Socratic Seminar Reflection #1

Malaika Hall

English/per.3

April 29^th 2014

Socratic Seminar #1 Final Reflection

            In our first Socratic Seminar for the novel 1984 we had a great introduction to the story. While I generally kept my own opinion my peers showed me new ways to look at Winston and his slow path to rebellion. I was even forced to think of things I hadn’t such as the “broken elevator” symbolizing the broken promises in the government. This opened many ideas about things such as all the contradiction in the names of the many “ministries”. There are ministries of peace and truth where the purposes of these ministries are actually the opposite. My peers even helped me to strengthen my previous ideas. For example the “Big Brother” party purposely-targeting young children to build their own generation of loyal subjects. The party was very manipulative and focused on eliminating the need to think for yourself.

The statement that the all-seeing government forced people not to trust themselves or others was very accurate to me. Winston stated how he hated people he was attracted to and was anxious about the connection he felt with O’Brien. Many people were so concerned with being aligned with the laws of the government that it became hard to actually have friends or trust anyone. I disagreed with the statement that Winston was consciously attempting to rebel against the government through his journal. I believe that he was simply trying to express his feelings that had been bottled up for a long time.

Being able to make our own questions worked really well for the seminar. We were able to talk about the things we thought were the most important. More importantly parts of the book we really understood and could connect with. This allowed us to have a deeper conversation.

While making our own questions was helpful it also limited us in a way. Both groups had very similar questions and this showed in the second group. Also a better distribution of people would be helpful. There was a clear difference between the first and second group where the first conversation was more interesting and heated. A better distribution of people may influence other to speak up more and be apart of the conversation.