The Chimney Sweeper

I agree with the authors when they said that Blake’s poetry had the power to enact social change through a reader’s imagination. As you can see, Blake was an extremely talented guy. He saw there was a problem in society. He did the best he could by addressing the problem. The problem in during his time in society was that they had little fragile innocent children sweeping chimneys. This job was extremely dangerous for the children because it put their lives in danger. All the smog and fumes were extremely toxic. Every time a child would go do work he would be losing less and less minutes of his life. Not only were the children in danger because he was working in toxic fumes, but also because he was paid little money. In addition, the children were worked to capacity. Blake’s poetry appealed to my imagination because I just imagined myself in that situation. This is a horrendous life experience that I would not wish on anyone let alone a child. After reading this, I begin to feel overly empathetic for the children that had to do this work. In addition, I am using my imagination to think of solutions to fix this problem. Eventually, I want my imagination of solutions to the problems to become reality. All in all, due to Romantic poets such as Blake, the world is now a better place. They bought about social change by appealing to the imagination of the readers. Because of Blake there are now Child Labor Laws enforced.

The reason the editors have included that Parliament transcript as a primary source document to emphasize how significant an issue chimney sweeping was. As a result, the government passed the Factory Act of 1883. This law was essential because it limited working hours for specific age groups. This is the first example of child labor laws. After reading Parliament transcripts, I have a more in depth understanding of what Blake was trying to portray in his writing. These transcripts show the harsh conditions and punishments that children had to undergo.

Jonathon Teacher Prep Work

While reading the excerpt from Swift's Gulliver' Travels, Part 1: A Voyage to Lilliput, I've come up with several questions. The first question that came to mind after reading this is what are some philosophical ideas behind the excerpt from Swift's Gulliver' Travels? The reason why I chose this question is because all stories have significant philosophical ideas behind them. The main philosophical idea behind the expert from Swift's Gulliver' Travels is how people as a whole can conquer something big. The small people in the story represent your everyday people, and the Gulliver is a symbol for the government. This story shows how when people are united anything is possible. The next question that came to mind after reading this story is what does the character Gulliver represent? Gulliver represent something large in society such as the government or even an political issue. I chose this question because while reading the story I was continuously asking myself what does this character symbolize. The reason Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels is to satirize a political issue in society during the time he first wrote the story. The story is one that everyone can relate because their is always something going on in the world. For example, global warming is becoming a major problem for the world. If mankind unite together we can capture this problem and control it just like the little people did to Gulliver.

I really enjoy working in small groups. When I work in small groups, it give me different prospectives on the reading. Many times when I read something I have my blinders on, so working with a group helps me see the whole picture. Also, another thing I enjoyed while working in small groups is that everybody in my group came prepared and ready to work. Something I would change about working in groups would be focusing on my work more often. There were many sidebars within the group. All in all, I really enjoy working in groups and hope we do it more often.

1984 Final Project

In George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984, the role that the doctrine O'Brien proclaims to Winston in the passage serves as the theme for maintaining oligarchical collectivism in the INGSOC society. Furthermore, it foreshadows Winston's ultimate fate at the closing of the novel.

To begin with, the main idea of the doctrine O'Brien proclaims to Winston is that he will never win. O'Brien also tells him how only thoughts of the Party are accurate. In addition, he tells Winston that "What ever the Party holds to be the truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.” With that being said, Winston had a difficult time accepting what they were saying because he knew deep down it was not the truth. O'Brien would ask him many different questions. Winston would give him answers that he knew where the truth, however those answers weren't answer of the party so therefor they were incorrect. As a result, Winston would get beaten and tortured by O'Brien until he changed his answers. Due to fear and exhaustion , Winston begin to believe the things they were saying. For example, when O'Brien ask Winston how many fingers he got up. Winston replies five even though he knows that he have four fingers up. All Winston want him to do is stop the torture. Winston knew that he had to say whatever the party wanted him to say so he wont get tortured and beaten. This was the way that the Party help people "relearn" life's history the way that they wanted them to. They did this by torture and pain. The party got total mind control of Winston and many others this way. As you can see, the main idea of oligarchical collectivism is to gain total mind control.

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past" is a quote from book three chapter 2. It is also, one of the Party's slogan. This quote is said when Winston talks to O'Brien about the nature of the past. The significance of the quote is that the Party has acquired control of the past and the future due to having complete political power in the present. The Party has rewritten the past as a time of slavery and misery and how it conquered the human race, so now this is the future goal of the Party. However, if they would have written the past with a positive connotation instead of a negative connotation then the people would have something to live up to. Since they had total political party they could have used their powers for good instead of evil. This idea is something that we all as readers could relate to. I personally could relate to this because the past as I know it is something to live up to. Many Americans had a major impact on making this world a better place for you and me. I want to be the next American to help shape this world into an even better place for you and me.

Winston's ultimate fate at the end of the novel is that he surrender to the power of the Party. Winston was always known since the beginning of the novel as a character who did not give into the Party. He and his comrades feared watching television because the television was watching them. Any facial expression that they showed the police would wonder what they were thinking about. But what differ from Winston and his comrades is that they chose to give into the INGSOC. They believe that it would be easier for them to follow the Party and use their language Newspeak. They also felt safe under the Party's rule. The believed the Party would protect them from evil. The irony in that is that the Party was evil. Winston looked up to O'Brien because he thought they shared a mutual dislike in Big Brother. Unfortunately, Winston was wrong about O'Brien. O'Brien got Winston into prison and told him how he needs to follow the Party. He said no. This rebellion cause Winston a lot of pain. The Party would ask him many questions about the past, he would not give them the answers they were looking for so he got tortured even more. He was in tremendous amounts of pain and he would do anything to stop it. So he did whatever the Party wanted him to do and say. By the end of his torture sessions he looked up to O'Brien as a hero. He believed that O'Brien was in control of the pain. Yet, O'Brien was just in control of his mind. He brainwash Winston into believing INGSOC!

In conclusion, in the doctrine O'Brien proclaims to Winston on how the Party was maintaining oligarchical collectivism. O'Brien called him a lunatic for not believing the Party and how you must be self disciplined to see reality. The only way to be self disciplined was to submit to the Party. In addition, the doctrine show why Winston, submitted to the Party.