Blog #5: The Passage

* please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you.
why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”. This quote shows strong sense of the mind manipulation. Just like the quote, the government in 1984 controls the past, which controls the future, and controls the present, which controls the past. In 1984, there are many examples of changing the past, present and future. The part when Winston changed the news about the decrease of the chocolate to increase in chocolate, after he changed, people believed it. In addition, Winston erases rebels’ history. Once thought police catches a rebel, he or she is brainwashed and confess in front of the tele screen. After they confess, government vaporizes them, and erases their history. Maybe people might say, “ Where is David? He was here yesterday” and ask the government. Nevertheless, government will say he never existed, and even though you do not want to believe it, it is easier to just believe what government tells you, or else you will be “vaporize”. Once you change the history, changing people’s mind is just piece of cake. Also, it shows how dangerous is the mind manipulation can be. The mind manipulation in the 1984 made human being like the product in the grocery stores, and made people worthless. Even I do not know is the government telling the truth, or is the information 100% accurate, maybe, the world we are living in might already became the society in the 1984 and mind manipulating us. We will never know the truth.

Blog #4: Mood(Book#2)

* What is the mood of this novel? Do you and this novel saddens you in
Any way? Why?

Mood is emotion of reader while reading a book. Mood of 1984 is very dark, gloomy, and depressing. As I was reading 1984, I felt very uncomfortable, and disturbed, because people’s life in 1984 is very miserable. Their life has no value to government. They are like products in a grocery store, so that government calls them by numbers. This shows that the value of human being was never existed. The society in 1984 is the successful government, which does not care about the people. The story is sad through out the book, but when I found out that human being has no value in this book, I felt very sad. Another thing is that current government is doing similar thing as the government in 1984. Treating people like products is already in this society. When we go to United States or another country, we carry our passports. However, I heard the news about giving us a card that has a certain number. For example, in the airport, instead of calling “David Song, please come up front”, they will say, “Number 1328453, please come up front”. Every time I think about this, always saddens me, because the society is becoming like a society in 1984. Even though many people are warning the government, they do not listen and do the best thing for the economic growth, not for the people. This novel 1984 is very depressing and sad story, that gives a government a last warning to watch out.

Blog #3: Cimax(Book #2)

* What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of?
This novel make you feel.

Climax is the “point-of-no-return in the story; the point of highest interest in terms of the conflict and the point of the story with the most action”(Mrs. Lavender). Climax of the novel 1984 is when Winston and Julia are caught and arrested by thought polices. It was the point when everything changed. The rebellious feeling against government collapsed. Once they were caught, there was no way that they can do the same thing next day. After the “point of no return”, Winston was tortured, brain washed, and “vaporized” by O’Brien. Mr. Charringnton tricked Winston and Julia that he was the thought police, and allowed Winston and Julia to stay in the second floor. The climax was so twisty that I got goose bumps after reading it. When Julia and Winston said, “ we are dead” after hearing women singing from the out side, another voice came from the picture on the wall, which was “disguised” tele-screen. Policemen of the government took him to the ministry of love, and tortured. In this book, after the torture and brainwash, the government made Winston to say he was wrong and killed him. Interesting thing is that the government is so successful of controlling peoples mind. I am a Christian, but what if Jesus said he was wrong and he was just pretending to be Son of God at the end. Just like 1984, the Christianity would never exist. In addition, even though you doubt about the fact, it is easier to just admit the fact that is on TV, because you are dead if you do not believe.

Blog#2: Current Situation(Book #2)

* Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the Novel? What are they, and how do they relate? Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or “fixed”?

The society in 1984 has very similar characteristics with the society in North Korea. First, mind manipulation of the civilians is alike. Big brother is same as the Kim Jung Ll the “dictator” of North Korea. The leaders mind control their people. Big Brother changes history, spread thought polices and “vaporize” people who are against him. In North Korea, Kim Jung Ll claims that he is the only God in this Earth, and they have to obey him to “live”. When I was in Korean Elementary School, I had a great chance to talk with people from North Korea. They told us that life in North Korea is very poor and depressing. They explained how cruel Kim jung Ll was and how many people are dying on the street everyday. In addition, people are watched everyday. Every single movement they make, every word they speak is monitored. The people who ran away from North Korea told me that there are secret spies that monitor people’s behavior every single second. Moreover, many people were killed during the process of run away. I saw the documentary that was about people running away from North Korea. Once, It had a scene that people are crossing a river for better future in South Korea but got shot at the back of their head and died. There are six North Korean Soldiers standing on the platform next to the river, and when they see a human crossing the river, they shoot and kill. Unfortunately, the world in 1984 is not a imaginative world that exist. The society in 1984 is just right next to us begging for freedom and change.

Blog #1: Theme (Book#2)

* What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Theme of the 1984 is psychological manipulation. Throughout the novel 1984, the theme of mind control keep appears through readers’ mind. The party controls people’s mind. Party changes history, and makes new words. For example, Ministry of Truth controls the history. Winston Smith changed the news about 30 gramme of chocolate reduction to 30 gramme of chocolate increased. Just like this quote," Who controls the past, controls the future, who controls the present, controls the past”(page 32), shows that the Ministry of Truth is manipulating people’s mind. After the change has made, everybody believed it. Moreover, there is ministry that controls over dictionary. What it does is very simple; eliminate the words that have negative meanings. For example, if I am the ruler of one country and I do not want people to rebel against me, I can eliminate all the words that are related to rebellion. Let’s assume that my people said “I hate David, he is very bad leader, and it is not fair for us.” And If I eliminate the words such as hate, bad, and unfair, and replace it with positive meanings, than my people will not rebel against me since they do not know what words to say. Therefore, this theme of mind control is very important to teenagers living in 2008. These days’ teenagers seem to depend on the media too much. The society in the novel 1984 has very highly developed technology such as tele-screens, microphones, and other machines those track humans’ thoughts. What I want to say is that what you see on TV is not always true. Just like quote from i-Robot, “If you guys are relying to us, you are controlled by us." If we depend on the technology too much, we will be controlled by technology just like society in 1984. Society in 1984 is not far away!

Blog #6: Entry of my choice

I am a Zombie!

As I was reading Fahrenheit 451, it gave me the gigantic shock. I became a zombie of the media. Through this blog, I want to confess my addiction to media. This is my life. 6:50 AM alarm clock rings from my iPod, I take shower with music on. After, shower, I check my e-mail and eat breakfast. After the breakfast, I go to my grandpa’s car and go to school with radio on. In school, I listen to the music, text message (secretly), play phone game (secretly), and check my emails, and web surf. Even in class, media controlled me. 3:05 PM school ends, and I take taxi and go to hag won, with my iPod turned on. 5:30 PM, I go eat dinner, and my friends and I sit at the table which is closest to the TV. Some of them watch TV, some of them play phone game, and I watch TV and play game at the same time. Of course, only few conversations went on between us, before food comes out. When we are eating, we are absolutely silent. After we eat food, we go to studying room, and do our HW. In addition, my real addiction starts after all the academic stuff ends. 11:00 PM, I go home and since I do not have a television at Taejon, I download the TV programs that I missed. It is approximately three or four programs a day. I sit at the couch and bring one cup of orange juice, and watch it until midnight. Usually, programs are about an hour long. Therefore, after watching TV programs, I go to the face book and write comments on friends’ “wall”. Moreover, 2:30 to 3:00 AM I go to sleep. I know I am very addicted to the media. However, I did not realize until I read Fahrenheit 451. I found out my addiction grew very big. It is like a man smoking his cigarette, even though he knows it is ruining his life. I know it will take time, but now I want to declare that I will go against the ruthless media that ruined my life of 16 years. Additionally, I know for sure that it’s not only me that is addicted to media. I know YOU are addicted too but not recognized it. It is like cancer growing and growing, and still does not know you have cancer. People, media is ruining our life with fake information, what media tells you are not true. I thought it was but it is not. So, I strongly recommend you to stop before it is too late.

Blog#5: The passage

Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you.
Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries
In addition, comment on what you think about the passage.

“So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.” (pg 58, line 29)
Captain Beatty spoke this quote when he was telling Montag why books are bad. Reason why I chose this quote is, the Quote from Captain Beatty appealed very strongly to me. As you see in the text, it gave unique symbol of the books, the guns. However, this quote gave me an idea about Beatty is a hypocrite. From this book, I can tell that Captain Beatty also has books and read it before. It is interesting that books are loaded guns. What do people use to wipe out all the guns? They use guns to wipe out the guns in the world. People carry handguns, to protect themselves from gunshots. What do you see on TV when there is a robber who has a handgun that can blow citizens’ head? Yes, police use gun to protect the citizens. Moreover, the quote from the movie Training Day clearly states, “to wipe out all the drugs, we the cops have to know the drugs and know how to enjoy the drugs.” Isn’t it so ironic that people use same matter to wipe out the same thing? So for sure, I know that Captain Beatty read books to wipe out all the books in their society. It is so ironic that, we have to use the “bad” objects to wipe out the “bad” objects.