Socratic Seminar Reflection #2

Malaika Hall

English/per.3

May 5^th 2014

Socratic Seminar #2 Final Reflection

            In our second Socratic Seminar for the novel 1984 we continued with and introduction to the story and begin to see how the plot will emerge. While I generally kept my own opinion my peers showed me new ways to look at Winston and his more direct attempts to learn the truth about Oceania before the revolution.  I was even forced to think of things I hadn’t such as maybe the proles aren't smart enough to rebel against the Brotherhood. Since a prole has never experienced a better life they may be content with the constant danger they are in and have no reason to rebel against it. There is a similar issue with all the comrades except they are under constant supervision. My peers even helped me to strengthen my previous ideas. For example the “Big Brother” party was purposely destroying everything that a person might fight for . This includes family, love, and even beauty. The party made sure the only alliance someone had was to the Brotherhood.

The statement that there might not actually be a war going on was very accurate to me. There was no real evidence of a war other than than the occasional dropping of bombs. The use of propaganda and pictures of the war could all be faked and used to bring the comrades together. Winston stated how the people around him were ugly and would be even if they weren't poor. I believe this goes back to the party making sure there was no beauty in the world. I disagreed with the statement that Winston was in touch with his emotions. Winston saw a severed hand and simply kicked it into a gutter. He did not spend any thought on the subject or think about the person that might have just lost there hand. I believe that regardless of how different Winston is from other comrades he has still been negatively affected by the party.

Once again being able to make our own questions was very helpful for the seminar. We were able to focus on parts of the book we really understood and could connect with. Having a half time where we could reflect on how we were doing was very important. We were able to get the opinion of our peers so we could come back and have a better discussion. This allowed us to have a deeper conversation.

While making our own questions was helpful it also limited us in a way. Everyone comes up with similar questions and the second group becomes a sort of repeat. 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.