1984 Journals
1) What was Winston like as a child?
- As a child Winston was very self - reliable by only focusing on his own survival and well - being in the complicated world he was living in. Although he had his mother and sister still in his life, also trying to care for themselves and Winston, he still only focused on himself even if it hurt them. He would steal their food but not take responsibility for it, to ensure even if they did not have the essentials to survive, he did. As he got older and lost many of his memories he blamed himself for their disappearance. He is not completely positive on what happened to them but he believed they were vanished, or taken by the government. Winston's actions and decisions as a child of self preservation and selfishness relate on a high level to the society he lives in as an adult, where children do not care for their family but rather spy on them for the government. While Winston's behavior changed as he grew up and began to realize the faults in his society, his childhood still has an effect on how he feels responsible for the vanishment of his mother and sister, who were his only family.
2) "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." - George Orwell
- I completely agree with the meaning of this quote due to my personal experiences with my parents and grandparents but also with people my age. People always say the older you are, the wiser you are which I believe to be true due to how as you go through life you learn things that can only come with age. However, I also think that as the generations go on people get more intelligent primarily due to technology and new inventions. A hundred years ago many people would have never imagined that in today's society we would have technology, like phones and computers, that we can use to find stuff without having to do any work. This is only due to how over time new generations came up with new ideas which were more intelligent than in the past. However, just because people are becoming more intelligent, the past generations have lives through many more life experiences and decisions which cause them to overall be wiser and understand more things than the youth. I believe that my personal generation is much wiser than my parents generation just because of how they have explained to me how things have greatly changed and evolved since they were kids. While my grandparents always gave me advice throughout my life so far which has helped me see how over time they have picked up on the small things in life which we all should appreciate throughout our lives.
3)"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." - George Orwell
- This is a very powerful quote because of how it simply describes how the entire population of people, their past and future, can all be controlled if someone had the power to do it. I believe this quote is very possible in the real world as it is in 1984. The people from our past did in fact control the future because the are the reason certain things exist the way they do today. The founding fathers invented the constitution which still controls our world today and in the future. Any wars that countries have fought in the past had an effect on the world today and how countries interact with each other. I believe while this whole quote is true it is much more difficult to control the past than it is to control the future. When someone is controlling the future from their time period then they just have to make something that has a huge impact. However, when one is changing the past from present time then they have to get rid of any evidence of what they wish to change in order for people to believe it. While it could be entirely possible to make people believe a war happened a little differently or a certain person died on a different day, it would be difficult and one would have to make a convincing story and go through a erase all evidence of the old truth.
- As a child Winston was very self - reliable by only focusing on his own survival and well - being in the complicated world he was living in. Although he had his mother and sister still in his life, also trying to care for themselves and Winston, he still only focused on himself even if it hurt them. He would steal their food but not take responsibility for it, to ensure even if they did not have the essentials to survive, he did. As he got older and lost many of his memories he blamed himself for their disappearance. He is not completely positive on what happened to them but he believed they were vanished, or taken by the government. Winston's actions and decisions as a child of self preservation and selfishness relate on a high level to the society he lives in as an adult, where children do not care for their family but rather spy on them for the government. While Winston's behavior changed as he grew up and began to realize the faults in his society, his childhood still has an effect on how he feels responsible for the vanishment of his mother and sister, who were his only family.
2) "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." - George Orwell
- I completely agree with the meaning of this quote due to my personal experiences with my parents and grandparents but also with people my age. People always say the older you are, the wiser you are which I believe to be true due to how as you go through life you learn things that can only come with age. However, I also think that as the generations go on people get more intelligent primarily due to technology and new inventions. A hundred years ago many people would have never imagined that in today's society we would have technology, like phones and computers, that we can use to find stuff without having to do any work. This is only due to how over time new generations came up with new ideas which were more intelligent than in the past. However, just because people are becoming more intelligent, the past generations have lives through many more life experiences and decisions which cause them to overall be wiser and understand more things than the youth. I believe that my personal generation is much wiser than my parents generation just because of how they have explained to me how things have greatly changed and evolved since they were kids. While my grandparents always gave me advice throughout my life so far which has helped me see how over time they have picked up on the small things in life which we all should appreciate throughout our lives.
3)"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." - George Orwell
- This is a very powerful quote because of how it simply describes how the entire population of people, their past and future, can all be controlled if someone had the power to do it. I believe this quote is very possible in the real world as it is in 1984. The people from our past did in fact control the future because the are the reason certain things exist the way they do today. The founding fathers invented the constitution which still controls our world today and in the future. Any wars that countries have fought in the past had an effect on the world today and how countries interact with each other. I believe while this whole quote is true it is much more difficult to control the past than it is to control the future. When someone is controlling the future from their time period then they just have to make something that has a huge impact. However, when one is changing the past from present time then they have to get rid of any evidence of what they wish to change in order for people to believe it. While it could be entirely possible to make people believe a war happened a little differently or a certain person died on a different day, it would be difficult and one would have to make a convincing story and go through a erase all evidence of the old truth.
It is so interesting to read all of your perspectives. Some students wrote that older generations were more intelligent while others thought more recent generations were. However, I think you are right that today we have more information available to us but fewer experiences. Great entries!
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