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AP Literature 2006-2007

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Week 19:

1984 by George Orwell

Language as the “Ultimate Weapon” in 1984

George Orwell is interested in the modern use of the English language and, in particular, the abuse and misuse of English. He realizes that language has the power in politics to mask the truth and mislead the public, and he wishes to increase public awareness of this power. He accomplishes this by placing a great focus on Newspeak and the media in his novel 1984. Demonstrating the repeated abuse of language by the government and by the media in his novel, Orwell shows how language can be used politically to deceive and manipulate people, leading to a society in which the people unquestioningly obey their government and mindlessly accept all propaganda as reality. Language becomes a mind-control tool, with the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination.

This week please keep pace with the readings and the in-class discussions. Your insight to those discussions and the timed writings will determine your success...do not be parasitic in the classroom...you owe it to your peers to contribute...take a RISK!

Have a great week and remember, be empathetic to each other and work diligently...I always notice!! Smile, too!

READING SCHEDULE FOR 1984 and OTHER DATES:

CH II-VI (20-69) for Tues., Jan 16
Finish BOOK 1 (69-104) for Friday, Jan 19
Finish BOOK 2 (105-225) during Regents Week, due Monday, Jan 29.

Independent Reading Assessment is scheduled for Monday, Jan 22.
Poetry Professor is scheduled for Thursday, Jan 18.




If you have questions about these assignments, please leave a comment or email me directly. Remember, I will check the blog until 9:59 pm. You know I need my Seinfeld fix.

posted by fdileo @ Sunday, January 14, 2007 

11 Comments:

Blogger TimmyA38 said...

TimmyA was Here!!!!

1:07 AM, January 15, 2007  
Blogger TimmyA38 said...

Oh no you might be number 1 on the blog but thats why Mr.D gave me a piece of his kashi bar!!top that tracy D!!!

1:10 AM, January 15, 2007  
Blogger fdileo said...

Timmya and Tracy or is it Tracy and Timmya? I am enjoying the tennis match...let me use an appropriate TONE word...BANTERING!

Enjoy...

8:44 AM, January 15, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I checked this week's assignment.

See you tomorrow!
james N., Per. 2

3:39 PM, January 15, 2007  
Blogger fdileo said...

Thanks for checking in.

7:54 PM, January 15, 2007  
Blogger Lizzie L. said...

ha-ha Tracy and Timmya-it was soooo bantering. See you tomorrow Mr. Di Leo!

9:10 PM, January 15, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

Haha, Timmya and Tracy...you two are bantering and also (another nice tone word lol) funny badinage. I believed I used that correctly too..how nice. Anywhoos, Mr. DiLeo I checked the blog!! I am about to look at the week assignments but I read and I commented this post!!! =) Have a great rest of the day! =)

4:31 PM, January 16, 2007  
Blogger fdileo said...

Leshante and my fellow AP Bloggers,

The key to the past, according to Winston, is the Proles, and he clings to the belief that they offer some hope for the future. They are relatively free of Party interference and control; yet, the Party is still able to control them because they claimed that the Party freed them from slavery. Interestingly, they have emotions and instincts, yet Orwell portrays them as animals living in filth; they have no intelligence or wealth, therefore do not pose a threat to the Party, even though they are the majority. It is similar to the African slaves and the Jews in the ghetto in the Nazi era. They had the numbers, yet in the case of the Africans they were not permitted to intitiate in any political activities or interact with the wealthy. The proles remain content as long as they are permitted a subsistent level existence...this is what slave owners did to the slaves...not just in America, but in third world countries and even in Medieval times with the serfs and the lords.

You could only rebel if you have intelligence...the proles were denied an education....

"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." If the past was idyllic, then people will act to recreate it (Winston tries to; hence the Golden Country motif); if the past was nightmarish, people would act to prevent it from happening again. The Party creates the past of misery and slavery...CONTROL.

Sorry for the long winded response....more to follow in class.

8:17 PM, January 17, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

Mr. DiLeo, this makes sense and I like the response. I agree, though Winston is right in that the proles do offer some hope for an improved future. They would first have to have the "intelligence", will, and clearheadedness (hope i spelled that right) to fianlize a rebeliion of any form. Though by intelligence I mean that the proles have the brain power but they just do not have the resources, information, orreal contact with the Party itself or even its ideals to really be effective. Like Mr. DiLeo says, they have no education even the backwards kind Party children receive. They would need Party member help, the only thing is in this world suspiciousness and wariness keeps you alive, longer at any rate. The Revolution or rebellion would have to be carefully organized and done with care and patience because if the initial rebellion was too weak, the Party would essentially annihilate the prole population and increrase tenfold their control and occupation of prole society.
Why do they call them proles though? What is that? Is it a name like "slave" or does it refer to their social or racial nationality? Im confused about that one. But anyway, I dont know Winston has to be better about concealing and identifying his contrary ideas and initial "revelations" as well as his allies, respectively. Well I think that is all for tonight, more tomorrow!! See you tomorrow Mr. DiLeo! =)

5:08 PM, January 18, 2007  
Blogger fdileo said...

Or in other words the Proles stand for the the proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth; the term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it as a sociological term to refer to the working class.

The lowest, or one among the lowest, economic and social classes in a society.

In ancient Rome, the proletariat were poor landless freemen who, crowded out of the labour market by the extension of slavery, became parasites on the economy. Karl Marx used the term to refer to unemployable workers, paupers, beggars, and criminals. Marxian theory predicted a transitional phase between the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of communism during which a “dictatorship of the proletariat” would suppress resistance to the socialist revolution by the bourgeoisie, destroy the social relations of production underlying the class system, and create a new, classless society.

Hope this helps...

8:59 PM, January 18, 2007  
Blogger Unknown said...

Yea it does, than you LeShante and Mr. DiLeo I get it alot better now. In the book I think that its still a derogatory name because the Party people dont consider them even people.....right? Anywhoos, Im checking the blog and have a good weekend everyone!! =)

5:36 PM, January 19, 2007  

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