Monique Camarillo

Mary Warner

English 112B

9 December 2009

Utopias and Dystopias Unit of Study

Choice for center piece:

For my center piece I decided to choose George Orwell�s 1984. I feel like this is a good book for young adults to read because it is something that they can relate to and learn from. Orwell published this book in 1949 and wrote about his dystopian vision of what the future would be like with a totalitarian government. Readers are supposed to question and analyze their own situation in their society. I feel like the book raises good questions for students to discuss about the society that they live in. Should they wish to avoid such a drastic change in the way the government runs their lives, then they must become informed and educated on the issues that this country deals with on a daily basis. They should come to understand that they hold our country�s future in their hands, and that is why they should become involved and interested in local and national affairs. They should realize the importance of their voting rights. Many teens do not care about real life problems because they are too wrapped up in their little worlds and it is our jobs as teachers to help them open up their eyes to what is around them. I feel like this book will help give them a look at how lucky we are to have the rights we have and how we must learn to protect those privileges.

Launching the Unit:

Before beginning to read 1984, I want the students to start off by reading one of Orwell�s other masterpieces, Animal Farm. Both books deal with the same issues of corruption in leadership and the entrapment of others.

• Discuss how Animal Farm critiques the history of the Russian Revolution.
• What is Orwell trying to point out about the Revolution? About tyrannies?
• How tyrannies affect society?
• Discuss how Orwell is trying to describe the ironies in a tyranny.
• Is it hypocritical of a tyranny to base its ideologies on liberation and equality?
• End the discussion on how would a tyranny affect the way we live at the moment.

1984:

I feel like Animal Farm would be a good introduction to the themes of 1984. The students� brains will already be looking for and anticipating the corruption that makes a Utopian society an unlikely dream.

• Discuss our constitutional freedoms and rights of privacy.
• How does Orwell create this world where everything is stripped away?
• How likely is it that a society like ours could turn totalitarian?
• Are there any traces in the book that resemble actual ways in which our government tries to control what we do and how we think?
• Media, propaganda, technology
• Ask students to discuss the way in which Big Brother controls information and history
• How does our government control information?
• Are we influenced in any way to believe certain things?
• Ask students for homework to watch two different television networks� news (such as CNN and Fox)
• Write down any conflicting information that they state.
• In what way is it different?
• Are they manipulating their words to give way to something that really may not be there, but they want us to see?
• Is this similar to the Ministry of Truth?
• Discuss the use of technology in the book and our society
• Big Brother uses its telescreens and hidden microphones to keep control of the people.
• Is technology in our society used in a similar way?
• Think of ways that our technology can keep us unaware of what�s going on?
• What do we watch on T.V.? (news or reality shows)
• ipods and cellphones (do they keep us connected or vice versa)
• Are we actually paying attention to what�s going on?
• Is this technology actually making us ignorant to what�s best for us? Do we care?
• Have students write an essay comparing Animal Farm and 1984. In what ways do they demonstrate corruption and ignorance of the people. Use examples from the books and talk about how these two works serve as warnings for the world of what can happen if we are not aware of the issues.
• To study the impact and influence of propaganda, have students look at magazine advertisements and have them select one that they would like to revise. Have them talk about what the advertisement is trying to persuade the readers to do. They should point out how they can make it better and then create their own advertisement.

The point of the unit of study is not to make students paranoid that there�s a conspiracy going on within their government, but it�s to keep them aware that they need to keep up with what�s going on in the world so the no one tries to pull wool over their eyes. They have to realize that people in government can take advantage of ignorance and completely destroy lives. By looking back at history we see monsters that have destroyed societies like Hitler and Stalin. This is why it�s important that young adults learn to value the importance of living in a country where they have a voice and their voice can make a difference.