UM Honors Blog 2021-2022

 In the Orwell reading Orwell discusses the importance of making ones writing clear and making it known easily what is being said. I think this is important in writing because although we are left to interpret writing for ourselves there are certain circumstances in which interpretation can be dangerous. It is important for a reader to be able to read a writing and be able to know clearly what is being said. As a philosophy major this has been made clear to me through the many ambiguous readings I have read during my time in undergraduate. It is the job of a philosopher to ask questions instead of answers so much of the reading in philosophy is unclear and open ended. Although this is a good thing in philosophy in many other subjects the text should be clear. One should be able to read a work and know what is being told to them through the text. Orwell makes it clear that an author should purposefully make the purpose in their works clear. I found this interesting because we always...

 In Politics and the English Language,  Orwell gives sound advice on how to communicate clearly through the written word. Yet why should one communicate clearly writing? There are two reasons. First, one writes clearly to preserve integrity. If a writing is hard to understand, then it is easy to deceive. Orwell contrasts good writing with the language of politics. "If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy...when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind" (Orwell 9). Second, one writes clearly because clarity in language happens to be beautiful. "[The English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts" (1). One finds it much more appealing when an au...

 As someone who is an avid reader, I would love to be a great writer. Alas, I’m not. I am working on it though. I feel like my worst mistake in writing is that it’s a lot of fat and not a lot of literary meat, and I have a tendency to use pretentious diction and meaningless words, which Orwell very ardently argues against, especially regarding politicians. I think it’s quite obvious today that politicians are very good at persuasive speech and hiding their true intentions behind a lot of fanciful words and “is designed to make lies sound truthful…” (Orwell). I have a special fondness for Orwell’s writing (I know I have yet to read 1984 but it’s gonna get read over the summer, I promise) and I like that even though Orwell argues against all of these bad writing habits, he still gives us a way out by changing our habits over time. Blogger is not working for comments so here they are… Emory: Good post, Emory. I definitely agree when you say that if writing is hard to understand, it is...

Orwell was talking and politics and English, and the only thing I could think about while reading this was how I accidentally made up a word. One day, I was explaining a situation, and I tried to use a word that was a love child between the words "combined" and "amalgamation". I ended up saying a word that was not a word. I still got my point across, but my friends didn't tell me that it wasn't an actual word until the end of freshman year. So, I feel like I can make up words and still convey the same message across. 

        As one of my favorite authors, Orwell has scarily discussed and predicted many of modern society’s problems throughout his popular works. In “Politics and the English Language”, Orwell discusses the importance of words and the meanings conveyed by them. When one begins to change what a word means, the foundations of language begin to shift as well, which opens the door for rulers to recreate words and their meanings to their liking. This is a prime concept in Orwell’s famous novel, 1984 , where the ‘Ministry of Truth’ actually creates propaganda for the city. In modern times, people have so distorted the definition of truth that it has no weight anymore. The same applies to gender and race, which are now becoming subjective when they were never meant to be. Whoever is in control now has the power to direct language in the way that best suits them, and in the wrong hands can have disastrous consequences, especially when applied to freedom of speech. If a ruler...

Upon reading the end of Silence , readers are left questioning if Rodrigues made the right decision by apostatizing. There are many valid theological assumptions that can be made one way or another about his decision. However, I see inspiration in the obedience of Rodrigues. Even though his decision brought him pain and suffering, he was obedient to the point of death as Christ was for us.  Even though his decision included trampling the image of Christ, he did so to save the other Christians. Situations like these often raise questions about morality versus what God wants us to do. It could not help but make me think about similar situations, such as people in the Bible lying in order to save brothers and sisters in Christ or how people during the Holocaust lied about hiding the Jews in order to save them. While keeping the faith is important, listening to God is crucial. Even thought the decision may have been morally challenging, it was indeed faithful. While it does not make se...

       In silence, as the priests and Christians in custody are asked to step on the fumie, one of the men is shot. “What he could not understand was the stillness of the courtyard, the voice of the cicadas, the whirling wings of the flies. A man had died.” (128) Nature does not reciprocate human feelings or values. When great evil happens, life goes on as if unchanged. Sebastien can’t understand this because it goes against traditional wisdom, if one does good, God will reward them with good. God is all-knowing and all-powerful, so why wouldn’t he help. Sebastian is left to wonder why God is silent in all this.      Even in God’s silence, I think that he still is still there. When the priest is told he will apostatize the next day, he begins to think about what brought the other Japanese joy in this suffering “... there was joy in the thought that he was not alone. In this very sea those two Japanese peasants, bound to stakes, had endured the same suf...