*1st Hour: Tornado Drill--8:10
*2nd Hour: Hall's Connection
*Read 215-245/260-297
*Respond (if you need to)
---Discussion Wednesday
*Blogger Bonus: Share your impressions of the novel's ending.
*Objective: During reading, use strategies to self-monitor comprehension, question to clarify, reflect, & draw conclusions
3 comments:
I really disliked the novel’s ending. To begin with, I thought the last fifty or so pages were scary. Winston being tortured and questioned like that reminded me of the movie Saw or just a movie where they are questioning someone and zap them when they lie. I thought that torture was unfair and it made me dislike Orwell for writing about that. Next, I can not believe Julia and Winston did not live happily ever after. I wanted Winston and Julia to be able to love each other, get married, and live a happy life together. However, they betrayed each other, barely even talked when they finally reunited and ended up going there separate ways and not being together. Finally, I think the ending was very abrupt and unfinished. I wanted Winston to destroy the Party but that never happened. It seemed like in the end O’Brien brain washed him which I did not like. I really just wish the story would have had a happier ending.
Michelle B, 5th Hour
In the end, Winston is in the same situation as the three men he had seen at the beginning of the book, Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. Winston was sitting in the same café, at the same time of day, and was avoided by most people, just like the other three men. The reader realizes that Winston’s days are numbered when the telescreen says jeeringly, “Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me—“(p.293). This is the exact words the telescreens expressed to the other three men, shortly before they were re-arrested and executed. Winston will probably be arrested again and executed. Winston believed that they could not change his feelings or get inside of him. After his torture he realized that, “There were things, your own acts from which you could not recover. Something was killed in your breast; burnt out, cauterized out”(p. 290). Winston really did become a different person. He was officially like everybody else. He belonged to the party. Even his feelings about Julia changed. He no longer had any feelings or desire for her. He no longer had any desire for a different life. The ultimate change was that he loved Big Brother. It didn’t even matter if he lived or died. He became the ideal Party man. Even though he completely belongs to Big Brother, the Party is still going to kill him. It struck me that even though the Party had succeeded with him, now they didn’t really have any use for him, except as an example to others.
Christine B.
7th Hour
In my opinion the ending of the book was rather poor...in the beginning of the book I didn't find the book interesting and nothing interesting caught my eye. But towards the end I was focused on finding out what happens to Winston and Julia. When Winston and Julia finally meet again there seems to be no sense of excitement or passion to see each other again. Winston seems to be more happy to see her, but she seems to have no happiness to see him, however she seemed to find happiness in the fact that she is alive. She doesn't seem worried if Winston is in love with her or not. Another very disappionting part of the ending is that the rule over society by Big Brother and the Party is as poweful as ever and there seems to be no one who wants to change it. It is discouraging that Winston was brainwashed into loving Big Brother.
Nick L, 5th Hour
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