Frankenstein takes it to the next level

Yes, I think that Victor Frankenstein took his quest for knowledge too far. There are other ways of learning about life and death, rather than taking old human parts and putting them together to make a new human. I think that sometimes there is a limit to how much we can learn, since we are not supposed to play god. You can learn as much as you want to about life and death, but also to act upon these discoveries is a different thing, because you are using this knowledge to play god. I think that Frankenstein could have done many things differently, he could have perhaps done his experiment in a way where a human being would not have been created. I think that if he would have just brought to life a few body parts, then that would have been a lot more safe, and that he would have been able to share this new discovery rather than be afraid to share his discovery with the rest of the world, and Justine and his brother could have been saved. I think that there is no limit on what we can learn, but that there are limits on the experiments based on the knowledge. Victor could have found other ways of expressing his genius creation, rather than create something, play god, and then not take care of it. Not only was this experiment allowing Victor to play god, but he wanted to keep his creation a secret, and yet he let it get out and did nothing about it. It is irresponsible experiments like the one Victor did that we should be safeguarding the advancement of knowledge. We can do this by restricting the types of experiments that can be performed, and monitor how they are done, we do this in our time, while Victor does not. This hinders the advancement of the knowledge that Victor gained and thus left his experiment a total disaster that has destroyed lives.

Robert Walton and the Stranger

I think that Robert Walton is very similar in the journey that he us going on, and even the stranger tells him this and warns him that he will face the same things he did. The stranger seems to have a more melancholy manner about him, and seems like he has something that plagues him, while Robert Walton doesn't seem to have a lot that plagues him. They both seem to be very quiet, but at the same time Walton seems to be more casual and less serious. Walton's attitude toward this entire journey is just that this is his destiny, and nothing can stand in his way, while the stranger seems to have his doubts about whether Walton will make the journey and if he will fail just like he did. Another similarity between the two of them is that they both seem to show concern for one another, Robert is concerned about how the stranger got there, and the stranger is concerned that Robert is going into unfamiliar waters with no idea of what's ahead of him. The stranger is also more silent and not in the best of health, not by choice, but as a result of his failure on his journey, while Robert is voluntarily putting himself through hunger, sleep deprivation, and other hardships on his journey. I think that the stranger represents what Robert might become if his destined journey to the north fails, and that like the stranger he will be broken with misery. The stranger is looking for a sledge that was following him, which causes him to breakdown, and during this he says that Robert has hope and says that he himself cannot start anew and that he is destroyed. On Robert’s quest for knowledge and wisdom, like the stranger, and the stranger believes that he will face the same dangers as he did and will take a lesson from his own tale and he might not have misfortune as he did, but he warns him that this region Robert is about to enter may seem marvelous but might encounter things that appear possible.

Winston's Torture

The torture that Winston endures from O'Brien in room 101 are all part of a cleansing process that the party makes people go through before they kill them. Winston would like to die a valiant death, defying the party, but O'Brien made it very clear that before they killed him they would make him be a good party member. Winston undergoes stretching, rats, electric impulses, all of which are to make him think like a good party member. They don't want him to have anything valiant to die for, they want to kill him as a good party member so that nobody can see his death as valiant. This is why they let him be a party member, but eventually they will kill him, Winston just doesn't know when. Earlier in the book Winston said that he would not betray Julia, but when he came face to face with rats he told them to do anything to her but to spare him, and we found out in the last chapter that Julia did the same thing. They both betrayed each other. I think that this ending crushed Winston, he has lost all original thoughts and memories that he once had, and now he is a good citizen awaiting his death. I think that he has lost his faith in mankind, since he thought that he could die valiantly, and actually show love towards another person by not betraying them, but these ideas are crushed. All of his freedoms that he once had, his love, memories, happiness, have been completely destroyed so that he can be a good citizen. Winston is no longer human like he once was. I think that the broad message in this book is actually that human instinct to save yourself in a time of danger will always come first, even if that means giving up all things that allow you to have a happy life. The ultimate message is that under pressure our instinct for survival will keep us alive.

Emmanuel Goldstein's Book

I agree with the theory, and I think that the proles really won't ever wake up from their stupor. This is sad because they are the only ones that Winston thinks can overthrow the party if they fought over things that were more important. Of course this won't happen because they really don't seem to care. They just don't look at the inner party the way Winston and Julia do. The proles don't even know what is going on, if a bomb goes off they assume it's an enemy of the party, when it could be the party attacking them to keep them in fear and hating one thing so that they don't have time to even question the inner party. Of course the outer party, cannot ban together and go against the inner party. It is hard to determine whether the proles are lower class, because the outer party could also be considered lower class, since they hardly live better than the proles. If you cannot even determine who is in what class, whether it is higher or lower, then you cannot ban together and overthrow anything. The party cannot be changed by anyone, it is unstoppable, this is the main that Goldstein's book gives us. I agree with Goldstein on this theory, and yes it would take more than just the proles to overthrow Big Brother and the inner party, but at the same time that in itself is hard to achieve. This entire society is not meant to be long-term, but will eventually be destroyed as long as there are people like Winston and Julia rebelling in any way they can.

Winston's Dreams

Well, needless to say that Winston has some repressed issues, but he also has some repressed dreams, like the one he has in book 2 about his mother and his sister. I think that Orwell uses these dreams to help depict how Winston feels and thinks about people and is also using this to depict an aspect of human nature.
Winston's dream is about him as a selfish, spoiled child, who basically took all the food. This is interesting because we can tell how he feels about children by the way he describes himself as a child. He and Julia refer to children as swine. I think that this is interesting because his mother seems to be the one pleading with him for mercy, while he screams and shouts for the last bit of chocolate until his sister and mother are both in tears. What is another interesting thing to note her is that his mother actually seems to care about her children, and Winston doesn't notice this until later on. This kind of behavior must be common in the party. I think that this helps us see what Winston has suppressed, and also makes the differences between him and Julia a lot clearer, and also helps us see how his views on society have changed. Winston regrets how selfish he was as a child, when he didn’t at the time. One more thing to note is that his mother could tell that his sister was going to die, when he couldn’t, which is also an indicator about how selfish and uncaring he was.

Winston Knows?

The thing that Winston knows at the end of chapter 6 is that he will eventually be caught and killed. In chapter 6, O'Brien tells Winston that he can see the Newspeak dictionary if he meets him at his flat. It is also at this point in the novel where Winston doesn't know whether O'Brien is on his side or whether he is trying to catch him for the party. So, in a sense Winston kind of realizes that this is a his last fight, that after this something will probably happen to him, and right now in the book he doesn't know what to think about O'Brien, or even if he should trust him. O'Brien could be spying on him and turn him in or he could be very similar to Winston and be secretly against the party. I think that it is still too early to tell what kind of person O'Brien is. I think that Winston is foreshadowing his own downfall or possibly even death, all because he would go to O'Brien's flat, and he knew that something significant was going to happen in the ministry of love and this was the last step in his long drawn out process of the conspiracy. It all started with an involuntary thought, then to words, and then to actions, and now he has a feeling that this will all end in death. Whether O’Brien kills him or if someone else kills him he doesn't know, all he knows is that there is a grave waiting for him. If I were Winston I would not trust O’Brien, because up until this point he hasn’t had any contact with him except for the 2 minutes hate, and now out of the blue he is inviting him over to his house to get a newspeak dictionary, that’s a little creepy even though he might seem like a nice guy.

Winston and Julia

The relationship between Julia and Winston is mainly about them rebelling against the inner party. The fact that they love each other, which is not allowed in the party is a silent rebellion for their own sanity. However, it is interesting how Winston thought at first that she was spying on him, then when he found out that she loved him he jumped at the thought of meeting her again. This doesn't really happen in our world today, especially since they hardly even know each other, and they really don't seem like they go together and are only together because it was convenient for Orwell. The one important difference between them is that Julia is rebelling against the government because she thinks that things can't be changed anyway and she's just happier breaking the rules and feels like they truly can't beat the entire system, while Winston questions the inner party and thinks that the party can be brought down. Also, Julia expects more out of life and is a bit more adventurous than Winston. They are very similar in that they want to rebel against Big Brother by meeting in private and doing things that are looked down upon. There is a very large age difference between the two of them, but I suppose that it takes one to know one. Although there wasn't much spark at the beginning of their relationship, Winston starts to feel like he needs her, while I get the feeling like Julia just wants to rebel and just likes going against the party in any way. Ultimately, Winston says that Julia knows that she will eventually be caught by the thought police, but at the same time Julia believes that she can live in this world where she constantly contradicts the party and will not get caught. This silent rebellion is a way of keeping themselves sane, and it shows that it is possible to have lust, and love in the party.

Winston v. John

Winston's view is entirely different from John's, he hates purity, and goodness and wants it to die. John loves purity and goodness, because he didn't see any of that while he was in the savage reservation, and when he met someone like Lenina whom he put on a pedestal he thought she was the purest thing ever. The point is that there is no purity at all within the party, even though they are trying to create a perfect world. I think Winston hates purity because purity is what the party is trying to achieve, and by Julia not being pure he loves that. He likes that she is rebellious against the party, and this is a silent attack against the party by just not being pure and how the party wants her to be. I think that Winston is trying to show that there is nothing pure like there used to be, no love, because everyone is caught up in their fear and hatred. I also think that they are starting to love one another, because they are both rebellious, and they are also sneaking away from the party doing things that would now ironically be considered to not be pure. I just think that this is an interesting contrast between this world and the world created by the party. John wants purity, but ends up not liking it in the New World, while Winston hates purity, because of the standards of purity set up by the party.

Controlling the Past

One of the methods of Control in the party is changing events in the past and telling people that Big Brother did all of this stuff that he really didn't do. For example, Big Brother is said to have invented the airplane at a time later then when it was really invented. Big Brother does this through the Ministry of Truth, which is really a Ministry of Lies. If they can control who did what in the past and make people believe a lie, then they can make people believe just about anything that they want them to believe therefore giving them control of the people. Another way they can control history is through Newspeak, because the less words the people in the party have to use, the less opinions they can come up with. And of course Big Brother limits this by not even letting them write down or think of heretical things. If they do, then they simply disappear from the records, and the interesting thing is that they can make people up at random. This means that you could be taught that someone who never existed did this great thing in Newspeak, and it’s all a lie. This is effective, because the people make themselves think that this is all true, because they know if they think any different that they will be taken away. This method of changing history is so effective because they are making people believe what they are told whether it is a true or not.

Language and How it Relates to Freedom

There are many languages in the world today, both foreign and modern, but all of these diverse languages have one thing in common, they represent our freedom. We are showing our freedom that is stated to us in the First Amendment, by merely getting our opinions out there in one way or another. Some people choose to express their freedom through music by making mix tapes, and some choose to be like Winston and write in a way that other people think will soon be extinct. Winston writes in his diary because he is not only tired of the society he lives in, but he cannot say these things out loud or even think them, yet he knows that writing them down is just as bad. In this sense he is a patriot, putting his ideas out there and using the written language to defy the society. This is not allowed in this society because if someone breaks away from the party then other will start to as well, which is why thinking up heretic things about the party is considered to be a thoughtcrime. Winston commits a thoughtcrime through the written language. Winston is drawn to this type of language because he does not like Newspeak, and he prefers Oldspeak, and this is because he faces Newspeak everyday at his job. However, his comrade Syme has the job of destroying words and he thinks that eventually we will only have a few words left to describe so many things. He doesn’t like the language Oldspeak, because he thinks it is too vague and has to many shades of meaning, while with Newspeak is much more simple with words abbreviated and pulled together. The language in this society is restricted to Newspeak because if people were to use other languages this might promote new ideas, and of course that is a crime and you will disappear. The party has to eliminate words every day, and this will eventually lead to the change in the literature, slogans, and in this society orthodoxy will mean not needing to think. The party does not want people to think, they don’t want them to write, and this stifles the individuality that Winston so desperately craves, which is why he writes to be an individual. Language allows everyone to create their own individuality.

The 1984 Society

The society in Brave New World is not based on happiness, but rather on war and violence. People in this society seem to be very suspicious of each other and are not very social. Winston hates the dark-haired girl simply because she likes being a virgin and wears the symbolic red sash around her waist to symbolize this. This world is supposed to appear very dark and in this society you are supposed to adore the Big Brother and hate Goldstein. You can also see the apparent hatred in the daily two-minute hate. This scene in book 1 shows how the people in the party share the same kinds of hatreds and are expected to act like this. Another aspect about this society is that they are constantly being watched, and monitored by the thought police. Winston is the perfect example of what not to do, he writes a diary which is not a good thing, and he only does out of the view of the telescreen. Their entire existence depends on them not thinking or writing a bad thought about the party. This is another very good example of a dystopian society. This society is supposed to be perfect because no new ideas can get in, but this whole idea gets overturned because they promote hatred and the only thing they can do to control people within this society is to make them hate one another and not trust anyone.

Is it really so bad?

The “New World,” Aldous Huxley portrays in this book seems like the perfect world, and it so different from our world and it is in fact not that great. The fact that this society is so fake and perfect makes it so bad, and nobody should have to live in a world where they are conditioned to not think freely. I value freethinking and so do a lot of people in our society. In a world with no war, and no disease or suffering is not living in a real world; you have to see those things in life in order to become your own individual. How can you truly be happy, if you don’t know how to appreciate what you have? This is the problem with Huxley’s characters, their idea of happiness is something that has been pounded into the heads and is something that they are conditioned to believe. This society is so bad because it denies the people inside it to think on their own and be themselves, and do what makes them happy. Another thing that these people are missing out on is actually loving another person and not belonging to someone else. This society contradicts this society in so many ways; they all belong to one another yet they have no personal connections to anybody else. They can’t be mother, they can’t get married, they can’t love another person without anybody thinking it’s heretical, and they can’t even be by themselves. You can belong to someone else and not love them, but that still doesn’t give you anything in return, in this world all that gives you is physical pleasure and nothing else. Without all of these emotional connections, and war and other things that people deal with in real life, this is in fact not a perfect world. I say that this is not a perfect world and it is bad because in this world these people have no idea that they don’t have access to anything that can actually better themselves or develop their own thoughts.

Huxley's Predictions

In the book Brave New World, Aldous Huxley makes a lot of predictions about the future, and since we are in the future now we can obviously see that some of these predictions are not true. We are not born in bottles, or take soma, don't wear birth control belts, and we certainly don't worship Ford. Despite all of this, some of Ford's predictions are accurate. We have more effective forms of birth control, we have the technology to make a test-tube baby (which is similar to a bottle baby), and a lot of us still worship some godlike figure or we have an idea of what our religion is. One thing that I think will never happen that Ford said would happen is that History is totally obliterated off the Earth, and all traces of historical figures and events have been wiped away, leaving hardly any evidence behind. I think that Huxley's society does have some elements of truth in it. I think that the idea of bokanovskifying eggs is something that would be very interesting to see, but too many people in our society today would be against that idea. However, something to keep in mind is that we do have some technology that can alter a baby to be what we want it to be. Some people think that this is unethical, which is why I think that this is a big piece of their society, but is not a big piece of our society in 2009. Also, another idea that I think is too irrelevant is how the classes are separated, and how the society in Huxley's book has "Savages." I think that we have people who are uncivilized in our society today, but we don't barricade them from the rest of the world and treat them like they are animals in the zoo. I do think that transportation is one relevant part of Huxley's story, and although ours in 2009 is not as advanced as Huxley's, almost everybody has a car. And if somebody doesn't use a car, then they use public transportation. We can also get to places relatively fast and without too many delays. I do think that one idea in Huxley's society, which is that everybody belongs to everyone else, is interesting, but that kind of thing could only be possible if everyone were the same, had the same ideas, and obviously our society tends to embrace diversity. Our society is also based on the idea of a family, whereas Huxley's society is not.
A lot of Huxley’s ideas seem a bit too absurd, but I think that Huxley’s idea of advanced technology is definitely something that is relevant to our society today in 2009. We do embrace technology, and maybe someday we will all fly helicopters, and maybe there might be some more test-tube babies. I think that in our society, we have the tools to make our society better through technology, but we will not take it to the extremes that Aldous Huxley has