Land Acknowledgment

https://youtu.be/oq4w1sCn3l4?feature=shared

I recognize that I live, work and play on the unceded and traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, Kwikwetlem, Tsawwassen and Sto’:lo First Nations. I am extremely grateful to the groups who looked after this land and have allowed me to live and learn here. Their leadership and appreciation for the land is inspiring and as a settler, I acknowledge the ancestors and ancestral effects on the land. I will work towards reconciliation by honouring Indigenous people’s stories and respecting and understanding their backgrounds and perspectives on the world. I can make more connections to the land and shared territories. I will learn more about their culture and allow First Nations to share their personal experiences, opinions and ideas.

3D Cityscape of “1984”

Physical Setting Quotations:

“There was a chessboard on the table beside them, with the pieces set out but no game started” (Orwell 82).

“It was the lonely hour of fifteen. Winston could not now remember how he had come to be in the café at such a time. The place was almost empty. A tinny music was trickling from the telescreens” (Orwell 81).

“The Chestnut Tree was almost empty. A ray of sunlight slanting through a window fell on dusty tabletops” (Orwell 305).

“Now and again he glanced up at a vast face which eyed him from the opposite wall. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said” (Orwell 305).

Emotional Setting Quotations:

“The tune that they were playing changed, and the tone of the music changed too. There came something into it-but it was hard to describe. It was a peculiar, cracked, braying, jeering note: in his mind Winston called it a yellow note” (Orwell 82).

“He was overwhelmed by a desire not so much to get away from Julia as to get back to the Chestnut Tree Café, which had never seemed so attractive as at this moment. He had a nostalgic vision of his corner table, with the newspaper and the chessboard and the ever-flowing gin. Above all, it would be warm in there” (Orwell 311).

Characterization Practice – Part 2, Chapter 8 from “1984”

In the novel, “1984” by George Orwell, several examples of characterization are shown. Characterization is the way that we see a character based on their personality and is able to reveal something about the person and communicate that to the reader. There are two types of characterization. One is direct and the other is indirect. Direct characterization tells the reader or audience exactly what the character is feeling and their personality based on what they say, think, their effects on others, their actions and their looks, like how their dressed and their facial expressions. An example of direct characterization from the novel is, “his solid form towered over the pair of them, and the expression on his face was still indecipherable. He was waiting, somewhat sternly, for Winston to peak, but about what? Even now it was quite conceivable that he was simply a busy man wondering irritably why he had been interrupted” (Orwell 182). This quote tells us that O’Brien is getting quite impatient and is irritated that Winston and Julia have interrupted him. The author is doing that by communicating with us directly and using what O’Brien is thinking and his actions to describe the way he feels and his personality in this particular chapter. Indirect characterization doesn’t describe a character in a straightforward way, but we as the readers, are shown something about the character and can use inferring to determine what they are feeling. There are many ways to incorporate indirect characterization into a story and here is a great example from “1984,” “at the far end of the room O’Brien was sitting at a table under a green-shaded lamp, with a mass of papers on either side of him. He had not bothered to look up when the servant showed Julia and Winston in” (Orwell 180). This quote doesn’t tell us exactly what O’Brien is thinking when the couple walk in, but we can infer that he is very busy and preoccupied with what is going on at his desk and barely notices them, or perhaps he is somewhat annoyed. We can interpret this and many other examples of indirect characterization in plenty of different ways because the author is not stating exactly how and when or what the character is feeling, so there’s really know right or one answer. Characterization gives a character life and is necessary to give any character a meaning or purpose in a story, book, TV series, movie or any other form of media. It tells us so much about a character whether this is done directly or indirectly.

Setting Chapter 5 Practice – “1984”

In the novel, “1984” written by George Orwell, there are several examples of setting and the different ways that he incorporates it into each chapter. The setting of a story is the emotional and physical attributes that give the book a meaning and make it worth the read. The emotional setting is the mood and atmosphere and the various words that go along with the feel of the story, such as, gloomy or joyful. Whereas the physical setting is more to do with where this takes place and the location, the weather, any adjectives or physical features. An example from the novel for physical setting would be in chapter 5 when the author is describing Winston’s place of work and what it’s like, “the weather was baking hot. In the labyrinthine Ministry the windowless, air-conditioned rooms kept their normal temperature, but outside the pavements scorched one’s feet and the stench of the Tubes at the rush hours was a horror” (Orwell 158). This quotation provides us with great detail on the room that Winston is standing in and uses different adjectives like “baking” and “horror” to help us understand and fully grasp the setting and situation. It gives us the physical features, weather components and the location of where this is taking place. An example of emotional setting would be, “in a way she realized that she herself was doomed, that sooner or later the Thought Police would catch her and kill her, but with another part of her mind she believed that it was somehow possible to construct a secret world in which you could live as you chose” (Orwell 144). This shows what Julia is thinking and how she is a bold individual who doesn’t give in to the beliefs of the party, but understands that she will eventually be caught and found out if she shares these thoughts publicly. These are just a few of the numerous ways you can use setting and mood to establish a specific part or chapter of a story and “1984” does a great job of showing this.