at the same time
Diego Rivera wanted the audience to think about the fact that in communism, everyone is equal and has to share the duties equally. The laborers in the picture are not identified in any way and their faces are covered up. This shows that it could be anybody and everybody.

Wilco's "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"

Questions:
 Summarize Wilco's approach to creating a song. What is your creative process for writing? Explain in detail the step which you go through. If there is no process then why don't you use one.

Wilco's approach to writing a song is to break it down into it's different instruments and sounds, so that the meaning of the song is conveyed clearly. The first step in my creative process for writing is to write a thesis that summarizes the whole paper. Then, I usually outline the paragraphs to follow. After doing that, I go back and fill in all of the necessary components to comlete the paper. Most of the time, I write out of order, putting sentences into whichever paragraph they fit best and rearranging them until they all flow together.

"American Graffiti"

Nostalgia is a certain longing for the past that one feels that is usually triggered by a fimiliar sight, smell, taste, sound, etc. When I listen to "Rock Around the Clock" I picture teenagers from the fifties dancing and I also picture old-fashioned diners and jukeboxes. When I listen to "Sixteen Candles" I picture a family, also from the fifties, sitting together in their living room listening to this song on the radio. When I think of my childhood, the first image that pops into my head is being outside in the fall and walking to UK football games.

The Pinch of Poverty

Some of the contributing factors of poverty are a lack of education, injuries that prevent working, addiction, and being born into poverty.The artist portrays poverty as being miserable and lonely, but also as having hope. One element of art that enhances the message are the colors. The bright yellow flowers contrast to their dark, desolate clothing and surroundings. The flowers represent hope for the family, or at least the children, of getting out of poverty. They give the painting a sense of optimism. Another element is the space around them. They are separated from everyone else, showing that they are alone and no one wants to be around them because they are poor.

"Live Free and Starve" vs. "The Singer Solution to World Poverty"

In the two articles discussing the poverty in the world, many differing opinions were stated by the authors. Chitra Divakaruni seems to be more of a realistic person, while Peter Singer has more of an optimistic look about helping the poverty situation in the world. He believes that to end world poverty, it would be just as easy as everyone who has anything to spare donating a heap of money to organizations. He says that "the formula is simple: Whatever money you're spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away." Divakaruni doesn't believe that it would be this simple. She has had close experience with poverty, and seems to understand more about the impoverished than Singer does.

I would say that I definitely have a reader bias between these two articles. I am slightly more of a non-moral person, who doesn't have a strong, raging urge to help others, as terrible as that sounds. This made me automatically want to disagree with whatever Singer said, because he wanted desperately to help the impoverished, even if it was at a cost to us. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with helping those living in poverty, but I just feel that most of Singer's ideals were unrealistic and had not been thought through very well. His idea to just have every American donate all of their annual income that isn't spent on necessities can never evolve into anything more than a daydream. That is a lot to ask of us. Most of us can't give up every luxury in our lives. What we do with our money is our business, and he shouldn't be flat-out telling us not to "buy that new car, take that cruise, redecorate the house, or get that pricy new suit." Divakaruni, on the other hand, seemed to be just a wee bit more realistic. She points out that kids in other countries would probably rather be working in harsh conditions than to have leisure time, but no money for food, shelter, or clothes.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti "Round+Round"

My musical facts influenced my opinion a lot in this song. The facts that I listed about this song were:

1) The song used a synthesizer instead of real instruments.

2) The rhythm, tempo, and dynamics changed multiple times throughout the song.

The fact that this song was composed mainly of a synthesizer instead of real instruments contributed to my opinion of this song. It made the song more enjoyable for me because I tend to like music that has more of a techno/electronic feel to it. The second fact seemed to contribute less to my opinion of the song. I am indifferent to any changing of the rhythm, tempo, and dynamics most of the time. My opinion wasn't based solely on those facts however. It went a lot deeper than that. It depended a lot on the mood of the piece, which to me, had a rather creepy feel. This is what put me off of the song a little bit.