AP Literature: 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

References

"Luke 14:23 "Then the Master Told His Servant, 'Go out to the Roads and Country Lanes and Make Them Come In, so That My House Will Be Full." Online Parallel Bible: Weaving God's Word into the Web. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://bible.cc/luke/14-23.htm>.

Save, Phone &. "Bushwhacker | Define Bushwhacker at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bushwhacker>.

"The Sin of Sloth." 7 Deadly Sins, 7 Heavenly Virtues. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.deadlysins.com/sins/sloth.html>.

"The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/plotsummary>.

"Quote by William Shakespeare: "I Would Not Put a Thief in My Mouth to Steal My B..."" Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/347808>.

"2 Timothy 1:9." BibleGateway.com. Web. <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+1%3A9&version=KJV>.

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11. “Rooster cut the rope with his dirk knife and the mule breathes easy again. The grateful beast wandered off shaking his head about.... “Call that a sport, do you?” said he. They were two mighty surprised boys.” 114

The first glance at Rooster’s present and past shows that he is a bad man. He has shot over twenty men in four years and he really enjoys his whiskey and gun. But Mattie isn’t so quick to judge, and finds him to be a truly good person in the end. Portis slowly makes the reader realize this with Rooster’s small acts of kindness. This quote is just one small example of his compassion, although the more obvious example is when he rescues Mattie by running her back to town when she is bitten by a rattle snake. With this, Portis is making the point that almost everyone has human compassion in them, even those who seem a little rough on the outside.

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10. “You are her strong right arm now, Mattie, and you are a pearl of great price to me, but there are times when you are an almighty trial to those who love you.” 79

This quote is in a letter that Lawyer Daggot sends to Mattie while she is still in Fort Smith. When Portis writes “you are her strong right arm now,” he might be foreshadowing Mattie’s loss of her arm later in the book. Perhaps this quote is also foreshadowing the other sacrifices Mattie will make in order to complete her mission of justice, including her own family. She misses her father’s funeral, refuses to be at home during a family’s most vulnerable time, and leaves town without wondering how much her mother must be worrying.

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9. “Yet I was not to taste the victory. The kick of the big pistol sent me reeling backward. I had forgotten about the pit behind me! Over the edge I went, then tumbling and bouncing against the irregular sides, and all the while I was grabbing wildly for something and finding nothing.” 204

Being thrown into a snake pit is the punishment for one of the seven deadly sins, slothfulness. Mattie is the opposite of slothful, she has nothing but zeal, yet she is thrown into a pit of snakes as if she has been slothful. Portis uses a snake pit to emphasize the theme in the book about how things do not always happening fairly. There is no fate for certain actions and life is out of everyone’s control but God’s. So although Mattie is an opposite of this sin, she receives the punishment anyways because that is just how things happen sometimes.

"The Sin of Sloth." 7 Deadly Sins, 7 Heavenly Virtues. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.deadlysins.com/sins/sloth.html>.

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8. “They say he has grit,” said I. “I wanted a man with grit”.....

“It may prove to be a hard journey.”

“The good Christian does not flinch from difficulties.” 92

Throughout the beginning of the book, Mattie’s mission is to find a man with “true grit,” someone who will get a job done right, regardless of the circumstances. But in the end the reader realizes, although the men have grit as well, it is really Mattie herself with the true grit. In this quote Portis foreshadows this discovery when Mattie speaks of not flinching from difficulties. She truly never does flinch, and always keeps her word.

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7. “In late may of 1903 Little Frank sent me a cutting from The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. It was an advertisement for the Cole Younger and Frank James “Wild West” show that was coming to play in the memphis Chicks’ baseball park.” 220

Most of the book is set post Civil war in the late 1800’s when the Confederacy was drastically changing. The book then ends at the beginning of the 1900’s, when culture has already changed drastically. Portis’s True Grit is as much historical fiction as it is adventure because it shows these culture changes that occurred in the West. There would never have been a “Wild West” show in the 1800’s when there was a real frontier, but people of the 1900’s were nostalgic for the old frontier of the West. This is why these shows began popping up everywhere. Clearly Rooster also has to change with society, because he starts off as a real trooper and turns into a fake one.

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6. “We heard there was a Kansas major coming in that night to look over everybody for bushwhackers.” 142

The term “bushwhacker” has many meanings, but the way it is used here has a lot of historical significance. During the Civil War the term “bushwhacker” was used for confederate guerrillas. Portis uses this old term to give the setting and character authenticity. The fact that Rooster doesn't know what "bushwhacker" means shows what kind of man he is. He is intelligent in many ways, but this is not one of them.

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5. “I confess it is hard doctrine, running contrary to our earthly ideas of fair play, but I can see no way around it. Rear I Corinthians 6: 13 and II Timothy 1: 9, 10.... There you have it. It was good for Paul and Silas and it is good enough for me. It is good enough for you too.” 115

In this quote, Mattie Ross is saying that things don’t always happen fairly. Portis is describing how Mattie doesn’t know why they happen how they do, but she has accepted everything fully because of this knowledge. And everyone else should go ahead and accept it too. Mattie also alludes to II Timothy 1:9 which states that we cannot determine what happens to us, because everything has to do with God. This is an overlying theme in True Grit. Every main character seems to have accepted the fact that terrible things happen for unknowable reasons, but they all want to do something about it. Although they cannot change things that happen, they want justice and revenge in the world.

"2 Timothy 1:9." BibleGateway.com. Web. <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+1%3A9&version=KJV>.

True Grit 4

4. “I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains.”

Portis uses dialogue to develop Mattie’s strong character. Mattie is a very intelligent and proper girl with strong morals and because of this, she doesn’t wish to touch a drop of whiskey. But as Mattie does with the Bible, she seamlessly quotes Shakespeare’s Othelllo, using it in perfect context. There aren’t many fourteen-year-old girls who could quote Shakespeare like that.

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3. “She had been schooled by a missionary. What preachers we had in those days! Truly they took the word into ‘the highways and the hedges.’” 114

In this quote, Mattie seamlessly references the bible in her thoughts. With this, Portis makes the different contrasting parts of Mattie more clear. There is one part of her that will stop at nothing to get revenge for her father’s murder. This side of Mattie teams up with two men who appear to be fairly unsavory individuals. She ventures off with them, carrying a gun and her father’s hat, with thoughts of killing a man. But what this quote shows about Mattie is that she is quite learned in the ways of the bible. This reference slips out as easily as a Justin Beiber reference would from a girl today. These sides of her are somewhat conflicting, although they would be even more conflicting in today’s society where killing for any reason is a very serious crime.

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2. “People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.” 11

The opening line in Charles Portis’s True Grit sets up the overall feeling of the book. It is blunt, smart, and rather proper. This is Mattie Ross, the main character and narrator who goes out to attain her version of justice, which is the blood of her father’s killer. It first seems strange that a proper christian girl in the late 1800’s would want to go into the wilderness and kill a man, but the setting and time period must be taken into account. A fourteen-year-old girl today would most likely never consider this, but Mattie lives in the poor south, post Civil war. Death was a common punishment and the meaning of justice was literally “an eye for an eye.”

True Grit 1

1. “We resumed our journey in thoughtful silence, the three of us now riding together and pushing deeper into the Territory to I knew not what.” 111

In this quote, Portis conveys an image of three travelers on a mission, similar to the group of four (and a half) travelers in The Wizard of Oz. They are unlikely companions in both stories, and the powerhouse of each group as well as the main character, is an intelligent older girl. These stories loosely parallel each other throughout the stories, especially in the beginnings. Both begin with a disaster of sorts. In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy begins her mission as a result of a disaster, specifically a tornado that sweeps her into a strange world. And so she pursues home. Mattie’s adventure in True Grit also begins with a disaster when her father is killed and her mission is to find the man who is at fault and have him killed.

"The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/plotsummary>.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Frankenstein References

"Color Blue Meaning." Gem Stone and Crystal Healing, Love Symbols, Totems, Magic

Spells. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://crystal-cure.com/blue.html>.

Mendelson, Edward. "Everything Has a Beginning." The Things That Matter. 2006. 7-14. Print.

"The Ass and the Lapdog - a Fable by Aesop." Long Long Time Ago: Stories for Children. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://www.longlongtimeago.com/ llta_fables_asslapdog.html>.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner>.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/>.

(18), Us. "Arabian Nights: The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor - Candlelight Stories." Candlelight Stories - Fiction, Movies, Games, Audio, Books and News for All Ages. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.candlelightstories.com/2009/03/27/arabian-nights-the-fourth-voyage-of-sinbad-the-sailor/>.

Frankenstein 11

11. “I am going to unexplored regions to ‘the land of mist and snow’; but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety, or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful and the ‘Ancient Mariner.’” (6)

Here, Shelley alludes to a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, called The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is about an old mariner who voyages out to sea when a storm blows his ship astray. Then an albatross flies over them, and while the crew is remarking on its beauty and good omens, the mariner shoots it out of the sky. Then bad things begin to happen and the mariner’s crew forces him to where the bird around his neck to show his regret. Slowly, he watches his crew die. In the end, he manages to get back to shore and devotes the rest of his life to telling his story. So Walton is comforting his sister by saying he wont do any rash, and will not return home with a weight on his shoulders as big as the one the Mariner returned with. ‘The land of mist and snow’ is also from this poem, and it is said that this land is where the evil spirits come from.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner>.

Frankenstein 10

10. “I said in one of my letters, my dear Margaret, that I should find no friend on the wide ocean; yet I have found a man who, before his spirit had been broken by misery, I should have been happy to have possessed as the brother of my heart.” (11)

All people wish for companionship, for someone to relate and share thoughts and feelings with. This is one of Walton’s greatest desires as he sets out on his journey of discovery. And he does find a friend, Victor, although it is painful and short-lived. Victor Frankenstein also ached for companionship, although in a different way. Perhaps he thought that by many a ‘perfect’ human, he could also create a good companion, equal in intelligence to himself. He was overjoyed as a child when Elizabeth was adopted into the family, and still craved her company even after terrible things had happened to him. She was the only one that kept him sane. And Shelley shows that a need for companionship is intrinsic, because Frankenstein’s monster, knowing nothing of accepted human behaviors, wants a friend and ‘protector’ as well. He tries his best, but his physical appearance frightens all people away.

Frankenstein 9

9. “Satan had his companions, fellow –devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred. These were the reflections of my hours of despondency and solitude....”

Frankenstein’s monster is a solitary and lonely creature. He is created and left to fend for himself, and this plus his unfortunate looks, result in his wrong doings and madness. Frankenstein himself craves alone time, which leads to ideas and dreams that ruin his life. So perhaps a point that Shelley is making in Frankenstein, is that there is a lot of danger in too much time with ones self. It brings out dangerous ideas and impossible hopes.

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8. “What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?” (1)

“I was like an Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and seemingly ineffectual light.” (31)

The pursuit of knowledge is a big theme in Frankenstein, and almost everything that happens is a result of this. Shelley uses light as a symbol of knowledge, or at least what is perceived to be knowledge. In this first quote, Walton speaks of the cold land he is in as a “country of eternal light,” and this is where he travels to seek knowledge. When Victor finally succeeds in animating lifeless matter, he compares himself to the Arabian, from The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad, in which he is trapped in a tomb underground but is eventually led to safety by a “glimmering light” (although is was actually an animal). And so it is the light of knowledge that has rescued Victor from his obsessive search.

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7. “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.” (35)

One thing that Shelley might be trying to say in Frankenstein, is the danger of desires and the seeking of knowledge. Here, Victor speaks of his desire that “far exceeded moderation,” which results in the creation of a monster that makes the rest of his life miserable. Also, Walton, the man who is being told the story of Frankenstein, is out on a fruitless and dangerous journey, in search of knowledge, when he meets Victor. But after being told this story, and getting trapped in a sea of ice, he sees sense and turns back. He does not make the same mistake as Victor.

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6. “‘I sympathized with and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none, and related to none. ‘The path of my departure was free,’ and there was none to lament my annihilation.’” (91)

Here, Shelley quotes Percy Shelley’s poem, “Mutability,” which is basically about how change is the only constant in the world. Shelley might have quoted this because Frankenstein’s monster changes drastically over the course of the book, from a kind and harmless character to a homicidal monster, intent on making Frankenstein’s life miserable. So this poem foreshadows the changes he will go through.

"Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mutability/>.

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5. “‘Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but in his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator.” (92)

Shelley’s creature that Frankenstein creates relates to the bible in many ways. First of all, he discovers the earth in the same order that God created it: light, land and water, vegetation (berries in his case), animals, and then humans. He also represents a kind of ‘Adam’ character, as in the story of Adam and Eve. Like Adam, the creature was the first of his kind, discovering the world in a kind and curious manner. Then he asks his creator for a female. This is where the stories of Frankenstein and Adam and Eve divert in different directions. Adam’s creator, being the benevolent God that he is, creates a woman when Adam requests it. But the creature’s creator, Frankenstein, is not so benevolent. At first he agrees to this task, but soon abandons it causing his creature to turn into the monster that Frankenstein fears.

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4. “‘It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night.’” (123)

This is the threat that Frankenstien receives from his monster after he breaks his promising of creating a female for the creature. This obviously is showing his jealously of love and happiness, and his wish to prevent Frankenstein, the one who denied him of this, from having love. It also might be implying that he craves a kind of love from Frankenstein and is jealous of anyone who receives it. It once again makes the reader feel pity for the creature because of his loneliness.

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3. “It was as the ass and the lap-dog; yet surely the gentile ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and execration.” (81)

The Ass and the Lap dog is an old fable. The donkey sees the lap dog being treated much better than he is, although he lives a comfortable life, so he reasons that if he acts like the dog he might be treated in the same manner. So one day he runs into the kitchen, wagging his tail and jumping around, and he sits on the farmer’s lap. His punishment is a beating. The moral of this story is meant to say that we should all content with what we are given, or at least we should recognize our own constraints. But Frankenstein’s creature clearly disagrees with this moral because he can relate to the donkey in many ways, and like the donkey, he doesn’t recognize the constraints of his figure. In fact he has almost exactly the same situation with the family he tries to connect with, when he goes into their house and is chased out by the frightened family.

"The Ass and the Lapdog - a Fable by Aesop." Long Long Time Ago: Stories for Children. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://www.longlongtimeago.com/ llta_fables_asslapdog.html>.

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2. “Oh! How unlike it was to the blue season of the south!” 152

The color blue represents moderation, calm, and distance. All of these qualities represent what Victor’s home in the south is, compared to the cold icy ocean that his creature led him to. Shelley might also have used this color to represent the feeling that these two places represent. At his home in Geneva, Victor always felt somewhat at ease. But in this cold desolate land nothing is calm or distant. His monster is right in front of him, his thoughts and emotions are only in one place, and his mission is definite.

"Color Blue Meaning." Gem Stone and Crystal Healing, Love Symbols, Totems, Magic

Spells. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://crystal-cure.com/blue.html>.

Frankenstein 1

1. “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself.” (19)

In Edward Mendelson’s The Things that Matter, he says, “The whole moral and emotional context of her (Shelley’s) book is an extended restatement of a single sentence by her mother... ‘A great proportion of the misery that wanders, in hideous forms, around the world, is allowed to rise from the negligence of parents.’” It is obvious that there is some truth to this because Frankenstein’s creature is neglected by Frankenstein after his creation and turns into a miserable creature. But at the same time, Shelley contradicts herself. Victor Frankenstein says himself that he had the happiest childhood a person could hope for, yet he ends up miserable in his own way. He is the creator of the thing that destroyed him, and his whole life amounts to the destruction of it.

Mendelson, Edward. "Everything Has a Beginning." The Things That Matter. 2006. 7-14. Print.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

1984 References

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Print.

"Cogito Ergo Sum." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum>.

Cold War." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War>.

"Fender - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fender>.

"Hob - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hob>.

Layton, Julia. "Discovery Health "Does Singing Make You Happy?"" Discovery Health "Health Guides" 2 June 2009. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/happiness/singing-happy.htm>.

London Paddington Station." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Paddington_station>.

Rene Descartes. 09 Dec. 2002. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://renedescartes.com/>.

"Saint Sebastian." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sebastian>.

"The Underground Railroad." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html>.

"World War II." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II>.

1984 12

“‘I think I exist,’ he said wearily. ‘I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously.” (214)

Rene Descartes was a famous philosopher. He used reasoning to find a simple answer to the complicated question that all philosophers ask: “do I exist?” He said the fact that you are asking yourself that question, and doubting your existence, proves that one exists. “I think, therefore I am,” he wrote. Descartes also said that the mind is what matters most, and is the only thing we can prove exists. Orwell alludes to this quote when Winston says, “I think I exist.” He does this because of the contrast between these two belief systems. Descartes believed in free-thinking, new ideas, and concrete evidence that can at least be worked out by reasoning. Big Brother’s society controls thoughts and changes the past, making nothing certain.

"Cogito Ergo Sum." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum>.

Rene Descartes. 09 Dec. 2002. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://renedescartes.com/>.

1984 11

“Then listen carefully. You’ll have to remember this. Go to Paddington station....” (96)

Orwell references a real place, Paddington station, when Julia uses it as a landmark to tell Winston how to meet up with her in secret. Paddington station is known historically as the first underground railway in the world. Orwell might have used Paddington station in this context because an ‘underground railway’ sounds a lot like an ‘underground railroad.’ There was a secret society called the Underground Railroad in the late 1700s and 1800s that helped smuggle black slaves out of the south and into safety. This could represent the secret meetings that Julia and Winston were planning. Also, the fact that Paddington station still exists in Oceania shows that it is impossible to completely destroy history. No matter what, there is always something left.

London Paddington Station." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Paddington_station>.

"The Underground Railroad." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html>.

1984 10

“...Winston succeeded in transferring his hatred from the face on the screen to the dark-haired girl behind him.... He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like St. Sebastian.” (16)

St. Sebastian was a Christian saint, who was tied to a post and shot with arrows by the Roman emperor. He was then found and healed by St. Irene, but is clubbed to death by the emperor after he goes off seeking revenge. Orwell’s reference to St. Sebastian mirrors the course that Winston and Julia’s relationship ends up taking. First, he fantasizes about killing her on multiple occasions. But when their affair begins, he realizes he loves her and she comes back into his life in a very different way. But when they are captured by the thought police things change. At first, their love holds strong. But then they receive the ultimate torture and are forced to betray each other. After this their love can never be the same. She is once again, just another person.

"Saint Sebastian." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sebastian>.

1984 9

“‘We are the dead,’ he said.

‘We are the dead,’ echoed Julia dutifully.

‘You are the dead,’ said an iron voice behind them.” (182)

In the end of 1984, everything is taken from Winston and Julia. Every belief and thought, and even their love and loyalty for one another was tortured out of them. In this scene, Orwell foreshadows their fate. Early on in 1984, Winston and Julia realize that with their rebellion, they might as well be dead. They have accepted the fact that they will eventually be caught and killed. So even this saying, “we are the dead,” that Winston and Julia repeat often when they are alone together was taken and turned against them.

1984 8

“‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’ ‘Four.’ ‘And if the Party says that it is not four but five—then how many?’ ‘Four.’ The word ended in a gasp of pain....” (206)

In this scene, Orwell emphasizes the controlling nature of the inner-party when O'Brian is trying to make Winston believe he is holding up five fingers, when he is actually holding up four. This seems very extreme to us today, but things like this were an actual concern at the time when 1984 was written. The fear was that the Communists would take over and begin a totalitarian government, like the one in Oceania, controlling everything—people, thoughts, the past, and the future. In fact, there were reasons for this fright. World War II had just ended, so the memories of Hitler’s fascist regime were still on people’s minds. Also, the Cold War had just started and Soviet Russia and the Communists had become a new enemy.

"World War II." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II>.

"Cold War." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War>.

1984 7

“There was another crash. Someone had picked up the paperweight from the table and smashed is to pieces on the hearthstone. The fragments of coral, a tiny crinkle of pink like a sugar rosebud from a cake, rolled across the mat. How small thought Winston, how small it was.” (183-184)

Winston had bought this small paperweight at the antique store, a while back. Orwell wrote that he found it beautiful because of “the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different from the present one.” When it is destroyed, it represents the power of the Party over the past. Like many other things and memories from the past, the Party destroys the paperweight. This small piece of coral also could represent the human heart and soul. It is so fragile, but protected by the person to whom it belongs. But somehow the party has found a way to break that protective barrier and basically remove ones heart and soul, just like they broke the glass around the frail piece of coral.

Photo cred: "Dive Cairns Great Barrier Reef Australia Coral Seven Natural Wonder Marine Park."Dive Great Barrier Reef Diving Australia Tours Trips Travel North Queensland. Web. 06 Sept. 2011

1984 6

‘It was a church at one time. St. Clements Dane, its name was.’ He smiled apologetically as though saying something slightly ridiculous and added: ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s.’... ‘That was a rhyme we had when I was a little boy. How it goes on I don’t remember, but I do know it ended up, here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head’.” (83)

Here, Orwell foreshadows a very importance scene later in the book. In this scene, Winston and Julia are gazing out of the window when a voice suddenly comes out of this picture of St. Clements. It is the thought police. It turns out that there had been a telescreen behind the picture the whole time. Right before the thought police seize Winston and Julia, the voice in the telescreen says, “Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!”

1984 5

“...but the room had awakened in him a sort of nostalgia, a sort of ancestral memory. It seemed to him that he knew exactly what it felt like to sit in a room like this, an armchair beside an open fire with your feet in the fender and kettle on the hob, utterly alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching you, no voice pursuing you, no sounds except the singing of the kettle and the friendly ticking of the clock.” (82)

Orwell chose a very interesting hideout for Winston and Julia. He had them rent a small, old-fashioned, shabby room positioned over an old antique shop. By placing Winston in this room, which is a fairly familiar and comfortable setting for the reader, Orwell emphasizes how The Party has separated Winston from real life. He appreciates this old bug-ridden bed and the smelly furniture so much because of the way The Party makes him live. The proles are closer to real life than the ministry people. The fact that Winston appreciates all of these old comforts also shows how separate he is from the Party, because true believers would never find themselves in a place like this. This is similar to the part in Handmaids Tale when Offred plays scrabble for the first time. She appreciates the whole experience much more than one normally would.

"Fender - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary."Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fender>.

"Hob - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hob>.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Print.

1984 4

“Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.” (211)

This brings back Orwell's frequently quoted saying, ‘we are the dead.’ Before Winston was captured, he used this saying as a metaphor to both how the party is taking over and what committing thoughtcrime reduces you to. It is a conscious decision that one makes, knowing you will be caught and killed. This quote brings even more meaning to ‘we are the dead.’ O’Brien is saying the party truly makes people dead, at least inside. They empty people of themselves, which literally makes them ‘the dead.’

1984 3

“Then He suddenly ripped down his shorts.... Parsons used the lavatory, loudly and abundantly. It then turned out that the plug was defective and the cell stank abominably for hours afterwards” (193).

Just like the Party has changed society in Orwell's Oceania, the Party has changed the people trapped inside his Ministry of Love. In previous societies, the Two Minutes Hate would not be accepted; this public display of hatred would never have been tolerated. But the way Parsons shamelessly uses the toilet in Winston’s cell shows how much The Party has affected those who have committed thoughtcrime. This necessary ritual was previously a private thing, out of common courtesy and a desire for privacy. The fact that Parsons has no shame shows what these people have been reduced to: vessels of the Party.

1984 2

“‘Do you remember,’ he said, ‘the thrush that sang to us that first day, at the edge of the wood?’ ‘He wasn’t singing to us,’ said Julia. ‘He was singing to please himself. Not even that. He was just singing.’

The birds sang, the proles sang, the Party did not sing” (18).

Orwell's quote represents the one thing that Winston thinks will bring the downfall of Big Brother and the Party. All societies that have lasted, like the proles and the birds, have one thing in common: a happy understanding of life. So they sing because they are happy, or at least content. The Party is not happy or content. The whole society is based on hatred and oppression, so what reason do they have to sing? Even the songs the children sometimes sing are controlled by the Party. And isn't he base of most societies the pursuit of happiness? This is not the case for the Party, whose only goal seems to be complete control. Studies have shown that singing actually has the effect on ones brain that exercising does. It increases the endorphins released into the brain, making one feel happier.

Layton, Julia. "Discovery Health "Does Singing Make You Happy?""Discovery Health "Health Guides" 2 June 2009. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/happiness/singing-happy.htm>.

1984 1

“As he looked at the woman in her characteristic attitude, her thick arms reaching up for the line, her powerful marelike buttocks protruded, it struck him for the first time that she was beautiful. It had never before occurred to him that the body of a woman of fifty, blown up to monstrous dimensions by childbearing, then hardened, roughened by work till it was course in the grain like an overripe turnip, could be beautiful” (181).

In Orwell's 1984, this singing woman strikes Winston as beautiful because, unlike him, she has truly lived. She has had a normal life with children and housework and singing and dancing, and she is so content and healthy. This woman has lived the life that people are supposed to live, and Winston might even look up to her. She symbolizes everything that the party is not. She is the old way of living, which is clearly a happier existence because she is still singing, unlike anyone in the Party.

The Handmaid's Tale References

"Angel | Define Angel at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 05 Sept. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/angel>.

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crowning-glory>.

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"Guardian | Define Guardian at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 05 Sept. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/guardian>.

Harvard University. Web. 05 Sept. 2011. <http://www.harvard.edu/>.

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"Illegitimi Non Carborundum." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimi_non_carborundum>.

"Martha | Define Martha at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 05 Sept. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/martha>.

"Red." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Red>.

"The Scarlet Letter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Letter>.