the play: how did meaning speak to you?

After the play, my friends said they felt strongly that the story was talking about organized religion. My husband and I talked a bit about politcal connections, and then began talking about the media. The media has for years been associated with liberal politics. Do you remember when O'Brien said that Big Brother had created Goldstein because Big Brother wanted to control everything even the opposition. Things that make you say "hmm." What aspect of the world did the play make YOU think about?

The play 1984 made me think about the governments control over us, as citizens. It made me think a lot about the Patriot Act and the invasion of privacy. Also, it made me think a lot reality. Is there really such a thing as reality? Conforming to the norm or caving to peer pressure are things related to this topic. If enough people believe something, does it become the common belief? Is there such a thing as individual thought or belief? Who knows.

The play made me really think about the control some Muslim leaders have over their followers. what I mean is people like suicide bombers who kill themselves in the name of Allah. It is crazy that one person can have that much influence on so many people and that the one person can convince the others to do such crazy things in the name of Allah.

This play made me wonder about the role that media plays in government. This play clearly illustrates how important a free and un-biased media is to a free government, such as ours. It makes you wonder how much of what we hear from the government is true, and how much is propaganda. Also, how lucky we are that we have many sources of information such as different newsstations, newspapers, etc. The government kept the people under a tight leash by spoon-feeding them only the information it wanted them to know, and keeping them afraid. As one of the characters said, people are much more willing to give up their rights to a small upper minority if they think it is for their own safety.

It shows the sway that society holds over those that don't take an active and thoughtful interest in politics. The proles were not very active politically, basically allowing their opression

I agree with WhatShouldMyNameBe7 because it also made me think about the Patriot Act. It is a complete invasion of privacy because you never know when they are listening to your phone conversations or reading your e-mails/text messages. In 1984, the parallel to this were the telescreens that watched everything you did. Another thing this play really made me think about was if we have already fallen into the trap of conforming to one system and not being individual. This comes up a lot in the fashion industry because when a trend is "in", you are guaranteed to see 75% of the people in the streets following the latest trend. Also, when do we draw the line between what is right and wrong. In 1984, Big Brother (if he even exists) makes all of the rules and everyone obeys them without questioning his authority. In our society, there is definitely a line that shouldn't be crossed. For example, you never swear in the presence of a higher authority (such as a teacher or a political figure). Who was the first person to decide that this was improper? What would society be like if we had no rules?

The only thing that I thought of from the play was the play itself and the control the Inner Party had over everyone else. It would not be a fun world to live in where the political minority at 2% of the population was able to keep control over the rest of the population. I think the only thing the play is drawing a connection to is a warning to not let this happen to our government. Orwell does not want anyone to let their government get the kind of control that the Inner Party has in this play.

This play really got me thinking of how closely it is beginning to relate to us today. Whatshouldmynamebe7 mentions the Patriot Act and how our privacy can be invaded. But also think about how in 1984 you got in trouble for writing “Down with Big Brother” in your private journal. In the US, people can publicly criticize Bush everyday (whether it be in the form of political cartoons or like rallies against him for a certain decision he made, etc.) without being taken away to the Ministry.

The play makes me think about reality. How do we know if the reality that we all believe in is actually "reality?" Maybe we've all been corrupted by our government. How would we ever know? This makes me wonder what kind of info the media and government is feeding us. Is it the truth? Or is it all propaganda?

The play called attention to an extreme act of power a government can have over the actions and even thoughts of its citizens. The government caould even manipulate the meaning of comman used words. For example, "war is peace." This simple contradictory statement symbolizes a phrase, so ingrained in the minds of the ciitizens that it actually it was taken for the truth. The contradiction is not challenged or questioned because of fear for the government, who should be representing its people not terrifing its own citizens.

This definatly made me think of the government. I thought of the patriot act and how the government is trying to maintan the right to listen to our conversations to keep threats from popping up. Also how the government just passed the law to use any means necissary to get information concerning terrorist (just as the electro shock stuff from the play) and it is up to the presidents discretion to interupt the Geneva Convention and how the government is worming its way into our lives

The meaning of 1984 came off to me as something along the lines of the government doing whatever the hell they wanted to do.
They had unlimited surveillance of the public, without warrants.
They controlled the news, and even rewrote past history.
They controlled how people talked and dressed.
It was a message of conformity
It showed me that to keep America free, like it is today, that we need to speak out and be who we want to be.
It reminds me a drug commercial, to be above the influence. To influence yourself, and not let other do it for you

I thoght of V for Vendetta. These are almost exactly the same. A government trying to control and even subdue its people. I thought it showed what the world could come to at any time.
I especially thought about our own government. Are they witholding information about many subjects? Or are they truthful? I think not, because what happened to the WMDs?

The play spoke to me as the difference between free will and the control everyone else has on that. The higher ranked people control the past, who controls the past controlles the present and so on like in the play. This play shows how life is taken over by a large group, in this case big brothers government. The impact on the people from the Gov't takes away everything.

The play made me think about u.S. citizens today. we already know that at least some government information has been hidden from us because we have heard about it after it is relevant . in 1984, the governement kept info from the citizens to alter their thoughts. and it has done that/ could be used to do that to us too
for example the government had some info that said that a terrorist attack might happen... the gov. did nothing and the citizens knew nothing about it so we(the citizens) thought we were safe. the citizens were wrong but it was the gov's fault that we were uninformed

The play made me think about how POW's are being tourtured in prisons today. And also about the Patriot Act. What rememberthename said The restricting of certain books, movies, websites, photos,etc could happen to us. We better watch out.

The play 1984 definitely made me think about the role the government plays in our lifes. They control the media, therefore they control all the information we get about the world around us. I mean how much of what we know and see is actually true? Could the government really be conforming us into these close minded fanatics we see in the play? The scary thing to me was how the government was able to make people hate so much and so easily. Whatever and whoever the government hated, the people hated. There is no need for that much hate in the world.

that is an interesting point. The people are incredibly oblivious in 1984. It is as if there is a dome over them that doesnt allow them to see anything but what they are being told. The govt just tries to bring ll the people on its side no matter what.

Well as long as everyone is talking about governments, how about the u.s.s.r. They restricted the media that came in, were absolutely bent on keeping the people down, one way was say everyone was equal, the people are happy with this, but the government is really rich, powerful, ext. I can go on and on, but unfortunately i have no idea if the things i spew out are facts or fiction.

And on the movies issue, the matrix actually has some surprising similarities. Keep the people stupid, and they will never question how you are exploiting them, 1984 = money matrix = energy. Again it has been a while since i have seen the matrix, so i have no idea what parts i will be making up and which "actually" happened in the movie.