Blog #46 - Lucy Kwan - Period 3 - 06/01/2020

June 1st, 2020

Lucy Kwan

Sophomore English, Pd 3

Aim: How is the theme, “"the importance of having knowledge about the past in order to understand the future" exemplified/elucidated through Winston’s time in the Prole District?”

Do Now: 

1. What are some of the “lies/stories” parents tell their children?
1. We were given time to think about these questions on our own, then we discussed amongst the whole class. Individually, I thought of how parents often sugarcoat hard topics for children, like saying a parent went “to buy milk” when in reality, they would never come back. Some topics that were talked about in the whole-class discussion included the lie of carrots being good for eyesight and the existence of characters like Santa and the Tooth Fairy.
2. Why do you believe they tell these stories, rather than the truth?
1. Many of these lies are told to make children behave, as they incentivize good behavior in exchange for rewards. We also noticed how the stories of magical beings often can ignite a child’s imagination.
3. What might be a history “lie/story” a school has taught/told you?
1. Most notably, our history tends to favor the European colonists and glorify them, especially to little children. For example, children are taught that native Americans were friendly with the settlers, whereas the truth is that European colonists were often cruel to the native peoples.

The First Thanksgiving

We read about the lie that children are told regarding the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims are glorified in schools, but the truth is that rather than being friendly with the natives, they had caused a plague that wiped out a large percentage of the native tribes. Afterwards, when faced with cleanup, the Pilgrims would move to the next tribe and repeat the carnage, sometimes stealing supplies from weakened native settlements. In addition, Virginian settlers were cannibalizing the native people.

How is history manipulated in this story?

• In the version we are told in school, the Pilgrims are said to be friends with the natives, and until you learn otherwise, it’s easy to accept that as fact. However, it is only due to this manipulation of history that we have holidays like Thanksgiving, because without this glorification we would not have reason to celebrate such horrible acts.

Group Discussion

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.”

1. Analyze Winston’s statement above. How do you explain his example? What are your thoughts on the matter?
1. Winston’s statement is a prime example of the extent of manipulation the Party has already accumulated. Since we know that 2 + 2 = 4 is an undeniable truth, the fact that the Party is able to manipulate even the things we have been taught since the very beginning suggests that the dangerous influence these people have is able to challenge the underlying stability and structure of all knowledge in existence. When <2% of the population is able to control everything, the possibilities are truly terrifying.
2. What do you think the author’s intention or purpose is for the reader to have as a takeaway about the world you/we live in?
1. Orwell’s tale of warning is trying to get us to acknowledge the power that the government holds over us and question it to the fullest extent. In Orwell’s time, fascist dictatorships like those in Nazi Germany already had methods to disrupt the flow of information, and the Party only seems to be a more intense recreation of those dictatorships. By bringing out the ugliest parts of Oceania, Orwell may have intended to show the audience that this information controlling is not only ineffective, as proven by the constant drop in rations, but detrimental, as many people, including Winston, face the threat of execution. 

Group Work

Winston is clearly on a quest for the truth from the past. He states, “If there’s hope, it lies in the proles” (Winston, pg. 69).

1. Work together to assess if Winston is correct. Consider the different age groups.
1. The proles are the largest part of society, meaning their strength lies in their numbers. In addition, the Party is not as tight with the proles, both because of their numbers and their innate discrimination against them. Combined with the knowledge that the elderly may have retained, the proles do seem to be Winston’s greatest chance of finding what the Party has hidden without getting caught.
2. If he is/isn’t, explain how things would unfold for success or failure to occur. Consider the government’s role in all of this as well.
1. For Winston to succeed, he would have to be careful to find proles with a similar mindset to him. For example, rather than rallying the youth which may already have been brainwashed by the Party, Winston would need to find the older generation that knows the truth from before the Party took over. 
3. Are there specific actions or events that need to occur to guarantee success/failure? If so, what?
1. Although it doesn’t seem like any specific actions must occur, it would be beneficial if Winston were able to lower his presence within the Party. As a part of the Outer Party, Winston is monitored constantly, and due to his ability to think freely, the Party may consider him a threat, especially if he starts acting suspiciously out of character.

Whole Class Discussion

1. What do you make of Winston (unconsciously) finding himself back at the very junk shop where he bought the diary?
1. By unconsciously returning to the junk shop, Winston seems to have internally accepted his desire for rebellion, as he finds more solace in the place that sparked his rebellious fit. It could also represent that Winston is back to his roots, even after spending some time living life as a “normal” party member, suggesting that in the end, no matter what he does, Winston will always end up rebelling.
2. Why does he appear to be so drawn to the paperweight?
1. The paperweight seems to represent safety to Winston, as the fragile coral is enveloped in a protective barrier of glass. 
3. What are your opinions of the room, which has no telescreen?
1. The fact that the room has no telescreen further provides safety to Winston, as ironically, the safest place for him is this old junk shop, despite him being a functional member of the Party. It also suggests that the Party is not as all-seeing as it seems, and possibly foreshadows the demise of the party as a result of the disproportionately weak surveillance in places that could spark rebellion the most, like the junk shop.
4. Why do you suppose he decides he will continue to return to the shop, despite the risks? Foreshadowing?
1. By returning to the shop, Winston is acknowledging that in his heart, he has betrayed the Party. Winston desires to know the truth, but ironically, even as a worker in the Ministry of Truth, he realizes that he can only find that truth elsewhere, specifically in that junk shop. In the future, Winston may end up completely giving himself in to this risk, abandoning the values of the Party forever.

Summary

In this lesson, we learned about how the government can change history to alter our opinions and skew our perspectives. In 1984, Winston finds that the place with the real truth of the past is not with the Ministry of Truth under the Party, but rather with the proles, where the censorship may be less strict, and the older generation may have the answers Winston looks for. This is especially important as a warning from Orwell, to distrust what we are told is true by those in power, especially in light of modern circumstances. The truth that has always been hidden by those in power will be found in the most oppressed, which in Oceania may be the proles, but in our modern-day America is the minorities. Currently, with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, we can see what Orwell warned us about, as the media often glosses over the brutalities committed by the government in lieu of damages from protesters, which are often responses to provocation. Especially in the modern age of accessible cameras and communication, we are able to see for ourselves just what the truth really is. However, this does not apply to the people in Oceania, and to find out the truth behind what the Party is hiding, Winston must risk his own life to search every nook and cranny under the Party’s control, similar to reporters who risk their lives to document and broadcast the protests around our nation. Orwell’s description of the Party’s reach is a warning to us, telling us not to let ourselves fall prey to the same evil that has permeated through Oceania, lest we lose the truth of our history and selves. As we continue to read 1984, I will use this information to continue questioning those in power, to see for myself what exactly the truth is, and how manipulating said truth may benefit others.

Blog Content

1. What is it like working from home?
1. Working from home allows me to more effectively organize my thoughts without any impending time limits, but I would still prefer working in-class due to how inefficient the distance learning has become. Although we are in a global pandemic, the organization of our education system has been pretty abysmal, and I think it could’ve been done much better if we had a universal protocol, rather than just vaguely following a cycle schedule. I do not fault our educators, however, but rather the management above. As one of my family members also works in the DOE, I know that the upper management has barely said anything regarding situations like returning to work, and though we do know that we won’t be returning to school, the way that distance learning has been handled is extremely messy, and in my opinion we should have been optimizing the experience over time rather than keeping the same rushed protocol for weeks with no change.
2. What are you learning about your world/community based on the reactions?
1. The coronavirus pandemic has brought to light many issues that I was too young to understand in the past. The economic effect of this pandemic has disproportionately affected ethnic communities, which only raised tensions that have been brewing for centuries. On the surface, we are only facing a disease, but in reality, this disease has been the perfect environment to expose the failures of our economic and political systems, resulting in outspoken outrage, and most recently, the “last straw” was pulled in the murder of George Floyd. As 1984 had warned, I realized that much of the information I had thought to be true was actually false, as the government had covered up many events and truths that would paint it in a negative light. However, this protest is different, as documentation now allows us to identify acts of brutality and cruelty from primary sources with less bias.
3. Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now.
1. In my opinion, the response by the government to the coronavirus pandemic and the black lives matter protests have been awful and ineffective. It is shameful to see our doctors and nurses have to fight against a disease unpreparedly, with a leadership that believes in funding the military over providing basic resources for the frontline healthcare workers that are fighting a war on their own. Powerful images have been taken that show the difference between the “proles” of America and their oppressors; images that I would have never seen without looking for them myself. The stress caused by the pandemic is only the tip of the iceberg in a long-winded history of discrimination and oppression, and the response by the police to the protests only further supports the cause of the BLM movement. As children, we were taught that police exist to protect us, and those who were killed brutally or blinded by pepper spray and rubber bullets now know that is not true. As the protesters in Hong Kong had written before, “Who do you call when the police murders?”