Propaganda WWII

1. The overt message is to eat less bread.
2. The covert message is that if you want to be a patriotic American, then you will do you your part and make the sacrifice to eat less bread to support the troops fighting in World War II.
3. This is propaganda because the two messages differ greatly. This makes the viewer not realize that their point of view on tthis subject was actually given to them by the overt message of the ad.

"Clampdown" by The Clash

1. I think that this song is about trying to defy authority. They allude to different types of authority, like the Nazis, in this song. At one point it says, "Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?" This strongly implies that the song is talking about the Nazis. Later, they also mention training blue-eyed boys, which is what the Nazis believed everyone should look like.
2. I think that this song is suppose to sound ironic, because the tempo is upbeat and it is in a major key, which creates a light and cheerful tone, which greatly contrast to the quite grim topic.
3. This song is propaganda because it puts the authority in a negative light, making you not want to trust it or be a part of it.

Rhetoric, Persuasion, and Propaganda

The quotes that I chose were numbers 521, 534, 574, and 580. The quote that I chose to analyze was number 574. "The first step in liquidating a people... is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will forget what it is and what it was." I agree with this quote wholeheartedly. To me, it seems to almost be summarizing George Orwell's 1984 in a few sentences. In the book, Orwell demonstrated quite clearly how well the people of a country can fall under the government's control when they are fed lies about their history and how their culture is suppose to be. There was no outright persuasion in the book, but the citizens were fed quite a lot of propaganda, such as the posters that read "Big brother is watching you." This scared the citizens into behaving, thinking that they would be punished if someone was always watching them. If they had known their history, then they would know that that was not how a reasonable life was suppose to be and they would do something about it, but they didn't.

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.