A Tale of Two Cities

This section of the reading started off talking of people who were put to death. Dickens' states many people in different situations who were put to death such as for stealing, someone with a bad note, a forgerer, and many others. This struck me as being an important part of the book, such as how even the smallest thing done wrong will proceed in someones fate. This is in a way what Dickens himself went through with his family and his fathers debt. I wonder if this is where he got this information from. The guitine is what is described as the importance to everyones death and how it is achieved.

Mr. Cruncher, who comes up in this section, is an angry man who has odd views on religion and life in general. When his wife is praying he gets mad at her for it and yells at her for this. What is the point in this? Is there a reason the woman, his wife, can't be her own self and do what she wants? This made me think of what we talked about in class about the kings and the queens and how the kings are powerful and the queen has no say in the matter and she also pretty much has no say in their life. Thinking about the movie Marie Antoinette, all that the woman was good for was having children in the growing of a family of royalty...she had no say in anything not even who she wanted to marry. She only had one duty and that was to marry this man, make him look good, and produce the next generation of children. Mr. Cruncher just relates in this way with how he is controling his wife and son.

Then the book goes into the long process of the trial and the crime this young man, Mr. Darnay, commited. It is said he committed treason but from the way he seems and how Miss Manette describes him he seems to possibly innocent unless she is testifying on his behalf for other purposes which you never know. The trial kind of confused me but it was pretty interesting in the way that I was able to get the feel of how these people lived and thought and how they seemed to get some pleasure from these criminals deaths.

In the end of this section it is talking about Mr. Carton and two other men who are drinking and are supposedly friends even though they don't really seem like it which is a lot like people now-a-days. But they are talking of Mr. Darney and I was curious as to why???

1984

This section of 1984 is very sad and depressing. It is all about Winston in the room being tortured and his conforming to the ways of the party. First it is back to where O'Brien is torturing Winston in ways to get him to understand the ways of the Party and how they are all about Power and they really don't care about anyone,people are just 'cells' in the world and they really don't make a difference. This makes me wonder. The party is made up of people. All are people who need to truly believe in the party in order to do this to others. So if the party is made up of people who run it and everything then how do they not matter? How would the party possibly be able to run if there were no people because, why should there be people they don't make a difference?



Ok so what also happened in this sections of the story was Winston giving up Julia. Not actualy confessing her being part of this but giving her up to where when he did he had nothing left to hold on to, to keep sane. She had completely changed and Winston noticed this. She was described as a 'corpse' which showed me that she, and Winston, had died. They had given into Big Brother and by doing that they lost themselves and died inside. Winston was at the point to where he didn't think of anyone but himself, which was exactly what the party had hoped to accomplish. By doing this he betrayed the one he "loved" and had given into the party which is something he swore he wouldn't do.

Was Winston lucky? He didn't get shot, but does that mean he was lucky, was he better off? He is alone, no telescreen, no one following him, true freedom. Just what he wanted right? But what does he have? No wife, or child, or Julia, no family, no one who cares about him or that he cares about. His life is empty. Winston may have gotten away without being shot but he spent so much time being interrogated that he lost who he was, and now he loves Big Brother which is exactly what they wanted. I think Winston was in a lose-lose situation. If he were to get shot they would have made sure he died loving Big Brother and he would have lost his self anyway. In the end Winston is dead and the party has vaporized Winstons sould.

I thought the overall book was very good, one of our better ones. It made a enormous point of how we don't really know what is true, we just believe what we were taught and that is what is right to us. This book was very different from the other books we normally read and that is why I think it is one of the better ones. Also it is more modern and is something we could relate to. I really enjoyed this book.

1984

So chapter 3 starts off with Winston in the cell alone, remembering when he was in an ordinary jail cell and the people that came and went. He also was thinking of O'Brien and thinking that he should know that he is was caught and he was hoping he would be sending someone with a razor so Winston could kill himself because they do not break out their people if they get caught. Winston has too much faith in O'Brien and doesn't even realize he is the one who trapped him and got him in this situation, I think Winston has lost all sense of who he should and shouldn't trust because he wants to believe there are others like him and Julia and he wants to trust anyone who seems to possibly be that way. But what confuses me is that at the beginning of the book he wasn't trustworthy with anyone not even with Julia when they first met. I wonder if his instincts of not trusting people changed when he met Julia???



Ampleforth comes into his cell and he finally has someone he hopes to talk to, but to do this they need to be quiet and secretive so the telescreen doesn't hear them because it'll yell and they'll get into trouble. So Winston makes an effort to get Ampleforths attention and they talk and Winston realizes he is not the one bringing the razor. Winston is way too naive and it's slightly annoying because I just want to yell at him or something.



So one of the prisoners who arrives is Parsons, his landlord. This is very surprising because Parsons is all for the Party and it was thought that if anybody were to go to jail for thought crime it would definately not be Parsons and yet here he is. When Winston asks him if he really did have thought crime Parsons answers of course he did and yet he did it while sleeping and in a way I don't actually think he was muttering "Down with Big Brother." Unless he read it from Winstons diary I don't believe he would be one to do that not even in his sleep. Maybe this is some way to get information from Winston you know bring in his friends or people he knows to secretly get information from him.



Soon Winston gets a visit from O'Brien and he finally understands that this was all a set up. O'Brien is so confusing because what is the point in going back to talk to Winston? It's done and over with just leave it be. O'Brien questions Winston but it is really not for the answers but more for getting to the point of taking those thoughts from him and seeing wheter or not he will be let out into the world or be shot and killed. Soon Winston is not knowing what he is thinking and is pretty much thinking what they are thinking and this is the scariest part of the whole story. Winston has lost everything that he has worked for remembering how life was and is now thinking like them and that is what is completely demented about this whole thing...brainwashing. I wonder how Winston will turn out in a way whether he lives or dies probably doesn't matter anymore because if he goes out in the world thinking like them his life is over anyway.

1984

So this section starts off with Winston working all the time and finally he gets time off and makes his way to a square where people were at a Hate Week rally. A man was speaking of the hate against Eastasia until a man came over and gave him a note saying that it was actually Eurasia they were at war with. I find this pretty funny because it is just a way to see if everyone will react in a way that is either good or bad, with the Party or against it. And everyone does go with them and instead of hating Eastasia and praising Eurasia the roles where switched and it is completely ridiculous. So this leads to everyone thinking that Goldstein setting them up with this thought. There's no way it could have been Goldstein because if Winston works for the Party they are the ones who should know yet they are making Winston and the others write about Eatasia in the historical books. So Winston and everyone only get like 6 hours of sleep in each day for as long as it takes for them to finish this and they are all told to be creative but how can you be creative with a complete lack of sleep.

So Winston goes to meet Julia and while he is waiting he starts reading the book. The book is completely boring and talks about how the countries are split up and how they are the three superstates and how they never actually gain a significant lead on each other, and how War is Peace and how Ignorance is strength and yada yada...but what confuses me is how if this is Goldsteins book then why is it not actually talking of how bad BB is and completely being against BB...and why doesn't Winston question this???

I wonder why he went back to chapter one, did he think he missed something he might have just went on from chapter 3.

The true importance to this section is that Winston and Julia were having a good day not a care in the world, safe and protected in that room and then all of a sudden there is this voice like from a telescreen telling them they are going to die, and repeating everything they say. A complete rush of fear comes to them and they think there is no point in running. What would probably be going through my mind would be suicide. What is the point in living if they are going to be contained forever and then they will just disappear and they will never see each other again. They then hear boots coming up the stairs and men come in and grab them and the find out Mr. Charrington was actually like 30 not 80 and he totally setting them up. The men are mean and they hurt Winston and Julia and take her away and Winston states that was the last time he ever saw her...sad!