Lit Circles - Blog Post #1 (Meghan, Nav, Tiantian, Jenelle, Nicole & Andrew)

Summary - Tiantian
The protagonist Winston Smith, a 39 year old malnourished looking government worker, returns to his apartment for his break. He lives in a shabby apartment, similar to those of many other "party workers" in the area called "Airstrip One" (what we know as England). The party Winston work's for is a totalitarian government symbolized by "Big Brother", a face used to intimidate and control the citizens of Airstrip One. While on his break, Winston decides to write in his journal, which would be a "thoughtcrime" (a crime against the party) but luckily, in his apartment, Winston has an area that is hidden from the surveilance "telescreens" that watch all actions. Winston begins daydreaming about his past and a significant event that happened during the daily "Two Minutes of Hate" (a time where comrades express their hate towards "Goldstein" the political enemy of Big Brother), when suddenly realizes he has written "Down With Big Brother" in his journal multiple times. He becomes frightened that a thoughtpolice may realize this and is startled by a knock at the door. Although it is just his neighbour asking for help with some broken plumbing, his neighbour's children scare him by suspecting that he is a Thoughtcriminal.

Discussion Questions - Meghan
1. How do you think people would act today if we added a "Two Minutes of Hate" into our daily routine? - Might relieve stress and anger, but also might cause the anger to continue outside the two minutes. We almost have it already, in things such as youtube comments etc.
2. How does the lack of personal relationships in this society affect the characters' actions? - People don't get the chance to learn how to interact with others properly. People feel alone constantly, don't know ways to communicate freely. However, they don't know anything else so it's  normal for them to be distant from others.

Passage Master(s) - Nicole & Andrew
"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable" (28)
a) This quote comes up when Winston is thinking about how he really feels about the government and when he wonders if any other human being is on his side.
b) This passage explains very deeply the conditions of the time and it's unpredictable ways. Because in Winston's country they remove all history it becomes "dead" in a sense and this is troubling because it can not be used to predict the future.
c) This quote can apply to our lives currently because many of us as grade 12 students find the future after highschool "unimaginable" and are at a stage where the past cannot help us make our decisions.

Word Reporter - Nav
1. meagreness - lack of quantity or quality; inadequacy
Significance: The sentence in which this word is used describes Winston with his "meagreness" which tells us a lot about the quality of life that Winstons and others citizens of Airstrip One have.
2. strident - (of a sound) loud and harsh
Significance: The sentence in which this word is used refers to the music that is played through the telescreens to represent the party, which shows us that the government itself is harsh and wants to capture the attention of all citizens to make sure they listen and obey.
3. ramifications - a complex or unwelcome consequence of an action or event
Significance: This word is used to describes the many rooms under one of the government buildings that correspond with the 3000 rooms above ground, which tells us that the party is a very complicated and large group which may also be hiding something.

Connector - Jenelle
The connection found was between the advance in technology that Winston has experienced in his lifetime and what we have experienced in ours. Similarily in both cases, technology has started to be used for surveillence and control over peoples' lives. In the novel, there are "telescreens" (like TVs) that can also watch over every action took within its sight and "thought police" that will arrest you for having thoughts against the government party. In our case the government and the NSA of the United States use things such as google, telephones, the internet etc to watch over it's population and monitor the communications that happens. Both societies have created a sense of fear among its people by using technology as a form of control.