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.