Blogger #7-3 George Baslous 4/11/19

Aim: How can we appreciate the range of influence 1984 has in culture and awareness?
Do Now:
A. Any questions about the reading?
B. Read the article "No One Died in Tiananmen Square" by William Lutz
1. Annotate as you read
2. Do you notice any rhetorical techniques?
3. Reflect on the meaning of the article. What are your thoughts?

After we read "No One Died in Tiananmen Square," by William Lutz, we discussed our thoughts within our groups and then opened it up to a full class discussion. The history behind this massacre was that there was a protest led by students after Deng Xiaoping came to power in an attempt to gain more rights in a Communist-led government. The article (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jvRGiG17oZi9JOlxoNHH017tF-2J-h6B/view) spoke about the denial of the existence of the Tiananmen Massacre that occurred in Beijing even though most people know that the occurrence of the massacre was a reality, as pictured below:

We discussed how William Lutz uses rhetorical devices such as repetition in which he keeps reiterating phrases such as, "No one died," and "No students were shot." Similarly, in 1984 the Inner Party manipulates the citizens of Oceania by saying false facts such as who Oceania is at war with to establish their absolute power. Through the power of literature, it becomes easy to influence opinions.

Afterwards, we had a debate about 'Does history exist if there is no one to remember it?' One of the arguments made was as follows

• Even if nobody knows what happened 3000 years ago, it still happened and should be acknowledged. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain? Still Mount Everest, but nobody knew yet. Likewise, with history, the past will be uncovered sooner or later by archaeologists, so it technically still exists.

By the end of the debate, we didn't come to a conclusion to the question at hand, but the debate helped us understand how easy history is changed in 1984. By keeping knowledge of history within the Party, everyone of Oceania is naive and oblivious to what is happening around them. This make it easy for the Party to continuously change history because nobody is wise enough to know what actually happened.