Journal #2: Creative

I find Oedipus' reactions interesting. It seems every time he asks for the truth, he only suffers when he is told it. Its funny in a since because even though he is told that the truth will hurt him, he seems to want it anyways, and he accuses the other person of causing him distress. In this sense, he seems very arrogant and does not take others seriously. For example, when Tiresias says, "I'd rather not cause pain for you or me. So why this . . . useless interrogation? You'll get nothing from me" Oedipus responds by saying, "Nothing! You, you scum of the earth, you'd enrage a heart of stone! You won't talk? Nothing moves you? Out with it, once and for all!" (178). This clearly shows his personality towards these situations. He does not care what the truth brings, but he rather just hear it even though it will cause him pain. He also does not believe what others tell him. For example, Oedipus says, "Much as you want. Your words are nothing" when he responds to Tiresias. So he almost hides reality by not believing. This also ties back into the motif of blindness and how Oedipus cannot see the truth of what is really being told. He just denies it because he wants to remove it from his thoughts.

He even ignores his wife when she tries to speak to him. On page 222, Jocasta says, "Stop - in the name of god, if you love your own life, call off this search! My suffering is enough" and in response, Oedipus says, "Listen to you? No more. I must know it all, must see the truth at last". Again, this shows his arrogance and his ignorance for other people. This may come down to the level of power, and how men had more power than women during the time. During this time, women were not allowed to perform on stage, it was something that only men could do. It was seen as a privilege too, so men gained power from this.

Journal #1: Literary Topics

I have found it interesting that Sophocles uses the motif of sight and blindness. In fact I noticed a hint of irony when Oedipus talks to Tiresias. Although Tiresias is blind, he clearly "sees" how horrible the society is ran by Oedipus. But the funny thing is, is that although Oedipus has sight, he is "blind" in that he thinks he is doing a good job at being in charge of the society, while in reality, the society is poor and is terrible. I almost get the feeling that being blind is having the ability to see. Also, there is a motif of heat. For example, he uses "blazes" and "fire" throughout the story so far. It seems that every page has a reference to heat in some way. I'm not quite sure why Sophocles does this, but if I were to take a guess, I would say that it has to do something about sight, and being able to reveal something unknown. And by unknown, I mean that Oedipus is unaware of his blindness to society. For example, he writes, "torches blazing" many times, especially on page 170. A burning torch gives me the image of trying to find something that is unknown, or just trying to find something in general.

Another thing that I noticed was how arrogant Oedipus is. This adds to the blindness he possesses because he does not want to admit, and doesn't notice, that the society is poorly ran. This plays a huge role in the plot of the story. Because of his arrogance, he denies everything, thus leading him to his downfall.

This plays along with the large amount of foreshadowing. Sophocles uses foreshadowing to help shape the story, obviously foreshadowing Oedipus's downfall. He mentions death, and always capitalizes it. I believed that this is foreshadowing someone's death. Not necessarily Oedipus's death, but one who plays a significant role in the story.

Journal #3: 1984, Topic C

Topic C
Warnings

George Orwell has many warning signs in 1984, but the one that stood out to me most was his warning that if history keeps going on the same way, humans will lose their qualities. In other words, if we keep on getting into large wars, humans will only care about that, and will do whatever it takes to become the world superpower. Through the description of the buildings and the Party, the government, I could tell that that the society was terrible. The buildings were described as falling apart; they “smelled like rotten cabbage”. By this description, I could tell that the society was poor. What I thought was odd though was that the government was collecting money for Hate Week, which was war related, even though they don’t have enough money to support living conditions. Also, the society is under constant surveillance, suggesting that dehumanization is taking place. This is exactly what Orwell was trying to express, that if humans keep going into wars, then they will suffer.

I believe that Orwell does make this warning clear and believable because of the way he describes everything. Like I mentioned before, the economy is not stable enough to support living conditions, however the government is collecting money to prepare for Hate Week. Along with this, movies and even television are all about war. In the first part of the book, he makes it clear that this is a growing problem because the movie is about a family who is being shot at by a helicopter. The people at this movie laugh too, they are laughing about a mother and a child being killed by gunfire.

I really didn’t catch an alternative to this warning; however there may have been slight hints to alternatives. I guess that thinking for yourself may have been one, but I’m not very sure.

1984 Topic B: Julia

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Topic B

Julia

            Julia is much like Winston, both sharing hatred for the Party.  She is involved in many organizations such as the Junior Anti-Sex League, and displays herself as being a normal citizen of Oceania.  Julia is the ideal citizen on the outside, however on this inside she is a rebel.

            Winston’s first impression of Julia was that he hated her, and wanted to kill her.  She was the kind of girl who was suspicious of being a member of the Thought Police for the Party because she was young and he wanted to “smash her skull in with a cobblestone” (101).  Later, however, he and Julia get to know each other better, and eventually have an affair. 

            Julia rebels against the Party by having sex.  Sex is against the law in this society and is considered to be a terrible thing because the Party “was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort it and dirty it” (66).  This is because the Party does not want people to rise up and question the authority.  They want people to stick as a unit, and be happy with the life that they are providing for them.  This is somewhat successful in a vague sense seeing how they keep this going for a while.  But in the end, they were caught, and consequently they are sent to the Ministry of Love where they removed from society.  This ultimately shows that the Party is in control of the society.  Through this, one can come to the conclusion that in this society, the government has complete dominance over the citizens, making the society a Dystopia.

Journal #1: 1984, Topic A

            “That’s coral, that is,” said the old man.  “It must have come from the Indian Ocean.  They used to kind of embed it in the glass.  That wasn’t made less than a hundred years ago.  More, by the look of it.”

            “It’s a beautiful thing,” said Winston.

            “It is a beautiful thing,” said the other appreciatively.  “But there’s not many that’d say so nowadays.”  He coughed (…) But who cares about genuine antiques nowadays-even the few that’s left?” (Orwell, 95)

            The society in 1984 is seen as trying to move on from the past.  Throughout the first section of the novel, Winston notices that mostly everything from the past is either gone, or ignored.  This is because the Party (which represents the government) hides things from the public, making up lies to cover for the things that they don’t want to be released.  They do this to prevent rebellion among the citizens.  The proles (people who do not work for the Party) have the only items remaining from the past.  The Party members do not have such items because the Party does not want rebellion to

            This can be shown through the passage because when the old man says, “But who cares about genuine antiques nowadays-even the few that’s left” he implies that the Party has removed things from the past.  

Journal #8: Personal response/Thesis

The first time I read The Stranger I didn't enjoy it as much as I do now.  I definitely liked it more the second read, probably because I understood it more and looked in depth to find a deeper meaning to the novel as a whole.  I found it kind of cool how Mersault only sees the physical thing in life and Camus does this to prove his world view of existentialism/absurdity.  Also, I found it interesting that Camus connects the story with the Myth of Sisyphus at some parts.  Like when Mersault is in jail and he is thinking through his life and comes to the conclusion that life is pointless, sort of like Sisyphus.  Camus views life as an endless, useless task,showing it through Mersault.  All of these reasons make this novel, in my opinion, a good one.


 Thesis:
             In The Stranger, Albert Camus creates a contrast between weekdays and weekends,  to show Mersault's internal change from suppressing his thoughts to expressing his thoughts, illustrating that freedom from society is reached through a change in one's routine.  This is shown through the repetition of the weekend, Camus' dull use of imagery when describing work and a bright use of imagery when describing the beach, and the contrast of diction when comparing weekdays to weekends.

   

Journal #7 Thesis

Topic: Repetition of weekends
Thesis: In The Stranger, Albert Camus uses the repetition of Saturday and Sunday to display the freedom from society.
(I'm still working on my thesis, I am sure that there are a couple of things that I need to add)

Quotes:
1) "That's partly why I didn't go there much this past year.  And also because it took up my Sunday" (5)
2) "He told me that he spent Saturdays and Sundays and all his days off there" (50)
3) "Masson immediately said there was a doctor who spent his Sundays up on the plateau" (54)
4) "... I used to wait patiently until Saturday to hold Marie's body in my arms" (77)
5) "He was wearing the new suit he used to put on to go with me to the races sometimes on Sundays" (92)
6) "... I'd be getting four days' vacation that way, including Sunday" (19)
7) "Yesterday was Saturday, and Marie came over as we'd planned" (34)

I looked through the book multiple times and could not find more than seven quotes that mentioned the weekend.  This is why there is a lack of quotes.  However there is definitely another topic that I tabbed and that is that Camus never mentions days of the week, he only refers to them as "yesterday" or "today".  He may do this to show the daily routine of a humans lifestyle in a demanding society.
(I'm not exactly sure how to word this as a thesis)