Wednesday, September 8, 2010

En 12 Reading for Thursday, 9 Sept.

Please have Chapter 2 read for Thursday.  Don't forget to give page citations for your study guide responses.  We will be using the COW laptops to write our first readers' responses on Thursday.  If you wish to be keeners, you can do a little extra reading on Stalin and his management of the USSR.  Orwell's references to three-year plans and the like will then make more sense to you - Wikipedia should suffice.

22 comments:

  1. I found 1984 by George Orwell to be quite hopeless within the first two chapters. Though the main character, Winston, seems to have some amount of hope and some amount of his own thought, he seems to be the only one and his ability to influence change in this society is minimal. Winston's only 'ally' would be O'brien, who he only shared a 2 second glance with. It'll be interesting to see how Winston can start trying to influence change within his Oceania in the next few chapters.

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  2. My first impression of 1984 is that it is impressive. I enjoy the fact that their is no freedom and/or free thought. There is a degree of melancholy that I find entertaining. Winston is too rebellious. He should just deal with his situation and stop making waves. I am hoping that the thought police should just kick down hi door and vaporize him.

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  3. I don't particularly enjoy this novel. I am having a hard time understand what's happening as i read the text.

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  4. this book is super lame sause.

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  5. My first impression of 1984 is that it is impressive. I enjoy the fact that their is no freedom and/or free thought. There is a degree of melancholy that I find entertaining. Winston is too rebellious. He should just deal with his situation and stop making waves. I am hoping that the thought police should just kick down hi door and vaporize him.

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  6. When I started reading I thought the book was boring. Then I started to understand what the book is all about and I became interested and wanted to read more. I like how different everything really was then what Orwell thought it was going to be like.

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  7. i dont know whats going on and its not interesting at all.

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  8. I don't understand what's happening therefore I find the book very boring and confusing.

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  9. I find this novel to very descriptive and enjoyable. I like the way he describes each and every little thing, it makes the reading more captivating. I get the impression that Winston is very depressed and does not enjoy life or his job. I expect that he wont be able to handle the guilt of becoming a thought criminal.

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  10. I found that the beginning two chapters in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell were interesting. But at times I found it confusing. Therefore i felt my mind wander between the lines during the most confusing parts for myself. Overall I feel that this novel will be a challenge for me to read because of all the hidden content and deep concept, but, in that it seems like the type of story line i would enjoy. My expectations for this book are very high, seeing as though this novel has been kept in our classrooms for so many years. I am very excited to study this book this semester in English 12, and hope not to get too confused throughout.

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  11. So far I find the book a bit different. The beginning of the book starts off without giving the reader a lot of information which leaves me confused but wanting to read more. The character Winston seems to be dark and dull. Im interested to keep reading the book to find out more about 1984 and how this society works.

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  12. Winston Smith is a glorious martyr of the people; he just hasn't died yet. His enfeebling society is absurdly overbearing, and does not seem completely functional. In fact, I have severe doubts about whether or not such a society could last more than fifty years, let alone the eternity many seem to believe it will last. The very existence of Winston essentially guarantees the existence of like-minded individuals, and part of the inherent frailty of his civilization is based on this. So I can say that I enjoyed the beginning of this novel, but it would be difficult not too, considering everybody and their dog worships it as some sort of divine text.

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  13. My first impression of the novel was that it was very dark. I think that O'Brien and Winston may join together and make Winston's book become public and perhaps start a revolution. So, far I'm enjoying the book, i think that having a better understanding of Stalin and his reign would be helpful and would bring a lot more value to the book.

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  14. Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of those infamous books in high school that everyone reads and has read since our parents were in high school. Needless to say, coming into Engligh 12 I expected to read this book and had relatively high expectations for it considering it has been kept in the school curriculum for such a vast amount of time. Once I started in on actually reading it I have to say I was a little disappointed. The idea of the story is quite intriguing, I find however that the way in which the story is being told hard to concentrate on. It is just not one of those books that grasped my attention from the first line. Given all the positive things I have heard about the book I expect the book to pick up and grab my attention within the next few chapters. I have high hopes for the book and look forward to reading further.

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  15. I was interested in this book as soon as I had found out that it was written in 1948. I really enjoy how the freedoms of the people have been taken away but they act like they have been living like this forever and that it is normal. So far it is a great book and I hope that it continues this way.

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  16. My first impression for the novel 1984 is that I don't really like the book. It is not something that really interests me to read. The story itself is odd, the way society is represented should interest most people but in my case it just doesn't seem to as well as some others in here I take it. Winston already knows that he is a dead man, for writing in a diary. Diaries are for little girls.

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  17. The book was captivating enough for me to reed and that's saying some thing

    I think the two min of hate was very in interesting

    The one thing i don't get is are the ministries just for London, airship one (Britain) of all of Oceania

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  18. Eric Blair (or pen-name George Orwell) and his book "Nineteen eighty-four" is descriptive, detailed, and entices you by making the reader question, three things that make a good book. He also gives a view of "what-would-happen-if" which is a nice reflection on the way we live daily an how we act morally. Good Book :)

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  19. I find the novel interesting, because the way that it's written draws you into the story.

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  20. My first impression on the book was quite different than I expected It to be however when I looked over the chapter and it made more sense

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  21. Hmmm: you have some interesting ideas here. I find the novel interesting in spite of the fact that I've read it many times - one measure of a good story in my mind. I really enjoy listening to students discuss the ideas associated with the novel- I like it when someone says, "Yeh, but...". As we read on we will know more about the characters and their society and that will allow us to have deeper conversations. The main thing is that you are thinking at more than a superficial level and I'm always pleased at the sophisticated thoughts teenaged English student can come up with. Thanks for your responses.

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