Tuesday, April 8, 2008

3rd Hour Blog Question

Who do you think Big Brother really is? What do you think about him? Is he a real person, or just a bunch of people working together as him?

Good discussion today guys!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that Big Brother is a real person. I start to think that he is one of those people that was not very smart and skilled as a child and now he runs the whole world. I don't like him because of the picture that we get of him from Winston, but most people in the world must like him so I don't know what the deal with that is. And if people did not like him, then how did he get to power? Any way, I don't think he is a good guy.

raelangas said...

I believe that Big Brother is the face of the government. In other words Big Brother is just an image of the government itself. I think that the posters of Big Brother is just another way of intimidating the people, it is a constant reminder that someone is always watching and controlling them.

mollyd said...

I am not really sure what I think about Big Brother. I think he might be a real person, but then again he could just be made up so the people have something to fear. However if there is no Big Brother then who is the leader of the Party? If it is not Big Brother then it must be someone else. I think he probably is real, but he doesn't show himself to many people.

roser said...

I think big brother is not a real man , it's just like the mascot of the Party. The inner party just uses the alibi of big brother, to insinuate fear and authority in the comrades to make them believe there really is a head to the Party. That BB is the ultimate controller that they would be too scared to deceive.

jeffreys said...

I am not really sure about Big Brother's actual identity. Like Molly said, "he" could just be a scare tactic (since people are easier to control when they are afraid), but there is a big possiblity that he is an actual person.

If he is an actual person, I don't think that he is the briliant leader that he is made out to be. I think that he very well might be the puppet of a slightly lower ranking party member.

evand said...

I do not believe that big brother is a real person. He is most likely a symbol created by the party in order to give the people a face and a leader to rely on.

KelsieL said...

I am not sure if Big Brother is a real person or not. He could just be the face of the government, but I always thought of the Party as having a specific leader. I definately think Big Brother is the leader of the Party and will reveal himself later, but I'm not sure if he is one person or a group of people.

CatherineD said...

I think that B.B. is just an idea. It is the communist face. It is ment to instill fear and loyalty in the people of Oceania. when the Revolution took place, the country was looking for a leader who would win and bring them freedom. I don't think that is likly to find a real person like that. So a group of people created a person like that. It is not an actual person.

KarlyH said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kennaw said...

I think Big Brother is in fact the government. Big brother is the overall government and is represented by Big Brother. Just like Uncle Sam, he's an imaginary figure that makes people think. When people looked at Uncle Sam, they thought about how maybe they should join the army to defend our country. When people look at Big Brother, they think about how they have to follow all the rules or else you'll get caught and die; the government is always watching you.

emilyh said...

I think that Big Brother was at one time a real person when the revolution first started and actually was the Party's leader but by 1984 he does not lead the Party. He may have been overthrown after the revolution and the Party stood by his name becuase he may have been a unifying leader at one time and the Party members may have been very loyal to him. However, he could be a completely fictious character because the society in this book is very skilled at dilluting the facts. The Party may have felt that they needed a leader to have better control and to implement fear more efficiently so they created Big Brother as its leader.

lisal said...

Big Brother seems to be more of a symbol then a real person. He represents how the party wants the people to see the government as a hole. He is supposed to represent a protecting, ever-present shadow who is always right and will always be there. Even though these ideas are implied, I think there is still a general fear of B.B. among the citizens but as long as they please him they are safe.

Jennifer said...

I think that Big Brother is probably both a person and an idea having symbolic meaning. As we’ve said in class multiple times, his posters are much like the Uncle Sam poster that we all know so well. Uncle Sam isn’t an actual person, but it represents something in our American history. I think that Big Brother is much the same way. But unlike Uncle Sam, he is a real person. I don’t know how bad of a guy he is, but the feeling we get towards him is very much influenced in the way that Winston portrays him, which is that he is bad. So far, that is all we know him as. Amber also asked a very interesting question in her blog that she posted in response to this blog question. She was wondering how he came to power if nobody likes him. I think that answer can be a few things. Of course, he could have come to power like any other dictator, by finding a select few who actually agree with him and then using force to become a leader. But, I think that there is also the possibility that he may have come to power democratically, and everyone liked his ideas, but they just went way out of control. If that would be the case, then maybe Big Brother isn’t as bad as he is portrayed. But, based on the posters and the telescreens, I would say that it is easiest to assume the worst about Big Brother.

hollyb said...

I know that this is, of course late, but I also can answer the question better. Reading through Goldstin's book, I think that Big Brother isn't a real person. I believe that he is an imaginative figure that the Inner Party created to remain on top of Air strip 1. Big Brother is a figure which everyone can center their emotions around so average people won't rebel against the Inner Party. I think that Big Brother used to exist and was around during the Revolution, but died afterwards.