Themes in Farhenheit and our society

Some of the major themes that I feel were presented in all of the books we were centered around technology. We are overusing technology and this causes us to lose a lot of privacy that we have in our life. In Feed they had technology directly in their head, it was all they knew. In 1984 because of the use of cameras people were constantly being watched, sometimes even in the provacy of their own home. In Farhenheit 451 people no longer relied on the written word, but on technology. This caused me to think that sometime in the near future we will lose all of out privacy. As Americans we are free and have a right to privacy, I feel if swe continue to use technology like we have been we will no longer have privacy.

Big Brother

The end of 1984 I thought was a lot more interesting than the beginning. I did not expect O'Brien to betray Winstong and Violet. Before Winston and Violet were turned in and sent to jail, they made a couple vows. One of the vows was that they would not deny eachothers love if they went to jail. In the end of the book they ended up denying eachother. I wish they wouldn't have but I feel in that type of situation where they were starving and pretty much dying, they almost had to. In the end Big Brother won, and Winston admitted that he loved Big Brother. I feel Winston only loved Big Brother because they pretty much brain washed him while he was in jail. Overall the book was okay, not really something that I would read for fun but the ending was good.

1984

The book I chose to read was 1984. I thought that the book was a little difficult to understand and boring in the beginning but slowly picked up as I read. Winston and the other characters were constantly being watched by Big Brother. I don't know how I would react if I was constantly being watched and listened to. I would have to worry all the time about what I was saying and who I was around, it would be difficult to live a happy life. I liked that fact that Winston and Violet tried to go against Big Brother, even though they failed.

Thoreau Against "Thechnology"

I thought that the class discussion about Thoreau this week was very intersting. I would never be able to do what he did. I could never imagine spending months in a one bedroom house. It would be especially hard to do these days because I honestly feel that I can't be without my cell phone for even a couple hours. I feel that Violet, in the novel Feed, and Thoreau are somewhat alike. Both Violet and Thoreau wanted to seperate themselves from technology. To Thoreau, he thought that the post office during his time was technology, this is something he wanted to be without. Violet tried to not use her feed as much as others around her did. I feel that both Violet and Thoreau were couragous for trying to do so.

The Dumbest Generation

I do not agree with Bauerlein's statment made in the video we watched in class, that we are the dumbest generation. Just because we use technology does not mea we are dumb. It may mean that we are a lazy generation, but not a dumb one. Our generation has created many things such as the iphone of hybrid cars. These are only two of the many technological things that our generation has created. To create these things it takes a lot of intelliegence. I guess Baulerein's opinion would be based around what he means by "dumb". I feel that book smart, we are a very intelligent generation. Street smart maybe not so much. I bet forty years ago people knew how to make a fire. I know I would'nt even know where to begin to make a fire. I feel that before he calls our generation dumb he needs to make clear what he really means when he uses the word "dumb".

The Media and its Effects on Americans

The topic about the media and advertisements during this week of class was very interesting. I never really took the time to stop and look at each advertisement and really think about what type of message it was portraying. The video played during class said that the average American is exposed to 3000 advertisements everyday. I would like to say that advertisements and the media do not have an affect on me, but they do. It's hard to escape because it is everywhere. I do although think that advertisements do not need to be portrayed the way that they are. To many advertisements tell people that they need to have a perfect body, skin, hair, and clothes. People then strive for this, but in all reality, it is impossible. I feel that this problem is only going to get worse. The media controls us, we dont control the media.

After reading the first couple pages of culture jam, it's read about the authors point of view. I do see his point of view that our world is turning from a natural world to a manufactured one. I aslo do believe that the media has had an influence in our lives. The media is something that constantly surrounds us. I do believe that eventually things won't "shock" us anymore. We will get used to seeing violence and sex on TV that it will no longer affect us.
The section on noise i can relate to because i often find myself doing homework with the tv on and i tend to put the voices of others in background noise. People including myself are so used to hearing noise that when there is no noise, we use the term "awkward silence". I am very interested in reading the rest of the book.