Awesome!

So we've started the PhotoStory and pretty much all we have to do is put it to music and finalize it (proofread it, etc.). So we'll probably meet next week on an off-hour or something. Oh yeah, and don't forget to keep a list of all of your sources so we can make a Works Cited slide!

Research on Examples of Challenging the System for Each Book

Post your research here.

Each Book's Ways of Challenging the System

Post them here.

1984

We're reading 1984! This is the place to post themes and main ideas from the book that you notice. A big one that I'm seeing so far is conformity vs. nonconformity. In this society nonconformity is practically fatal because the Thought Police will catch you and "vaporize" you. And not being afraid to stand up and do your own thing is pretty big too. So far it has parallel themes to the other books, and that makes our project even easier!

Conformity (and lack thereof...)

Obviously, conformity is a big theme in all of the books we've read this semester. I mean, AWNM talked so much about how everyone is going on the same career path because it guarantees success and money, and how no one is straying, but it's necessary to because our society is changing to the Conceptual Age. So it's advocating career non-conformity. And how basically the whole theme of Romeo and Juliet is forbidden love because their families were feuding. They were being VERY unconformist by getting together even though it was forbidden because of the feud. AND there's even more non-conformist thoughts in poetry: think The Road Less Traveled. And also Beat poetry; that was pretty non-conformist. Although I haven't started 1984 yet, I'm guessing that a main theme of that is how bad conformity can be for a society. So I'm thinking that this should definitely be included in our project...

A List of Books

Just FYI, here's a list of the books we could use in our project.

First semester:

• Macbeth
• Lord of the Flies
• Fahrenheit 451
• The Chosen

Second semester:

• AWNM
• Poetry
• Romeo and Juliet
• 1984

(And obviously we haven't read those last two, so we can't think about their themes or any of that).

A List of Possible Themes

True, this project isn't due until the end of the semester, but there's no harm in making a list of possible themes! Here are some I came up with (or heard in class):

• Evil (Macbeth, LOF, 451)
• Desire for change (all of the books we've read so far)
• Too much reliance on technology (451)
• Conformity (LOF and 451)
• Power (Macbeth, LOF)

And I'm pretty sure I missed some, so if you can think of any others feel free to post them! In fact, please do!