Week 2: 1894

                 This is the second week blog for 1984. I found the description of newspeak vs. oldspeak interesting.  It is like a code! Oldspeak seems to be a lot fewer words than newspeak. Newspeak is strict and right to the point. In some ways I agree with Big Brother on this one. We have so many unused words in our language, and so many words that could be substituted with other words. Although I do not agree with changing the entire language to the extent they do in this book.

                It talks about a speakwrite several times. “Tillotson was working steadily away, with a folded newspaper on his knee and his mouth very close to the mouth piece of the speakwrite.”  I want to know what a speawrite is. Is it something you talk into and it types or writes down what you say? Or is it what they call a keyboard or computer? I am hoping to find this out later on in the book. 

                I find it odd when you see a piece of paper, or a scrap of anything that you must throw it into a memory hole. What would be so important on any given scrap of paper? What do people even have to hide? It doesn’t seem that anyone has much of a life. How can the government be so powerful. How did they get all this power? Big Brother is brainwashing everyone. There was one point in the book where it talked about a child. At nineteen years old this man created a hand grenade. The hand grenade was adopted by the Ministry of Peace. On its first trial it killed thirty one prisoners. No normal teenager that I know is that involved and obsessed in killing people. He was brainwashed since he was born. He never even got a chance to have his own views on life.

                The reading of this book is not too difficult for me. I know most of the words used. There are, at most, three words I am unsure of the meaning per page. But the context clues really help me out. Finding time to read has been a struggle. I should be a little further than I am. I tend to read at night when I am tired, and end up falling asleep. I read in my classes when there is extra time.    

I have so many questions about the lives of the civilians. I wonder what these people do for fun…  Do they have a limit of children? Can they do whatever they want, or do they need permission from Big Brother for everything? I likded this line in the book, It gives me a humorous picture in my mind. “Winston took up his mug of gin, paused for an instant to collect his nerve, and gulped the oily-tasting stuff down.”  I’m interested in knowing what this so called “gin” tastes like. It seems to have an awful taste. I am looking forward to reading more of the book and hopefully get many of those questions answered.