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"I thought I lived in a country with a constitution. I thought I lived in a country where I had rights. You're talking about defending my freedom by tearing up the Bill of Rights." (Doctorow page 55). In //1984// by George Orwell the protagonist, Winston feels that his government, "The Party," is out of control. He has feared the thought police for as long as he can remember. He has kept his opinions quiet until he meets Julia. Julia ends up becoming his girlfriend. Together the go against the party in multiple ways. They join The Brotherhood, an anti-Party group. However, the man that encourages their rebellion all along turns out to be working for the inner party. In Little Brother written by Cory Doctorow, the protagonist Marcus also feel that his government and the Department of Homeland Security are out of control. After being captured and tortured by the D.H.S. Marcus realizes //he// needs to do something about it. Even though his "partners in crime" leave him, he tries to organize a secret group of people who feel the same way as him. After a public protest with a huge number of other X-netters, he gets captured again. Tortured and imprisoned, he refuses to give up his username and password. All the sudden, he gets rescued by and journalist and gets to find the friends he though he lost. In //1984// written by George Orwell, and Little Brother written by Cory Doctorow, the protagonists are put in horrible situations by their own governments. Winston from //1984// and Marcus from //Little Brother// both feel it is their responsibility to protect themselves and others from the people who are supposed to be protecting them. In Winston's case, his protection is more selfish. They both have plenty of insight in to the situation and the way their government is working. Their insight seems to surpass the other characters in the novel that seem to be almost oblivious. With all the knowledge they have, it leads them to retaliate against the government.

When faced with confrontation or put in an uncomfortable position, human nature is to protect. Protection can be selfish when a person chooses to protect themselves and deliberately not someone else. Protecting can be selfless when a person puts another ahead of themselves. And sometimes, protection of oneself can be protection of someone else. For Winston, his way was very selfish. Protecting can be selfish when someone knowingly hurts someone else in the process. "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don"t care what you do to her. Tear her face off. Strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!"(Orwell, page 286.) When Winston just gives up Julia in order to save himself, he is selfishly protecting himself and knowingly hurting/ killing Julia. He knows the Party will torture or kill Julia, and that doesn't even matter to him. Winston "cracks" under the pressure and gives up the woman he supposedly loves. Protection is selfish when a person harms another just to ensure their own safety. Most human's natural instinct is to protect them self first. It takes a special person to put another person's safety before their own. "I wanted to flag you down because my friend was bleeding." "Listen- this is some kind of misunderstanding. We've go to get my friend to the hospital-" (Doctorow page 40.) In the beginning of Little Brother Marcus gets captured by the D.H.S. just trying to protect Darrell. But, by trying to protect him he ends up getting captured and thrown into a wild ride. Even though Marcus gets put in many bad situations he still tries to put Darrell first. His entire purpose is to find/ protect Darrel. He goes out of his way the whole book to try and get Darrel home safetly. That is defiantly selfless protection. In some ways protecting yourself can help protect someone else. On [|airline safety videos]they say, "Please secure your oxygen mask before helping others." They say this because if a parent was to pass out from loss of oxygen then they wouldn't be able to ensure their kids safety. If it's possible for someone to ensure their own safety then it could protect other people's safety. When protection of self is to protect others safety, it is a selfless protection. When people say "I would die for you,"they are saying that they would do anything in their power to ensure someone else's safety. So where does the world go from here? When people start to protect others as well as themselves, there will be no such thing as selfish protectiong, and that will be a very good thing. Protection is a verb but it can be used in many different ways; Selfish protection, selfless protection, and protecting ones self to protect someone else. The important thing is that people wil protect.

In both novels the protagonists appear to have a lot of knowledge and insight into their government and the way it works. When someone has a reaction or has to make a decision, having knowledge is extremely important. Having plenty of information about situations can prevent something bad from happening. If someone knows how "it" works, it's easy to know how to stop "it." Knowledge gives someone power. Power can ensure something doesn't go out of control. If the world in both of these novels knew what was going to happen with there governments, the world could have stopped it. "As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages and any notes that he had clipped his speak written" This quote describes Winston's job. He is to "change history" in order to make the party look right. There is no such thing as true records. Winston knows this first hand. He knows how far the party will go in order to seem perfect. He knows that the party controls everything and everyone. What if Winston didn't have that job? What if he didn't know the Party went to such extreme lengths? Winston is not naive. He is aware the Party changes everything they want to and if he didn't know how the inside works, he wouldn't be able to rebel. Even though Winston's rebellion is small, his ability to not be naive helps him to fully understand his government and the way it works, and more importantly, how to go against it. The best way to use information and knowledge to go against a power is to know exactly how it works. "I wasn't a prisoner of some terrorist- I was a prisoner of the United States of America." (Doctorow, page 47.) When Marcus gets captured by the D.H.S. he gains inside information on how far the government is willing to go. He realizes he needs to do something to stop the craziness. However, if Marcus hadn't been captured, he would be like the rest of the characters, oblivious. He knows that if the D.H.S. is willing to torture a teenage American boy, they would be willing to do anything. Marcus knows what it will take to "take down" the D.H.S. He would not have that kind of information had he not known what was going on, on the inside. Imagine if the worlds in both novels knew the information that Marcus and Winston knew. If everyone had that information, the world might have been able to prevent all the craziness from even happening. A good modern day example of insight helping people is, NBC's //[|The More You Know]// campaign. It is an advertisement that comes on that is only a few seconds long, but it focuses on important issues facing the world today. It gives the public short informational messages that can help them make good educated decisions. The idea behind the campaign is, the more you know, the better decisions you can make and the better way to handle situations. It provides information that most people would find as useful. In so many ways, having insight to situations can help with the way people react or the decisions they make. Information is key!

Unfortunately, a common reaction to bad situations is to retaliate or rebel. This is a reaction that not only happens in both books, but also in modern day all the time. The problem is, the rebelliations can sometimes be very dangerous. The majority of protests end up being personal and silent. It could be a retaliation no one in the world knows about except for the person who is actually doing it. This is what happens in //1984.// In //Little Brother// the retaliation starts with many people but, it isn't public. But, then it turns into a public mob of "vampires." In today's world there is a serious [|rebellion in Egypt.] Winton does many things that go against his government. He writes in his diary about things he feels or thinks about his government. He has sex with Julia. However all the things he does, none of them call attention to him publicly. Winston does not organize a big rebellion; he simply does things that are not allowed. "Winston was writing in his diary: //It was three years ago. it was on a dark evening on a narrow side street."// (Orwell, 63) Winston writes about having sex with a prostitute. In many ways Winston goes against his government. However, he never makes it public. on the other hand, Marcus form Little Brother, has many public protests/ retaliations. His organization of X-net is a group of many many people who are going against what their government wants. His protest also includes a very public demonstration- the "vamp mop." Marcus is not afraid to demonstrate the way he feels. "I tried to estimate the numbers. Two hundred. Then, five minutes later, it was three hundred. Four hundred. They were still streaming in. The vamps had brought friends." (Docctorow, page 306) Marcus is in charge of this crazy protest that goes on in the middle of the city. Winston's protest is more quite and Marcus's protest are big, public, loud, disrupting. A very important protest that is going on right now is in Egypt. It includes a huge number of citizens. it is the citizens coming together to overthrow someone who is in charge. A person that has been given power and has used that power to do things other than help the people of Egypt. The Egyptian people are coming together to overthrow a leader. The people are reacting to a horrible situation. Unfortunately, the protest is not only public, but violent. Protesting is a very common way of reacting to a situation. Silent, public or violet, protests are becoming more in more common. As soon as someone is not happy with something- protest it!

When Winston from //1984// and Marcus from //Little Brother// are put into horrible situations by their own government, they both feel the need to protect themselves and sometimes others. They two have an incredible amount of knowledge on what is happening and how far the government is willing to go. Having that kind of insight helped lead them to their retaliations. The situational reaction is the same in both novel, and also is common in the world today. Winston protects himself selfishly by giving up Julia. He has insight on how far "the party" is willing to go from his job, and he retaliates in the biggest way possible by having sex. Marcus, on the other hand, protects everyone around him. His whole purpose was to find Darrell. And then, he retaliates by having the X-Net and organizing the "vamp Mop." In today's world, there are examples of these reactions everyday. Protecting can be selfish, selfless or a little bit of both. When a person wants to know information, there is a lot of information that someone could find on any topic. The internet has an overwhelming amount of information and the TV has things such as NBC's //The More You Know// campaign. As far as retaliation, there is a serious problem in Egypt right now, and even here in Colorado, the second the government passes a law that makes one person unhappy, they protest it! They way the characters in both novels react matches perfectly with the way people in today's world react to situations. Even though both the books seem futuristic and a little crazy, how far is our society from being in those situations??

WORKS CITED

Doctorow, Cory. //Little Brother//. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2008. Print.

"Egypt: How Did It Get to This Point? � This Just In - CNN.com Blogs." //This Just In - CNN.com Blogs//. 31 Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. [].

NBC. "The More You Know." //The More You Know//. Web. 19 Feb. 2011. [].

Orwell, George. //1984//. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1949. Print.

Picard1374. "YouTube - United Safety Video-B757." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.// 9 Dec. 2007. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. [].