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            Through the second third of Walden, Thoreau continues to explain his life among the birds and the bees. He explains how he completes many of the daily processes he goes through on a regular basis.

            A chapter that stuck out to me in this section was the fifth, titled: The Bean Field. In this chapter, Thoreau explains how he plots and harvests crops in order to sustain him, and also to barter for more substantial crops such as rice. He also explains some vague contact with the outside “real” world in this chapter.

            One way he does this is by discovering that an ancient civilization once dwelt there, and of course he blames their extinction on the white man and society. He discovers this by finding things such as arrowheads in the soil, which he determines was also once the planting ground for said civilization. Another way he faces reality in this chapter is by noting the echo of military shouts from the next town over.

            This struggle between surviving the hardships of raw nature, while simultaneously being confronted by American life strongly reminded me of the contemporary television show Lost.

            In this show, a group of civilians crash on to a supposedly deserted island and are forced to live like the natives of America, and Thoreau himself, once lived. While living so naturally, some group members discover other humans on the island. They also discover quarantines, which contain full kitchens and bathrooms, however are placed in the middle of a jungle.

            Another similarity of this show and Thoreau’s experience is the spirituality of it. Throughout Lost characters deal with their struggles with religion and spirituality. This controversy is echoed in The Bean Field. The way that Thoreau uses imagery from classical mythology in his descriptions shows that belief was also a strong theme in his time becoming “down to earth.” He describes the harvest with the word “moral” instead of something more secular or less eye catching to show that he is not only harvesting this food for its crops, but also as an exercising in morality. 

Walden begins with Thoreau explaining his experiment blatantly and explaining what he hoped to achieve through it. He decided to build a cabin in the woods in which he would live for two years and two months. By extracting himself from “civilized society,” Thoreau hoped to prove the burden that is added to life by the unnecessarily complicated extras. Thoreau goes on to explain how these features oppress us not only economically, but also mentally, socially, and even religiously.

Thoreau wishes to simplify his life so thoroughly that he starts building his cabin entirely from scratch. Even the ax he uses was borrowed (and of course returned, in better condition even). He moved in on July 4, 1845. He began to keep books tracking his every penny spent or made depending on his crop production, etc. This process is explained in the first chapter, “Economy.”

Something that also struck my attention in this chapter was a quote. This quote was, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” At first glance, I was forced to read it multiple times, attempting to decipher exactly what was meant by “desperation.” It is such a strong word that could have been made subtler, so that meant it has purpose.  I think that is exactly the reason he chose this word; describing the society of America as desperate shows the extremely dull light Thoreau wishes to shine on it. Although he rejoined society after the two years, Thoreau is almost disgusted by the greedy American lifestyle and how obsessed they are with image.

Americans love to be mainstream, and always have. Fitting into the square of normalcy in America is not just something cool, it’s a necessity, without which you could be doomed to undesired and unnecessary loneliness, all because you aren’t as rich as someone else, or maybe have a shy personality. This is exactly what Thoreau wanted to prove through the statement, and his experiment.

In the last part of 1984, Julia and Winston get caught doing an undesirable act. They fell asleep, and woke up to notice a large telescreen behind them. Julia and Winston are then tortured and dragged to different areas. Soon you find out that O’Brien is indeed a bad guy, working for Big Brother, and he is the one who tortures Winston and convinces him that Big Brother is good, and the way to go. Winston is then taken to room 101, which is supposed to be of your worst fears. Once in the room, Winston is warned of the punishment he is about to suffer and asks that Julia is tortured instead of himself. O’Brien likes this selfish idea because of the way it reflects the ideas of the totalitarian government of Oceania. Winston is released and is now a kin to Big Brother, how ever, he remains scared for his life and the consequences he will suffer if he ever makes another mistake.

One of 1984’s biggest themes is this idea of control and manipulation that is epitomized by the totalitarian government of Oceania. One way the government maintains a hold on the minds of the thousands of people that they keep track of is a technique known as “Doublethink.” Doublethink is the ability to maintain two contradictory ideas simultaneously, and completely believe them both. Big Brother uses this to train their people and force them to accept the control that is had over, not only themselves, but also their memories and their past. All of these advantages allow the Party to actually alter what happened in history (or at least make it seem like they did). This extracts the knowledge that things can be contradictory from the people and makes them completely reliant on what the government tells them. 

In the beginning of the book, we are introduced to the disgusting, totalitarian society that England has been changed into. We are also introduced to Winston Smith, who has big problems with the “Big Brother” ideas of this new government. In the start of the book, Winston writes bad thoughts about his country in his journal without realizing it, this is very problematic to him because the Thought Police will be notified and arrest him. The new environment is highly monitored and dangerous for citizens.

This is very similar to the 2009 movie Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis. In this film, everyone has a robot, which represents their ideal self in society; however, they are actually at hope in their pajamas, simply controlling their surrogate from an electronic chair.

Since the robots are electronic, they are set up so that the government can look through their eyes and see what they are doing, which makes it easier to see what the people are doing and monitor their movements at all times.

Surrogates even has a town similar to the proletarian district in 1984, filled with people who are against using surrogates. This too is a town of impoverished and not well off people.

This is a symbol for how if you stray from popular societal beliefs, you are likely to be disliked, exiled, and even tortured for your differences and uncontrol.