Winston Smith Needs OBrien Essay Example for Free

Winston Smith Needs OBrien Essay In the novel 1984 George Orwell pictures a monstrous world of tyranny. One of the themes he explores deals with the way an individual perceives his life in such a world. In the world in 1984 loneliness meets despair, hatred allies with brutality, and one has no choice but to find a way out of that nightmare in order to survive. Winston Smith, the main character, chooses self-delusion as an escape from the horrible reality. In the beginning OBrien is just an object of Winstons attempt to believe that there is someone like him, another man who is surreptitiously against the Party. Smith thinks that OBrien will understand him and help him change his life. Ironically, OBrien really saves Winston from the nightmare of reality, by making him accept it and even love it. Winston Smith is a concealed outcast. He behaves as a Party member while hating the principles and doctrines of the Party. In his consciousness Smith is alone against society a thinking individual facing a deceived mass of people who (za mass may e that ama ne sam ubedena)blindly love the(misliq che ne trqbva da go ima izob6to) Big Brother. Winston realizes that to be an outsider in a world in which individuality is a crime is dangerous. He asks himself if he is alone in the possession of memory because he does not want to believe that everybody is deluded, that all the people like to be controlled by the Party (Orwell p. 62). Even in the age of solitude there must be other intelligent men (Orwell p. 30) Only an intelligent person can understand that sometimes the majority in the face of society might be wrong. Winston, being a concealed outcast, feels lonely. He is longing for a soul mate, a friend, someone who would understand him. Winston wants to meet another concealed outcast that would be against the Party. OBrien is an Inner Party member. It is not difficult to guess that he is not unorthodox. Paradoxically, Winston decides that exactly OBrien is the collaborator he needs: He felt deeply drawn to him ( ) because of a secretly-held belief or perhaps not even a belief, merely a hope- that OBriens political orthodoxy was not perfect. (Orwell p. 13) Smiths belief is based only on the fact that OBrien looks intelligent indeed. Imagination does not need facts it can make them up. Smith already has the hypothesis: OBrien is against the Party. He only needs the proofs. Winstons desperate need for collaboration stimulates his imagination. Thanks to it, Winston gradually starts finding proofs of OBriens unorthodoxy: But there was a fraction of a second when their eyes met and for as long as it took to happen Winston knew-yes, he knew! that OBrien was thinking the same thing as himself. (Orwell p. 19) To know that he is not alone in his hatred for the Party even that is an escape from the locked loneliness in which one had to live (Orwell p. 20). People tend to believe what they want to believe. Thus,(sloji tazi zapetaika:)) in Winstons mind OBrien becomes a secret friend who is a political conspirator. Smith is unable to see that OBriens collaboration is simply the necessary illusion. Once happened to believe that OBrien is a member of the Brotherhood, Winston starts interpreting reality in such a way as to keep this impression. In one of his dreams Smith hears somebody saying: We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness (Orwell p. 27). Winston does not see the face of the man talking, but as a consequence of his interpretation, he identifies the voice as OBriens (Orwell p. 27). When Winston starts keeping a diary, he needs to address the diary to a particular person (Orwell p. 84). Again he chooses OBrien: He knew, with more certainty than before, that OBrien was on his side. He was writing the diary for OBrien to OBrien (Orwell p. 84) Winston is sure that OBrien is a friend and there are (mislq che evidence se izpolzva samo v edinstv. Chislo, taka che go promeni za vseki sluchai)not any evidences to support his belief: Nothing but a flash of the eyes and a single equivocal remark: beyond that, only his own secret imaginings, founded on a dream. (Orwell p. 176) Smiths confidence can only be explained by his need and wish to deceive himself. Ironically, Winston turns out to be right about two things OBrien is a man he can talk to and one who really helps him change his life, but by different means. OBrien does not become his collaborator in a conspiracy against the unbearable regime, nor does he introduce himself to the Brotherhood, but makes him one of the brainwashed Party members. In this way Winston is saved from the horror of reality and starts liking it. Smith has always felt attracted to OBrien because of his appearance of a person you could talk to, if somehow you could cheat the telescreen and get him alone (Orwell p. 13). That is an appealing appearance, especially for a man who is longing to be heard. Winston wants to have someone with whom to share his thoughts, and it does not matter if this someone is a friend or an enemy, as long as he is able to understand: Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood (Orwell p. 264). And OBrien is the person to do so: I enjoy talking to you (Orwell p. 271). Even though Winston does not realize it, OBrien has a good reason to listen to him: in order to alter somebodys conception of the world, and even to eliminate it, one must first have a good notion of it. OBrien really succeeds in changing Winstons mind. Using torture to make Smith relinquish all his beliefs and hopes for a better world, even his love for Julia, OBrien deprives him of the sense of life. If one has nothing to live for, the tyranny of the Party does not matter anymore,(sloji zapet. ) and he is not motivated to rebel against it. OBrien is the one to cure Winston from his disobedience: He had the air of a doctor, a teacher, even a priest, anxious to explain and persuade rather than to punish (p. 257). Smith really needs OBriens help in order to accept reality. Winstons despair is caused by the fact that he cannot acquiesce with the formidable reality. Loneliness and helplessness to rebel against the regime of the Party make him suffer. In the beginning of the book OBrien is a needed illusion an imaginary political enemy of the Party for Winston not be alone in his hatred. At the end,(zap. i tuk) OBrien saves Smith from his anguish by altering his mind and depriving him of the sense of his life. In both cases Winston needs OBrien in order to cease suffering and to survive.

Against Animal Experimentation Essay -- social issues

Against Animal Experimentation Imagine having a headache and not having aspirin to take, or being diabetic and not being able to take certain types of insulin (Williams 3). It seems impossible that these drugs could be unavailable to humans, but they would not be attainable had scientists not tested these drugs on non-animal subjects. Contrary to what many people believe, testing drugs on animals often give defective results. â€Å"More than 205,000 new drugs are marketed worldwide every year, most undergo the most archaic and unreliable testing methods still in use: animal studies† (PETA 1). Although animals may seem the like ideal specimens for testing new drugs, the experiments are untrustworthy and can cause unknown side effects. Research on animals is deemed necessary to develop vaccines, treatments, and cures for diseases and to ensure that new products are safe for humans to use. â€Å"The development of immunization against such diseases as polio, diphtheria, mumps, measles, rubella, pertussis, and hepatitis all involved research on animals [†¦]† (AMPEF 1). Scientists have found many drugs by means of animal experimentation. To some people, animals are viewed as better test subjects than anything else. Scientists can control many aspects in an animal’s life such as their diet, the temperature, lighting, environment, and more. Animals are biologically similar, but not identical to humans and can form some of the same health problems. When these health problems are injected into an animal it can have the same physical reactions as a human could. Brettner -2- Experimenting on animals, to some, is important if humans want to continue with improving our medical advances (AMPEF 1). Although animals have helped form useful medicines for humans like anesthesia, they have also helped put dangerous drugs on the market (AMPEF 1). Practolol, a drug for heart disorders that passed animal test was pulled off the shelves when the drug caused blindness in people. Also, arsenic, which is toxic and causes cancer in humans, has not caused cancer in any animals that were tested (PETA 1). â€Å"According to the General Accounting Office, more than half of the prescription drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 1976 and 1985 caused serious side effects that later caused the drugs to be either relabeled or removed from the market. Drugs app... ... are many other ways to get the same results as humans receive from animal experiments. These methods are viewed as more moral, practical, effective, and less expensive, why wouldn’t we use these methods? By using these methods, scientists were able to invent aspirin and certain types of insulin (Williams 3). Although animals may seem like the ideal specimen for experimenting with, these experiments are untrustworthy and can cause unknown side effects. Works Cited AMPEF. â€Å"Point Counterpoint†. Americans For Medical Progress Education Foundation. 1998. 4 May 2002. Best, Lonnie Lee. â€Å"Are Humans Animals?† The Hardcore Truth. 1998. 1 May 2002. British Anti-Vivisection Association. â€Å"Animal Experimentation: No Lie Can Live Forever†. 2 May 2002. Cohen, Et. Al. â€Å"A Critical Look at Animal Experimentation†. 1998. 3 May 2002. People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals. â€Å"Animal Experimentation†. PETA. 2001. 4 May 2002. Thacher, Wendy. â€Å"Chimpanzees: Test Results That Don’t Apply To Humans†. PCRM Animal Experimentation Issues. September 2, 1999. 5 May 2002. Williams, Joy. â€Å"Do Creatures Have The Same Rights That We Do?† Harper’s Magazine. 1997. 6 May 2002.

Classroom Management Essay

Classroom rules and procedures shape the learning experience, allowing students to understand what is expected of them and foster a positive learning environment within the classroom. Rules are necessary within the classroom and society in general. The classroom is often times one of the first experiences that students have to teach them about life and expectations as members of society. For this topic, two in classroom activities and the behavioral expectations for these will be examined: the use of learning centers and cooperative learning groups. We will also consider two out of classroom activities and the behavioral expectations associated with these: field trips and assemblies. Finally, we will discuss evaluation methods that can be put in place to determine the level of understanding of behavioral expectations for these situations. For the first in-class activity, learning centers, we will first take into consideration the size of the group. Learning centers are most commonly small group activities consisting of three to four students. Learning centers should be areas in which students can complete simple tasks that support and reinforce material that is being taught in the classroom. Say, for example a class is learning about plant life. The teacher lectures on the topic and has a whole class activity that is to be completed by the end of the week. Learning centers can reinforce this topic across a wide variety of subjects. There could be a writing center in which students are given a topic such as the stages of plant growth. A math center which might include counting seeds or other plant related material and a science center that could outline the stages of plant growth would reinforce material covered in large group instruction. There could be a computer learning center where there might be a matching game, where students match stages of a plant’s life cycle with vocabulary words. Throughout all of these activities, rules of behavior would be of utmost importance. Small group activities such as these learning centers usually have minimal teacher supervision. Here is a situation in which behavioral expectations are crucial. Rules such as stay in your assigned area, complete the assigned task and assist peers in your station would be critical for students to understand. Cooperative learning groups are the second topic that will be covered. This is similar to learning centers in that students would need to assist their peers within the group, stay in their assigned groups and complete the task assigned. However, another important rule might be to complete your individual task assigned. In cooperative learning groups, many times a large topic or task is broken down into individual jobs and these are assigned to each student who researches a particular topic and comes back to the group to inform them of their findings. The first out of class activity we will look at is field trips. Field trips are an exciting part of the learning experience, often times bringing to life what has been taught in the classroom. This is an experience that mandates students understanding specific rules of behavior. First and foremost, is the rule to stay with your group. Students need to understand the importance of staying close to your teacher/other authorized school adult so that they return safely. Another rule would be to behave appropriately as the environment calls. For example, a student would behave very differently visiting a library vs. visiting an arcade. Discussion on the location that the field trip takes place would be crucial. How one should dress, what noise level is appropriate and other topics would need to be explained to students. The next out of class activity is assemblies. An assembly is an activity that requires multiple classrooms and hence, differing age levels of a school to come together. This can be a situation that is ripe for negative behavior. There are many purposes for assemblies including special appearances of community members or other recognized individuals, or award ceremonies or special recognitions. Since most assemblies include the whole school, they tend to include large numbers of people and are often quite noisy. Rules that students would need to know include keeping a moderate noise level, walking in an orderly and appropriate fashion and keeping an eye on the teacher to know when to enter and exit an area. During the assembly ceremony, rules that need to be outlined include being attentive to the speaker and participating, if appropriate. The question arises of how we can accurately gauge a student’s understanding of behavioral expectations. The old adage of practice makes perfect would be appropriate here. For situations such as assemblies or field trips, a teacher could utilize practice sessions, coaching students on appropriate behavior in those situations, even having a mock assembly or similar activity to gauge how well students understand their responsibilities in that environment. The teacher could provide tips and tricks for the students to attend to such as always keep your eye on the speaker, which shows respect for the person giving the presentation. A more tangible method might be a multiple choice test given to the class. Depending on the age level of students, scenarios could be written asking students to circle the appropriate behaviors and cross out inappropriate behaviors. Rules and procedures are a vitally important lesson taught in classrooms. They are usually the building blocks of kids becoming productive members of society.

Romanticism And The Process Of Life - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1710 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/06/24 Category Art Essay Level High school Tags: Romanticism Essay Did you like this example? The mystery of the ceaseless nature of life and death has baffled thinkers, great and small, for millennia. Hundreds of years passed with nothing except speculation to interpret your place in the world, but the spread of the Enlightenment and the idea of scientific reasoning brought a new wave of assumptions to Europe. Men and women started using reason in order to make sense of the world around them. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Romanticism And The Process Of Life" essay for you Create order This led to the delegitimizing of what came to encompass the Romantic movement; observation of nature, the sublime, and individual expression; among others. These poets wished to bring back an emphasis on the more indescribable and mysterious aspects of life. Thought and emotion guided their documented experiences, especially when it came to the interpretation of life and death. Although Blake, Shelley, and Keats each discuss the process of aging and resulting death, Blake believes it to be a necessary aspect of nature while Shelley and Keats view it as burdensome. Blake represents the first generation of Romantic poets, who ardently stressed a harmonious relationship between man and nature. The most visible example of this association lies in the collection Songs of Innocence, wherein Blake considers the brightest side of humanity, meaning before the Biblical fall of man. This includes the process of aging and eventual death as, in a perfect relationship between man and nature, growing older is accepted and as much a part of life as the changing of the seasons. No one fights against it or looks with jealousy upon those younger than them. For example, in Echoing Green, a group of children play while the older men and women watch them nostalgically; these elders laugh away care as they look on, but do not reference any feelings of wanting to go back or hold anything against the children, themselves. They recognize that youth must fade (Blake, Echoing Green 10-14). Another aspect of a perfect correlation between man and nature is the joy that comes along with the birth of new life. In Infant Joy, a mother welcomes her child into the world and asks the newborn what she shall be called. The infant replies, I happy am,/ Joy is my name. The mother blesses her child and sings her to sleep, wishing that Sweet joy befall thee! Both poems exhibit instances in which life, at all stages, is cherished and exalted (Blake, Infant Joy 4-12). No worry or sadness exists over the prospect of having to grow old or to bring forth another mouth to feed. Men, women, and children accept their place within the natural order and even celebrate it. Conversely, Songs of Experience, emphasizes the fallen, corrupted aspects of human nature, including the reluctance to accept aging. The subjects of Songs of Experience find themselves to be jealous and hostile towards those who still have their youth. Nursers Song, especially, references ill feelings that the nurse has for the children in her care. Watching the children play on the green triggers a flood of childhood memories for the nurse, causing her face to turn green and pale. She longs for what the children have, youth and the opportunity that it brings. However, the nurse knows that it has already passed her and resents the children for what she cannot have. This is seen through her scolding of their childish ways, Your spring your day, are wasted in play/ And your winter and night in disguise. Her reprimanding not only exhibits a reluctance to age, but also a kind of resentment towards those forces that caused her to grow old (Blake, Nursers Song 1-8). Life, in Songs of Experience, is not revered, but despised. Children are shackled and taught to ignore the inherit freedom of their nature while families fear the idea of new life, as it means a new mouth to feed. For example, in Infant Sorrow, an infant enters the world crying and struggling to a family that does not want her. The parents view the child as a burden on them, a person they will have to support into adulthood (Blake, Infant Sorrow 1-8). The happiness that resulted from the birth of the newborn in Infant Joy, does not appear in this particular poem. It is obvious that the stages of life are not to be celebrated in a world that has been corrupted by man. The two separate collections, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience exist in order to illustrate the contrast between a pre and post-Biblical fall world. From that point of view, Blakers own thoughts on inequality and the perception of aging shine through. Blake recognizes that the world consists of imperfect people trying to live in correlation with nature, despite their tendency towards folly. Blake, himself, believes in an acceptance of the natural order, including the processes of aging, and acts as a sort of prophet. He tells the youth, and all those reading his poetry, to listen to his words, as many wish to lead others when they should be led (Blake, The Voice of the Ancient Bard 11). The two collections represent the perfect versus the realistic. Blake asserts that the world should be as is described in Songs of Innocence, but Songs of Experience shows that to be false. Humans do not act in accordance with God and nature. They fight against their steady aging and look wi th disdain upon those who are farther away from dying than they. While Blake considers this mindset to be a byproduct of humanityrs corrupted nature, Shelley views aging through the lense of Songs of Experience, burdensome and almost torturous. In To a Skylark, Shelley struggles to encapsulate the immortality of the birdrs song in comparison to the doomed mortality of his, and mankindrs, own. Shelley structured the piece to mimic a prayer. The opening line reads, Hail to thee, blithe spirit! and follows with a praise of the skylarkrs ability to sing such a heavenly song. The speaker then details the fact that the birdrs song is not tainted as the poetrs because it cannot comprehend the pains that accompany human existence. The skylark is not conscience of its own being, let alone its own mortality. Therefore, its song is pure, unaltered, and continuous. In contrast, a man understands the fact that he will die one day and is deeply troubled by his own consciousness. Manrs poetry, even that concerning a happy subject, brims with the knowledge of his own death: We look before and after, And pine for what is not: Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs tell of saddest thought (Shelley, To a Skylark 86-90). The speaker continues by asking the skylark to allow him to sing in a similar way, so that The world should listen then, as I am listening now (Shelley, To a Skylark 105). Unlike Blake, Shelley never explicitly references the aging process, but he discusses the prospect of death, itself. Instead of advocating an acceptance of death and its place in the natural order, as Blake does, Shelley questions the consciousness of man. Treating the understanding of aging and death as a curse, he details how a manrs poetry could never match that of a birdrs due to his own comprehension of his impending mortality. He ponders the depth of the knowledge of the skylark, believing that perhaps the bird is cognizant of more than humans. Thou of death must deem/ Things more true and deep/ Than we mortals dream (Shelley, To a Skylark 81-84). Therefore, Shelley claims that the burden of the human existence is not the process of aging and death, but the knowledge of its inevitability. As a fellow member of the second generation of Romantic poets, Keats also views the natural order as taxing and questions his own cognizance. Keatsrs poetry more explicitly references death, as he contracted tuberculosis at a young age. Like Shelley, Keats regards recognition of oners own mortality as true death. In Ode to a Nightingale, he stresses how much he longs for a draught of vintage, hoping to numb his ability to contemplate the greater purpose of life. Keats states that he wants to be left alone with the nightingale to fade away into the forest dim. He hopes to dissolve into the night with the bird, forgetting all knowledge he has of his own impending death. Keats describes the pains and sorrows of the human experience that have escaped the nightingale, as it cannot recognize its own misery (Keats, Ode to a Nightingale 11-20). Both Shelley and Keats look to nature, specifically birds, as representative of the freedom which alludes all of humanity. Doomed to feel and interpret all the sadness life entails, especially death, the poets long to be as the nightingale or the skylark, ignorant of their own pr ecarious nature. Because the birds are not able to foresee their own deaths, their song reaches an immortal significance. The poets voice and message may change, but a birdrs song remains the same from generation to generation. Keats illustrates this when he tells the nightingale, Thou was not born for death, immortal Bird! (Keats, Ode to a Nightingale 71). Aging may be apart of the natural cycle of life, but the knowledge of such a sequence is a significant burden, according to Shelley and Keats. Blake emphasizes the necessity of accepting oners position in life, whether that be a young child or an elderly person. In a pre-Biblical fall, i.e. perfect, society, man and nature should have a harmonious relationship in which humans respect and work within the context of the natural order. This obviously is not actually the case in the outside world. Blake observes that men try to control nature and force it to bend to their whims, proudly thinking it will kneel to them. They feel jealousy and hostility towards those that have the things they once did, such as youth. The world described in Songs of Experience is one that Shelley and Keats try to make sense of. The two poets detail their consciousness of aging and death as burdensome and almost unnecessary. They do not advertise living within the natural order, but instead represent exactly what Blake was arguing against, not accepting your age as part of the everchanging and continuous circle of life.