Native Son to pg 163

Quote: "He saw Mrs. Dalton lift her right hand and he knew that she meant for Mr. Dalton to stop questioning him so closely. He felt her shame"(153).

Significance: This quote is significant because this shows how much the Dalton's trust him. Mrs. Dalton is trying to protect Bigger and stop Mr. Dalton from questioning him because she thinks he did nothing wrong. Bigger does not even care that the Dalton's are protecting him. They do care about him and all he cares about is protecting himself from getting caught. The Dalton's have done nothing to hurt him so why should he be doing this to them. Bigger is changing. He believes that the white people cannot control him anymore and that he is equal to them or even one up then they are, but if he keeps lying like this he will not be anything except in jail and probably killed.

Question: What is going to happen to Jan?

Native Son Pg140

Quote: "What he had done last night had proved that. Jan was blind. Mary had been blind. Mr. Dalton was blind. And Mrs. Dalton was blind; yes, blind in more ways than one "(107).

Significance: This quote is significant because Bigger thinks that what he did will never be known. He says that all these people are blind because they have not seen the truth in what he did, but eventually the truth will be set free. Honestly, I believe because Mrs. Dalton is the only one actually blind, she will be the one to figure out the truth and catch Bigger. Bigger thinks all these people are blind, but soon they will not be so blind when they find out what he did. If Bigger thinks he will never be caught, he has another thing coming.

Question: Is Bigger going to trust Bessie and tell her what he did?

Native Son pg 77 to 94

Quote: "She was dead and he had killed her. He was a murderer, a Negro murderer, a black murderer. He had killed a white woman."(87).

Significance: This quote is significant because Bigger killed Mary, he continued to do things to Mary and dug a deeper hole for himself. He will definitely get in trouble because he killed a white woman and he is black. When people find out he will be stereotyped. He will get into a lot of trouble because he keeps hiding what he has done to Mary and he wants to make up a lie so he will not get in trouble. Something really bad is going to happen to Bigger even if he confesses just because he is black. Nobody will have sympathy for Bigger because he is black and he did a terrible thing. Bigger is crazy, but for some reason I think Bigger did not know what he was doing at first, and then he panicked and hurt Mary more.

Question: Is Bigger psycho?!?!?! What is going to happen to Bigger now?

Native Son pg 53 to 77

Quote: "The difference in his feelings toward Mrs. Dalton and his mother was that he felt that his mother wanted him to do the things she wanted him to do, and he felt that Mrs. Dalton wanted him to do the things she felt that he should have wanted to do"(61).


Significance: This quote is significant because he once told us that he hated his own mother and she wanted him to do things she wanted him to do. I think he sees Mrs. Dalton as more of a mother then his own mother because she seems like she cares more. Mrs. Dalton cares more because she wants him to succeed in life and do want he wants to do. This just shows that the rich white people really do treat the black people better then the poor white people do.


Question: Are Jan and Mary being true to Bigger?

Native Son pg 30 to 53

Quote: "Poor white people were stupid. It was the rich white people who were smart and knew how to treat people"(34).

Significance: I think this quote is significant because before Bigger did not like white people because they all had more then he had. Now he labels them as the poor and the rich white people. He thinks that the rich white people know how to treat others, but i think that something is going to happen and those rich white people are not going to treat him so nicely. I also do not think that, in this book, there is a difference from poor and rich white people because they are all going to treat the black people wrongly even if they are smarter then some other white people.

Question: Will Mary and Bigger's relationship become something it should not?

Native Son to pg 30

Quote: "They felt that it was much easier and safer to rob their own people, for they knew that white policemen never really searched diligently for Negroes who committed crimes against other Negroes"(14).

Significance: This quote is significant because it really shows how much racism Bigger lives through. Bigger sees the white people as very powerful people and robbing them would be very difficult. I believe Bigger is the way he is because he feels very threatened by the thought of white people having everything and him having nothing at all. If he robbed his own kind the police would not care because there black. It would be a different story if they robbed a white person because the white people think they are better then the black people so it is probably like breaking a law. I think Bigger is going to do something and it is not going to end to well.

Question: Who is Bessie?

1984 essay

Nicole Civitarese Civitarese, 1
English 10 Honors/ Mr. George
3/18/09
1984 Essay
Average man

Nobody is perfect, especially not in today’s world. Everyone makes mistakes, and they do not always do the right thing. In the novel, 1984 by George Orwell, the character, Winston lives in a society where the government controls everything including thoughts, so obviously it would be difficult to do the right thing if the government thinks the people are always doing something wrong. If Winston gets arrested every time the government thinks he is doing something he should not be, then how can he make a decision from right and wrong. That would usually cause someone to fail because they cannot do anything for themselves. Some who is average is just a typical or common person in everyday society. Winston may have failed, but he is an average man because he did things he knew he should not have done, he tried to fight against something that was wrong, and failed just like everyone else in his society.
Winston is an average person just like the rest of us. The government he is under is called the Party, controls every aspect of people’s lives. The one figure they center their government around is Big Brother; he is the leader of the Party. The Party uses a telescreen and the telescreen allows them to watch and hear every little thing said and done by the people. There are also people within the government who are trained to understand what people are thinking. Those people are called the Thought Police. They
Civitarese, 2

know when someone is committing Thought Crime, which is when someone is thinking something that is going against the Party. Another way the Party controlled the people was altering the past: “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past”(Orwell 34).This means the Party controls anything that happens. If anything that happened in the past contradicts what is happening in the present, they change it. Winston’s job is to change articles, so the article is what the Party wants it to say. He is not the only one with this job or other jobs that have to do with changing the past. Which makes Winston an average person just like the others in his society.
After living through what the Party has done, Winston started to question what they were really doing. He begins to rebel against it, which any average person would do if they did not like what was happening. Winston had a secret diary and he wrote down things that could get him put in prison if he was caught. He rebelled against Big Brother in his diary: “Down with Big Brother”(18). Winston begins to think how the Party could stop having control and has to rebel against it. He meets a woman named Julia, who he falls in love with and the government does not allow men and women to have a relationship like Julia and Winston. When they meet, they must meet in secret causing them to go against the Party. Soon after that they meet a man named O’Brien.
O’Brien is a member of the Brotherhood, which is an organization whose purpose is to defeat the Party. Winston learns that if he wants to help the future he must give a lot up: “You are prepared, the two of you, to separate and never see one another again?”(173). For any average person something like that would be hard to give up.
Civitarese, 3

Winston receives a book from O’Brien, and the book is about what the Party stands for. He is still an average man because he is doing none of this alone. Julia was always there pushing him. After Winston read how the Party controls everything, that is when a voice on the telescreen behind a picture repeats what they are saying: “You are dead”(221). Then the Thought Police burst into the room and arrest them. Winston is put into a prison place, tortured, and becomes something he does not want to become. Winston’s attempt to join the Brotherhood shows how much of an average person he is. Many people in his society probably have tried, but failed.
Winston is turned into a normal citizen which is just what the Party wants. He believes and listens to everything the Party says. When Winston is in prison, he learns that O’Brien is the one torturing him and that he was never in the Brotherhood at all. Winston betrays Julia and starts yelling Julia’s name: “Julia! Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!”(280). That is what gets him put in Room 101. Room 101 is where they put someone’s worst fear and for Winston that is rats. They have a facemask put over Winston’s face and the cage with rats were attached. As O’Brien started to click the openings of the cage Winston became fearful. Before they could let the rats out, Winston betrayed Julia, “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!”(286). The Party was happy with this because they made him into a perfect citizen and he starts to believe what the Party says again. He loves Big Brother. Winston may look like a failure, but he really is not because anyone who was in his spot would do the same thing.
Civitarese, 4

It is very easy to say that Winston was a failure or he was a hero. Winston did not fail because he tried to fight against something he thought was wrong. He is not a hero because he did none of this alone, and he is not the only one who tried to do what he did. Many people in his society pictured the failing of the Party and many people probably have tried just like Winston. He was turned into the perfect citizen in the Party’s eyes. That just shows that Winston really is an average person because he failed, made mistakes, and gave up. People in the world today fail, make mistakes, and give up because what they are fighting against overpowers them. That is what happened to Julia and Winston, they were overpowered. They both turned back into perfect citizens and average people.

1984 end of book

Quote: "It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it"(278).

Significance: This quote is very significant because it just shows how much the Party have changed Winston. First, he, said he hated the Party and that someone would defeat them. Now, he wants to be a part of the Party to stay alive. He has changed so much that when he was in room 101 he even told O'Brien that he should let the rats tear up Julia's face not his and he betrayed her like he said he would never do. The sad thing is she betrayed him too. He thought now that he was superior to everyone because he was a part of the Party. This quote is great because it really does show how Winston changed. He was fighting as hard as he could against the Party and now instead of fighting it he wants to go with it.


Definitions: Capitulate(276)-verb-to surrender unconditionally or on stipulated terms.
Delirium(279)-noun-a more or less temporary disorder of the mental faculties, as in fevers, disturbances of consciousness, or intoxication, characterized by restlessness, excitement, delusions, hallucinations.

1984

Quote: "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power"(263).

Significance: The Party is all about themselves. It's disgusting. Winston finds out why the Party has done all these things. He knew there motive, but he never understood why and know he does because the Party is selfish and just wants power. They do not care that they abuse people until their death. It's disgusting and I really hope what Winston said about Man taking over and destroying the Party actually happens. It is awful what the Party is doing and it needs to end because leaders should never just care about power and themselves and no one else. It is not okay. Winston is definitely not okay with how his question why was answered and neither am I. Power is not everything.

Definitions: Relinquishing(263)-verb-To retire from; give up or abandon.
Solipsism(266)-noun-the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.

1984 page 218-239

Quote: "It was the place with no darkness: he saw now why O'Brien had seemed to recognize the allusion"(229).

Significance: This quote is very significant because O'Brien had said this to Winston in the beginning of the book. It is like O'Brien knew the whole time what was going to happen and that they would meet again in that cell. At the end of this chapter O'Brien also says to Winston you knew they always had me. O'Brien is trying to tell Winston that, the quote a place with no darkness, was foreshadowing. Winston now knew why O'Brien had said a place with no darkness because inside the cell you could not tell whether it was night or day outside because it was always light inside the place.

Definitions: Perturbed(232)-verb-To disturb greatly; make uneasy or anxious. To throw into great confusion.
Timorously(234)-adjective-full of fear; fearful: The noise made them timorous. subject to fear; timid

1984 Part 2 Ignorance is strength

Quote: "He had still, he reflected, not learned the ultimate secret. He understood how; he did not understand why."(217).


Significance: This quote is significant because Winston had once said this before. You would think after reading a book into more detail about something he did not understand he would understand why things are they way they are. I do believe he does not know why things happen like they do is because the Party changes so much of the past and have so many rules and do not explain why they do it or why they have them. The Party probably does not even have a reason to why they do it. I believe the more Winston reads and learns about what the Party is actually about, he might be able to out smart them.


Definitions: Expropriated(206)-verb-to take possession of, esp. for public use by the right of eminent domain, thus divesting the title of the private owner
Inimical(212)-adjective-adverse in tendency or effect; unfavorable; harmful

1984 Part 2 War is Peace

Quote: "Physical facts could not be ignored. In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an airplane they had to make four"(197).


Significance: This quote is significant because this is bringing back the two plus two makes five. The book states that when someone makes or designs something if u had two of something with two more of something else u get four pieces. The Party says that is wrong and it equals five. What the book says makes more sense then what the Party is saying. If someone who is reading the book Winston had they would believe that it made way more sense then the Party. That would lead to everyone else believing what the book said and over rule the Party? Or would they run scared and get those people in trouble? I do not really understand what is happening at this point, but i do believe that the book makes way more sense then the Party.


Definitions: Arbitrary(185)-adjective-subject to individual will or judgment without restriction; contingent solely upon one's discretion
Preponderance(193)-noun-Superiority in weight, force, importance, or influence.