1984 / Afterword (Reflection)

"... can human nature be changed in such a way that man will forget his longing for freedom, for dignity, for integrity, for love-that is to say, can man forget that he is human?" (Page 260) The human mind is fragile... it is weak. People are broken all of the time. Hearts are thrashed and minds are scattered. 1984 shows that horrible experiences can alter a persons mind. If someone knows your weakness then they can hurt you inside and out. The human mind is easy to fool and just as easy to contort. "Doublethink" is something ever single one of us has to deal with everyday. If we are constantly questioning what we think we know then it is just as easy to be tricked into believing something that we didn't believe before.

I feel, just like the afterword has said, that 1984 can still be a warning to our future. The more our society develops and the further we go into the future, the scarier that it becomes. Everything that Orwell has written in his book can very well happen. Similar things like that have happened in the past and who is to say that we are safe now? Who is to say that there isn't someone who is greedy for power that is plotting to cease us now?

Ayn Rand

Happiness

Her true feelings about happiness aren't present in her book Anthem. I feel as though that book contradicts her real feelings. In her Lexicon it states, "Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values." In Anthem, happiness wasn't allowed to be 'one's value' but every ones shared value. It was to be every ones united emotion.

Another thing that completely threw me off was when she sad, "Just as I do not consider the pleasure of others as the goal of my life, so I do not consider my pleasure as the goal of the lives of others." This is completely different from her book because no one was allowed to think for themselves. No one could have their own success.

Reaction to In My Hands

After reading this book I was extremely surprised about how it ended. So much horribly depressing stuff was going on and yet it ended on a happy note. I'm really glad I read this book because it really changed my outlook on the Holocaust altogether. I would recomend anyone to read it. Everything that happend in the book is something people can learn from and all about Irene's heroic duties.

In My Hands by Irene Gut Opdyke

Usually I wouldn't chose to read something about the Holocaust because of all the sad feelings it overwhelms me with. When I heard that this was about a rescuer I decided that I really wanted to get into this book. I wanted to know how it was done and I was happy that this wasn't all about death and destruction. As I began reading I was very surprised at how different it was from so many other Holocaust stories. It made me feel so many different emotions and I became close with Irene as I read on. She did so many amazing things. I really like this book a lot and I am glad that I decided to read it.