Yes, I believe that Blake had the power to enact social change. His use of vivid imagery was very persuasive in displaying this little boy's emotion in these hard times. Blake didn't have to explain that the boy was working hours a day at very low wages to express the boy's discomfort. He let the boy create a picture in the readers mind of what that time was like and the struggles of a lower class family at that time. Coming from the upper class though, did Blake really have an idea of what life was like? Or did he use cliches to express the boy's sadness and his alleged "anger" at his parents. I like Blake's use of religion in his poems to express the boys anger towards his parents. He says that his parents are at church praying to a God who has dealt them this hand or that is how I take it atleast. Also that his parents have done nothing for him and yet he has to work day in and day out to make a living for them and put food on the table. This is effective because now as a reader we begin to feel the little boys pain and this society that he has to live in that he has to work at this young age for his parents to still struggle. And this is the imagery that Blake uses to his advantage to hopefully enact some sort of social change.

This week in class we got together in small teacher groups which I really enjoyed because I like when we take the hands on approach to english. I would of enjoyed this project better if we had gotten together as a class first and really analyzed what Swift was trying to portray in this story about society in the eighteenth century, but gaining other people in the groups opinions was very good and helped me further understand the story. Some positives about the teacher groups is you get more than one view point on how other people understood the story and the questions they had and how they comprehended what swift was trying to portray. The negative was that when we had gotten into bigger groups, people had gotten off task and were not paying attention and fooling around which in turn made me less motivated and I didnt learn more about Gulliver. I think it would have been better if we could have presented our findings and questions in front of the class so that they could have critiqued us and gave us there input on the story. Overall I thought this project was pretty good, I enjoy thinking outside the box and hear what other people think about the story and it opens up my mind also and gets me thinking more outside the box.

1984 prompt

Humility is not thinking you are above anyone, very modest and humble. In some cases though humility can be considered as “low” which Winston was in thinking of conspiring against Big Brother. Winston was alone, there wasn’t a person in that government who thought the way Winston thought, and he was alone in the world but believed that he wasn’t in his mind. Winston didn’t have the self discipline to live in that government like everyone else, he had to speak out and for that he would be punished. O’Brien states that he will now lose his sanity but in the next sentence he calls Winston a lunatic. I believe in those couple of lines O’Brien is using reverse psychology on Winston saying that clearly you are unstable because you are against Big Brother. But then contradicts himself by saying now you must come with me while we break you down psychologically so that you are mentally stable and believe in Big Brother and the totalitarian government. Then the breakdown begins because O’Brien says “When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same things as you.” I believe he is trying to make Winston seem like he was crazy in believing that people actually think about conspiring against Big Brother. Maybe his mind did persuade him in thinking that and he was wrong in this situation for believing people felt the same way as he had. Winston should of took notes from his friend Syme, he knew too much and failed to believe it. Winston’s mind ran wild with the thought of conspiracy and that the citizens of the government were all behind him and ready to go against the reign of Big Brother. Winston let his mind take over, in a way I don’t feel bad for Winston because he knew the consequences and he did not have the self-control to keep his thoughts to his self. Now Winston would become like a child and re-learn everything in the world all over again and learn to love and follow Big Brother. In a way I believe that O’Brien could read Winston’s mind. He used Winston’s fear of rats to turn him against Julia and in the end love Big Brother. In the end did Winston love Big Brother because of O’Brien’s interrogation had made him, or because that was his only option and he had finally gained some humility and knew that loving Big Brother was something that you had to do and deal with or else you would be vaporized and forgotten about.

1984

In George Orwell's 1984 there is a lot of stress on Winston and him worrying about committing a thought crime and becoming vaporized. I believe Winston was one of those men like Syme who did know too much eventhough he didnt think that he did and he thought that he was very discreet about his hate for Big Brother. In that sequence when Winston is talking to Syme at the lunch table, the whole time Winston is thinking to himself that this man will die because he will eventually become to smart and powerful and know everything there is to know about newspeak. I believe that Winston in a lot of ways was like Syme and the rest of the people who knew too much and committed thought crimes. Winston knew that Syme knew too much, because Winston was constantly thinking of ways to outsmart Big Brother and somehow conspire against the Government. His hate for Big Brother was later found out by O'Brien which eventually did him in. Winston I believe thought he was smarter than he really was and that led to Julia his "lover" being caught also. Now Julia in my opinion was the more secretive one and was smarter than she led on. We seen her as a woman who only wanted to defy the sexual rules and seemed almost ignorant to everything that was going on around her. She would of never been caught if she hadn't come in contact with Winston. There relationship seemed forced and Winston at times despised Julia and everything she stood for even said he would sacrifice her to the rats. But in the passages before he professes his love to her. There relationship was more sexual than anything and Winston loved her because she was the only one that showed interest in him and was the only person that he really had in his life. It is no wonder that he loved her and hated her at the same time because she is the only one that he showed emotion too. In the end Winston says that he loved Big Brother and gave up all that Julia taught him too believe. Big Brother is bigger than any thing in this book and Winston was no match to take down this dictatorship, the government left the people no choice but to love Big Brother or they would eventually find out and be killed like Winston.