1984 by George Orwell

Describe Winston's life. Winston talks about things being "dangerous" in this section of reading. Based upon the novel, what does "dangerous" mean? What specific things (give 2 examples) does he state are dangerous? How might these things be perceived as dangerous when they seem very harmless? Explain what you think about the items and their potential for real-life society.

Winston's life is extremely complicated for something so simple. He can't go anywhere and he can't do anything! How can life be any simpler? It is this simplicity that makes his life so complicated. Every step he takes is a conscious choice to follow the rules and do things correctly or to break the rules and destroy everything he considers to be his life.

Walking down the street alone could be considered dangerous. Doing things by oneself is a demonstration of individualism. Why is being an individual dangerous? I suppose that being an individual means that you think for yourself. You don't rely solely on what others tell you. When the world around you tries to make you think what it wants you to think, to rewrite history in the way they think it should be written, then a person taking the initiative to question whether it is true or not would be disasterous. One stray thought might lead to a revolution...isn't that why they have the thought police?

Another dangerous act is sex? I'm not sure where they are getting this idea. They've tried to make the act of sex repulsive and more of a duty than a pleasure. What are they accomplishing? The only benefit I can see from making sex repulsive would be that they could control the population. I suppose they could also make life a little more taxing for married couples. They wouldn't have the "truest intimate" relationship. There would always be a wall between them.

I suppose that individualism could lead to some terrible things. Hitler had an idea to create a race of similar people. I guess that some extraordinary ideas can lead to the kind of society that 1984 points out. My biggest fear about sex comes from the movie "Idiocracy". It scares me to think that genetically the world will become completely stupid. I don't want that to happen.

1984 by George Orwell

What does "Big Brother" mean to you? "Big Brother is watching you." How can Big Brother be real? In what ways does Big Brother have access to you? If the government can access your cell phones, view you through laptop cameras, gaming boxes, and track you through personal gps devices (yes, they can really do all of these and more; spouses often track each other), do you feel like it's acceptable to spy on people? How can the loss of privacy impact personal freedoms? Is it true that people who have nothing to hide don't mind prying eyes? How would you feel to find out you were secretly being watched?

Big Brother could mean a lot of things. It's hard to place a definite answer on it. My first thought is the government. I mean, when you think about a mysterious, secretive force that likes to watch and track you from various technological devices... Like some high tech peeping Tom... the government is number one on that list. However, I'm sure that you could say that Big Brother could incorporate any business (since wherever you use your card is tracked and could be used for marketing materials sent to your home). I think that it could also be applied to anyone that wants to use secret surveillance to control you, your actions and your thoughts.

I do not feel like it is acceptable to spy on people. There are reasons that people might want to keep part of their lives hidden from others. Granted...some people might be wanting to keep their murders secret or their kidnapping, but those are cases where using a phone to track someone could be useful and accepted. However, for the most part, watching people just to watch them is creepy and wrong. The impact on our freedom from this invasion of privacy is extensive and hard to truly pin-point. It would depend upon how it is being used. Is it used to stop a certain type of talk? Freedom of Speech is impacted. Is it used to find out who does and does not have a gun? Right to bear arms. It could be used to deny almost all of our rights and freedoms.

I think that if someone has nothing to hide then it is doubly wrong for someone to watch them for no reason. They would still care. There are times when people want to be alone. What if they had nothing to hide, but Big Brother was watching them while they got ready to go take a shower? Who knows? Maybe Big Brother is into creating porn like the Pornosec?

In my most honest opinion, I would be extremely angry if I were being watched without my knowledge.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Would Dorian have lived the life that he did if he'd never met Lord Henry? Was he guilty of Syble Vane and Alan Campbell's suicides? Lord Henry says that life is too short for people to take blame for others' poor choices. Is this true? Can we wash our hands of the blame even if we led people to their demise? How do you explain this? Did Dorian experience justice in the end?

I think that Dorian would have brushed against the life Lord Henry introduced him into had he not actually met Lord Henry. Harry forced him to grab onto the crazy life that we read about, but Dorian wanted that life to begin with. I don't think that Dorian would have gone as far or done as much without Lord Henry's help. Henry and Basil, both, fed Dorian's ego and selfcenteredness.

Wilde suggested that he was not directly responsible for Syble Vane. In chapter 12, Wilde describes the portrait's alterations, but does not hint at there being any blood on his hands. Our daily interactions with those around us can be just as damaging as they were in this story. It is possible that Syble has always felt that she wasn't good enough to find love and that Dorian gave her the final notch of conviction in her belief. Alan might have been lonely and secluded in his life as a scientist. Alan, after being used by Dorian, might have felt that there was no longer any way to bridge the gap that he saw between himself and the rest of humanity. So, yes, I think that Dorian was responsible for the deaths of those two characters and I disagree with Wilde's proposal that there was no blood on Dorian's hands. He was using his flowery writing and saving the "blood spattered hands" for a later description.

Life is not too short to accept blame. If we want our lives to be meaningful, outside of a life with God, then we are dependent upon our interactions with others and how we affect them. If we didn't take the blame, then we are selling our "legacy" short. However, forgetting what others have done and living life for yourself is Wilde's point, so he would be falling right into his own plot if we just forgot about how we hurt others. There is a distinct difference between forgetting about the hurt we have caused and not caring. When one washes their hands of an act, they believe that they are removing the blemish. I don't belive this is possible. We, as humans, have a short life. We cannot forget the "important" or "major" things in our life. We might want to, but it's not possible. Dorian might not have cared that he caused their deaths, but he will never forget and therefore never be able to wash his hands of them.

Did Dorian get justice in the end? He received the same as he gave... A fitting, ironic end. But not nearly good enough.

The PIcture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Lets pretend that Basil symbolizes Dorian's conscience. How does Dorian's reaction to Basil Hallward mirror the reaction sinners have when their sins are pointed out? How does Dorian solve this problem? What keeps people from humbling themselves to admit mistakes? Have you ever had a bad experience with a friend who you confronted in love, but were attacked for being judgmental instead? How did you handle the situation?
I think that Dorian and Basil externally portray the internal struggle that one faces when s/he reflects and realizes the depths that they have sunk. The conversation on pages 160-162 seem to really embody what I have mentioned. Basil says over and over again that 'it can't be' and that 'it is not too late'. Basil seems to be the part of the mind that wants to fix things, the side of the soul that recognizes that there is a hope and that one needs to find it. Dorian plays the opposite side. Dorian realizes his mistakes and sees only a downward slope. I guess, in an odd way, you could also see the "flight or fight" scenario going on here as well. Dorian simply wants to run away, but Basil would not be satisfied with that. I think that Basil's continuing pressure and backtracking are what lead to the final part of the chapter. I refuse to give the conclusion of this scene away to anyone. It's the best part of the book. We, the person I am answering this for, know how Dorian handled it; the fool!

I think that our perception of perfection and our struggle to reach perfection are what keep us from admitting our mistakes. We know that perfection is real. We also know that we haven't been perfect. I think that we want to pretend that we have reached perfection simply because it would make things easier for us. If we fool ourselves into thinking we are perfect and that everything we do is for good, then we never have to worry about anything.

Approaching people about a problem that we see them having or a sin that we perceive them to be committing always leads to a blow up. I think that Wilde really knew what he was talking about when he wrote this book. The conversations he has had between Dorian, Lord Henry and Basil are realistic and painfully familiar. I think, from the experiences that I have had, that I am jaded when it comes to these conversations.

The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

Do we sin because we are imperfect and flawed, or do we sin because it's forbidden? What does Dorian think? If sin was no longer a sin, would we still be tempted to do it? Is there something in our nature that makes us play with fire?

I think that we sin because we are imperfect and flawed. I think that at one point we had the potential of perfection, but through Eve and Adam we have lost that potential. However, the one time potential for perfection has given us what we might consider to be a gauge for right and wrong. This gauge for right and wrong, along with the model of perfection, allows us to know that some things are not good (something we might call sin). I think that our perception of sin stems from this knowledge of what perfection is and what goes against that perfection. What is forbidden is derived from what we know goes against perfection. Now, the reason something is forbidden is because we know it goes against perfection, but we are still drawn to it as a result of The Fall. This means we do not do something because it is forbidden, but because we are flawed.

I can't honestly say how Dorian feels about sin. I think that his character shows both tendencies, that we are imperfect and that we go after things that are forbidden because the are forbidden. Dorian says at one point in chapter 11 that, "The more he knew, the more he desired to know. He had mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them" (pg. 131-132). I think that Dorian had kept from experiencing "sin" at first because he knew, instinctively, that it was wrong for him to get into those types of things. I think that after Lord Henry pushed Dorian through the first sin, it moved into the arena of doing things because they were forbidden.

I think that if Lord Henry had not come into Dorian's life, then Dorian probably would have avoided the trap of sin and the things forbidden. He was 'innocent' until that point. It seems that curiosity has struck again and that we will never escape the need to play with fire.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

How do people criticize people who sin openly versus in secret? Does our society ignore hidden sins more readily than those performed openly, without apology? Why is this? Do you know people who lead two lives - public and private? How is Dorian's fear of the painting getting exposed the same as people fearing that their secret sin will be exposed?

High school pops into my head when I think about people criticizing others for their sins. One instance, a female being sexually active, seems to cause a lot of commotion. There are the girls that wear the short skirts, the low cut t-shirts and the form fitting outfits...And, in contrast, there are the shy girls that don't wear make-up, that wear clothes too big for themselves and blend into the backgroud. Both types of girls are able to commit the same acts of sexual activity, but it is expected from the bimbo in the short skirt. When gossip about the short skirt sporting she-devil's sexual sessions slipped out (try THAT for a tongue twister) it wouldn't cause a big splash. However, if the shy girl in the over-sized sweater was found out of being a nymphomanic, then the high school world would be rocked. Girl A made it a public affair, while Girl B kept it hidden away. The sin seems bigger for Girl B because it was not viewed as part of her nature.

I do not think that society ignores hidden sin...No, I think that the world seeks hidden sin out. Jack the Ripper killed five women before disappearing. No one knew the reason for his murders and no one knows who he really was. However, there is a huge following of Ol' Jack simply because they want to know the /secret/ identity of the murderer (thank you Maureen Johnson author of YA novel The Name of the Star). In addition, I think that Mr. Clinton might have avoided his whole scandal had he not tried sneaking around, but had come out and said, "I do not like my wife, I had sexual relations with this woman." When people confess or do things in the open, it gets overlooked more easily. Yes, it might get splashed in the head lines, but it blows over more quickly because bigger news is buried in the closet of secrecy. I think this all has to do with human curiosity and ego. People want to know the truth about others. The people that are honest about things are not interesting and are not threatening. All they have is on the table. It's the ones with secrets that you have to watch out for. They could have the secrets that you could use to bail yourself out of deep water. Someone finds out you read Twilight? You toss your friend to the sharks by telling everyone that s/he sewed together a "Team Edward" shirt and a "Team Jacob" shirt because they couldn't decide which one Bella should date. I mean... They were both perfectly horrid choices.

I think that everyone has some sort of a double life. You can't reveal your entire self to every single person you meet. I think that the most common double life is that of the depressed person. They try, and mostly succeed, in putting on a good front while they are dying from the inside out. Being secretive is part of our society. A mysterious man in a book causes more intrigue then bombarding the reader with useless information (a very sarcastic thanks to Zusak and The Book Thief). We expect everyone to hide something.

I don't know if Dorian's fear of the painting being exposed is the same as a person fearing the revelation of their sins. It seems to me that people realize how disgusting Dorian is even without seeing his painting. I think the painting is just a confirmation for Dorian himself. He is beautiful on the outside, but he is a sick puppy. The painting is his true reflection...the image of the man that people see crushing the heart of a poor girl. People know he is foul, but overlook it because of his innocent look. I think a secret sin being found out is more shocking.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

What do you think of Lord Henry? Is he toying with Dorian, or is he wanting to be a real friend? What does he say to make you think this?

I am afraid that I must go with the idea that Lord Harry Henry is simply toying with Dorian. However, I'm not sure that I like the term "toying." Toying, to me, seems to imply that Lord Henry is manipulating Dorian to the point where Dorian has no say in the matter. I think of it as "playing with". Dorian has a mind of his own and chooses to let Henry manipulate him.

My feelings about Lord Henry and Dorian's relationship comes from early on in chapter 4. Lord Henry and Dorian are talking and Dorian exclaims to have seen the love of his life. Henry, in an off-handed manner, replies, "A grande passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do. That is the one use of the idle classes of a country. Don't be afraid. There are exquisite things in store for you. This is merely the beginning" (Wilde, 53).

I think that Lord Henry is speaking from experience on the matter. Many of the claims and ideas that Harry throws around are from his life. He is one of the those people that have nothing to do, the "idle class". What is Harry doing with the time that he has free? He spends it with Dorian. I expect that Lord Henry "loves" Dorian as much as Basil does, but on a different level. Basil loves Dorian as an idol. Henry loves Dorian as a project.

I must go on to say that I think that Harry is leading Dorian down a path that will eventually make Dorian into a second "Lord Henry". Lord Henry "plays" with Dorian because he knows Dorian is just like him. The previous post I mentioned that people seek out those that project the things they want to do (or exhibit those bad habits to make oneself feel better). This is a prime example. Henry knows that there are "exquisite things" in the future and that it is "only the beginning" because he has gone through the same things.

In the end, I think that Dorian will be just as lonely as Henry. Though Henry is surrounded by people, it seems he is set apart or that he thinks of everyone else as lower than himself. Dorian will eventually pick up on that and Harry will fall into the category as no longer worthy of being around. Then, in a classic case of irony, Dorian will leave Lord Harry Henry behind for something more exquisite.