1984 2nd Journal Entry

The 2nd third of George Orwell's 1984 takes us even farther into the life of Winston. Winston continues to have thoughts against the party and big brother, such as thoughts about the girl he has a crush on, Julia. After seeing her around, he finally learns her name and the 2 move in together. Their apartment is right above a party loyalist and know it is risky being together, but the temptation is just too strong. This is a perfect example of the oppression of the new government, not even being able to have a partner. How are kids born? How can the government regulate a natural human action of mating? Nevertheless, as Winston continues to defy and go against the government, he also reads a book by the main enemy of Big Brother, a man named Goldstein that has his hand in everything that goes against the party. All of this leads to his arrest by the thought police, and their neighbor Mr. Charrington was a part of it. Orwell's thoughts on the future are very disturbing and bring up many questions on what he saw happening to our government in 1948 to think that 1984 would be serious enough to not allow anything fun. The relationship of Julia and Winston progressed from them breaking small laws in Oceania to them thinking and doing huge infractions, which led to their arrest. The story shows what could happen in our world if one person got too much power.

1984 George Orwell 1st journal entry

1984 is a story of a man named Winston who lives in America set in the future. It is Orwell's warning and prediction of what could happen to our society in the next 40 years, from 1948 to 1984, in which our nation goes from being a Democracy to a odd society ran by someone or something called Big Brother. Everything from your actions to your thoughts are monitored 24/7, and if any action is made against the interest of the government, you will be arrested immediately by the flying patrols or the thought police. Winston works as a shredder, because in this new society where everyone is part of the "party", everyone has their job to do. In this new time, things such as writing are a lost art. Winston keeps a secret diary where he writes about thoughts of rebellion and other things against the party. This story shows what the world could of come to after WW2, during times such as the Red Scare and other thoughts of communism, socialist, dictatorship type governments, and what would happen if we became completely controlled by the government. Atleast this did not come true, and the democratic government prevailed to stay in power, and not give themselves too much power. The culture of the US in 1984 was that of rock and synthesizer music, high school dances, and other 80's stereotypes; not a culture oppressed by Big Brother that seems a little too far into the future.

AP Journal Entry #2 Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire is told through an interview about the 200 year life of Louis. After going to the city of New Orleans and having problems with Lestat and his ways, Claudia and Louis create a plan to kill Lestat by poisoning him and slitting his throat. After they leave what they thought to be a dead Lestat, they make plans to travel to Europe to attempt to find more vampires like them, so they don't have to be the only vampires living in America. After many failed attempts to find intelligent vampires, they find a cult of vampires in Paris, France, and join their ranks in an abandoned theatre. Lestat then returns and the other vampires put Louis and Claudia to death for attempting to kill a fellow vampire, but Louis escapes with the leader of the vampire cult, Armand. The rest of the book is about Louis's return to America as a loner vampire, living in the shadows, and then concludes back in the interview. This book demonstrated many gender roles that can be seen clearly. Claudia uses her cute and innocent appearance to draw in her victims, and this defy’s a females gender role when thinking about how women are supposed to be kind and gentle, and defiantly not human eating monsters like Claudia. It is also important to know that Claudia was a fully matured and grown woman, just in a little girl’s body, so her actions do not reflect her age appearance, which goes against the gender role for a little girl. Louis also defies gender assumptions because he is portrayed as not only a man, but also a mother figure for Claudia, helping her the same way Lestat did with him. This book displays gender as something that doesn’t really matter and has no concrete definition, and it can be seen throughout the entire story.

Blog #1 Interview with the Vampire 1/21/10

In the first 3rd of "Interview with the Vampire", a tragic indigo plantation owner named Louis from New Orleans is turned into a vampire by Lestat, and as Lestat guides him to learn the ways of the vampire, and what it takes to live as a vampire in society. As the people of the plantation find out there are monsters amongst them, the residents leave to go back to the City. Through all of this, Louis is still trying to take care of his brother and sister even in the state of mind he is in as a vampire. Lestat and Louis then find a dying 5 year old girl, and Lestat turns her into a vampire instead of letting her die. She joins them, and as things go on, she and Louis realize that Lestat is a very bad person for turning them into vampires and make a plot to kill him. The first 1/3 of the book shows many prime examples of gender roles, as Louis goes from having the responsibility of a family and plantation, a job typically for males, and then watching the switch from him being a human to a vampire. There is also sexual tension and gender aspects of the relationship between Claudia and the older, more mature vampires, and this can be seen throughout the entire book. The relationship between Lestat and his newly acquired vampires shows that a male that is superior that uses his ability to worsen the situation of Louis and Claudia made them hate Lestat and want to kill him, but little by little the hatred and resentment turned into a sort of truce that Louis and Lestat were now binded together with the bind of being Vampires, so they must stay together to be able to survive.