Read Margaret Atwood's article, "Orwell and Me" from Guardian Unlimited. I will provide both a URL and the full article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,978156,00.html
Consider the following in your 750 word response:
- What it's like to experience your adolescence (a critical and confusing phase of your life) in our post 9/11 world.
- Frye's The Educated Imagination
- Atwood's last question
- What you will do with your life
Orwell and me
Margaret Atwood cried her eyes out when she first read Animal Farm at the age of nine. Later, its author became a major influence on her writing. As the centenary of George Orwell's birth approaches, she says he would have plenty to say about the post-9/11 world
Monday June 16, 2003
The Guardian
I grew up with George Orwell. I was born in 1939, and Animal Farm was published in 1945. Thus, I was able to read it at the age of nine. It was lying around the house, and I mistook it for a book about talking animals, sort of like Wind in the Willows. I knew nothing about the kind of politics in the book - the child's version of politics then, just after the war, consisted of the simple notion that Hitler was bad but dead.
So I gobbled up the adventures of Napoleon and Snowball, the smart, greedy, upwardly mobile pigs, and Squealer the spin-doctor, and Boxer the noble but thick-witted horse, and the easily led, slogan-chanting sheep, without making any connection with historical events.
To say that I was horrified by this book is an understatement. The fate of the farm animals was so grim, the pigs so mean and mendacious and treacherous, the sheep so stupid. Children have a keen sense of injustice, and this was the thing that upset me the most: the pigs were so unjust. I cried my eyes out when Boxer the horse had an accident and was carted off to be made into dog food, instead of being given the quiet corner of the pasture he'd been promised.
The whole experience was deeply disturbing to me, but I am forever grateful to Orwell for alerting me early to the danger flags I've tried to watch out for since. In the world of Animal Farm, most speechifying and public palaver is bullshit and instigated lying, and though many characters are good-hearted and mean well, they can be frightened into closing their eyes to what's really going on.
The pigs browbeat the others with ideology, then twist that ideology to suit their own purposes: their language games were evident to me even at that age. As Orwell taught, it isn't the labels - Christianity, Socialism, Islam, Democracy, Two Legs Bad, Four Legs Good, the works - that are definitive, but the acts done in their name.
I could see, too, how easily those who have toppled an oppressive power take on its trappings and habits. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was right to warn us that democracy is the hardest form of government to maintain; Orwell knew that to the marrow of his bones, because he had seen it in action.
How quickly the precept "All Animals Are Equal" is changed into "All Animals Are Equal, but Some Are More Equal Than Others". What oily concern the pigs show for the welfare of the other animals, a concern that disguises their contempt for those they are manipulating.
With what alacrity do they put on the once-despised uniforms of the tyrannous humans they have overthrown, and learn to use their whips. How self-righteously they justify their actions, helped by the verbal web-spinning of Squealer, their nimble-tongued press agent, until all power is in their trotters, pretence is no longer necessary, and they rule by naked force.
A revolution often means only that: a revolving, a turn of the wheel of fortune, by which those who were at the bottom mount to the top, and assume the choice positions, crushing the former power-holders beneath them. We should beware of all those who plaster the landscape with large portraits of themselves, like the evil pig, Napoleon.
Animal Farm is one of the most spectacular Emperor-Has-No-Clothes books of the 20th century, and it got George Orwell into trouble. People who run counter to the current popular wisdom, who point out the uncomfortably obvious, are likely to be strenuously baa-ed at by herds of angry sheep. I didn't have all that figured out at the age of nine, of course - not in any conscious way. But we learn the patterns of stories before we learn their meanings, and Animal Farm has a very clear pattern.
Then along came Nineteen Eighty-Four, which was published in 1949. Thus, I read it in paperback a couple of years later, when I was in high school. Then I read it again, and again: it was right up there among my favourite books, along with Wuthering Heights.
At the same time, I absorbed its two companions, Arthur Koestler's Darkness At Noon and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I was keen on all three of them, but I understood Darkness At Noon to be a tragedy about events that had already happened, and Brave New World to be a satirical comedy, with events that were unlikely to unfold in exactly that way. (Orgy-Porgy, indeed.)
Nineteen Eighty-Four struck me as more realistic, probably because Winston Smith was more like me - a skinny person who got tired a lot and was subjected to physical education under chilly conditions (this was a feature of my school) - and who was silently at odds with the ideas and the manner of life proposed for him. (This may be one of the reasons Nineteen-Eighty-Four is best read when you are an adolescent: most adolescents feel like that.)
I sympathised particularly with Winston's desire to write his forbidden thoughts down in a deliciously tempting, secret blank book: I had not yet started to write, but I could see the attractions of it. I could also see the dangers, because it's this scribbling of his - along with illicit sex, another item with considerable allure for a teenager of the 50s - that gets Winston into such a mess.
Animal Farm charts the progress of an idealistic movement of liberation towards a totalitarian dictatorship headed by a despotic tyrant; Nineteen Eighty-Four describes what it's like to live entirely within such a system. Its hero, Winston, has only fragmentary memories of what life was like before the present dreadful regime set in: he's an orphan, a child of the collectivity. His father died in the war that has ushered in the repression, and his mother has disappeared, leaving him with only the reproachful glance she gave him as he betrayed her over a chocolate bar - a small betrayal that acts both as the key to Winston's character and as a precursor to the many other betrayals in the book.
The government of Airstrip One, Winston's "country", is brutal. The constant surveillance, the impossibility of speaking frankly to anyone, the looming, ominous figure of Big Brother, the regime's need for enemies and wars - fictitious though both may be - which are used to terrify the people and unite them in hatred, the mind-numbing slogans, the distortions of language, the destruction of what has really happened by stuffing any record of it down the Memory Hole - these made a deep impression on me. Let me re-state that: they frightened the stuffing out of me. Orwell was writing a satire about Stalin's Soviet Union, a place about which I knew very little at the age of 14, but he did it so well that I could imagine such things happening anywhere.
There is no love interest in Animal Farm, but there is in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Winston finds a soulmate in Julia; outwardly a devoted Party fanatic, secretly a girl who enjoys sex and makeup and other spots of decadence. But the two lovers are discovered, and Winston is tortured for thought-crime - inner disloyalty to the regime.
He feels that if he can only remain faithful in his heart to Julia, his soul will be saved - a romantic concept, though one we are likely to endorse. But like all absolutist governments and religions, the Party demands that every personal loyalty be sacrificed to it, and replaced with an absolute loyalty to Big Brother.
Confronted with his worst fear in the dreaded Room 101, where a nasty device involving a cage-full of starving rats can be fitted to the eyes, Winston breaks: "Don't do it to me," he pleads, "do it to Julia." (This sentence has become shorthand in our household for the avoidance of onerous duties. Poor Julia - how hard we would make her life if she actually existed. She'd have to be on a lot of panel discussions, for instance.)
After his betrayal of Julia, Winston becomes a handful of malleable goo. He truly believes that two and two make five, and that he loves Big Brother. Our last glimpse of him is sitting drink-sodden at an outdoor cafe, knowing he's a dead man walking and having learned that Julia has betrayed him, too, while he listens to a popular refrain: "Under the spreading chestnut tree/ I sold you and you sold me ..."
Orwell has been accused of bitterness and pessimism - of leaving us with a vision of the future in which the individual has no chance, and where the brutal, totalitarian boot of the all-controlling Party will grind into the human face, for ever.
But this view of Orwell is contradicted by the last chapter in the book, an essay on Newspeak - the doublethink language concocted by the regime. By expurgating all words that might be troublesome - "bad" is no longer permitted, but becomes "double-plus-ungood" - and by making other words mean the opposite of what they used to mean - the place where people get tortured is the Ministry of Love, the building where the past is destroyed is the Ministry of Information - the rulers of Airstrip One wish to make it literally impossible for people to think straight. However, the essay on Newspeak is written in standard English, in the third person, and in the past tense, which can only mean that the regime has fallen, and that language and individuality have survived. For whoever has written the essay on Newspeak, the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is over. Thus, it's my view that Orwell had much more faith in the resilience of the human spirit than he's usually been given credit for.
Orwell became a direct model for me much later in my life - in the real 1984, the year in which I began writing a somewhat different dystopia, The Handmaid's Tale. By that time I was 44, and I had learned enough about real despotisms - through the reading of history, travel, and my membership of Amnesty International - so that I didn't need to rely on Orwell alone.
The majority of dystopias - Orwell's included - have been written by men, and the point of view has been male. When women have appeared in them, they have been either sexless automatons or rebels who have defied the sex rules of the regime. They have acted as the temptresses of the male protagonists, however welcome this temptation may be to the men themselves.
Thus Julia; thus the cami-knicker-wearing, orgy-porgy seducer of the Savage in Brave New World; thus the subversive femme fatale of Yevgeny Zamyatin's 1924 seminal classic, We. I wanted to try a dystopia from the female point of view - the world according to Julia, as it were. However, this does not make The Handmaid's Tale a "feminist dystopia", except insofar as giving a woman a voice and an inner life will always be considered "feminist" by those who think women ought not to have these things.
The 20th century could be seen as a race between two versions of man-made hell - the jackbooted state totalitarianism of Orwell's Nineteen Eight-Four, and the hedonistic ersatz paradise of Brave New World, where absolutely everything is a consumer good and human beings are engineered to be happy. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it seemed for a time that Brave New World had won - from henceforth, state control would be minimal, and all we would have to do was go shopping and smile a lot, and wallow in pleasures, popping a pill or two when depression set in.
But with 9/11, all that changed. Now it appears we face the prospect of two contradictory dystopias at once - open markets, closed minds - because state surveillance is back again with a vengeance. The torturer's dreaded Room 101 has been with us for millennia. The dungeons of Rome, the Inquisition, the Star Chamber, the Bastille, the proceedings of General Pinochet and of the junta in Argentina - all have depended on secrecy and on the abuse of power. Lots of countries have had their versions of it - their ways of silencing troublesome dissent.
Democracies have traditionally defined themselves by, among other things - openness and the rule of law. But now it seems that we in the west are tacitly legitimising the methods of the darker human past, upgraded technologically and sanctified to our own uses, of course. For the sake of freedom, freedom must be renounced. To move us towards the improved world - the utopia we're promised - dystopia must first hold sway.
It's a concept worthy of doublethink. It's also, in its ordering of events, strangely Marxist. First the dictatorship of the proletariat, in which lots of heads must roll; then the pie-in-the-sky classless society, which oddly enough never materialises. Instead, we just get pigs with whips.
I often ask myself: what would George Orwell have to say about it?
Quite a lot.
32 comments:
A few weeks ago, our English teacher pulled random students out of the hallway, and into our classroom. Once they entered, he asked them questions about our world. Questions such as: “What happened during 9/11?” or “Who is Sadam Hussein?” or “Where is the Canadian Army right now?” and it was amazing to see how many students were left completely clueless. During that moment, I could only see this as a simple activity that our teacher was doing to support his ideas from the novel we were studying, but as I look back to it now, I realize that it also shows how oblivious one can be.
It is quite a mysterious adventure experiencing adolescence in our post 9/11 world. Adolescence is a critical point in our lives. It leads to our personal understanding of identity. It can be something as simple as a broken heart that can help us see how much we persevere under life’s many circumstances. It can be something as beautiful as Monet, Beethoven, or Mozart that move and captivate our thoughts into an understanding of something that others may not. Or perhaps they are moments we are unable to understand those certain things that others do, that frustrate us and lead us away from identity, turning this whole “journey” an abyss. It is when you cannot relate to the people or events around you, that you feel out of place and completely blind to who you are. Then it is as soon as you find just one simple thing that you can relate to or understand, that you begin to feel a connection to your identity. But just because you feel happiness or a sense of accomplishment, it doesn’t mean that it will stick around and always be there. As stated in Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination, “If you were developing an imagination in your new world that belonged to that world, you’d start off something like this: I feel separated and cut off from the world around me, but occasionally I’ve felt that it was really a part of me, and I hope I’ll have that feeling again, and that next time it won’t go away.” Life is life and it is both through its hardships and happiness that one grows in independence, leading towards identity. No one really knows how long happiness will stick around or how quickly it will come, but they continue to live on. They try to understand the hard times they face, and why they happen, out of hope that this understanding will lead them to a better understanding of who they are.
As stated by Margaret Atwood in the article, Orwell and Me, “we learn the patterns of stories before we learn their meanings.” However, it is not just in stories that this statement may apply to; it can apply to anything. We do it in class with our readings. We do close readings to have a better understanding of the book. In this article, Atwood shows us her understanding of our government out of her own analysis of Orwell’s works. As stated, “Democracies have traditionally defined themselves by, among other things—openness and the rule of law.” It is like as if we’ve developed a mentality of thinking that what the government says is right, and it isn’t so bad because they are still giving us “freedom”. Freedom to do what? To drive under constant surveillance? To have the freedom to vote for a group of chosen leaders? Atwood questions, “What would George Orwell have to say about it?” I honestly think that if he could, he would go up to each one of us and hold up Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four and say, “Here is everything that you are, and shouldn’t be”, then walk away. That would definitely slap me in the face, but I’m not quite sure if I’d be able to understand all the messages in most of his books.
There are definitely things in my life that I have been completely oblivious to, both consciously and unconsciously. However, that is no reason for me to put myself down and be discouraged about life. The world and the many lives it holds are constantly changing. I don’t exactly have any plans in my life for anything past 2-3 years from now, but in the meantime, the most I can do is to just look at things a little more closely. Instead of just “living it up”, I will try to appreciate the simplest things, and understand that everything that is here, is here for a reason, and that the only question that can be asked is: Why?
“In ordinary experience we’re all in the position of a dog in a library, surrounded by a world of meaning in plain sight that we don’t even know is there.” (Frye, 47). There is something about the novels taught in a university level English class that provokes thought, at least for those who care. In Nineteen Eight-Four, Parson’s children are a product of the government, just like adolescents today are product of the government who are so keen on surveillance. Margaret Atwood says that dystopia “must first hold sway” before the world improves, but today, many do not realize that we are living in such a world. For instance, disagreeing with the U.S. government during the post 9/11 world declares a person ‘unpatriotic’, a label similar to ‘thoughtcrime’. However, such a law affects no one, especially adolescents because as mentioned before, they are the product of the government. So in this case, they are the dogs who is surrounded by a world of meaning and the world of meaning are the classic novels like Nineteen Eighty-Four.
A man once said that the events leading up to Nineteen Eighty-Four hardly matters, a concept that is very difficult to grasp for many. And certainly Orwell did not continue writing about the fall of the Big Brother regime because that did not matter either. So how is it that we care so much about the events of Winston’s life, yet the 9/11 incident has been chalked up to just another tragedy, remembered by only those who were directly affected by it? Because we do not care. Because scares like Columbine and terrorism result in high-technological gadgets like cameras and metal detectors. These technologies, said to be for ‘safety’ has become so ingrained in society that people pass by it without so much as a second glance.
From a very young age, man was taught to watch: he must watch if an older sibling or one of his schoolmates are misbehaving. It has become part of our world. But human eyes and human ears are not enough and it only comes to partial surveillance, a world that is not ideal. Which is why cameras and audiotapes were invented: we have created a world we want out of what we have. That, mixed with undercover cops and FBI agents instill a fear, a fear that automatically keeps people in line. It is a new human instinct.
There are a million things George Orwell would say about the world today. He could question everyone how they could let this happen, even after Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, which could be taken as warning. But one thing he would say is the well-known line: History repeats itself. Repetition is not just found in the “patterns of stories”. It is also in literature, “descended from and related to other literary forms”. (Frye, 77). It is found in the ‘story’ of history as well. The sinking of the Lusitania, which caused plenty of innocent American’s death, can be traced back to the president, who put explosives on the same ship for financial purposes. The attack in New York City is not any different. Bush Sr. put the Taliban in power and years later that plan backfired.
The American mode of control over their enemies is their way of incorporating human life in a society that they did not understand. A mode, which Frye says is a “limit to the imagination.” (Frye, 48). So to view Orwell’s books as merely a “satire about Stalin’s soviet union” is completely misguided. American history alone proves events like in Nineteen Eighty-Four do not happen just once. As Frye says, “Literature does not reflect life, but it doesn’t escape or withdraw from it either: it swallows it.” (47).
So it may seem that the average adolescent is powerless to stop the world’s growing paranoia. But take Margaret Atwood and George Orwell as an example. They both spent the majority of their lives oblivious or ignorant about politics. Yet they have written books that would cause controversy in the political world. That is why adolescents must take Frye’s advice and read literature that gets progressively harder so that they can decipher the patterns in books. Eventually, they will be able to take that pattern and apply it to life. And what is there to be done with that pattern? Simple: one must change the system. It is the system that allows people to “say the same thing without having to think about it.” (97). A mob mentality. Without it, there would not be people that can be hated or persecuted, and everyone can see the world for what it is. That way, we will collectively achieve the utopia we were promised. Atwood says, “to gain freedom, freedom must be renounced,” but that is easier said than done.
Over past high school years in English courses I have not truly learned why reading a variety of novels and learning about history are important. In ENG4U I have learned so much about literature and how I fit into the world it is astonishing. On the first day of class we were told to define in our own words what we think the world transvaluation means. I later learned the meaning of the word: to re-estimate the value of an expected standard. I did not understand the importance of this word until we advanced in the class reading different novels, plays and poems. Now throughout all novels and even in life the importance of transvaluation is essential to achieve individuation and educate your imagination.
In today’s society, the Media is constantly attacking the impressionable teenagers. The views that the media portrays are those of material prosperity and the profusion of a typical women figure. “We face the prospect of two contradictory dystopias at once – open market, closed minds.” (5).This means that the values portrayed by the media are the open market and the closed minds are all the adolescences that cling to them. This is also evident throughout Orwell’s 1984 through doublespeak and the brainwashing technique that uses 2+2=5. This also brings out the differences between democracy and totalitarianism and the question of whether a controlled democracy is any different is brought up. “But now it seems that we in the west are tacitly legitimizing the methods of the darker human past, upgraded technologically and sanctified to our own uses, of course.” (5) The totalitarian government does not give freedom to their population and the democratic government lets the population think they are free but controls their experiences. Today, the teenagers need to look at what they are being told and find the falsified statements within it.
People follow beliefs without knowledge of the cause. According to Northrop Frye this is known as the mob rule and is the cause for a totalitarian government. The only way to prevent this for of government is by having an educated imagination. As teenagers we must learn to educate our imaginations in order to learn and understand situations. Frye says that is we are uneducated then we are more likely to be hoodwinked by false information. This can influence the way a person when they have not experienced the world and can lead to circumstances much like the one’s in Orwell’s Animal Farm. “When Boxer the horse had an accident and was carted off to be made into dog food, instead of being given the quite corner of the pasture he’d been promised.” (1) Orwell wrote this story to show how people are mistreated and mislead due to confusion of language. The message is shown through the political disagreements of animals and shows how without proper understanding or questioning of an action a political or regular situation can be blown out of control. Frye’s the educated imagination represents the same concepts as transvaluation and is very useful because without the ability to transvaluate or having an educated imagination teenagers would not be able to evolve in society and would because “sheep”.
At the end of “Orwell and Me”, Atwood’s essay, a question is posed on what Orwell would have to say about 9/11 and its aftermath. Orwell’s two novels mentioned in this essay were both about a different dystopia world. In 1984 Orwell shows his readers a possible future world and how the population is taken over. However in the end the new speak dictionary is written in past tense which means that Orwell has hope for the human spirit. I think that Orwell’s opinion on the 9/11 tragedy is that as humans with a spirit we will be able to over come all the extra precautions and surveillance through an educated imagination and the ability to transvaluate. For myself, I will continue to educate my imagination by progressively reading more changeling novels to understand the meaning of life and the pattern that all novels have. I will stop and think about my life and how I fit into the world and learn about the past and the English language. Through all this I will be able to transvaluate and lead an educated life.
Post 9/11 -- Not a Great Time For Teens to Grow Up In
Our current reality is one of fear, mass hysteria, unjustified war, and multiple terrorist attacks. As a society, we live in constant man-made and enforced anxiety, fearful of our immediate surroundings becoming the next target of violence, hate, and terror. Everywhere we go, we encounter severe security measures. The concept of privacy has been completely obliterated for the sake of enforcing safety measures, as secret intelligence continuously are at liberty of extensively observing and recording us. We have to constantly be on guard with what we say and do, maybe even repress certain thoughts and ideas for fear of the government exercising their disdain by possibly ‘tracking us’ or detaining citizens, like they do in Guantanamo. In her quote, “with 9/11, all [has] changed. Now it appears we face the prospect of two contradictory dystopias at once [...] because state surveillance is back again with a vengeance,” Atwood implies that our world is heading for some state of despondency and oppression, unless something drastically changes. However, what is more concerning and terrifying, is that our society has passively accepted our repressions without any form of opposition. As a teenager, a stage of our lives where we try to express our own individuality, today’s world seems very constricting. It is difficult to be a ‘free’ teenager in an overly anxious and paranoid world fearful of expressing possibly non conventional thoughts, emotions and ideas, while living constantly under the frenzy of surveillance and public “protection”. This may well make us the most easily controlled generation yet.
Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination can aid in explaining Atwood’s motives for writing, as well as what is happening in the current society. Atwood’s early reading of books like Brave New World and 1984 developed her imagination and allowed her to envision different models of society, which then allowed her to construct a world that she wants to live in. She could then see the imperfections and vileness of the present world, the knowledge which she later wanted to convey to society. That, coupled with Frye’s concept that all works of literature are influenced by previous exposures to literature – which in Atwood’s case were Huxley and Orwell – is why Atwood decided to write A Handmaids Tale and other books. This was her own dystopian novel, her own attempt to warn and save humanity. Via constant screening, filtering of content, and limiting individual expression, governments limit one’s possible models of existence and thought by narrowing it down to the current state of being, thus reducing the public’s imagination. As we know from Frye, “Imaginations protect us from falling into the illusions of society,” and under-development of our imagination makes humans more susceptible to fall into those imposed false illusions. This dystopic goal may very well be what the present governing bodies and those seeking absolute power are trying to attain, since easy susceptibility of the public makes it much easier to control.
What would Orwell have to say about it? In my opinion, Orwell would instantly recognize the similarities of our world and his 1984 and Animal Farm. Furthermore, he would likely be disappointed, if not shocked and horrified that this actually was allowed to occur, despite his forewarnings. However, I believe Orwell would not lose his faith in humanity, and would believe that the full extent of that horrific future can still be avoided. As Atwood says, “Orwell has been accused of bitterness and pessimism. [However] Orwell had much more faith in the resilience of the human spirit than he's usually been given credit for.” This is exemplified through the endings of both 1984 and Animal Farm, in which ultimately the good and humanity prevail over evil. Based on that understanding, I think that Orwell’s immediate response would be to fight against this invasion of privacy and loss of freedom by informing the public. Being a writer, he would primarily try to convey his message through literature and novels. He might even take other measures like public addresses, TV appearances, and more drastically, may even have engaged upon public demonstrations. His exact response is obviously unknown, however, it is my opinion that he would do everything to prevent the world from falling into his 1984 dystopia.
At this stage of my life, I have not yet exactly decided what I am going to do with life yet. I enjoy and excel in many areas of study, making my future choices difficult for the moment. My present goal and plan for the future is to graduate from high school, and complete a degree in university. However what that degree it is going to be, I am not completely certain yet, for I enjoy both arts and sciences. For now I have applied for engineering, however I will re-evaluate that decision after first year of university. I hope that first year will provide some exposure, hopefully enough to make my decision of continuing with engineering or switching to other areas of study. Regardless of what it will be, I hope the next few years will cultivate free thought, and foster creative ideas and wisdom, in addition to general acquisition of knowledge. In short I hope it will help me attain all my potentials as a human.
Margaret Atwood’s essay, Orwell and Me, was written based on the effects that George Orwell had on her life; writing and on the world that was lived in during the post World War Two era. She explains that Orwell had a lot to say about the politics and government of that time, and used the novels Animal Farm sets the stage for “an idealistic movement of liberation towards a totalitarian dictatorship.” Nineteen Eighty-Four describes what life would be like living in such a system. We are easily drawn to make connections with Winston since we are very much the same people. We not only make connections on a personal level, we also make them with the state of society that is being lived in.
Finding myself as an adult and an individual in the post 9/11 world is a very complicated enterprise. We are living in a state of war and economic crisis, only it is happening so far away or it may not affect us directly that it is not the first thing on our minds. For most people, including myself, are aware of what is happening in our society but give in to believing only the information we are being spoon-fed. We continuously hear of bombings and death tolls of soldiers fighting in the Middle East, we feel remorseful, but then we come across the thought, “there’s nothing I can do to help this, I’m to far away” and what we hear about goes into the back of our minds. I try to live my life to the fullest, but sometimes I feel as if we are supposed to go around like there is nothing wrong in the world and that everything is good. But then there is always that thought in the back of your mind, that in some cases somewhere there are people living in constant fear of death, not because they are murders or criminals, but that they will be killed for something they believe in. And because we live so far away from it we are expected to act like there is nothing wrong, and that we are living happy perfect lives.
In Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination he says that in a society that is constantly changing, there is an element of illusion in the social mythology as a motive for self-protection. Our imaginations have to protect us from following the illusions that we are presented with in society. The two elements in the social mythology are advertising and cliché. Advertising creates an appeal to the imagination, and the use of cliché’s gives people the illusion that they are thinking without doing any actual thinking. The government also uses something called jargon, which is a comprised version of abstractions and vague words in order to avoid an easy and direct statement. The reason for this to become part of our social mythology is because, “People write this way when they want to sound as impersonal as possible, and the reason why they want to sound impersonal is that they want to suggest that the social machine they’re operating, usually a government agency, is running smoothly, and that no human factors are going to disturb it.” (Frye 88) This is the society we are living in today, where we are being told only what people think we need to hear.
Now that we are living in the post 9/11 world, everything has changed; we are living under constant surveillance. In order for us to have freedom in the future, our freedom must be put aside now. At the end of Atwood’s essay she mentions that she asks herself the question, “what would George Orwell have to say about it?” I think that Orwell would say a lot about how he tried to demonstrate that the society that he wrote about is actually being lived in today. We cannot continue to settle for what we see in the media, and the clichés, if we want change in the world, we have to go out there and do something about it.
There are many things that I would like to do with my life. My main dream is to become a fire fighter. Since I was a kid I always wanted to be the one running into a burning building while everyone else was running out. I know that I might not be able to help the people that are living in a war torn country, but at least I can create some change and help people here, in the community.
September 11, 2001 was the day the world witnessed one of the most catastrophic terrorist attacks ever plotted. The outcome affirmed a total of more than two-thousand casualties and deaths, other than the bodies trapped under the ruins. Airports were shutdown, and hundreds of flights cancelled. Security increased as these attacks marked the rise of terrorism. Airport securities are now heavily armed and are constantly on the watch.
This date affects me constantly whenever I cross borders and travel, because my religion is Islam, the same as that of the alleged hijackers. This is unfair since Islam is a peaceful religion and has nothing to do with any violent act against humanity. In fact, the Quran says that if a person kills one life, it is as if he has killed all of mankind. At airports, there are always between 2-3 security guards checking my belongings just because my middle name is Mohammed. Such situations I experience puzzle me, because the Prophet Mohammed taught us [Muslims] to live peacefully with others and to submit oneself to God by prayer, which is the essence of peace. The essential meaning of the word ‘Islam’ is submission to the will of God. Just because the terrorist attacks on the twin towers were associated with twenty-two Muslims, it does not mean the entire religion should be discriminated against, labeled and isolated. Security and surveillance are everywhere we go, just like the telescreens that watch its subjects everywhere they go. It is often confusing when the United States says Osama Bin Laden is “still at large” when they can easily launch satellites into space to track the steps of every single human being on earth. Since this is the case of our technological innovations today, how come Bin Laden is still not captured? The question remains a mystery in the United States.
One of the most beautiful pieces of writing and literature ever produced is that of Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination. Frye’s writings relate to everything we covered in the ENG4U course. By studying literature, people can become more socially and creatively advanced. Literature helps us understand the world we live in as Frye states, “We need two powers in literature, a power to create and a power to understand” (p.104). When Frye says “that the tower of Babel is a work of human imagination, that its main elements are words, and that what will make it collapse is a confusion of tongues” (p.155), he means that a person needs a strong imagination in order to rebuild ruins. This takes us back to 9/11 where Mr. Bush decided to launch the Iraq war that did not build back the spirit of the Twin Towers, but resulted in a costly war and the lives of more than four-thousand American troops and more than two-million innocent Iraqi civilians.
Margaret Atwood, a Canadian born writer and literary critic, asks, “What would Orwell do?” Her question is targeted directly at Orwell that explains the type of comments he would say about 9/11 and the post-9/11 world. When she says in the end that Orwell would have “quite a lot” to say, it is true because Orwell is a writer who produced the exact piece of literature that relates to the world today. Orwell would have said that the human race has let his feelings implode due to the inaccurate actions being processed everyday. He would have said that 1984 was written as a warning that stated what would happen if the world continued to live the way as it does in the novel. I guess he was right. The world’s view on the United States Imperialism has worsened due to the bullying it has been committing. “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” is the perfect slogan that represents our world today, since launching a war on Iraq is done to end terrorism, civilians losing their rights is done for the sake of peace, and the continuous warnings of other countries are being ignored.
My life is like the life of any Canadian student. Inheriting comments and being treated as a “would be” weapon holder at an airport will not affect me as a Muslim. My ultimate goal in life is to get a good education in a peaceful country like Canada. As I live in Canada, I would like to hear positive comments about my religion, while I develop a creative and powerful mind from the quality education I am receiving. I hope the West would change its views on Islam as a religion, and deal with other internal problems such as the racial extremist groups in the United States. I plan to be a person who I want to be, not a person who is prejudged according to wrong generalizations about my belief. I have always made the right choices. I know that time goes by fast. In the end, my decision must be a wise and conscious decision that will guide me to the specific area I seek in life, while at the same time, presenting my beliefs in the best manner.
The development of your life that leads up to your adolescence is full of fun memories that will stay with you for a lifetime. In your childhood you begin to learn the difference of right and wrong which is useful knowledge for when you start to mature into a young adult. After deep thought, I have come to the conclusion that it is even more difficult now then ever, to live your adolescent years due to the post 9/11 world.
One of the main reasons I believe it is a lot more difficult to live as an adolescent in the post 9/11 world is the trust issues we have brought onto ourselves. This world encourages a society that cannot trust anyone and has resulted in security cameras being a regular occurrence. Increasing security in public areas like airports and shopping malls leads to a much more judgmental world. A world that judges each other based on appearance. This has not only resulted in a tremendous increase in the amount of racism in the world, but also a large increase in judging teens. In my eyes, it is the safety precautions and restraints put on society that has caused teens to rebel more. Trying to control someone’s every move will only result in making them want to gain the freedom they feel you are taking away.
What would Orwell have to say about the world we are currently living in today? First of all, I believe even if he didn’t say it, he would be thinking “I told you so.” The way he demonstrates the world Winston Smith lives is without a doubt a mirror image of our own, even more for teenagers. The way Newspeak and technology come together to limit the minds of people living in Oceania is the same way teenagers of today are becoming more and more limited to expanding their knowledge because of their own faults. With the help of things like Windows Messenger and cell phones, the language teenager’s use is being brought down further and further everyday. My English teacher pointed out to me that, aside from disrespecting simple etiquette of our beautiful language by using swear words, which is then a part of ones everyday vocabulary, we choose to write “sick” instead of something as simple as “that’s great.” This is possibly the most clear form of double think we display and Orwell would be disgusted to how we have given in to exactly the world he predicted would happen.
A question that has come to mind while writing my final blog is what I plan on doing with my life. At such a young age I find it difficult to answer such a challenging question because it deals with major decisions of my life that I have not completely figured out. I could answer easily by saying that I plan on being the average human with a university degree, married, and with a family that they can take care of but that would be completely ignoring the discussion of this entire blog. What is more important is whether or not I plan on trying to save myself from giving in even more to the world of 1984 than I have already. Earlier on in the school year, I was challenged to try and avoid using technology and ended my blog in saying: “I found myself almost disappointed in all my peers for taking their cell phones for granted and being so blind of the amount of time they spend on their cell phones. In their defense, it is not entirely their fault since it is the media that sells all of these products to them, and makes them believe that things like cell phones and I-pods are a necessity to live.” Today, I still stand by this fact and believe that we are not giving in the technology obsessed world if we buy the technology, but more if we become attached. For these reasons I have not only my English teach to thank for waking me up to this sad reality of our world today, but I also have to thank Orwell and Frye. Orwell, for not being scared to challenge the political views he saw, and Frye for assuring me that seeing Orwell’s world in mine should not be a scary thing. “Useful literature may be in improving one’s imagination or vocabulary, it would be the wildest kind of pedantry to use it as a guide to life” (Frye, 52). In other words, literature is great for the use of expanding your knowledge, but it is when you learn to apply the text to your everyday life that you have full use of that book, just as I have done throughout this course.
As children, we would run around and do whatever we felt like doing. Not having a care in the world, we would have a blast with friends, playing tag, hide-and-go-seek, cops and robbers, as well as many other games. We did not worry much about anything because our minds were not developed enough for us to have to worry. As we got older and moved into our adolescent years, our views on life and freedom change. This is especially true after the events that took place in New York City on September 11, 2001. The attacks on the World Trade Centre buildings, as well as the Pentagon changed the lives of everyone forever. It was the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, and the need for national security. Going through security in airports can sometimes take hours now because of the need to tighten the doors, making sure attacks like those from 9/11 never happen again. Also, people of the Muslim race are often given problems because of the suspicions of them possibly being terrorists. We are living in constant fear of what may happen next in history. The world is not a safe place anymore. This especially has a big impact on the adolescents of today because we are the people of the future, and we’re the ones who will have to live with the effects and do something about it.
In Margaret Atwood’s article “Orwell and Me”, she asks herself, ‘what would George Orwell have to say about it?’, and replies ‘quite a lot’. He would definitely have a lot to say about life this post 9/11 world because he predicted it in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It isn’t as easy to pick out and notice what the government is doing to their people in today’s society as it is in Orwell’s Oceania, but the changes are still there. We don’t have telescreens in our houses or on the streets that are constantly watching our every move, but we do have video cameras watching our every move as we walk down the halls in school, in the malls, as we are filling our cars with gas, and many other places. We also have telemarketers calling us all the time, who know our spending habits. Others may also know our travel history. In Canada, we live in a democratic society, but I believe Orwell would say that it is slowly moving toward a totalitarian society. We say that we want to be unique and different individuals, yet we let the government and media control our lives. The media puts a big impact on the lives of every individual today. We follow their looks and beliefs. For example, many want to have the ideal body, and result to starving themselves to get there. They would rather be unhealthy and look like the models and stars seen in the media than be healthy and look average. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the party forced everyony to have a certain look to them. Whether they are a prole, or a member of the inner or outer party, everyone has a distinct look and it is easy to tell one apart from the other. The world Orwell created in his novel is slowly becoming a reality.
Northrop Frye also had a lot to say about life and literature through his collection of essays in “The Educated Imagination”. He stressed a lot on the importance of literature and imagination in one’s life. Atwood explains in her article that Orwell shows what could happen in life if literature was not there. The sheep in Orwell’s Animal Farm represent those who are not very educated. Thus, they do not read very much, and have limited imaginations. They let the pigs boss them around without thinking twice about what is going on. Atwood says in her article, “The fate of the farm animals was so grim, the pigs so mean and mendacious and treacherous, the sheep so stupid.” The sheep are so stupid because they do not have much education behind them and are not able to speak for themselves. Frye explains that the reason for them being so uneducated is that they also do not read enough and broaden their imaginations.
Living as an adolescent in post 9/11 world, I need to have a plan for what I want to do with my life. Ever since I was about 4 or 5 years old, when someone asked me ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’, I’ve always replied, ‘a doctor’. Today, I don’t know if I will go as far in my studies as being a doctor, but I still want to have a career in the medical field, possibly as a nurse. Right now though, my main focus is to get accepted into university, and I’ll take it from there. I just finished applying, and I hope to get accepted into McMaster or Western for their nursing programs. After graduating from university, my plan is to get a stable job, get married, and have children.
The adolescent stage is a hard one, but it is also a very necessary one because it is only during this harsh process of becoming an adult, that one finds a direction in life. The process of becoming an adult contains both physical and psychological changes, and while the physical changes are often predictable, the psychological ones are on the far corner more volatile. The psychological changes depend on the environment that the teenager develops in, and his/her exposure to good or bad elements shape his/her character. Been an adolescent in the 9/11 world, requires far more grounding than ever because the world keeps becoming power thirst and if we, “the hope of the future” as it is often said, do not break away from the conventions, as Frye invites us to, and we are caught in the atrocities committed, then certainly the world will end no different than the one described in Nineteen Eight-Four.
My environment was first changed at the age of 12 when I moved to Canada. After been here for only six months, I decided to go back to Mexico because I could not relate to anything or anyone, and so I took the obvious, although immature decision: I ran away. The decision of going back initiated me into a process of psychological maturation and the whole voyage helped me to discover a lot about myself and about the world around me. And while I was happy in Mexico for a while, I soon realized how different, economically and socially, my country was to a first world country like Canada. Finally, I was mature enough to open my eyes to the injustices of the government and I was repugnant to see how much corruption takes place in my country. Policemen, senators, teachers, everyone was so infected with money thirst, that they did not care who they hurt as long as it brought them a benefit in return. Education was the problem of course. Those who wanted to learn were limited by the teachers who most of the time did not care to even teach. And the only place one could have a decent education is in a private school, and that of course brings more controversy to the social injustice of my country. So I decided that, if I truly want to do something about my future, I need to received good education, so I returned to Canada, knowing that this time it was not something set over against me, but rather something I wanted to embrace.
Even after these years of realization and learning, I still find a lot of confusion. I have realize that even though it is less notorious in Canada, it is impossible to escape the injustices and atrocities of the world: manipulation and ignorance is a global problem. And while the whole world was already socially and economically lost before, the attack on the World Trade Center on September the 11th worsened everything. Right after the attack occurred, the government of the United States found a “solution” to these problems: to take over people’s rights and to step over the laws for the “sake and safety of everyone”. The attack its an excuse to oppress us with fear of another attack, and so ignorantly enough, even after 8 years, people still give up their freedom for a false protection. The problem is that populations are taught and manipulated into passing the blame onto others, a pattern that history has taught us to be destructive, like Hitler with the Jews, but still, the population finds no connection and the Iraqi are now the target of world hate.
Experiencing two cultures and been able to live and observe basically two different worlds helped me to realized that atrocities happen in every country and that 9/11 only united the world into creating a commutative chaos. George Orwell already warned us of the dangers in letting this tumult continue, and so far we have done nothing to prevent an oligarchy to occur. Frye’s solution to keep humanity alive was to never let go of history, language or of the imagination: in short to never let go of literature as it contains all of these elements.
Learning about this during my teenage years has certainly impacted my psychological development and my character has increasingly become fitted to the circumstances surrounding my world. It has helped me to realize what I have to do with my future in order to prevent an inhumane society, and so my expectations for the future are to continue to bee free, as Winston showed us, by having a free say, a free thought and a free will. Been aware has become the whole meaning of the last 5 years of my life, and this purpose will continue all throughout my life.
Every individual goes through a journey to finding oneself, it is often times thought that the most critical point to such a discovery is during adolescence. As we walk through the phase of adolescence our experiences begin to mould our character. We begin to ask ourselves questions that draw a blank on many. But living in our post 9/11 world, this task of identity is filled with confusions of what one should or should not believe and follow. Is this because we are so oblivious to the truth that we hide from it’s light? Or could it be that we believe, that which is easiest to believe? As one may assume, many problems arise from those who are oblivious to the truth. This may only lead to a lack of understanding of the world around us, therefore we must rely on literature which leads to the development of the imagination. We then develop the ability to acquire a certain relation to something else. As one further progresses, the connections that our conscious and unconscious mind make begin to become bountiful with each new piece of literature read. The questions like, “What is the meaning to my life”, or “Who am I”, begin to unfold through key themes found within literature. The task of identity, that once seemed impossible has now become an easier process.
In Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination, the imagination and it’s value to protecting one from the allusions we are oblivious to, are discussed. “The first thing our imaginations have to do for us, as soon as we can handle words well enough to read and write and talk, is to fight to protect us from falling into the illusions that society threatens us with”(60). Our post 9/11 world is filled with allusions that we are oblivious to, it is then the job of the imagination to protect us from such illusions. If one has not experienced the truth found within literature, their path will be based on the society we live in. Therefore, one can conclude that those who have developed their imagination, have gained knowledge and wisdom while journeying to their identity. It is unfortunate that those who follow blindly and accept the obvious illusions that society provides will become oblivious to the truth. When coming across the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the society portrayed seems scary and unreal, but it is the world that we live in today. As in our modern day society, the citizens of Ingsoc are oblivious to the truth. This is due to the fact that literature has been destroyed, therefore destroying ones imagination and it’s ability to protect one from “falling into the illusions that society threatens us with”.
While analyzing Margaret Atwood’s essay Orwell and me, 1984 is easily comparable to the world that we live in today. “Now it appears we face the prospect of two contradictory dystrophies at once - open markets, closed minds…”. Our society has fallen into the trap of illusion that media has set for us. We accept the obvious lies with an open mind, by doing so we fall into the will of the media, just as the civilians of Air Strip One have fallen into the hands of Ingsoc. One can safely assume that Orwell was aware of such illusions that were not only a prediction for the future, but a testimony of his present and his past experiences. Margaret Atwood’s question “What would George Orwell have to say about it?” is referring to Orwell and his thoughts on our modern day society. As stated previously, Orwell was aware of the circumstances that society has put us under. Therefore if he were to return back to our day and age and comment on our position, the reaction given would be very monotonous. This is because I feel that what is happening now, has happened in George Orwell’s time. Though the affects of media and it’s illusions have exponentially developed, this was evident to Orwell during his day and age. So how is it that as an adolescence I am to find myself in a society that has made it impossible to do so. Well in my opinion I agree with Northrop Frye in the fact that our imagination is what protects us from the illusions of society. I can’t change society and the affects of media but by developing my imagination through literature I am walking a truthful path to identity. It is through the simplest moments in life that we as individuals grow, but with media their to blind us we must rely on wisdom and knowledge.
The growth of imagination that leads to individuation
“When you’re older you’ll understand”, or “You can become whatever you want if you put your mind to it”. The above remarks are along the lines of things my parents have told me my entire life. The journey of developing into a unique individual is a journey that I am on and many of my fellow classmates too. When it means to develop into an individual, it means learning for yourself, knowing right from wrong, and being able to distinguish a bad friend from a good friend. These are all critical things that are in the experience of adolescence which makes teenagers grow into adults. The idea of having several responsibilities and decisions are becoming realistic, and the feeling of being overwhelmed and nervous is definitely present. The decisions that we are having to make include which university to go to, staying at residence, and even choosing to stay home on a Friday night and do homework rather then going out to a party. These are all realistic decisions in being in grade 12, and it equips you to learn how to become an adult and have your priorities straight.
Our imaginations grow as we grow, and our mentality is growing as we approach our teenage years. An example of growing physically, emotionally, and of course mentally is High school, grades 9-12. A personal relation from grade 9-12 would be learning how to write. It may sound silly, but I believe that the way I write and articulate my words have developed strongly, and for the best. In grade 9 it was difficult for me to write essays, but now it comes natural. However, I still ask for help and guidance with my writing. My confidence in my writing has increased greatly from the past years. Northrop Frye had mentioned, “In everything we do it’s the combination of emotion and intellect we call imagination that goes to work” (2). The reason why now, in grade 12 writing has become a lot easier, or even the fact that the way I articulate my words have become stronger, is a result of the growth of my imagination. My imagination has grown drastically from grades 9-12 because I started to read longer novels which included bigger vocabulary, and I started to learn how to have an open mind while I read, or while I learned something new.
Margaret Atwood had mentioned a last question in The Guardian, “What would George Orwell have to say about it?” George Orwell has a talent of placing politics into a very smart, decisive, and adventures way. What he would say about our post 9/11 world would be “quite a lot”, says Atwood. However, that quite a lot means his views on society today and how there are several issues that are not being prioritized such as a recession and Global warming.
Orwell would also mention adolescence and how important the stage is for teenagers. When he was a child his talent started from an early age and while he was growing up his imagination became wider, because of his open mind to politics and important topics. Orwell had already written a novel, 1984 which indicates how important humanity is, and how by not having the ability to think it will lessen your social skills and vocabulary. That is why our adolescence is so critical, it is a time that lets us think for ourselves, and decide what is best for our needs and not our parents. As a teenager, I know that my decisions that I make are all made by my priorities, and what I think is right for myself. There is so much that Orwell would say about the experience of adolescence in our post 9/11 world, mostly he would mention the importance of growing and becoming an individual.
As for me, the question “what will you do with your life?” has repeated through my mind numerous times, and still the answer is the same. I want to go to university, and major in communications. One day, I would love to have my own television show or even be on television as a reporter or anchor. One thing I won’t do is of course let my imagination die, I will continue taking courses in my field so I will always be on top of the latest information. This may sound like a dream of 9 year old, but it is mine. I know that if I listen to my parents when they say, “You can become whatever you want if you put your mind to it”, that my dream will happen.
Post 9/11 “Where Is the Love?”
It is overwhelming being a teenager in today’s world. We are thrust into the role of an adult, yet we are still young. As in Orwell’s 1984, we are constantly being watched. The illusion of security is supported by the increase in the types and amount of monitoring everywhere. Our sixth blog forced us to realize this daunting truth. The fear of more terrorist attacks influences society by making individuals more suspicious. I feel enlightened after reading and analyzing 1984 in class. As Frye states in his The Educated Imagination, “In ordinary experience we’re all in the position of a dog in a library, surrounded by a world of meaning in plain sight that we don’t even know is there” (47). My generation is growing up oblivious in a society that resembles Orwell’s 1984. We are immersed in technology, where face to face conversations have taken a back seat to text messaging and email. The internet and even where we shop provide very little privacy. While the internet can enable us to perform wider searches for information, it also leaves us open to identity theft and destructive viruses. Facebook is a very popular site, however people you do not know can find out very private and personal information about you. It is a scary feeling! On September 11, 2001 I was 10 years old and the world around me changed dramatically. Everyone worldwide knew about the terrorist attacks in the US, and waited with trepidation for what would come next. My parents explained to me what was going on, since they came to pick me up from school early. Most families huddled together trying to come to grips with the devastation and unthinkable actions of the terrorists. It was a very bleak and scary time. It is now 7 years later, and the world is still healing.
Frye’s Educated Imagination is unlike anything I have ever read before. To be honest, I did not find it very interesting at the beginning. However, as I continued to read through the sections I realized that there were important life lessons to be learned. Frye wanted to educate society on past mistakes, so that history would not repeat itself. Atwood agrees with this in her article “Orwell and Me”, “The whole experience was deeply disturbing to me, but I am forever grateful to Orwell for alerting me to the danger flags I’ve tried to watch out for since.” By educating our minds and imagination, we can prevent the fostering of an Orwellian society. At times we cannot form our own opinions due to outside influences. Media and the government control the masses like the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s 1984. Frye indicates that “Orwell even goes so far as to suggest that the only way to make tyranny permanent and unshakable, the only way, in other words to create a literal hell on earth, is deliberately to debase our language by turning our speech into an automatic gabble” (91-92). This shows the importance of thinking for oneself and self awareness.
Atwood asks a question at the end “What would George Orwell have to say about it?” My opinion is that Orwell would have been astounded that his prediction came true, horrified at the invasion of privacy, and society’s acceptance of it. In 1984 Orwell warned people about the horrors of a totalitarian society to prevent it from happening. Moreover, Orwell would be disappointed in the need for increased security and that breaches in privacy are being met with very passive resistance. He would be disappointed that freedom of speech and individual thought are suppressed or even punished. The Dixie Chicks, a country music group, expressed their personal feelings of being ashamed that George W. Bush was a Texan like them. The backlash was incredible with people boycotting their concerts and records, all because they did not support the actions of the President of the United States. Seems like “Big Brother” to me. What was even more incredible is that President Bush never did find any “weapons of mass destruction” which was his justification for invading Iraq. Regardless, Orwell would also be hopeful that the “resilience of the human spirit” will prevail and enable us to get back to a more peaceful and democratic mindset worldwide.
I’m not completely sure what I want to do with my life. The most difficult decision I am facing right now, is what to study at university and which university to choose. It will be difficult living away from home, and being separated from my family and friends, with only technology to keep us in touch. Hopefully I will see some familiar faces on campus, and I will make new friends. Although I am nervous about this new chapter in my life, I am also excited about continuing my educational journey and embracing life’s new challenges. I will be going to New York with my school at the end of April and we will be visiting Ground Zero. Being able to see this important reminder of 9/11 will be an enlightening experience I will never forget. The song “Where is the Love” by the Black-eyed Peas encourages us to reflect on how we should live our lives according to God’s will. I am determined to live my life with happiness, truthfulness and love. I sincerely hope that I will be successful!
“Literature helps to give us that detachment, and so do history and philosophy and science and everything else worth studying.”(Frye, 46). Northrop Frye is essentially describing how novels present a variety of ideas and concepts, and by reading, people can connect these ideas into their own lives. When reading Margret Atwood’s piece called “Orwell and me”, she expresses the importance of Orwell’s work and its significance to society. By reading the article it is apparent that adolescents are not completely aware of the post 9/11 effects and allow people to consider what Orwell’s opinion would be on our society.
While reading the article “Orwell and me”, it reveals how society’s government is corrupt. Upon further scrutinizing the article, it can also be seen that the government systems are all flawed. This revelation can be used to reflect on society’s post 9/11 world, and can be compared to his novel, Nineteen eighty-four. Society’s government has gone to an entire new level, where there is constant surveillance and unfortunately abuse of power. Even taking a short plane ride to the United States requires the passenger to remove their shoes and cardigan before proceeding through a metal detector. This new extreme of removing articles of clothing is an invasion of a person’s privacy. Can this invasion of privacy be said to be the abuse of power? Are theses rules true motives for safety or rather a method to control civilians? These concerns can not be addressed with a yes or no answer, but with a persons desire to understand them, these concerns can have answers for each individual. The key is that the individual can only understand the world by initially understanding themselves. During adolescence, teenagers have yet to truly understand who they are. Without understanding who they are, it is difficult to develop their own opinion on world issues. At such a crucial age, teenagers are usually absorbed in their own world, such as high school drama. It is easy for students to disregard world issues, and to simply concern themselves with issues more relevant to them. At this confusing stage, students commonly accept and do not question the world around them. This is wrong approach to issues, if everyone took this approach how could society be able to grow rather then to restrict its growth.
This horrifying reality of adolescence society’s next generation brings to life George Orwell’s fears. In the article, Margret Atwood addresses this question “I often ask myself: what would George Orwell have to say about it?”(Atwood, 5). This question draws up curiosity amongst people, what would he have to say? By reading Orwell’s novel, Nineteen eighty-four and his essay “Why I write”, it brings along an understanding of his own views of government and humanity. By using these as tools we can interpret what his response potentially could have been. While reading Nineteen eighty-four, it is apparent how the people have no privacy, even in their minds and are ruled by totalitarianism government. George Orwell also touches on these ideas in his essay “Why I write”. By taking these concepts and applying them to our society, it can give some indication as to what his response would be. For instance the post 9/11 has lead to increased surveillance and Orwell would certainly oppose to and an invasive rise in security. George Orwell would disapprove of the escalation of surveillance due to it evoking fear amongst citizens making it easier for them to be controlled by the government. This method of controlling civilians brings along an association with totalitarianism type of government. George Orwell would express his opposition in a much more elaborate way, but by doing this we can understand the basic reasoning to his potential opposition.
Now that adolescences and Orwell’s opinions have been suggested it brings along the question of how will this affect your life? Being an adolescent myself, I am confused about my present and my future. The only certainty I have for my future is to go to University for Kinesiology. I plan to bring the knowledge I have attained from George Orwell, which is to not be blinded by the stories that I am fed but to analyze both sides before making a decision. When relating the knowledge attained by George Orwell’s novels it opens the readers mind to several different perspectives revolving around one situation. With the assistance of Orwell’s work teenagers can be more aware to the perspective global issues not just the personally issues.
One time I could remember talking to somebody who was an old friend of mine. We started talking about our childhoods and the times we had back in the day. One of the big topics I remember was September, 11th. . Who could ever forget that dreadful day when the planes crashed into the World Trade Centre and shifted history and our lives as we knew it.
Margaret Atwood’s Orwell and Me Atwood discusses the effects of George Orwell s work on her life. Orwell’s literature usually discusses life during the two World Wars and after. She explains how he had good insight into the aspects of totalitarianism that ruled that time and how it effects her deeply.
As a young man growing up in the post 9/11 world it is easy to see how that one event changed my life and many others. After the bombings the world was different as we saw a country come together and a man who one day was an average world leader and the next day he was the most hated man one the planet. Security was heightened and as you travelled you always had a slight hint of fear in you especially when you were worried if you would make it to your destination in one peace. Northrop Frye writer of The Educated Imagination explains that our world is constantly changing. This is constantly true seeing as after 9/11 everyday was filled with some sort of story about political unrest in our world. This just shows you that those who thought the world of World War one and two is a thing of the past is wrong.
As Mr Liconti once said in class the world of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four is not different from our world today. In the novel the citizens of Airstrip One are flooded with the picture of a man that they are told is evil and hated by all and this is similar to our view of Osama Bin Laden. He also told us of how it is not the man but the idea of the man that makes people believe. This is exactly the case in the novel where even though big brother does not exist it is the idea of him that keeps the people living in fear. In our world the Question must be asked Is it possible that Osama Bin Laden is dead and the idea of him is alive only to keep people living in fear and obedience to thier governemnt?.
In her article Margaret Atwood states that the world of Nineteen Eighty Four has always been with us and it is becoming more clear in our post 9/11 world. Atwood also asks the question “What would George have to say about it?”. One would think he would say that history often repeats itself and that it is and endless cycle. This is similar to what Northrop Frye says about literature in the Educated imagination, it is repeated constantly and we all know that it is the world that is the main inspiration for literary works. Margaret Atwood says that the dystopia must first hold sway if we are to reach the utopia we are promised. This is very true as we are in a period of economic collapse and the dystopia is growing and the utopia that is promised by a new president seems to be the only sign of hope. George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four are both great works that depict a world that is run by totalitarianism and double think and it is an exact representation o the world we live in though we may not be able to notice it yet.
After reading Margaret Atwood’s article, “Orwell and Me,” her reflection on the effects that literary works she read had on her after her post WWII world, are comparable to my experience, as an adolescent, as a result of the books I have read in our post 9/11 world. However, since my adolescence has pretty much taken place through the post 9/11 time period, the fears and concerns I have about my future and the future of the world are different from those of Orwell and Atwood. With respect to the threat to society as we know it, as a result of 9/11, Atwood’s question “What would George Orwell have to say about it?” makes me wonder how he would have appealed to our imagination regarding the future of a dystopian society through his literature.
When 9/11 occurred, I was ten years old. My initial reaction to this event was that I was shocked that something like this could happen in a place like the U.S. where I thought it was safe. In the days that followed 9/11, even though there was talk about how it was possible that a similar attack could happen here in a peaceful country like Canada, as a ten year old kid who had led a pretty sheltered life with respect to the harsh realities of the world, I did not spend too much time worrying about it.
Prior to 9/11, as a child, all of the literature I had been exposed to, both at home and at school, was sugar coated and focused on values, morals, kindness to others, good conquering evil and was aimed at both developing my imagination as well as shaping me into a well-rounded kind and caring individual. The fantasy world of such books as “The Magic Tree House” in grade 3 helped to stimulate my imagination through the adventures of the characters of Jack and Annie in an entertaining and non-threatening way. However, post 9/11, as I progressed through adolescence, the literature I was exposed to through the school curriculum, such as “The Outsiders” and “Catcher in the Rye,” educated me about the conflicts adolescent’s face in the adult world with its class structured society according to the ideals of adults, instead of the ideals that an adolescent wants it to be.
Throughout high school, and in particular Grade 12, reading such books as Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination and George Orwell’s 1984 , has allowed me to further develop as an individual by becoming educated on the importance of reading to gain knowledge as well as understanding the effects literature has on one’s imagination when it comes to understanding and dealing with the social and political realities of our world.
According to Frye’s The Educated Imagination, literature allows us to experience the extremes in life through our imagination as illustrated when he writes, “Literature gives us an experience that stretches us vertically to the heights and depths of what the human mind can conceive, to what corresponds to the conceptions of heaven and hell in religion” (p. 61). This is exemplified in Orwell’s novel 1984, as the reader is able to experience, through the imagination, the extreme misery of living in a society that is run by a totalitarian dictatorship without actually having to live it, as illustrated when he writes, “The terrible thing that the Party had done was to persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were of no account, while at the same time robbing you of all power over the material world” (p. 172). Through Orwell’s description of the effects of the Party, the reader is able to experience the desperate feeling of being robbed of what it is to be human.
In Atwood’s article, she reinforces the importance of the message Frye is conveying in The Educated Imagination, when she talks about how she felt after reading Orwell’s Animal Farm when she says, “The whole experience was deeply disturbing to me, but I am forever grateful to Orwell for alerting me early to the danger flags I’ve tried to watch out for since.” Through literature, our imagination enables us to learn valuable lessons in life without actually experiencing them. Reading novels such as Animal Farm teaches us about the reality of human nature, as exemplified in Atwood’s article when she says, “… and though many characters are good-hearted and mean well, they can be frightened into closing their eyes to what’s really going on.” I thought Atwood’s comparison of Animal Farm to the classic children’s fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Cloths”, by Hans Christian Andersen, was an excellent example of how literature educates our imagination at a very young age about the flaws in the way society conducts itself in the real world.
As outlined in Atwood’s article, up until 9/11, democracies have been defined by the rule of law and openness. However, post 9/11, the threat of terrorism has made it necessary for us to justify going back to “legitimizing the methods of the darker human past.” In other words, for a peaceful and free democratic society to move forward after 9/11, some freedoms must be sacrificed in order to preserve freedom for the future. This became apparent to me during my research for a paper I wrote for Politics on “Canada’s Efforts to Combat Terrorism.” I found that although in some cases it is necessary to violate human rights for the sake of preserving freedom for the future, society in general has difficulty accepting this contradictory approach to preserving freedom since it seems to be taking away freedom.
In response to Atwood’s question about what Orwell would have to say about the world post 9/11, if he were alive to write a novel about it, I am sure his dystopian style of writing would provide us with a very disturbing picture in our imagination of the worst possible form of society that could exist if the world were to be ruled by terrorism. A possible positive outcome of having the benefit to read such a novel would be that society would have a better understanding and acceptance of the importance of giving up some freedom now, to ensure freedom for the future, leading to a utopian world as opposed to a dystopian world.
With respect to the question of what I will do with my life in our post 9/11 world, I will continue to be grateful that I live in a free and democratic society, and, if I have to persevere through extensive security checks when applying for a job, boarding a plane or crossing a border, I think that is a small price to pay to ensure the survival of freedom and democracy in our world.
The date of September 11th, 2001, will forever be remembered as a devastating and critical point in not only American history, but that of the world. Subsequent to the terrorist attacks on the United States is an irreparable change in the citizens of countries worldwide. Life itself has been altered with no foreseeable limitations. National security is apparent in everyday life and racism suddenly seems to have been granted some kind of authorization. The world has been transformed into a dystopia of sorts, similar to those serving as the settings of the novels mentioned in Margaret Atwood’s essay, specifically George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. So, what would Orwell have to say if he could see how his prophetic-like novel has manifested itself in the day-to-day lives of people everywhere?
Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is often disregarded as highly improbable and impertinent in today’s society by people who possess what Northrop Frye refers to as a “pre-critical response”. In actuality, however, the resemblance between present-day society and Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Airstrip One has developed exceedingly quickly, with 9/11 proving to be one of the greatest catalysts of the process. Constant surveillance, racial profiling, and manipulation of thought have all been instated and accepted more freely than ever since the historical date. More disturbing than the fact that these rights-imposing concepts have been defined in our society, is the fact that a large majority of people are completely oblivious to them. These people are unaware that their freedom and rights are being sacrificed supposedly to prevent a second terrorist attack from occurring. Margaret Atwood clarifies, “For the sake of freedom, freedom must be renounced.” This Orwellian concept is presented within Nineteen Eighty-Four quite candidly and is one of the most obvious indications of our ever-adapting Orwellian society.
Less explicit, is the elimination of choice, or rather, the forced denial of one’s beliefs, present in both Orwell’s novel and today’s post 9/11 society. Frye explains, “In wartime this power of choice is greatly curtailed, and we resign ourselves to living by half-truths for the duration” (91). With the threat of another terrorist attack subliminally implied, citizens are deceived into believing the half-truths or, in some cases, blatant lies their governments spew. It is a powerful machine controlled by fear and it has the ability to command the control of entire populations. The war in Iraq is a jumble of lies and deceit that Americans have overlooked for years, simply because they have been forced to believe what their government declares out of fear. Atwood explains of Orwell’s novel, “But like all absolutist governments and religions, the Party demands that every personal loyalty be sacrificed to it, and replaced with an absolute loyalty to Big Brother”. With the terrorist attacks of 9/11, North American governments have taken a huge step towards becoming absolutist. By inducting a state of fear into their citizens, both North American governments, and the government of Nineteen Eighty-Four are commanding the complete submission of their people. The governments have their citizens convinced that in order “to move us towards the improved world - the utopia we're promised - dystopia must first hold sway. It's a concept worthy of doublethink,” Atwood explains in her essay. This comment links today’s society with Orwell’s Airstrip One seamlessly. The concept of doublethink, created by Orwell as an aspect of his hypothetical society in Nineteen Eighty-Four is now applicable in modern life.
I was ten years old when the terrorist attacks against the United States were committed, so it is therefore not improbable to say that I have grown up in a post 9/11 society. Surveillance is no longer seen as an invasion of privacy, but a necessity in our threatened country. Racial profiling is no longer prejudiced, but a precaution that must be taken. Worst of all, citizens of the post 9/11 world surrender complete faith to their leaders, believing unquestionably, that their own country is in the right, no matter how contrary the evidence may be. The society we live in is Airstrip One. The most alarming aspect of it being the fact that no one seems to realize it. Adolescents, such as myself, who have known no different than the tyrannically developing society we now live in, are quick to accept it without uncertainty. Someone such as George Orwell, however, might not be so welcoming of our post 9/11 world.
Adolescence is a stage of growth, development and a time period for with an individual discovers their true identity. This time can be difficult because it is when most physical and emotional changes take place. It is the period of transformation from child to adulthood and the separation from parents. High school has prepared me with many skills which helped me get my first job, discover who and who not to trust, met new friends and discovered what I wanted to study in university. A tragic event that occurred during my adolescent years was the tragic 9/11 attack in the Unites States of America. This occurred when I was in grade 6 and I remember first being confused and unsure of what was going on. This was the day that I discovered that the world was not as safe as I thought.
After the eight years, changes have taken place to ensure security around the world or also known as the world of telescreens. There has been massive increase in cameras and metal detectors within North America and a couple years after travelers were not allowed to bring their own water bottles and gels onto planes. Although the terrorism did not occur in Canada, racial stereotypes still occur here even thought Canada is a multicultural country. It is clearly unfair to assume that Muslims are all terrorists. It is like when Atwood explains “I cried my eyes out when Boxer the horse had an accident and was carted off to be made into dog food, instead of being given the quiet corner he’d been promised.” She explains how the horse were treated unfairly after doing something it had no control over which is basically what society is doing towards Muslims.
During my entire life no piece of literature has taught me more then Fryes “The Educated Imagination”. The six part essay helped explain all the writings I have ever read in my life. As an adolescent the essay helped demonstrate the importance of reading and writing in order to expand the imagination. It also contains advice which is not to believe everything that is read so literally and that an individual needs to understand what is right and wrong according to their own terms and not by others. Just because certain people blame the Muslims for the attacks of 9/11 does not make it is right to believe everything they say and blame the rest of the innocent individuals for crime that they did not commit.
The world of “1984” is defiantly taking place during this decade in time. Orwell predicted a world that at the time no one thought would be possible but it has now become reality. Atwood even believes that the novel resembles herself “Nineteen Eighty-Four stuck me as more realistic, probably because Winston Smith was more like me- a skinny person who got tired a lot […] and who was silently at odds with the ideas and the manner of life proposed to him.” She also believes that this novel is the “best read when you are an adolescent” which is because they are more aware of society. Atwood asks a question at the end of the article which asks “What would George Orwell have to say about it?” If he was still alive I believe he would be surprised at how fast the world has progressed. The relation to the novel and the life of today is defiantly similar, 9/11 was well known but after eight years the tragic event is beginning to erase from the minds of the individuals. In “1984” The society of Insoc would destroy all evidence of the past and that is happening today. September 11, 2001 is still a day of mourning but many just do not think about it anymore because it either scares them or just because it has become their past. Orwell knew this would happen one day, it may have been a shock to him that it happened so soon but it was bound to happen. If “1984” came about so easily then the thought of totalitarianism society should not be far away.
It is defiantly a scary thought when thinking about the future and how it will be years from now. There will be positive and negative aspects that will affect my decisions in life but for now I would like to finish high school, graduate, attend University and find a career that I can enjoy. At the moment though it may be hard to think about it but after attending high school for four years it has defiantly helped with my transition into adulthood.
The event of 9/11 had happened on a Tuesday, I remember that because I was living in Europe and every Tuesday I finished school at 11:45am. I remember coming home to my mom crying on the floor in front of the TV watching CNN. At the age of 10, I really was not to interested to what had happened, or why it had happened. I was living in a completely different world, but when I had moved back to Canada many things had changed since my last visit in 1999.
I had grown up in a community in which I was taught to believe that staying with my own kind (Croatians) was the best way to go. When I moved to Canada, and started hanging out with all these different nationalities I realized how different we all really are. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the most remarkable people that have had a great impact on my life and who I am today. Some of those people happen to be Muslim, and it is a shame to look at how they are discriminated against for a horrible act another had done. As children we are all taught to believe in something, and it just sticks with us in our minds as the years go by. In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eight-Four, Winston realizes that Julia has been brainwashed just like the rest of the community, and she knew nothing of what was going on in the world, kind of like our world today. When Mr. Liconti had pulled random students from the halls and asked them question about the world around them, they did not know what was going on in the world.
I have lived in two very different worlds. Going through your adolescent years are probably the most exciting, confusing, and stressful years of your life, but they’re also supposed to be the years you will want to remember forever. I believe the adolescents living in Canada, actually in North America, take life for granted and don’t stop to appreciate what they really have. As kids when we have something good in our lives, such as a friend, we never think that we might lose this friend. Going through our adolescent years we realize who are true friends really are, and who you can trust and rely on. I think I really important thing we tend to forget is to follow our dreams no matter how silly they might seem.
Throughout the course we have read all these pieces of writing we can relate to and that make sense to us because we have opened our minds up to it. Before this course, I would have never thought of people 400 years ago being as confused as I am today. Frye tells us that by reading more books our imagination grows. To be honest, it has maybe been a year that I really started to read, and throughout the 4 years of high school this was the first course that I had read every book that was asked of me to read. I know some people who had gone through high school without even reading one book, and have no intention to ever read one, and I thinks that is a shame.
Living in the two different worlds I have lived in has made my adolescence somewhat harder. The way of life for one world is so different from the other, and I’m not too sure which one I prefer to live in. In this past year I have grown so much, and seen things I wish I never had. The experience I had gone through with my brother was one of the hardest things I think I have ever encountered, but it has made me so much stronger as a person, and has shown me what I don’t want to be in life. I believe that every adolescent will experience something during those years that they won’t forget, and that could possibly change them forever.
In this course we have all grown, either with our imagination, or by our writing skills. Either way, I believe we will all be able to take something out of this course that might in some way make us better people, and make us realize that there is so much more to life then what we’ve been taught to believe as kids. Our adolescent years are the years when we start to follow our own dreams, and make our own decisions. A time when we become our own person, and grow to one day be something great.
This world now, about seven years after the horrific events on September 11th, 2001, can be very challenging to be a part of, especially for my generation, the adolescents. If we pretend to be interested in what is going on beyond our family and friends, as we often do, there is absolutely no way to actually understand how or why certain things are done the way they are. Margaret Atwood read Animal Farm when she was nine years old, and the author of this novel, George Orwell, became a major influence on her writing. In her article “Orwell and Me”, Atwood discusses her experience has an adolescent, and touches upon what she believes Orwell would say about the post 9/11 world. In this world, we are constantly wondering if someone is watching us. Privacy has been completely destroyed due to the abundance of cameras and the government’s ability to tap into our personal information whenever they want to. The reason for this of course is security, and the government enforcing safety precautions. We also must be very careful of what we say or do, or at least feel that way, because the government has gone to great lengths to “track down” terrorists, and any irregularities in our actions could lead to trouble. When she says, “with 9/11 it all changed [...] the state of surveillance is back again with a vengeance,” Atwood refers to how the catastrophe of 9/11 has changed the world for the worst, and that something must be done to fix it. This world can be hard for anyone to live in, but especially for adolescents like me. This is a stage in life where one desires to be an individual and to have their own voice. This sort of world makes that very difficult to have because of the concern of expressing unconventional emotions and ideas while under constant surveillance. At the same time, however, the one general concept that most teenagers actually seem to have any “knowledge” of is that we, amongst others, are the good guys, and that there is one common enemy, some insane Middle East nation whose only desire is to crash airplanes. But who is this country? Why are we fighting them? These are questions which most adolescents cannot provide the answers to, spitting out random answers which fit that concept. Atwood, by reading Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, realized the true messages within them and what this world is really like.
Northrop Frye, literary critic and the genius behind The Educated Imagination, can help in understanding Orwell’s influence on Atwood’s style of writing. Frye says that, “literature can only derive its forms from itself: they can't exist outside literature.” (77) Margaret Atwood would never be the writer she is today if it were not for her experience reading Orwell’s work. In her article, she says, “Orwell became a direct model for me,” much later in her writing career. Living in today’s world, she wonders how Orwell would react if he saw it.
In her article, Atwood poses the question “what would George Orwell have to say about it?” referring to this very frantic post 9/11 society. Orwell’s novels are models or versions of the world we live in now. To answer Atwood’s question, I believe Orwell would not be surprised to see this kind of world because he predicted that it would end up this way fifty years ago. However, Orwell would be disturbed by the intensity that we have let this world reach, even with his written warnings. But in Atwood’s opinion, “Orwell had much more faith in the resilience of the human spirit than he’s usually been given credit for.” She is referring to the way Orwell wrote the last chapter in Nineteen Eighty-Four, about Newspeak, and how it was in standard English and in the past. I share this opinion with Atwood. I believe that when Orwell saw this society, he would not lose all faith because the horrific reality of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eight-Four has not yet quite been reached, and that there is still hope in avoiding it. I have noticed that in these two novels, there is one character that is against the way of the government and who is good and, simply human. Based on this, I truly believe that Orwell’s initial reaction would be that of shock and dismay, but then he would realize that his vision is not quite reality, and would help in the fight to erase what we have let happen.
At this point in my life, I have an idea of what I want to do in the future, but I cannot say that I have chosen one thing that I truly want to do, like Orwell and Atwood have done. In order to survive within this world, I must open my eyes and my mind to the world outside of my community, especially is rapidly growing society, obsessed with surveillance and safety precautions. I can only hope that my upcoming years in university will allow me to have an open mind and, most of all, opinions and ideas that are completely my own.
Being an adolescent is difficult enough on its own and with what the world has become today, it does not make it any easier. From childhood, you are not prepared for the world you are about to enter. You grow up only knowing what you are taught in grade school, what your parents tell you and what you learn from Disney movies and the Family Channel. I remember hearing about the 9/11 incident and not understanding who or how people were even capable of something that extreme, but have come to realize that that truly is the world we live in today.
The horrible incident of 9/11 has affected the world we live in today drastically, and the world we as adolescents’ are forced to grow up in. Entering your teenage years, you review what you thought you knew. I remember as a child having an image of the world was and how I saw it, but as I grew up I saw how quickly it changed. Reality hits and you realize what you are surrounded with. Since 9/11 you see a more judgmental world. After people trying their bests to get discrimination between races to its minimum, we now see people judging others based on their appearance. 9/11 also led to the war going on now and was the reason for more security, taking away any freedom left. I fear going to the airport or the border and having my bags and cars checked, because it opens your eyes to see that you don’t know who you can really trust. 9/11 has also struck fear of the unknown in the eyes of adolescences. You see something so tragic happen as a teenager and begin to wonder what could possibly happen when you are an adult. If this is what people are capable of now, just think about the future.
I believe Orwell would tell us that he saw this all coming. In Nineteen-Eighty Four, Orwell predicted what our world became. In the novel, you see how all of Oceania does what they are told and become followers. You see that in society now a day, people always follow as others do. For example, one person got Facebook and soon everyone else did. In Nineteen-Eighty Four you see Oceania is limited to what they can do, so are we as a society but we have chose to live that lifestyle. With our technology we have so many opportunities to do something with our lives but choose not to, either because we are too lazy or have become to dependant on others. Especially as teenagers, we sit at home on our computers doing research, even myself, and dread the idea of maybe having to go to the public library. This can also be linked to Frye because it is a demonstration of how our imagination is slowly fading and being taken over by what we see in the media, which is like Nineteen-Eighty Four except they do not have the opportunity to develop theirs like teenagers now do.
“What will you do with your life”, is something I wonder about very often. I have recently begun to realize that this is the year that will affect my future the most. Of course there are the obvious things I would like to do such as get married, be successful with which ever occupation I should choose and finally, something I know I’ve wanted since I was one; kids. I used to believe I wanted to get into Sports Management or had just planned to marry rich, until I snapped back to reality and decided I would like to get into social work. I have always wanted to help people and now realized I want to help kids that are experiencing something. I’ve never been in a position where I needed someone to talk to for an extremely serious problem but always liked the idea that there was someone like that if it was needed. As cheesy as it may sound, I want to help people. Working with unprivileged kids throughout the summer really opens your eyes to a different side of life, and after hearing what some of those kids have been through you can’t help but want to help other like them that are in need of it. You also see all you have and take advantage of whereas they are grateful what little they do have. So finally, what I want to do with my life, as of right now I am applying to university and hoping that I get accepted and then go from there.
On September 11, 2001 the world witnessed one of the most horrific and mind blowing tragedies in the Millennium. It would definitely go down as one of the most tragic attacks in history and it would change the world over night. What is now known as the 9/11 tragedy, involved 19 terrorist who high jacked four planes. Two planes crashed into the twin towers and resulted in the deaths of a few thousand and many wounded.
This single event in history has made it a much more complicated and difficult world to live in. As a result of these attacks governments have enforced new measures of security. As a result of these new measures, people in society can often be faced or confronted by many barriers. These barriers are not necessary; however people have fallen into a world of fear. We are currently living in a world that Orwell envisioned, a world where we have become victims of our own safety and our own good. The occurrence of cameras and surveillance amongst us all is said to be okay, because it is for our own good and for our own safety. However these precautions are attacks themselves on our privacy, and our society as a whole.
The new realities of our society make it very hard to experience adolescence in the post 9/11 world. As a result of 9/11 we live in a world of fear, and we become isolated from one another as the trust factor is very low. The world today encourages as a society detached from one another, where no one can be trusted and there is a need for cameras everywhere. Increased security in airports and other public places have lead us to a much more judgemental world, which often categorizes people based on appearance, creed, race, and religion. It is also a very difficult world to live in, because if you understand the measures the government goes through to keep us safe, you would know we are constantly being watched and surveyed. That our privacy is being invaded and that we are in a world in which “Big Brother” may even know more about us than we know about ourselves.
It is rather ironic then, that we study a book like 1984 because it is an implication of what could come if we let the current situation get out of hand. Then the question is asked, what would George Orwell have to say about it? Orwell would say, “I told you so”. The book 1984 was written about the possibility of such a world. A world where society loses its self-conscious mind and becomes puppets towards those in charge. The purpose of the book is to articulate an ideology that Orwell envisions, a world that is somewhat possible if society so happens to fall into the illusions proposed. When reading Atwood’s “Orwell and Me” I found something very intriguing that never came across to me before. What I found is that in the world today, teenagers engage in the double-think language. Teen slang often eliminates true meaning from words and slaps on other meaning. In 1984 the party makes words the opposite of what they used to mean. For example the place where people get tortured is the Ministry of Love. Sounds silly right, but today teenagers use slang which often has the same concept. For example words such as “sick” and “wicked” mean good. Now looking at it adults must look at teens in a manner of confusion. In the same way we look at 1984 and ask how the people in Oceania let all that happen. However it is happening to us today we change the meaning of words, we replace sentences with words, and we continue to use and develop much more acronyms.
Frye’s the educated imagination is like no other book I’ve read before, and it really made me understand the importance of reading and literature in life.“The first thing our imaginations have to do for us, as soon as we can handle words well enough to read and write and talk, is to fight to protect us from falling into the illusions that society threatens us with”(Frye 87). Today in the post 9/11 world we are impacted by many illusions that we are oblivious to, it is then the job of the imagination to protect us from such illusions. For someone whose imagination is developed and was exposed to much more, it is easier to recognize the illusions we fall into. However for those who have not then been exposed to much, their imagination is limited and they are much more prone to fall into the illusions society faces today.
What will I do with my life? Is the question I often ask myself every day. Like most people I would like to go to university and eventually get a good job. Aside from that I have many other dreams and goals that change from day to day as every day I strive to learn and accomplish something new. Over time I have found the answer to my question. I have learned that you must always try your best and in the end it will take you to where you want to go in life.
After reading Margaret Atwood’s article “Orwell and me”, one wonders how George Orwell would react to this post 9/11 world. The article provides insight into how Orwell wrote to address current issues, with his issues not only addressed to adults, but also youth. As Orwell writes to every audience, the reader must understand how 9/11 has affected our world. The article also displays how one is falling into a world very similar to that of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Through experiencing one’s adolescence through this post 9/11 world, one can tell you the world has changed. Ever since 9/11 the common understanding among young adults is that the world has one common enemy, this enemy is crazy, and resides in the Middle East. Other than that much not is known, is it Afghanistan or Iraq? What’s the difference? With adolescence being a period of self discovery in our lives, it is quite hard to understand one, when one does not understand what is happening around them. The current generation of adolescents is completely ignorant of the problems, and embarrassingly enough, the view of politics for them is quite similar to what Margaret Atwood calls “the child’s version of politics”. Through experiencing one’s adolescence through this post 9/11 world, one can tell you the world has changed, but not necessarily why. Similar to the residents of Airstrip One, people believe what they are told, without reasoning it. An example of this would be the war in Iraq, the Americans went in to find weapons of mass destruction, however to this day they have not found any, but in the process they have murdered a dictator. However through all of this, their intentions are to find those weapons of mass destruction.
As George Orwell would tell us, our current situation is quite similar to that of the people of Airstrip One. If one compares our current world to that of Airstrip One and INGSOC, one can see the similarities. In both situations, the countries are fighting against one common enemy, whose existence is doubtful, and as Margaret Atwood says, uniting us “in hatred”. In both circumstances, one has also given up his freedom for security, or as Margaret Atwood puts it, “For the sake of freedom, freedom must be renounced.” One is constantly being monitored, whether it is by a telescreen or CCTV. There is also a common presence in that both situations, the current regime needs to use war to distract the people from noticing the problems that occur within the country. George Orwell would ask us to read 1984, as there are many parallels between that book and our present lives. However that would not solve the problem. This is due to the literature not being taken with a social and political value, but only a literary value. This is because as Northrop Frye tells us, in literature there are two powers, “a power to create and a power to understand.”, and the adolescents reading these books do not have the power to understand, thereby removing the political and social value within the book.
So the question comes to what can one about this? Well after a first analysis the only solution would seem to become and author or world leader, but there are much better solutions. First and foremost, one must have faith in the human spirit, faith gives one hope, and without hope one will lose our freedom, and ones human spirit cannot survive. Secondly, one must always fight for our freedom, it is okay to give it up in reasonable circumstances, but one must analyze the situation before conceding their freedom. One’s freedom is a crucial right, and often times one can get lost in the situation and lose one’s freedom. One must also educate one’s self and others about the situation, as previously mentioned, there must be “a power to understand.”, and this does not only apply to literature, but all media, as it allows us to have a “conscious, critical response”. In regards to this post 9/11 world, that is what one must do with their lives, as one’s freedom is of immense importance and one must do all one can to protect it.
In conclusion, one must be careful in this post 9/11 world. By reading Margaret Atwood’s “Orwell and me” article, one can see how the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is analogous to our current world. The article demonstrates how Orwell not only wrote for literary value, but also for a social and political value. After reading Margaret Atwood’s article “Orwell and me”, one is awakened into seeing how one’s present life is turning into the lives of those on Airstrip One.
9/11: The Ultimate Experience
The society man has to live in, today, is a horrific one. Paranoia of terrorism and excuses of surveillance are fed into the average mind, by the political architects, who have created this negative yet genius society. The world we live in today has many similarities to that of 1984, as we are pushed into an unjust game of chess that political figures play at this very moment. In, “Orwell and Me”, Margaret Atwood discusses her evolving genius and how Orwell helped.
9/11 changed everything for mankind. Extreme security measures were introduced; surveillance became so common that the naked eye ignored it just like that in 1984. An Orwellian society emerged just as people thought it would be less likely, proving Orwell’s genius prediction correct. Growing up in a Muslim household, especially in the U.S, was a unique experience. Things were normal for half of my life, since the negative image fed to society at that time was that of Korean or Russian terrorists, but 9/11 changed all of that. Muslims were now considered the terrorists of the society, led by their Goldstein-like figure Osama Bin Laden, and all were up to no good. But despite all this, only a few noticed the Orwellian similarities that were evident, behind the mask. People like Michael Moore made documentaries about the real intentions of the superpower, U.S, which was simply to gain control of the petroleum present in the Iraq district through the troop presence in Afghanistan, which required a historical event like 9/11 to take place. This all makes sense if one looks back at events that have taken place in the past 8 years.
In The Educated Imagination, Northrop Frye talks about his theory on the world one wants to live in and what one may make that world out of. In “Orwell and Me”, Atwood talks George Orwell’s influence on her and her works, one of which is The Handmaid’s Tale , a work based on a feminist perspective on the already famous totalitarian theme, which was an inspiration from Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, “Orwell became a direct model for me much later in my life - in the real 1984, the year in which I began writing a somewhat different dystopia, The Handmaid's Tale”(Atwood, “Orwell and me”). In Atwood’s case, the world she wants to live in is a world that Orwell wanted but only with more attention to feminism, and this is evident in The Handmaid’s Tale, which was written at the time when the Berlin wall tensions were peaking high, thus making her feel compelled to write something which would express her individuality. This concept can be explained by Dr. Frye in The Motive for Metaphor of The Educated Imagination, “it’s not the world you see but the world you build out of what you see” (Frye, 5).
Orwell was great observer. He looked at his society and pointed out the flaws to create the world he wanted. Orwell would have a lot to say about this but I personally think that he would not be surprised by the events that take place today. He would continue to write, since a pen is a writer’s greatest weapon, but he would now incorporate new themes to warn us of greater dangers, our society may be y headed towards right now. He definitely would try to raise awareness through the ink of his pen, just like Michael Moore or Immortal Technique, who is an MC with the most controversial and Anti-Bush lyrics today.
What I would do with my life can be certainly predicted to an extent, and this is so because we are presented with new distractions from the government everyday and making assumptions based on these events would leave one disoriented. One thing is for certain that this crisis will come to an end someday just like INGSOC did towards the end of 1984 and that will ensure absolute equality for all. “Newspeak was the language of Oceania” is what Mr. Liconti repeated constantly, which I failed to understand completely at first but after reading the second half of “Orwell and Me”, this concept become as clear as glass, “However, the essay on Newspeak is written in standard English, in the third person, and in the past tense, which can only mean that the regime has fallen, and that language and individuality have survived” (Atwood, “Orwell and Me”). One of my most important goals is to educate people about misconceptions about people including Muslims, and to raise awareness of the post 9/11 society we live in, so all can live.
Our lives have drastically been affected since the attack on the twin towers. Except for the privacy of our own homes, we are watched everywhere we go. If it isn’t a video camera, it’s the police or security guards. Growing up in the world we live in is difficult, seeing as we are taught to fear what people can accomplish if they are having a bad day, or if hate has took over them. The surveillance has not taught people to not do bad things, but more so taught people to be more discreet about it, which is the cause of fear in our society. The world we live in has took away the freedom that we should have being an adolescent. Our years as a child are the years that we need to learn as much as we can to avoid mistakes as an adult without having to face a more drastic outcome. With the constant surveillance it takes away part of growing up because of the fear that is inflicted because of it. Fewer chances are taken, which equals less knowledge on life itself.
All literature has a meaning, something that we can relate to and even take advice from. We as the reader need to not only read because we are interested in the topic, but pick out what the author wrote and read in between the lines to learn the moral. Northrop Frye says “Literature keeps presenting the most vicious things to us as entertainment, but what it appeals to is not any pleasure in these things, but the exhilaration of standing apart from them and being able to see them for what they are because they aren’t really happening” (Educated Imagination, 60) We can use what we read as entertainment, but if that’s all we are using it for it loses all actual meaning. We need to take what we read and learn something from it or else it can be considered a waste. George Orwell author of ‘1984’ and Animal Farm, says “there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”(Why I Write, Orwell) His novels can be used for entertainment but if we do not take what we learn from the meaning in his work, then what really is the point? After seeing society today, and comparing it to George Orwell’s ‘1984’ it really does give question as to what he would have to say about it. George Orwell’s dystopia is very similar to the world we live in today. This makes me think that the novel was a warning to what our world was slowing turning into. At the time the novel was published people must have seen the story line as an absurd and impossible and not have taken into account the fact that it truly could be possible, even though it was unimaginable at the time. As a reader of 1984, I never really compared it to the world I live in; to be honest I was mad at the author for putting humans in that kind of society. I always thought society would stick up for their rights and freedoms. After a lesson in class my English teacher compared the book to the world we live in and I was astonished to the fact that we are just sitting back and watching this happen to us, and being okay with our lives under surveillance.
The past 2 years of my life I have been trying to figure out where I want to go in life what I want to do for a living. I have been stressing myself out to figure out what I want to do, and I have finally come to the conclusion that I don’t need to know right now. Most people settle for the normal, a family and a job that pays decent money. I am not saying that I don’t want that in my life, I am saying that I am not going to rush into getting that just to find out in 10 years that what I thought I wanted when I was 17 was not what I was going to be wanting anymore when I am 27. What I will do with my life is not a question that I can answer through a 750 word paper. It is a question I will answer through everything I experience within the next 5 years of my life. I am not going to let society rush me into something because that is what everyone is doing. I am going to live my life the way I want to, and try my best to not be affected by the outcomes in which history has brought to us.
Atwood, 9/11, and the Preservation of Orwell's Legacy
Adolescence, a stage of human development essential to the formation of one’s identity, is marked by confusion and uncertainty. It is during this period that individuals assess the validity of the moralistic ideals they have been exposed to throughout childhood. Whether deciding to support or condemn these principles, one becomes an inevitable product of his or her environment. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the pursuit of identity, including my personal struggle with individuality, has been revolutionized with the advent of 9/11. In an attempt to gain support for the invasion of Iraq, the United States employed an ingenious strategy of marketing fear to the public. Terrorism, within a most basic understanding, has become a product sold to the masses at the cost of one’s freedom. Therefore, this demonstration of totalitarian control is distinctly reminiscent of George Orwell’s envisioned societies within Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four- a comparison drawn by Margaret Atwood during her discussion of post-9/11 civilization.
As a member of contemporary society, I am frequently exposed to the social and political consequences of 9/11. I continue to exist within a nation where government emphasizes its influence on the public- establishing policies regarding surveillance and security that infringe upon the moral rights of its citizens. Western civilization has witnessed the violation of ethical standards in order to detain and interrogate individuals- many of whom have no direct connection to terrorist activities. Adolescent development is further influenced by the reincarnation of racial discrimination in North America- that which has been propagated through the media by the United States government. The public was originally informed, for example, of Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s involvement in orchestrating the events of 9/11. This unsubstantiated accusation inevitably led to widespread intolerance of the Iraqi nation, and often, of the country's entire middle-eastern minority. It is precisely this nature of narrow-minded prejudice that Northrop Frye discusses in his literary essay, The Educated Imagination. Recognizing this promotion of discrimination during one’s adolescence is consequently essential in preventing Frye’s collapse of modern society- a limiting of the imagination through, “a confusion of tongues” (Frye, 1997, p.98).
Margaret Atwood concludes her analysis of Orwellian literature through stating that, “For the sake of freedom, freedom must be renounced. [...] It’s a concept worthy of doublethink” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/jun/16/georgeorwell.artsfeatures). This reference to the political evolution of western civilization has its foundations in consequentialism- an ideology used by countless institutions to establish control over the general population. Society is convinced that temporarily forfeiting one’s moral standards is necessary to ensure the preservation of these standards for the future. Ultimately, one is led to believe that the “ends justify the means”- only the ends are never brought into focus. We have, of course, witnessed events of this nature since the dawn of civilization- from Adolf Hitler’s desire to ensure the survival of a “perfect race”, to the US government’s proposed “liberation” of Iraq. Atwood proceeds to envision George Orwell’s reaction to the aftermath of 9/11. In a bitter notion of irony, Orwell would witness an introduction of the very future he had dedicated the final years of his life to campaign against. Thus, it can only be presumed that George Orwell would advocate the “political purpose” of his literary career through protesting recent developments in modern society.
In an attempt to associate the “educated imagination” with the underlying purpose of literature, Northrop Frye theorizes that, “The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in” (Frye, 1997, p.86). After witnessing the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, along with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, George Orwell employs literature as a means of promoting his ideal reality through warning of the consequences of authoritarianism. Those who have experienced the tragedy of September 11, 2001- and consequently, the world that this tragedy has created- are presented with a similar opportunity to foster political change. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 had thrust society’s youth into adulthood with an event more tragic and at a time more premature than many would have liked to witness. Similar to Orwell, however, we must pursue one of two options in the wake of this atrocity. The measure of one’s life will ultimately be shaped by the decision to either stand idly by while political governments establish totalitarian control of society, or take action to safeguard the moralistic ideals upon which western civilization was founded. It is essential to recognize that a revolution of this nature begins with the voice of a single individual. Thus, I will continue my pursuit of education, and do what I am able to fulfill what I believe is a fundamental responsibility of humanity: the preservation of Orwell’s legacy.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. (2003). Orwell and Me. Retrieved January 4, 2009 from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/jun/16/georgeorwell.artsfeatures.
Frye, Northrop. The Educated Imagination. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 1997.
Life in a Post 9/11 World
When I was in grade six, I had a very limited knowledge of what government, terrorists and war was about. Upon watching the news that night, it felt as if I was watching a movie. The images were so horrific that I could not believe it had actually happened earlier that day. Up until the beginning of grade twelve I paid little attention to news broadcasts, papers, blogs and journals. The extent of my knowledge of the 9/11 attacks ranged from Youtube conspiracy videos to information gathered for assignments. But this year, all that changed. My teacher developed an exercise in which he gathered students from the hallway in order to test their knowledge of general politics and the wars taking place in Afghanistan and Iraq. The results revealed that most adolescents were ignorant of to the leaders and actions of their own government and the events taking place in the Middle East. This exercise made me question my own spectrum of knowledge regarding the subject.
Near the beginning of the semester, my class was expected to read Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination. The collection of lectures explain the construction and use of the imagination, conventions in literature, and the importance of knowing the foundations of Western Civilization. Frye‘s notion that “literature can only derive its forms from itself,” (22) compares with the fact that all future events have been derived from, or influenced by, past events. My teacher continuously encourages me and my classmates to research, watch the news and develop a political perspective. Like Frye, he explains the necessity of understanding Western Civilization in order to comprehend the world we live in. Frye also explains the objective world we live in and the subjective world we want to live in, as illustrated by our imagination. When the imagination is limited, individuals cannot grow. Frye says that “the person who is surrounded with advertisers or with politicians neither believes everything literally nor rejects everything, but chooses in accordance with his own vision of society. The essential thing is the power of choice,” (91). In absolutist and totalitarian governments, these liberties are limited if not illicit. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four exposes a tyrannous state that does just this.
Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four to warn readers about the dangers of totalitarian governments. He predicted that governments would continue to invade civilian privacy and seek power for the sake of power. If he were alive today he would be uneasy to discover that certain government policies have come into place and with such little resistance. The novel includes a security device known as ‘telescreens’, implemented by the Oceania government to catch the movement, sound, and sometimes thought, of civilians. The people of the Big Brother society are forced to maintain a monotonous facial expression, keep to themselves, and are prohibited to perform any self expression including spontaneous singing, writing, and forming relationships. Such tasks seems absurd and inhumane, and that is just what Orwell tries to describe. In an article entitled “Orwell and me,” Margaret Atwood expresses her disturbing encounter with Orwell’s earlier and politically comparable novel “Animal Farm”.
Atwood read the horrifying, unjust book at the age of nine and numerous more times throughout her adolescence. As she grew older she started to make political connections to novel and realized that the tyrannous government was not far from reality. She cites Orwell’s notion that “it isn’t the labels - Christianity, Socialism, Islam, Democracy - […] that are definitive, but the acts done in their name”. A current example of this was the shift of war from Afghanistan to Iraq in 2003, in part, to spread Democracy.
In 2003, an amalgamated force led extensively by American and British forces invaded Iraq. Justification included a presupposed claim that Iraq’s alleged possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) posed a critical, imminent threat and the motive to spread Democracy. However, following the invasion, the “Iraq Survey group concluded that Iraq has ended its WMD program in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion,” (Wikipedia.org, 2008). After uncovering this information, I intended to find what the American and British forces real motives were for invading Iraq. A common result was the suggestion that the war has little to do with spreading democracy, and instead “is largely about oil,” (Guardian.co.uk, 2007) as articulated by Alan Greenspan. The American government’s actions following 9/11 have been widely disputed. After shifting to Iraq without concrete evidence of the WMD claims, their justifications have become more suspicious and their intentions more evident. Atwood recalls how the pigs in Animal Farm would “self-righteously justify their actions”. Similarly, the government of Oceania, from Nineteen Eighty-Four, would do things as they pleased and those who were unorthodox would be killed.
Oceania is strikingly similar to our society with its state enemy as a Middle-Eastern man, and its frequent mob-like gatherings where people chant in hatred, despite their ignorance of his whereabouts or the true history behind his stature. Atwood describes the fictitious wars in Nineteen Eighty-Four “which are used to terrify the people and unite them in hatred”. The exercise my teacher had implemented proved that teens, (as well as a large portion of society) are only considerably aware that Canadian and American troops are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, our enemy is Osama bin Laden and that we should hate him and the terrorists. This lack of knowledge leads to paranoia and faulty, Middle-Eastern stereotypes.
Following the 9/11 attack, security, paranoia, and discrimination dramatically increased. The increased security was meant to assure civilians that areas of high traffic are safe and secure. Instead, most people feel anxious or uneasy when in the presence of armed officers. This is mainly because individuals assume the need for such excessive security can only be because there are frequent, imminent threats. These anxious and uneasy feelings are usually accompanied by resentment towards terrorists. This is understandable, however an individual’s idea of what a terrorist actually is can sometimes be misconstrued. This distorted judgment unfortunately results in Middle-Eastern stereotypes.
Inherently, Middle-Easterners struggle with the war against terrorism, the perplexity of the Islam faith, and absolutist governments in most Middle Eastern countries. Additionally, they are forced to face the stereotypes ignorant Westerners have attached to their immigrant persona. This biased impression applies to a diverse amalgamation of peoples. The most common misconception is that all Muslims are Arabs. This is far from the truth. The connection between the two is that Arabs speak Arabic and Muslims practice the Islamic faith, where the Arabic language is predominant. Statistically speaking, “more than a billion people in the world are Muslims, but fewer than 15 percent of Muslims worldwide are Arabs,” (pbs.org, 2002). Another false conclusion is that Islam is a violent religion. This generalization is absurd - the violence associated with Islam, as well as any other religion, is exclusively initiated by extremists. Unfortunately, a 2006 study by the National Counterterrorism Center of the United States claimed “Islamic extremism was responsible for approximately a quarter of all terrorism fatalities worldwide,” (wits.nctc.gov, 2007) which explains the misconception, and favors the stereotype that all Islamic believers are suicide-bombing extremists. It is difficult to construct an unbiased conception of a specific culture when one’s own society is devoted to revealing and overemphasizing said culture’s flaws. Nonetheless, it is the individual’s full responsibility to avoid biased presumptions, and to create their own understanding by collecting various accounts of significant events. Such a collection of information can be retrieved from numerous sources, and as technology advances, it only becomes easier to access such information. The most capable individuals who could find and organize this data are adolescents.
Adolescence in Western society, post 9/11, is quite comparable with the adolescence of present-day parents and foreign grandparents. The news, wars, and reactions are all the same, but the names have changed. From 1939-1945, instead of Osama bin Laden, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom attempted to find Hitler and terminate his Nazi regime. Fifteen years prior to that, Stalin’s fascism prevailed in Italy. Absolutist rulers before him include the Russia Tsars of the 19th and 20th centuries, and before them, kings such as Louis XIV of France. Throughout time, there will always be an enemy to hate, a stagnation to overcome, and power to gain. The only difference over the last few centuries is the advancement of technology and the people labeled as terrorists.
In the future, I hope to become more aware of the Western Civilization in which I live, the events happening around the world, and forming an unbiased, structured political perspective. I also hope to influence those around me to develop similar tendencies. However, to become coherent in such areas one must first develop essential reading and writing skills. This is one of the reasons why I am planning to study English and Literature at the post-secondary level. Frye explains that “nobody is capable of free speech unless he knows how to use language, and such knowledge is not a gift: it has to be learned and worked at,” (93). I hope that one day, I can create my own exercise and explain to young minds the importance of understanding Western Civilization which, in turn, helps one to grow as an individual.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Orwell and Me 2003. Retrieved [online] January 1, 2008 at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/jun/16/georgeorwell.artsfeatures
Beaumont, Peter and Walters, Joanna. Greenspan Admits Iraq Was About Oil 2007. Retrieved [online] January 1, 2008 at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/16/iraq.iraqtimeline
Frye, Northrop. The Educated Imagination 1963. House of Anansi Press Inc. Toronto, Ontario.
National Counterterrorism Center. Report on Terrorism Incidents 2007. Retrieved [online] January 1, 2008 at: http://wits.nctc.gov/reports/crot2006nctcannexfinal.pdf
Numerous Authors. Common Western Perceptions About Islam and the Middle East 2002. Retrieved [online] January 1, 2008 at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/questions/types/
Numerous Authors. Iraq War 2008. Retrieved [online] January 1, 2008 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four 1949. Secker and Warburg. London, England.
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