I'm Gonna Make a Blog You Can't Refuse.

George Orwell's 1984 was written during the rise of many governments that had the power of the country in the hands of a few. He uses this book to warn the reader about what a possible world would look like if the government had complete control. Newspeak is a way for the government in 1984 to control the thoughts and minds of the people. It is an extreme way of saying that politicians and governments manipulate languages and words to convey the message they want and push the crowd towards them. This can be backed up by this quote in the book by Syme,"Don't you see that the whole aim if Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it." Language is one of the easiest ways to convey the information we have. If someone creates a language in which there is only one way of thinking there would be no way to say anything otherwise because you would not be able to...

                                Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why? Who is the "target audience?" What are the clues (words, images, sounds, etc.)? What "tools of persuasions" are used? What part of the story is not being told? What group/s does this empower? What group/s does it disempower? This poster is from the World Wildlife Fund and was created to gain support to help endangered animals specifically the tiger. It was released in India where the superstition of a tiger claw bringing good luck is common. This can information can be gathered from the words displayed on the poster.  The poster tries to create empathy for the Tigers and some logic to undermine the belief in the superstition. The story not being told is if this superstition is part of the culture and whether there needs to be a debate on which is more important, preservation of animals or ...

Now if you do not know where this slogan is from, it is from George Orwell's 1984 . I will be trying to explain what I believe the government of this fictional world was trying to tell the people with this poster. These posters were hung everywhere to let you know Big Brother was Watching you and the government, ruled by Big Brother, was monitoring your every movement and whatever you do will be seen. It erases any sense of privacy and if someone is thinking about doing something bad they are already committing a thoughtcrime and will be arrested by the thought police. This slogan tells all people who look at it that they are in the simple sense being watched. By 1984 it seems that many people have already adjusted to being watched and this slogan is just their to remind them if they forget. It is hard to imagine what it would be like if the world today was like 1984 and we had these posters on every street corner. So whenever you think or do something just remember, BIG BROTHE...

For the next few weeks the blog posts will be based on Shakespeare's play, " Much Ado About Nothing." Unfortunately we are reading the Pelican Shakespeare published by Penguin Books instead of watching a movie version: There's two to choose from!: The prompt for this blogpost is: Choose a challenging passage from Act I, and  follow the action . Explain your process of following the action and then write the passage in your own words using contemporary English. The beginning of Much Ado About Nothing is the most challenging to follow the action because many of the characters are on stage and speaking. At times it becomes difficult to tell who is talking and to whom they talking too. My plan to follow the action was to pay more attention to the script and what is going on. Lines 87-111 Leonato: My niece, you will not go mad from catching Benedick. Beatrice: No, not if January were to become hot. Messenger: Don Pedro has arrived. (Don Pedro, Claudio, a...