4th Hour Scribe April 3, 2008

We started the class by eating Coldstone’s Ice Cream to celebrate all the money we raised for Wish Week. Tasha took all the chocolate ice cream. Yum… We discussed the question Dennis posted on the blog yesterday since only a few people responded. The question talked about how Big Brother came to power and the relationship between Big Brother’s rise to power and Hitler’s rise. Most people felt that Big Brother would cause his own demise just as Hitler did. Moritz then posed a question asking about the importance of Winston’s dream of his mother and sister. People had a variety of ideas on the subject; people thought the dream meant Winston would be left to start a rebellion or symbolized Winston’s detachment from women. Mrs. Moritz asked the class if we thought the war was really going on. Students thought the war was a device to control the people and keep them in their place. Jordan brought up vaporization, mentioned in the book, and then Madison connected it to the gas chambers in World War II. Mrs. Moritz mentioned a theory that one of her students had that the government created an alternative fuel source, but was keeping it from the public to stabilize the economy. This started a discussion on the economy and gasoline. This student also theorized that cures for cancer and other diseases had been found, but were kept from the public to keep the prices of medication up. The conversation expanded from there with a range of views from different people. That was where our discussion ended for the day, leaving everyone with a lot to think about.