The Wild Duck Journal #3

I think Gregers could be the one the is mostly at fault because he seems like a catalyst to everything that is happening. He is bringing those ideas and thoughts to the Ekdal family that destroyes them, and yet he seems satisfied with it. When the characters are already in grief, he increases it and therefore seems to the reader as this annoying character that should just stay away from the life of the family, because whenever he walks into the house, he brings in more trouble.
Relling should probably be a character without blame because although he created those lies in the Ekdal families; he did it as his responsibility since he is a doctor. He had the right intentions of helping the family and therefore he should not really take any blame for what happened.
But I also think most of the characters take a blame some way or the other. Hjalmar wouldn't have as much as an extreme blame because he was the one that everyone hid the secrets from and therefore it affected him badly. Although it was not completely Hjalmar's fault for Hedvig's death, he does take responsibility for it. He feels like he is the one to be blamed, although it is not really his fault since he was just part of this web created by all the other characters the same way as Hedvig was part of the web too.
Gina should definitely carry the blame the most, yet in the play, she seems to act as if she had nothing to do with Hedvig's death. She becomes emotional when Hedvig dies, but then she just says that it was meant to be and that she should continue her life with Hjalmar. I feel like she should take a lot of blame towards the event that happened because it seems like she didn't really mind Hedvig's death, and she found that Hedvig's death is a way she could trick Hjalmar into staying with her by acting that he will need her comfort.
Gregers, on the other hand, does not take responsibility at all. He feels like he just did what his ideals were and accomplished his destiny. But he should also carry more of a blame because he seems to have had the right intentions of helping the Ekdal family, but in the end, it seems like he just did that as a way of accomplishing a goal that has been caused due to jealousy of the Ekdal family from their strong relationships, to the idea of being the thirteenth man on the table. Since the beginning, when Werle referred to Hjalmar as the thirteenth man, Werle didn't really take notice or count in his son. And so in the end, Gregers was probably jealous that his dad didn't count him in as a thirteenth man to be joining this regular group of people that always gathers together.

The Wild Duck Journal #2

Ibsen uses the motif of decay, disease and illness to show the secrets hidden within the characters as well as reveal their motives. After Gregers ask Hjalmar to go for a walk with him, Relling says to Gina, "He's suffering from an acute case of moralistic fever" (178). Relling states that Gregers has a moralistic fever which is causing him to do what he is doing. His "fever" is what is giving him the motive to bring out the truth in the Ekdal family. Although Gregers might not believe in having this fever, it shows how the character has secrets hidden within him that he wants to reveal about others, and therefore creates a facade of Gregers.
Even Werle's blindness is interesting. Mrs. Sorby says, " No need to hide it any longer, much as he'd like to. He's going blind" (190). Werle wants to keep his blindness as a secret within his family, but Mrs. Sorby does not mind revealing it to everyone. If Werle's blindness was kept a secret, than no one would understand that Hedvig is Werle's daughter, but that fact that Mrs. Sorby said he was blind, it reveals the secret that was hidden. It also reveals Werle's motives of keeping everyone living under this web he created which we would have never understood the reason behind it if it wasn't for revealing his blindness.
When Hjalmar talks about Hedvig to Gregers, he says, "Yes. You see, there's the gravest imminent danger of her losing her sight" (147). Hedvig's road to blindness shows how she is living under this trap that she does not know anything about. She was placed in this place that she believes is true, with a family, when it is nothing but a lie that was created with her as a catalyst to the lie created by Gina and Werle. Her blindness brings the idea of secrecy within the entire family, and how she is unaware and does not understand things that goes on around her. Her blindness also reveals her motives of trying to understand things that go around her. When Hjalmar found out about the truth, she tells Gregers that she wants to know what is going on and does not want to wait until she grows up. Therefore this shows her motives that was created by her blindness.

The Wild Duck Journal #1

In The Wild Duck, a character that stood out with false conceptions about himself is Gregers. He believes that after all those years, he came back to his fathers house to learn that he has a mission in life that he has to accomplish. Gregers believes that the only way to fix things and accomplish his mission is by revealing the truth. He brings in little hints now and then within the novel but does not clearly state what they are until it is revealed in the end. Gregers mission in life clearly led to the death of an innocent child. Since he was away for a long time, he feels like nothing is better than the truth because he see's the Ekdal family living under this deep and dark place where the truth is hidden, therefore it should be revealed. Even though he didn't plan for Hedvig's death, he had false misconceptions about himself by believing that it was the right thing for him to do.
Hjalmar is a character that had misconceptions about others. Hjalmar belives throughout the story that Gina is this faithful, amazing woman that he was lucky to be with. He does not have a single hair of doubt about her. Although she acts upon certain things strangely, like not wanting Gregers to rent their room, he does not question her. Even Gregers misconcepts Gina because he did not know that she would be the one marrying Hjalmar and also lying to him and creating this fake family bond that worked fall a long time.
Relling is a character that somewhat recognizes the facade created by Gregers. He doesn't know that this facade is revealing Gina's mistakes, but he knows it is something that could destruct the Ekdal's family. There is a possibility that Relling thinks that Gregers is going to destroy the facade created by Relling himself on the Ekdal families by giving them a misconception of something to thrive for yet will never happen, such as the invention that he put forth for Hjalmar. Relling somewhat confronts the facade that Gregers is creating but he is not certain about his position. Gregers also most certainly recognizes the facade created by Gina which is why he wants to reveal the truth and feels that he has this mission in life of making the family better. He does not ignore this facade, but confronts it in an indirect way.

Journal #3- 1984

Motif: In the last third of the book, a new motif of light comes up. In the second third it was darkness, but in this third, it is light. The light represents the way the Party wants to show itself to the citizens of the society. Throughout the book, we see darkness and the idea of a lost city, a dark city hat is covered with dirt, and is dark, with everyone afraid to go outside. But in the Ministry, everything is lit. Like Winston said, "The place where there is no darkness." This motif represents the idea of hope. The Party shows the people that the Party is all about hope towards the Party and that it wants the best for its people and wants to ensure the people that the Ministry is a place of hope for them where they can be cured and removed from their ideas of rebellion against the Party. In the beginning of the last third, the Ministry of Love is described with "concealed lamps flooded it with cold light" (186). The idea of cold light represents the reader with an idea of the Ministry being cold and inhumane, yet trying to represent themselves as curers to the citizens. Later in the novel, O'Brien "shone glaring lights in his face until his eyes ran with water" (199). The use of light is also used as a way to make the people suffer. Strong light hurts our eyes, and so the Party uses it in a way as to show that too much hope for something other than what the Party offers, is painful and should not be done. For example, Winston had so much hope, believing that he can overthrow the Party, but that was not true. Because too much hope is painful, and so Winston was sent to the Ministry of Love to be tortured for having a lot of hope. Instead, the Party wants the people to have hope that would be loyal to the Party, like hope for victory against their enemy countries and so on.
Setting: The setting of the last third of the book takes place mostly in the Ministry of Love. This Ministry is basically a prison that tortures people in order to obey the Party. Although it is torturing the people, in the eyes of the Party, it is a way where they "care" for the people, and do it for the benefit of the people so that the people would be better citizens. When O'Brien says, "Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! [...] We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested int he overt act: the thought is all we care about" (209). That is the biggest reason on why they call it the Ministry of Love. They try to allude to the people that the Ministry cares about them and wants the best for the people,  but in fact, the Party does it for their own benefit of being a stronger power. This setting is used as a way to show the strength in the control of the government. and bringing out their final reasoning that nothing can beat the Party's control. They reveal all their tricks and treacheries to the reader and the reader understands that there is no use in revolting against this government, unless a big number of people such as the proles, could possibly get together and somehow fight against the government, which may even be hard to achieve. The Ministry is a dark, sort of scary place that no one would want to be in. This setting also reveals how the Party knows every little information about the people, in which they can use in Room 101 to torture the people and make them confess or betray their loved ones, by bringing out the people's biggest fears.
Language: The language in the last third of the book is very violent. The descriptions of everything going on represents the violence in that society and the way the Party takes control of its people through its violence. It teaches them a lesson and represents to the reader that whatever steps the party needs to take to remain in control, it will do. Even through the sentences used, Orwell tries to create some suspense and does not make the reader prepared to what would happen next. Orwell somehow excites the reader and makes them nervous and wanting to know what would happen next through his use of language. Even the language in the dialogue is short, and up to the point, with the element of confusion in it. Orwell uses dialogue in a way as if it is happening for real, creating a lot of imagery. The confusion and narration used in between dialogues representing Winston also gives the reader the feeling of reality and struggle. Winston constantly uses the phrase "I don't know" when O'Brien asks him questions, because he does not know what the right answer is and is afraid to answer something in the wrong way, which would cause him to be tortured even more.
Cultural Connections: In the novel, there are so many connections relating back to World War 2 and a totalitarian government. Orwell based his novel off what was happening in England at that time during World War 2 and the fact that Germany was becoming very strong and starting to take control of everything. He was worried of having a totalitarian government, and believed that this is what would happen with Germany takes over, and that no one will be able to revolt against them because they will be too strong and have control over every single aspect. Even the idea of the way people lived shows a cultural connection to the way people were living in England during World War 2. There was constant bombing on England know as The Blitz, where Germany constantly attacked Britain killing a lot of people and keeping them fearful of their lives, the same way as the Party constantly bombs the citizens. So Orwell seems to be representing the Party as Germany that took over England.

Journal #2- 1984

Motifs: The motif of victory is not represented as much in the second third of the book as it was in the first third. Instead, many other motifs began to show. The motif of darkness was one that I constantly recognized in the second third of 1984. The Party seems to be represented in many ways through the idea of darkness, but indirectly. Mr Charrington's antique store is described as a "tiny, dark shop" and he seemed to lead a "ghostlike existence" because "the old man seemed seldom or never to go out of doors" (125). When I first read this, I would think that it is just a small dark store because the man running it is old, and nice, and had nothing to do with the party. But instead, Mr. Charrington was a Thought Police. This idea of darkness is represented through the Party as to show that they exist everywhere even in the least expected place. When Winston was talking with O'Brien, O'Brien said, "You understand that you will be fighting in the dark. You will always be in the dark" (144). Winston agreed to that without even knowing what the meaning behind it was. He just thought is was a way to hide from the Party since he will be part of the Brotherhood. But O'Brien used it as a way to represent the Party. When he says that Winston "will always be in the dark," it is showing that Winston will always be under the control of the Party no matter what he does, because they Party is everywhere, even in the dark when the people would think they would be hiding, they wouldn't be. They will always be watched by the Party wherever they are, and this way the Party can make sure they maintain their control the entire time. Even having O'Brien say that represents the darkness of the Party that they would play along with someone to get them to admit everything, but then they would not be with that person, like O'Brien with Winston. They would be against them and be disguised under a darkness that no one expects.
Setting: The setting of most of the second third of the novel in Mr. Charrington's shop. Winston and Julia rented out the room on the top of his shop, believing it to be as a hideout place. Since all the proles seem to live life to the fullest, without any concerns of telescreens, Winston and Julia thought that same thing about the room. It was small and no one has lived in it, therefore they believed that it is safe. Instead, it was set up in a way as to give the reader a feeling of freedom that the characters have, but later realize that no one can mess around with the Party. Seeing the proles with no telescreen, Winston and Julia easily fell into the trap of Mr. Charrington's room as a hideout place. Before realizing there was a telescreen, the setting of the room was used as a way to express all the thoughts of the characters that have been hidden from the Party. They expressed their freedom and talked about all the things they would never dream of talking about. This setting was used as to let the reader feel that here is a safety zone and a hideout place when a Party is in control, and gives the reader a sense of relief that they were able to find a place where the characters don't have to be oppressed by the Party's control. But it was used as a way to shock to the reader. When the telescreen suddenly spoke and the thought police walked in into the room, it created the climax of the story. And so this setting of the room was used as a way to give the reader something that they did not expect at all. It was used as a way to prove to the people living in that society that the Party is always in control, and even the least expected place that a person would think would not be under that control of the party, is actually under the Party's control.
Language: When Winston meets Julia, the language of the novel becomes somewhat nice and breezy, with descriptions of flowers, and love and the sun. Orwell changes the language from a dark kind of controlling language, to a smooth and happy language. "It was a vast, luminous dream in which his whole life seemed to stretch out before him life a landscape on a summer evening after rain" (132). Orwell uses descriptions of flowers and love and rain to give the reader a sense of calmness and freedom from the control of the Party. He plays with the readers minds by showing the freedom and happiness of the characters, but little do they know that everything would change again, and they would be caught under the Party's control again. Although he does not completely use this language in the entire third, it is enough to change the reader's thoughts and make them think that the Party is not that strong and that there are many ways in which people can escape that oppression, but it was used to lead the reader to the shock of the intelligence of the Party.