Time Jump VS Flashbacks

    Throughout the book I've mainly been focusing on the time jumps because they are a very big factor in Slaughterhouse-five. I've been trying to pay close attention to what connects the jumps in Billy's life to what hes doing in that present moment. For example, on page 44 Billy time jumps to visiting his mother in a nursing home while he was drowning in a pool. The aspect that connects these two is that Billy's mother was sick due to phenomena (fluid build up in the lungs) and Billy was drowning in water causing him not to be able to breathe. When first reading the book the concept of Billy time jumping seemed so abstract and hard to grasp but in reality almost everybody has had their own form of a "time jump".
     I can remember being four years old when I had my first trip to the hospital due to a kidney problem, out of the whole experience the most vivid memory I have is laying in my bed fresh out the shower with wet hair when my mom told me she had to take me to the hospital. As a four year old that was a pretty traumatic event and years later, every time I went to bed with wet hair I would flashback to getting taken to the hospital and feel the same sense of fear all over again. Obviously its not the same exact thing as a "time jump" considering your looking back and not forward but its the same concept. All of Billy's time jumps are meaningful to him and that's why he can make these connections between events. Do you ever have flashbacks similar to Billy's time jumps? Why do you think certain parts of events stick in our heads for so long? Also, what connects your flashbacks?

Vonnegut's interesting choice

   A question that sprung upon me during the very beginning of me reading Slaughterhouse-five was why Vonnegut chooses to dedicate his whole first chapter to explain why he wrote the book instead of jumping right into it. In the first twenty-two pages he tells us that almost everything were going to read is true and talks a great deal about his post war life. I thought this was an interesting way to start off a book and with it brought a lot of other questions for me. I began to wonder if Vonnegut didn't write the book this way would it change the way I interpreted it? Also, did Vonnegut want us to only view Slaughterhouse-five a certain way so that's why he did the first chapter like that? What do you think? Personally, I think that if an author takes the time out to explain why he wrote the book in the first actual chapter and not on the back of the book or in a preface it is to assure that the readers will see it and not just skip passed it. For him to want us to read it so bad makes me think that he wanted us to interpret the book in the way that he saw fit. I find this interesting because other than the first chapter the remainder of the book reminds me of 1984 in the sense that its left up to you how to perceive things. On the first line of the book it says, "All this did happened, more or less", why do you think Vonnegut wanted us to know that not all of what he wrote is true? However he made sure to let us know that most of the war parts are true, do you think this was for a particular reason? To me this book has a lot of meaning in almost every line and seems that almost everything Vonnegut does is for a particular reason, what do you think his reasoning is?

Tone of Slaughter House-Five

     In Slaughter House-Five I personally, find the tone to be regretful and pretty nostalgic. Due to Billy always traveling back in time I feel a sense of nostalgia because he's always thinking of the past and making connections to it. Billy also shows many feelings of regret in this book especially when talking about Valencia, his wife. On page 107 it says, "Billy didn't want to marry Valencia. She was one of the symptoms of his disease. He knew he was going crazy when he heard himself proposing marriage to her....". Billy married Valencia because he saw a secure and steady future with her, Valencia's rich dad sealed the deal for Billy. Looking back on the marriage you can tell Billy regrets marrying her because he doesn't love her at all.

    Another tone I see in the book is fear. In many of Billy's time jumps are negative and fearful moments. For example in chapter two Billy is drowning and then time jumps to visiting his mother in a nursing home because she was very sick with Phenomena. This is a fearful situation because both his and his moms life were at risk. Another example is when Billy time jumps to cheating on his wife, while this may not be as fearful it is defiantly negative. Do you think Billy feels guilty for cheating on his wife? Although Billy doesn't love Valencia do you believe he has any respect for her at all? In chapter five Valencia tells Billy she'll lose weight for him and he assures her he likes her the way she is even though in reality Billy thinks she overweight, do you think that was Billy's way of trying to be respectful? Or is he just strictly with her for the money and doesnt care how he treats her at all? I feel like it would be very hard to be married to someone and have kids with them and not have any emotion or feelings toward them at all. After all, Billy does really love his kids and takes an active part in their lives and if it wasn't for Valencia he wouldn't have them.

Thought Police

    In 1984 a weird aspect if it is that Winston isn't allowed to keep a diary and their isn't many books in Oceania. Your not allowed to have your own thoughts or opinions that go against big brother which is why diaries and books aren't accepted. As you know they have the "thought police" that will come after you. However, Winston keeps a diary anyways because he feels as though if you don't write down your thoughts and ideas they will die. Personally, i agree with Winston because if you don't have the words to write down your thoughts they will soon become unexplainable to others and even yourself. Especially, in a place where you have so much trying to push you into believing and thinking a certain way its pivotal that you have some sort of outlet to express your feelings, and that's what the diary was for Winston. I believe even today when we have more freedom that that's still the reason why some people keep diaries.
     The thought police hunt down people that do this because they are afraid of someone finding out that everything big brother does isn't good. The thought police watch your every move from television screens that they have in their houses. If you get caught doing a thoughtcrime you are punished and tortured. An example of a thoughtcrime is Winston's relationship with Julia. They don't allow romance, sexual desire, or love. In 1984 Winston says "The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself. The process should be automatic, instinctive. Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak.", meaning that the people of Oceania are trained to stop thoughtcrime before it even occurs.
   In many ways I feel like even today people are thought not to think or feel certain ways. Obviously we don't have "thoughtpolice " however, we do have people that tell us what we should think all the time. We have parents, presidents, teachers, employers, even friends that want you to think exactly like them all the time. Which is why we take outlets like social media, diaries, or even activities to try and find somewhere where we have a voice and can speak out on how we really feel.

The irony of the four ministries in 1984

     In 1984 their are four ministries: The ministry of love, The ministry of truth, The ministry of plenty, and The ministry of peace. However, each of these ministries names are very ironic to what actually lies beneath each of these ministries.
     The first ministry is the ministry of love, they are responsible for all the government aspects of Oceania such as police, security, and emergencies. The function of this ministry is to instill love for Big Brother through fear. The ministry has no windows, is surrounded by barbed wire, steel doors, guards, and have hidden machine gun nests. Not very homey, right? Another thing that lies in the ministry of love is room 101, a torture chamber.                                                                                                   In chapter V O'brien

Room 101

tells Winston "You asked me once, what was in room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in room 101 is the worse thing in the world". The party has complete access to every ones worse nightmare, in room 101 is where your nightmare becomes brought to life. The party put Winston in room 101 not to make him terrified but so he would betray Julia by saying he would rather have her tortured, resulting back to the fear aspect of this ministry.
     The second ministry is the ministry of truth, the propaganda ministry. Their job is to rewrite the historical events, ironically they do this by lying. They rewrite these historical events for propaganda purposes, and to make Big Brother always seem correct so people will value him more. Without this ministry the party would not seem absolute and the people would not think highly of them. In my opinion this probably the most important ministry to the story line.

Ministry of Truth

      The third ministry is the ministry of plenty, they take care of Oceania's economy. The function of this ministry is to keep everyone in poverty because poor people are easier to rule than wealthy, established people. Big Brother does this by convincing the people that production has gone up when in reality it has gone down, of course this is with the help of the ministry of truth. Winston says "statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version" meaning that the statistics that are "true" and the statistics that are told to the people are both nonsense.
       The last ministry is the ministry of peace, which is ironically responsible for war. They take charge of Oceania's military defense. This relates back to the common theory of Big Brother and one of the party's slogans "War is Peace". The idea of this ministry is to keep Oceania in a perpetual state of war to keep the people busy and at work so they don't learn the truth about their society. Of course it is broad casted that Oceania always wins all the wars, but once again that has no credibility.
      As you can see the names of these ministries are very contradictory to their actual functions. Once again bringing in the theme of "double speak" that is prominent in this book. What ministry do you believe to most vital for the plot line? Why?

What do the partys three slogans mean in 1984 and how do they relate to today?

   In 1984 the party has three slogans: "War is peace", "Freedom is Slavery", and "Ignorance is strength". Each of these hold their own meaning and bring an important aspect to the story. As you can see these three slogans tend to contradict each other which brings in the term "double thinking" that we learned about in class, a term that describes the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts. Today these slogans still can apply to our own country.

   In 1984 the slogan War is Peace is referring to how Oceania is always in a state of war however, they can feel peace at the same time depending on what the party is telling them to feel. Today we still use the phrase war is peace when engaging in "preemptive" wars which are basically wars when we have evidence that the enemy is going to attempt to attack us. Do you believe that peace is war in a case where were going preemptive war?

  The next slogan is Freedom is Slavery which is a great example of double thinking because it contradicts the previous slogan.  Freedom of slavery is Big Brothers way of saying that if your completely free you'll have many responsiblities, making you into a slave. He believes and leads everyone else to believe that the best option is to follow him and you wont have to be a slave and stuck with so many responsibilities.In return this leads everyone away from freedom just like he wants. Today that slogan still applies just on a smaller scale, in order to receive full freedom here we have to work to be able to gain the things that give us access to freedom such as education, a car, and most importantly money. Although this isn't scene as "slavery per say, it does follow the same concept.

  The last slogan is Ignorance is Strength refers to keeping everyone dumb and blind to whats going on so the party has all the power and insight. In the partys eyes its basically a way of be-littling them and just another way to have that sense of control over them. Its similar to the relationship of a baby and parent, when a child is so young they have a very low understanding of what goes on their for the parents have most control over their child at a young age. We still have this same exact problem today, we aren't supposed to question authority, laws, or education. We also don't get told everything that's going on in the world for the "greater good" and to save us from worrying all the time but is that the real reason we don't get told everything or is it so the government holds more power over us?

  In 1984 Orwell did a great job at picking out slogans that are relivant to not only the book but to thew wrold still today. He also did a great job at inncorportating the "double thinking" concept in all three of these slogans. Do you find these slogans to still be reliavant today?

Is The Five People You Meet in Heaven a book for everyone?

    The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a book that focuses on very spiritual concepts and takes an imagination to be able to get something out of this book. As Eddie is meeting people in heaven it discuses how everyone of those people have crossed his path for a specific reason and contributed something to his life. This book touches upon fate, beliefs, hope, and faith. These are very controversial topics and many have different perspectives and opinions when it comes to these. Do you believe that everyone crosses your path for a reason? Do you think something positive can come out of dying? These are the questions that The Five People You Meet in Heaven bring to your attention, not everyone likes to think of these things especially for casual reading. Many people even may take offense to some these ideas expressed in the book about the after life if they go against their own personal beliefs.

Lessons Eddie learns

  I think this book is geared toward people who like to think while reading and are open minded to new ideas. This book is constantly throwing new concepts at you and is meant for someone who likes a book with a lot of meaning behind it. This book goes very in depth on Eddie's life and tries to prove to the readers and Eddie that his life did have a purpose. In order to do this it introduces the idea of meeting five people in heaven that were in his life for a reason. I think that book puts a good spin on heaven and its very interesting to see how simple things can alter our lives so much without us having any idea. For example, the third person Eddie met in heaven was a women named Ruby, he only seen a photograph of her because she had owned the Amusement Park he had devoted his whole life to working at. Little did Eddie know, Ruby had known Eddie's father before he passed away and had many things to share with Eddie about him. Someone Eddie never even met changed his whole entire life.

Eddie talking to Ruby

   Another thing this book focuses on is the physical appearance of heaven. In every chapter it gives a detailed description of what heaven looks like to Eddie. In the first paragraph it explains that Eddie has arrived at the after life in the Amusement park where he had spent his whole life. As the chapters go on it discusses the sky changing colors numerous times from white, to grey, to blue. The weather also changes with the colors form warm, to windy, to very cold. The seasons and colors foreshadow the event that's about to happen in that chapter, the good events usually had brighter colors and warmer weather, and the bad events in Eddie's life tend to have darker colors and rougher weather conditions. Do you think this was a coincidence or did the author purposely do this as an outlet to get his point across?
  All and all this book is extremely good and I think it could interest anyone from a wide variety of age groups, male and female. However, when reading a book that's predominately about heaven and dying, it is vital to keep an open mind and be wiling to take on a new understanding of things.