1984: Book 1 Chapters 7-8 and Book 2 Chapters 1-2

Passage:
"Then, as though touching her waist had reminded her of something, she felt in the pocket of her overalls and produced a small slab of chocolate. She broke it in half and gave one of the pieces to Winston. Even before he had taken it he knew by the smell that it was very unusual chocolate. It was dark and shiny, and was wrapped in silver paper. Chocolate normally was dull-brown crumbly stuff that tasted, as nearly as one could describe it, like the smoke of a rubbish fire. But at some time or another he had tasted chocolate like the piece she had given him. The first whiff of its scent had stirred up some memory which he could not pin down, but which was powerful and troubling.
‘Where did you get this stuff?’ he said.
‘Black market,’ she said indifferently. ‘Actually I am that sort of girl, to look at. I’m good at games. I was a troop-leader in the Spies. I do voluntary work three evenings a week for the Junior Anti-Sex League. Hours and hours I’ve spent pasting their bloody rot all over London. I always carry one end of a banner in the processions. I always look cheerful and I never shirk anything. Always yell with the crowd, that’s what I say. It’s the only way to be safe."’ (Book 2: Chapter 2, Page 121-122)

Response:
While reading the last part of book 1 and the beginning of book 2, I stopped at this particular quote due to the fact that this quote refers to candy, and it is almost Halloween. Also, I sort of chose this quote due to my liking of the numbers involved with this quote since it at has a lot of my favorite number which is 2 from my birthday being 2/2/2000. Besides the way in which I chose this quote, this quote is a very important quote in the novel due to the fact that it implies Winston and his rebellion against the government, and also it illustrates who Julia is in the text. This quote embodies Winston's and Julia's true intent to go against the government in the form of rebellion. This is just another type of rebellion that Orwell introduces that Winston would love to partake in. 
In the form of the Winston and Julia's rebellion regarding this luxurious chocolate that they eat, it also shows how the people of Oceania are treated by the government as well. The government rarely cares for their citizens unfortunately and with this being said, it can be seen by this chocolate that Orwell describes. The chocolate that citizens of Oceania get is quite disturbing to the fact that they don't get common luxurious chocolate that normal people would get. Unfortunately, they only receive chocolate that is unimaginable from the taste to the looks. Chocolate from Oceania is flat out disturbing. 

Chocolates and sex are two forms of rebellion that Winston and Julia partake in during this chapter. It shows that these two individuals of the novel are distraught regarding the government and would like to rebel against them with any chance that they have. By eating the chocolate they rebelled since this chocolate was different, it was bought by Julia in the Black Market and also this chocolate was not normal, by it being luxurious from the taste to the looks of it. Everything involved with this pieces of chocolate go against the laws of Oceania, and they are risking their taste buds from getting arrested by the thought police.

The other form of rebellion that is developed throughout the chapter between Winston and Julia is sex. Even though sex is not necessarily explained through the quote from above, it is a great piece of information that I couldn't pass up. This form of rebellion has been developed by Orwell through Winston throughout the whole entire book. However, with a female, Julia, and a male, Winston, Orwell develops this form of rebellion even more through the experience of intercourse that they both are involved in. The rebellion is a rebellion that they say is not only pleasurable for themselves, but also pleasurable for the satisfaction of rebelling towards the government. Orwell describes Winston's fondness towards this form of rebellion as towards the end of book 2, chapter 2, Winston wouldn't mind if Julia had intercourse with a multitude of men since the more she did it, the more rebellion she committed.  It seems as if from these two forms of rebellion, Winston and Julia's mentality towards the government is to rebel, and rebel a lot.

As we are presented with Julia, we realize that she is sort of a model citizen in which she rebels against the government, but she doesn't necessarily express it. In her life she can be seen to volunteer in the Junior Anti-Sex League and also march for the government with cheerful motives. This is a great idea since as listed in the quote above, this way that they express their lives, they sort of fool the government so they don't get caught up when they rebel. However, inside her true intentions of the government is the total opposite as she wants to overthrow them, just like Winston. In a sense, I see Julia as a female version of Winston in the ways they act, and the ways that they want to rebel. 


Questions for Winston and Julia: 
1) What other forms of rebellion do you guys have up your sleeves?
2) Is hiding your true identity towards the government difficult since big brother is always watching you?
3) Winston, why exactly did you assume that Julia was part of the Thought Police, when she is the total opposite since she is like a carbon copy of you?
4) Julia, did you already know that Winston loves to rebel against the government just like you?
5) What other forms of rebellion can you guys purchase from the Black Market?

1984: Book 1 Chapters 2-6

Passage
"What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the pneumatic tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of the Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs—to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as open as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place." (Page 39-40)

Response
In the passage provided on top, we can see that the government is obviously using memory holes, presented on page 37 in which were thousands of slits on the walls that were used for employees to get rid of each and every past document that can contradict the present. The government is evidently worrying a lot about having their past affect their present and their future. They want to rid any unnecessary documents so they are not able to be tracked for false accusations.
The way in which Winston's job operated was for them to speak into speak writes, presented on page 37 in which are an example of our modern day speak to text apps in which the system puts someones dictation into words. Their job required for them is to rewrite history in the form of how the government wants them to have history. For example, the government wants fake document evidence to support their claims.

Also, on a personal level, I see the employees actions in regards to the memory holes as a shredder. Today we shred papers for us and other to not see that paper ever again. In this case, it is the same sort of idea since the government in 1984 controls the citizens to use these memory holes or a shredder in our case to get rid of any past documents that can contradict the past. Also, it is for any documents to not be seen ever again by anybody in Oceania. In my opinion, this way of throwing out paper is also quite suspicious in a sense since even though the employees use it to discard any unwanted papers, they technically don't know where exactly the papers are going to. So without the papers being shredded or burned, these papers can haunt the government at any time if they are not disposed properly.

In my opinion, I feel that the government has no right to do this form of trickery towards their citizens since it is basically setting up their government based on lies. By disposing any past documentations, they dispose the history along with it. Even though this is their intent, I feel that the government is too concerned with being always correct and true that they have to manipulate documentations to completely disregard any falsifications. I think that by the government being set up based on lies, it only tells me that the government of Oceania doesn't really care for the truth, and they would rather live on lies, than live on the truths that made them.

Also, some questions that I have for the government are:

1. Why do you care so much to hide the truth?
2. Why do you always have to be true, and rely on manipulated documentation to support your claims? 
3. Are you scared that the citizens are close to surpassing the government?
4. Where do the documents that are put into memory holes exactly go to?
5. Are you aware that the employees manipulating your documentation can at anytime share the past history that they discarded through memory holes?

Questions I have for the employees:

1. Do you feel that your being manipulated like the documents that you are "recreating"?
2. Would you ever have the guts to spread the past documents to overthrow your own government?
3. Are you aware that your the ones that allow the government to run based on lies?
4. Do you have an idea where the documents go after you put documents into the memory holes?
5. If you had the ability to would you recreate the documents to government standards, but embed the past in the document as well, so history is preserved?

These questions that I would ask to the government and the employees contradict each other since questions to the government correlate to the truth and falseness. On the other hand, the questions to the employees correlate more to asking if they would ever rebel against the government since they hate the government already.

All in all, this passage that I chose in Chapter 4, pages 39-40 is a good representation of the government in Oceania since they are fake and control their citizens to manipulate their documents to prove to themselves that they are always right.