Homework Due 4/22 & 4/23

1. Read the rest of Chapter 1, annotating once per page
2. Come prepared with four questions on a separate sheet of paper about the text that you will discuss in small groups: Two questions must be surface level (Who? What? When? Where?) Two questions must be beneath the surface (Why? How?)
3. As you read, constantly try to answer this question: How is Morrison’s writing style an attempt to “pull back the veil” and expose the interior lives of former slaves?

Beloved Homework: Due Monday 4/21/08

1. Read the excerpt from Morrison's chapter entitled "The Site of Memory". Remember why you are reading: You are trying to determine WHY Morrison writes and, in particular, why she wrote Beloved.
   
2. Answer the related questions to the four passages from the handout (copied below).
   

Guiding Questions for “The Site of Memory”
by Toni Morrison

For these questions, pay attention to the numbered passages in the text that begin and end with brackets.

PASSAGE #1: According to Morrison, why did freed slaves write their narratives? Provide one quotation to support your answer.

PASSAGE #2: How does Morrison view literacy? What is literacy’s relationship to slavery?

PASSAGE #3: In this passage, Morrison quotes the following sentence: “But let us drop a veil over these proceedings too terrible to relate” (110.1). She goes on to explain this phrase. What does this phrase mean?

What does Morrison think her job is since many previous writers “dropped the veil” over their writing?

PASSAGE #4: How does Morrison use imagination as a tool to help her writing?

What is Morrison trying to with the “interior life of people who didn’t write it (which doesn’t mean that they didn’t have it)” (113.6)?

Sex, Love, and Power Mini-Essay (due 4/7)

Consider Winston and Julia’s relationship in 1984. In a mini-essay, explore the relationship between sex, love, and power as viewed in Oceania. More specifically, your essay should directly answer the following questions: How are love and sex viewed by INGSOC? What message is Orwell communicating about the power of love and sex?

Your essay should be at least four paragraphs in length. It should include a brief introduction with a thesis statement that directly answers the essay questions, two body paragraphs that closely examine three quotations from the text, and a brief conclusion that builds upon the original thesis statement.

Email your essay to devin@ucla.edu before class begins on Monday, April 7th. Hand written copies will also be accepted but digital copies are preferred.

Homework Due 4/1 & 4/2

1. Read & Annotate Chapter 1 of Book 3 from 1984.
2. Turn in any missing work.
3. Work on Sex, Love, and Power mini-essay due Monday, 4/7 (see post for assignment)
   

Question from Remained of Book II

Pg.245.8 What order does Obrien dictate into the machine?
It might be written to warn someone or written to just someone, not sure, might be unknown.

Pg.268 A party member won’t say war is real?
They don’t doubt the war is real.

Was the telescreen always in the room that Winston rented from Mr. Charrington?
It's unknown.

What’s a Hierarchical society?
It’s a structure society, there is a top, middle and lower class.

What does this mean? “they add nothing to wealth of the world ,since whatever they produce is used for purposes of war…” pg264.4
You are more responsible for destroying than making the bomb.

What is the big importance that Orwell devotes to Brotherhood book?
The book is so important because, its all about introducing new things to the world and people, to try to give them ideas to get out of the things they don’t like.

Why does the inner party the only one who can turn of the telescreen?
They have the privilege. It would be a type of evidence that could be used to destroy the party. Also, they could be doing naughty things that they don’t want other people to see (think of the priest’s “last little pleasure” from V for Vendetta).

Why does the brotherhood in certain times change identity, face, age, and hair?
To cover up themselves so other people wont know is them, and to protect their identity.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

This symbolic story will be another theoretical lens with which we will read the story of 1984 through.


Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Background
The most important of Socrates’s young disciples was Plato (427-347 B.C.), who was one of the most powerful thinkers in history. Plato was also famous for writing all of Socrates’s philosophy in his place, thus making it difficult to distinguish between the thought of Socrates and that of Plato.

Stage #1: In the Cave
The essence of Plato’s philosophy is depicted allegorically in the Myth of the Cave, which appears in his most important work, the Republic. In this myth, Plato has Socrates think of the following vision: Imagine prisoners chained in such a way that they face the back wall of a cave. There they have been for life and can see nothing of themselves or of each other: They see only shadows on the wall of the cave.

These shadows are cast by a fire that burns on a ledge above and behind them. Between the fire and the prisoners is a wall-lined path along which people walk carrying vases, statues, and other artifacts on their heads. The prisoners hear the echoes of voices and see the shadows of the artifacts, and they mistake these echoes and shadows for reality (since this world is all they know).

Stage #2: Released from the Chains
Plato has Socrates imagine that one prisoner is unchained, turned around, and forced to look at the true source of the shadows. But the fire pains his eyes. He prefers the pleasant deception of the shadows.

Behind and above the fire is the mouth of the cave, and outside in the bright sunlight (only a little of which trickles into the cave) are trees, rivers, mountains, and sky.

Stage #3: The Long, Steep Ascent into the Light
Now the former prisoner is forced up the steep path that leads to the sunlit exterior world (n.b. this act represents education: an upward climb that ultimately leads to truth). But the light blinds him. He must first look at the shadows of the trees (since he is used to the shadows), then at the trees and mountains. Finally he is able to see the sun itself (n.b. this act represents reaching enlightenment).

Stage #4: Trying to Free the Blissfully Ignorant
Plato suggests that if this enlightened man were to return to the cave, he would appear ridiculous because he would see sunspots everywhere and not be able to penetrate the darkness.

And, if he tried to liberate his fellow prisoners, they would be so angry at him for disturbing their illusions that they would set upon him and kill him (n.b. these are similar circumstances that led to Socrates’s death).

Conclusion
This symbolic story, or allegory, of the liberation of the slave from darkness, deceit, and untruth and the slave’s hard journey into the light and warmth of the Truth has inspired many philosophers and social leaders.

HW for Spring Break (Due Monday, 3/31/08)

1. Read and annotate the rest of Book II (up to page 300)
2. The Matrix & Plato’s Cave Assignment:
   
   Watch the film The Matrix (the first movie, not the sequels). Identify how Neo passes through each stage of the allegory of Plato’s cave. Explain each stage in at least one paragraph making references to the characters in the movie (yes, you must talk about more characters than just Neo) and connect how it relates to Plato’s allegory (see the handout from class).
   
   Checklist:
   □ Brief introductory paragraph that connects Neo’s journey to Plato’s allegory
   □ One paragraph explaining Neo’s journey through Stage #1 of the allegory (see Plato handout)
   □ One paragraph explaining Neo’s journey through Stage #2 of the allegory
   □ One paragraph explaining Neo’s journey through Stage #3
   □ One paragraph explaining Neo’s journey through Stage #4
   □ Brief concluding paragraph
   
   
   Due Monday, March 31st, 2008 at the beginning of class. Can be emailed to devin@ucla.edu or handwritten.