Holden's Point of View August 18, pages 36-52 RR3

The way that Salinger develops the characters is interesting because it is all from Holden’s point of view. When I new person comes up in the story, Holden usually explains what he doesn’t like about them first. It is hard to tell how Holden really feels about things because he will say one thing and then do the opposite. Even though he says that he is annoyed by Ackley, Holden invites him to go out with him and another one of his friends. Also, Holden seemed that he was annoyed when Stradlater asked him to write and English paper for him, then did it anyway. Jane Gallagher is a touchy subject for Holden. When he finds out that Stradlater is going out on a date with her he begins to get jealous. Holden and Jane were really only close friends, but he still got mad at Stradlater. He even said that Jane wasn’t all that attractive, and gave no reason that he was that interested in her. Holden mostly felt sorry for her and her situation with her stepfather. He seems to feel sorry for a lot of people.

Judgemental August 18, pages 19-35 RR2

Holden interacts with people in different ways. He judges people very quickly according to how they look or their actions. Robert Ackley is a good example of Holden’s behavior. Ackley lives in the room next to Holden’s. Holden only mentions all the bad things about Ackley, but he still talks to him. Also, Holden describes his roommate Stradlater as being very self absorbed. He says that Stradlater is good looking and he knows that he is good looking. Stradlater asks Holden to do him a favor and Holden says that guys like Stradlater are always asking people to do them favors, but does it for him anyway. Holden’s relationship with his family is hard to determine. The favor for Stradlater is a descriptive paper, which he writes about baseball mitt of his brother’s who passed away. He seems to be close to his family, but very independent.

Mr. Spencer August 18, pages 1-18 RR1

The Catcher in the Rye is told from the point of view of the main character, Holden Caulfield. I enjoy the writing style that Salinger uses in the novel. The book is written in the way that Holden would tell you the story. It gives the novel a more personal feeling and you automatically feel close to the main character. Holden seems like he could be social, but likes to keep to himself. Instead of going with the rest of the boys down to the football game, Holden stands up on a hill and watches from there. He is about to flunk out of another private school that his parents have sent him too and I cannot tell if he cares or not. Holden describes Pencey, his current school ,as a good academic school but is very shallow. Holden visit’s a history teacher and once Mr. Spencer asks Holden about the reasons he failed his classes Holden has a sudden urge to leave.

Holden Caulfield

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.deviantart.com/download/106886242/55ded1eac920c8a0d20e8d39299b8c7f.jpg&imgrefurl=http://westwolf270.deviantart.com/art/holden-caulfield-finished-106886242&usg=__tJoKxrMqCm6yMSjr2cz6BG8bCkI=&h=3296&w=2542&sz=1720&hl=en&start=0&sig2=8lJyNqIaEOJqwq1cO1R_RA&zoom=1&tbnid=lnAqeMe46MKScM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=106&ei=hcg4TbToNYKKlwfshbDjBg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dholden%2Bcaulfield%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1R2DMUS_en%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D599%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=682&vpy=82&dur=609&hovh=256&hovw=197&tx=122&ty=139&oei=hcg4TbToNYKKlwfshbDjBg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0

1984 August 9, FR

George Orwell created a perfect setting to fit into the plot of 1984. A hostile city of future London is constantly bombed and under absolute control of the Party. The mood of the broken down and destroyed city fits the war based mentality of the government. The main reason Winston begins to rebel is that he feels oppressed by all the rules and regulations of the Party. The author constructed the complex character of Winston, who any person reading this novel today would agree with. Although, in the world Winston lives, he is a minority. The change Winston’s character endures through the course of the story plays a major part in the plot. Starting out as a person who hates the Party, Winston is slowly becoming happy with the life he is trying to create for himself. In the end, Winston finds that it is impossible for him to rebel from the Party, and after “reintegration” loves Big Brother and everything that he does for the public. George Orwell uses symbols during the novel as a means of expressing how things changed in the characters and the plot as the story progressed. Symbols such as the glass paperweight and picture of St. Clemens church are representative of the past that Winston hoped was there and the time in which he wished he lived. In the room above the antique shop, the picture of St. Clemens hid the telescreen that monitored Winston and Julia’s illegal activity. When the Thought Police arrested Winston and Julia, the glass paperweight shattered making the small piece of coral on the inside vulnerable to the outside world.

1984 - David Bowie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scgDWLewgQk

1984 August 6, page 298 Q10

"He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

After being tortured at the Ministry of Love, Winston was let out to live in the public. His thoughts were different and he had finally betrayed Julia, but he could not get himself to love Big Brother. During the book Winston was content in hating Big Brother. He thought that if he ever was interrogated that he could still hate Big Brother and in the end and keep his freedom. Now, he wanted to love Big Brother and he succeeded.

1984 August 6, page 290 Q9

"'They can't get inside you,' she had said. But they could get inside you. 'What happens to you here is forever,' O'Brien had said. That was a true word. There were things, your own acts, from which you could never recover. Something was killed in your breast: burnt out, cauterized out."

Winston spent time in the Ministry of Love with O’Brien during his reintegration. Here, it was almost as if they erased his thoughts, then filled him with their own. The harsh things that happened to people in the Ministry of Love could never be forgotten. The government actually attained the power to change a person. Their personalities could be altered, and thoughts could be rewritten. The Party could bring in a problem person, and make them different.

2+2=5 lyrics http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/2-2-5-lyrics-radiohead/a427bc343fba831e48256d3400091dba

1984 August 6, page 281 Q8

"To die hating them, that was freedom."

Winston thought about being arrested and interrogated. If a person could get through the questioning, beating, and mind control and in the end still hated the Party, he had won. It was not enough for the Party that the people obeyed their rules and believed what they said. The government needed its people to love it, and worship everything that it did. If it was found that a person did not like the Party they would be punished and punished by the Thought Police.

1984 August 6, page 166 Q7

"Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you—that would be the real betrayal."

Winston says this Julia while talking about being taken by the Thought Police. As long as they are able to love one another they will be rebelling against the Party. Once Winston is caught and confesses to his crimes he tells O’Brien that he has not yet betrayed Julia and O’Brien understands what he means. In Room 101 Winston finally betrays Julia and wishes his position on her. He is let go and when they see each other again he finds that she did the same for him, and both of them meant it.

1984 August 6, page 153 Q6

The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, "just to keep people frightened."

An assumption is made by Julia that the Party is the one dropping the bombs on London every day. If this is the case, it means that the government has vital control over the public, it can control their fear. The Party already regulates and watches over its people, but by maintaining their fear the Party can keep the loyalty of the public. During the novel the government manages the thoughts of the people, and if they are the ones dropping the bombs it would prove everything they do is a lie.

1984 August 6, page 50 Q5

"'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"

This quote is a slogan of the Party and says a lot about the Ministry of Truth. The power that controls the way people learn about history in the past changes the way they think, and in turn controls the future. Also, the power that controls the present can change history and control the past. In this situation the power is the Party who is controlling the way its people learn. The Ministry of Truth constantly changes the history of the past and the present, so they control both the past and the future.

1984 August 6, page 218 Q4

“Sanity is not statistical.”

Winston says this after reading part of Golstein’s book. His meaning is just because the majority believes something as true, it is not necessarily correct. Reading the book gave Winston the feeling that he was not mad in thinking what he was about the Party. The Party could control what most of the public accepted as true, but that does not mean they could change what is right and was it not. In fact, the majority of the public could be insane and only a fraction of the people could be sensible.

1984 August 5, page 77 Q3

“Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me: There lie they, and lie here we, Under the spreading chestnut tree.”

This quote is a song played in the Chestnut Tree Café. Winston first hears it when he is there and sees Rutherford, Aaronson, and Jones there. The three men were convicted of thought crime and had been gone for some time. After the song the men burst into tears. Winston next hears this song after he had been convicted of thought crime and is in the Chestnut Tree Café, he also cries. The song applies to Winston and Julia because they each sold each other out in the end of their interrogation. The same thing must have happened to Rutherford, Aaronson, and Jones.

Winston is Fixed August 5, pages 279-298 RR11

The Ministry of Love’s room 101 is the room where people are taken for their finally interrogation. In Winston’s case he completes his final step of his transformation here by wishing his position on Julia. They then let him go back into the public. This Winston was completely different than before he went to the Ministry of Love. He became one of the brain washed, normal members of society. Orwell shows the Party’s power in the change in Winston’s personality. It is astonishing that at the start of the novel I shared Winston’s thoughts against the Party, and they had the capability of changing him into a different person. Winston met Julia again, and they found they no longer had feelings for each other. In the end, Winston was able to love Big Brother. I find it funny that Winston became one of the people he hated at the start of the novel.

Room 101 http://metaphilm.com/images/philms/1984-room101.jpg

Reintegration August 5, pages 254-279 RR10

O’Brien has sessions with Winston to try to fix him and train him to think in the ways of the Party. He explains things to Winston in a way that makes me question the way I perceived the actions of the Party. He tells Winston the Party’s government works better than those of the past, because it is fully aware that it is only functioning for the good of itself. Winston argues with him about how there is no way that the Party controls reality. O’Brien explains that reality exists inside a person’s mind, and since the Party controls the mind, they then control reality. After he begins to take to O’Brien’s “reintegration” he begins to look much healthier. One thing that surprised me was that Winston would sit in his cell and make up statements of the Party, and teach himself to believe them without analyzing. It seems to me that he is working to make his mind simpler and dumb down his thoughts.

O'Brien and Winston http://www.thepeoplescube.com/images/OBrien_1984_400.jpg

In Prison August 5, pages 229-254 RR9

Julia and Winston are separated and Winston gains consciousness in a cell with no windows, making it impossible to tell the time of day. This section of the book almost seems like a dream to me. While in a cell with other people Winston talks to a woman who he believes may be his mother. Then he begins to encounter people he knows. Ampleforth and Parsons are each put in the same cell as Winston at different times. At one point, the cell door opens and O’Brien is standing there. Orwell throws another twist into the story here and adds more to the character of O’Brien. Winston finds out that O’Brien actually works for the government and is not a member of the Brotherhood. Winston is taken to his own cell and frequently beaten and questioned for an undeterminable number of days. It is ironic that Winston wrote his diary to O’Brien, and would become questioned by O’Brien for his Thoughtcrimes.

Getting Caught August 5, pages 204-229 RR8

Winston and Julia are spoken to from a hidden telescreen in the rented room. Men in uniforms soon come to arrest them both. A series of events occurred which I found fascinating, affecting important symbols. First, the one place they thought was safe, the room above Mr. Charrington’s, ended up being the place where they were found out. The red-armed prole woman was again singing outside when the uniformed men arrived, then became silent and let out a yell of pain. This woman and her singing represented the life Winston had always wanted, and now she was silenced. One of the men picked up the glass paperweight Winston had purchased at the shop and smashed it. The paperweight was a symbol of the past and now it was ruined, shattered on the floor. Most surprising of all was that when all the men had come in Mr. Charrington followed. The man who provided him with the diary, paperweight, and the room was a member of the Thought Police.

Telescreen http://www.moonbattery.com/telescreen.jpg

Steps Toward Rebellion August 5, pages 179-204 RR7

Winston receives The Theory and Practice of Oligarchial Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein from O’Brien in this section of the book. He reads it while in the rented room above Mr. Charrington’s. This segment consists mostly of Winston reading, and began to lose my interest. Goldstein’s book addressed the Party slogan of “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH,” “WAR IS PEACE,” and “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.” The author used different historical events to back up Goldstein’s points, but many of them were points which Winston already considered earlier in the novel. The Theory and Practice of Oligarchial Collectivism mostly confirmed Winston’s previous assumptions. It presented some new information, but for the most part elucidates what Winston believed and the author informed us of before. Although this section did not keep me completely interested, it did strike me as a major event in the book. Orwell created this book that confirms everything Winston doubted about the Party and Big Brother.

O'Brien August 2, pages 154-179 RR6

I found the character development of O’Brien to be appealing. The author first introduces O’Brien during the Two Minutes Hate. Winston sees a look in O’Brien’s eyes that makes him believe that O’Brien is also against Big Brother and the Party. When Winston is writing in his diary he sometimes feels that he is writing to O’Brien who shares his thoughts. In this section of the book Winston finally comes into contact with O’Brien and finds that he is a member of the Brotherhood. I found the similarities and differences between the character development of O’Brien and Julia entertaining. Orwell presents the two characters at the same time, during the Two Minutes Hate. At this time Winston evaluates them both and comes up with a notion of each of their personalities. Upon interacting with each of them for the first time he finds two different outcomes. Julia turns out to be completely different from what Winston first decided she was, and O’Brien is actually spot on what Winston identified him to be.

1984 August 2, page 81 Q2

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”

Winston writes this in his diary after looking at a children’s history book. He believes at some point the Party would announce that two and two do make five, and everyone would believe it. The party can control what its entire people think to be true. If the party ever did declare that two and two are five and Winston believed that two and two are four it would be an act of mental freedom. Then, if Winston’s thought was allowed to be true that would be like saying that all other things the party has declared may not be true. This would open the door for people to think what they accept as true instead of living in the universe created by the Party.

Two Plus Two Equals Five Poster
http://www.twoplustwoequalsfour.org/post/558177647

Normal Life of Oceania August 2, pages 129-154 RR5

The red armed prole woman caught my attention in this section of the novel. While in the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop Winston hears a woman singing outside. She is hanging up clothes on her line and singing a song. Winston pays great attention to this woman and how she seems to be careless doing her motherly tasks. The author uses this red armed woman to show the carefree world that the proles exist in. Winston notes that it would be odd to see a member of the Party behaving in such a manor. The prole woman lives a life that we would find to be ordinary, but to Winston and the majority of Oceania perceive her actions as abnormal. Her natural urge to sing appears to be emblematic of a lack of self control to Winston. At this point in the book I made the connection that the red armed woman is slightly analogous to the imaginary life Winston and Julia are living in the room above Mr. Charrington’s.

Julia August 2, pages 97-129 RR4

The character development of Julia has been very interesting to me throughout the book. George Orwell constructs a nameless girl who Winston despises during the Two Minutes Hate earlier in the novel. Winston has thoughts of killing this girl because of what she stands for. She wears a Junior Anti-Sex League sash and seems to be the picture of ideal purity. The author creates a fascinating twist in the plot when Winston finds out that this girl is in love with him. The two meet and Winston learns that all his judgments of her were untrue. Her name is Julia, she is corrupt and impure, and Winston adores this about her. The two fall in love and begin meeting as frequently as possible without being found out. Orwell produces a symbol in the two making love. It is a form of rebellion and is thought of more as a political act than a demonstration of their feelings for one another.

Muse - Resistance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySD2D4rcZRg