A Tale of Two Cities: pg 1-82

At the beginning, the reading seemed slightly difficult and I thought that the book was going to be written in an old English dialect from over a century ago, but as the book progressed, it became much easier to understand.
I found it interesting how Dickens says "One thousand seven hundred and seventy-five" all of the time instead of 1775 and "five-and-twentieth" for what I believe was supposed to be 25th.

There seemed to be a symbol when Dickens mentions "negro cupids," "black baskets of Dead Sea fruit," and "black divinities." Most likely he's trying to symbolize the death that's coming for the people because he was describing how the "likeness passed away," but I also believe that there might've been something else he was trying to say, though I'm not sure.

I like how Dickens describes the actions of his characters in such detail at times, like how Mr. Lorey constantly mashes at his wig and wears such neat clothes or how Monsieur Manette contantly looks down or to the side, away from people, and talks in a distant voice. These descriptions reveal the personalities and emotions of these two men. Mr. Lorey seems slightly nervous as a perfectionistic professional, while Monsieur Manette seems to be in a daze from his confinement. He hasn't truly come into contact with a person for a while, which makes the hug he shared with his daughter almost beautiful...

So far, this book is capturing my interest, so I am almost eager to find out what happens next...

1984: pg 261-end

These last few chapters seem to show the weakness of man. I somewhat anticipated that there wouldn't be an uprising, but I didn't think Winston would totally love Big Brother in the end. We all would like to think that we'd endure through the torture and overcome the Party, but we are weaker than we think. There has to be one person that they can't get. They can't torture someone forever...eventually the person will die.

Winston betrayed Julia. They each swore they wouldn't betray each other and they did. By giving in to the Party, they gave up their love for each other. Julia's body had changed. When winston put his hand around her, he said she felt like a corpse. I think this symbolizes how they both died spiritually by giving in to the Party.

I think that the Chutes and Ladders game somewhat symbolizes how the Party members try to climb up and rise above the Party, but their efforts seem futile. They always seem to fall back down.

I found this to be a very good book--probably the best we've read so far. It kind of makes a person want to rise up against what is wrong after seeing the weakness of humans and the oppression they went through in the book. I still believe that there has to be one person they can't overcome. There has to be somewhat who they can't get. Maybe there already has been...

1984: pg 225-261

Towards the beginning of this section, Winston is in a jail cell along with common criminals--in other words, those who were not Party members and hadn't committed thought crimes. I found it intersting how much commotion the common criminals could cause and not be punished for it; they even "shouted down the telescreen." I found the drunk 60-year-old woman to be a sort of comic relief for events to come because of how she saidy the guards "dono 'ow to treat a lady." This was humorous because she swore before this, belched, and puked on the floor in front of Winston, which is honestly not very ladylike (but of course, she is drunk).

Later, when Winston speaks with Ampleforth in the cell, Ampleforth states that he was imprisoned because he used the word "God" in a poem. He only used it because he needed a word to rhyme with "rod" (or so he said). I'm all for putting God in poetry and stuff, but really, poems don't have to rhyme. Does Ampleforth know that? Anyways, I believe that the reason the party condemns religious believers is that it wants to rid them of their faith and hope so that they will rely on Big Brother and think of the Party as being sovereign.

The instance with the chinless man and the skeletal man illustrates how the Party stripped this man of morality when it starved him of food. The man is a personification of the moral starvation here. The tortures these people endure make them selfish. The chinless man still had some morality because he had not been broken yet. When he saw the emaciated man, he offered him food, only to get slammed in the face and have the skeletal man turn around and betray him. The starved man even said he'd rather have his children's throats slit before him than go to Room 101.

Although the level is many times less severe than what Winston was going through, I can somewhat relate to his emotions during torture because of conditioning in sports. When running, one does not favor the coach very much at all, but when the coach finally says to stop and ends the pain, one feels grateful and likes the coach again. Even though humans would like to think that they won't break under pressure, even in something as small as running they become selfish and weak. All they want is for the pain to end, and unless it is something that they strongly believe in, they will not volunteer to run longer for someone else nine times out of ten. This demonstrates the actual weakness of human beings. Most like to believe that they are strong, but in actuality, most are the same and cripple under too much pressure.