As one gets older, perspectives tend to change, thoughts may have matured and many go on to find out the true "meaning" of life. But what is the true "meaning" of life? It varies with every individual depending on what your aspirations are. Some may find that their life is full of goals and purpose while others get lost and caught up with distractions that he stops and questions his existence. Wouldn't that be very sad for those who doubt the purpose of their existence?

Like many other individuals out there, I tend to find inspiration in the lyrics and songs that I come across, and here happens to be an interesting one that I would love to share with those who are reading this blog.. hope it inspires you and helps you understand your meaning life...

Artist: Carrie Underwood
Album: Some Hearts
Title: Lessons Learned

There's some things that I regret,
Some words I wish had gone unsaid,
Some starts,
That had some better endings,
Been some bad times I've been through,
Damage I cannot undo,
Some things,
I wish I could do all all over again,
But it don't really matter,
Life gets that much harder,
It makes you that much stronger,
Oh, some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were,
Lessons learned.

[CHORUS:]
And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,
Everyday I wonder how I get through the night,
Every change, life has thrown me,
I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,
I'm grateful, for everytime,
Some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned.

There's mistakes that I have made,
Some chances I just threw away,
Some roads,
I never should've taken,
Been some signs I shouldn't see,
Hearts that I hurt needlessly,
Some roads,
That I wish I could have one more chance to make,
But it don't make no difference,
The past can't be rewritten,

You get the life you're given,
Oh, some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were,
Lessons learned.

[CHORUS:]
And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,
Everyday I wonder how I get through the night,
Every change, life has thrown me,
I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,
I'm grateful, for everytime,
Some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned.

And all the things that break you,
All the things that make you strong,
You can't change the past,
Cause it's gone,
And nothing's gotta go,
Because they are gone,
Lessons learned.

[CHORUS:]
And every tear that had to fall from my eyes,
Everyday I wonder how I get through the night,
Every change, life has thrown me,
I'm thankful, for every break in my heart,
I'm grateful, for everytime,
Some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned,
Oh, some pages turned,
Some bridges burned,
But there were lessons learned,
Lessons learned.

p.s. its a song from American Idol Winner Carrie Underwood which i would recommend listening to. The lyrics did provided me with lots of motivation and encouragement and truly touched my heart.

Often, the most valuable thing we can get from dystopian fiction is not a view of what’s going to happen, but of what we fear will happen, fears we don’t always express clearly or examine as much as we should. These stories can make us think about why we fear certain things in our own culture and others, and whether those fears are valid or are in themselves destructive and dangerous.

-An interesting conclusion i read from one of the links Mr. Wee provided on his blog.

http://dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/WarnerTeach/E192/bladerunner/Dystopia.Blade.Runner.Hoffpauir.htm

The protagonist, Winston, is someone whom the reader gets the most insight into his life. He is portrayed by George Orwell as a middle age man, probably in his forties, who seems irritated and frustrated with his life. There seems no where for him to vent his frustration; the Two Minutes Hate did not help him vent his frustration at all. All these culminated in his desire to rebel against the party and his perverse fantasy of Julia.

The reason we can relate with Winston’s personality and emotions is because he is portrayed like a normal human being, nothing special or powerful about him. He also suffers from varicose ulcer above his right ankle, causing him to walk slowly and taking rest several times on the way. We are given a physical description of him in the beginning. He is described someone with small, frail and meager body that seemed to be emphasized by his blue uniform belonging to the party. His hair was fair and his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades. This helps the reader to picture Winston as someone who is younger than his shagged looks, pale, lifeless and the image of an unkempt person is etched in the readers’ minds.

Winston’s first act of rebellion was when he penned down his frustrations and anger in a sort of diary book. This is illegal as no one is allowed to have negative thoughts about the party. This could face dire consequences should the Thought Police finds out. Similarly, keeping a diary is a crime that can be punishable by death or forced-labor camps. George Orwell invokes the reader's sympathy for Winston as he was not even sure of the date and what kind of entry should he pen in the diary and also for whom to read. Still, he decided to pen down an entry as a form of frustration he feels is essential.

All these while, in the Two Minutes of Hate, Winston has seen past videos of rebellion and about an organization called the Brotherhood. It was led by O’Brien. Winston had been looking forward to a day when he would join the brotherhood and topple the party. However, the reader questions Winston’s absolute trust in the figure O’Brien despite not having met him before. This could possibly mean that Winston has been driven by the party to a point he needs someone to save him. This desperation has blinded his judgment of people.

Winston also meets Julia at certain point of the novel. This is where the romance starts to develop within the plot. We understand that Winston has a terrible relationship with his wife as he feels that she is overly obedient to the party that even their sex life was affected. Sex, to her was only an act of procreation, nothing more. Winston, although still loves her wife, succumb to the temptation of Julia and the thought of such rebellious act excites him. Winston is definitely not a bad person despite his acts. We have to understand that he was pushed to the limit by the party and his obsolete life. Thus it led him to such fascination with sexual activities and rebellion as an act of political rejection of the party. Again, he didn’t further question Julia’s identity and the possibility that she could be a spy from the party.

Winston, once again gains the reader’s sympathy when he was betrayed by O’Brien and led to his betrayal of Julia. The trust he invested in O’Brien, hoping that he could make a new and better world out of Oceania, had been abused and used against him. He was tortured and finally brought to Room 101 where he betrayed Julia. The treatment used by the party is to threaten someone with his weakness or phobias. This is effective and helps the party instill any ideas that they want the people, especially the rebellions, of Oceania to believe in. Winston, out of desperation, gave in and pleaded that they would carry out the punishment on Julia instead. As the reader, we feel sad for Winston that he has to make such decision in order save himself. Winston may have shown that he is selfish and cowardice but we cannot brush of the fact that circumstances forced him to act the way he did.

Winston leaves the reader to ponder about his obedience to the party and his love and trust for Big Brother. It is expected that he would succumb to the party after his torment but however we question his intentions to do so. Could he be doing it on the superficially level? Perhaps he still harbors thoughts of rebellion but chooses to hide it, fearing further torment.

An overview of the book..

The book took me quite a while to finish and even at the point of the video conference with the American Students, I was probably halfway through the book.

After reading 1984, it comes across to me as something scary and highly probable that it may be materialise one day. In fact after reading the last few pages, it gave me a shock and a sense of despair that the protagonist, Winston actually becomes indifferent to many things around him and that he loves Big Brother. It makes me wonder whether his effort so far in trying go against Big Brother had gone down the drain.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU..
Upon reading the first few pages of the novel, we are introduced to the phrase "Big Brother is watching you". It makes you wonder what on earth is this Big Brother character and why is he watching you. The most straight forth reason would be for control and surveillance. Orwell uses this notion of a person of high authority keeping watch of every citizen in Oceania to bring across this idea of control and surveillance to the reader. it makes the readers reflect on this idea and also the validity of it in our world. in the form of Satellites maybe?? This is coupled with the telescreens that cotains a camera and a microphone and they are installed everywhere and anywhere. We get the idea that every move that the citizens in Oceania is potentially being watched. There is no one time you can tell whether Big Brother is really watching but you do know that somehow or another, you are obliged to behave in a proper manner.

This reminded me of some tower in the middle of a building and I went to yahoo and typed in 'tower of control' and it gave me this interesting term called Electronic Panopitcon which actually refers to computerised tools for monitoring purposes.

Here goes "the original Panopticon, proposed by Jeremy Bentham, is an architectural design for a prison which has a central tower in a circular building that is divided into individual cells. Each cell extends the entire thickness of the building and has both inner and outer windows. "The occupants of the cells ... are thus backlit, isolated from one another by walls and subject to scrutiny both collectively and individually by an observer in the tower who remains unseen". The final goal is for the inmate to internalise the mechanism of surveillance that the building establishes. The actual and imagined inspections act to reinforce each other in the minds of the prisoner. As Bentham describes it, the "... apparent omnipresence of the inspector ... combined with the extreme facility of his real presence". Surveillance is continuous in its effects even if it is discontinuous in its actions."

This article then talks about computer in our current society, that it also monitors and records datas and information which for example a employer can use to assess his employees. Similarly the Telephone operators. The most interesting part would be the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras and I quote "Who's watching the watchers?". I drew parallels with the telescreens in Oceania and it seems to convince me that I am in no situation to dismiss the validity of 1984.

Then comes the three famous slogans of the Party,
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
I was absolutely confused by this oxymoronic slogan. Your mind will naturally register War as anything but peace and so on. But why is this slogan widely used by the party? For propaganda or maybe as a warning to the citizens that obedience all the party asks for and there shall be no compromise. War is said to be the restoring of current order as it guarantees Big Brother's ultimate victory. Freedom is something that is seen to be burdensome, it is probably refering to the deviation of thoughts of the citizens. Only with ignorance will the citizens be appreciative of the party's effort and they can make Oceaniz a better place (eew. so cliche..)

To sum up, basically this novel has three parts to it, one being the introduction and how the protagonist, Winston develops illegal thoughts against the party. The second part being, his rebellious act against the party and also the little romance with Julia and how both of them were able to share their private feelings about the party. Lastly, the novel ends of with Winston's betrayal by O'Brien and his own betrayal of Julia. He was punished and tortured for his obstinate nature to believe in what the party believes in, that is 2+2=5. But eventually we know that he loved Big Brother..

Yay.. done..

Starting Over..

Due to pure laziness, I have been pushing back the launch of this "highly-aniticipated blog".. Journal blog for 1984.. joy.. yeppie.. will provide a quick overview of the text very soon.. I hope..