There are awfully similar moments between George Orwell's novel 1984, and Terry Gilliam's film Brazil. The perspectives of governments in both plots are surprisingly similar because both stories have fascist governments. Both governments are similar in their ways of controlling their citizens, solving their problems and both can connect to a real life growing concern of government control in Europe. Orwell's government is one of which is purely fascist but their only goal is thought control. To the Ingsoc party, nothing but the control of thought matters. This is because they strongly believe that once the thought of people is controlled, everything else can be too. Psychologically the government uses telescreens to monitor actions of citizens and to remind them that they are continuously being watched. The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely (Orwell, 1). The government used these telescreens to monitor the actions of its citizens, to ensure that the people do not violate any of its totalitarian rules, the telescreens would pick up both audio and visual evidence. Furthermore the telescreen was also used as propaganda in which the government would speak into a microphone that will dispatch their message to every telescreen in Oceania. Thinking deeper into the picture, the party controls citizens when they are young and lead the young indicting children into an organization called the Junior Spies. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipl... ... middle of paper ... ..., because it shares a trait of totalitarianism in the modern day, when most expected things like this to only happen fifty to a hundred years ago. Thus the governments are similar in their ways of controlling their citizens in all three cases. Regardless of the dates that the two stories were published, events that the stories depict are still happening today. Works Cited "Germany, France and Spain 'were all spying on citizens'." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Aug. 2001. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. . Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: a novel. New York, N.Y.: Signet Classic, 19611949. Print. Brazil. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Perf. Jonathan Pryce Robert De Niro Katherine Helmond Ian Holm Bob Hoskins Michael Palin Kim Greist. Universal Studios , 1985. DVD.
Benito Mussolini once said, “We do not argue with those who disagree with us, we destroy them” (Benito). This quote from Mussolini perfectly illustrates his aggressive leadership style and fierce personality. George Orwell was clearly inspired by Benito Mussolini whose characteristics are evident in the character of Big Brother in Orwell’s brilliant novel 1984. Benito Mussolini and Big Brother are considered dictators who have sole control of their countries, Italy and Oceania. Mussolini runs his Italian National Fascist party and Big Brother runs his ‘Party’. Both dictators have some slight differences, but Mussolini and Big Brother have similarities in leadership style, propaganda use, and enforcement of order through secret police.
The novel 1984 is one that has sparked much controversy over the last several decades. It harbors many key ideas that lie at the root of all skepticism towards the book. With the ideas of metaphysics, change, and control in mind, George Orwell wrote 1984 to provide an interesting story but also to express his ideas of where he believed the world was heading. His ideas were considered widely ahead of their time, and he was really able to drive home how bleak and colorless our society really is. Orwell wrote this piece as a futuristic, dystopian book which contained underlying tones of despair and deceit.
The fear put into place by these governments allows them to keep the citizens in check and force them to stay in control. The government becomes corrupt from all its power, but in turn, they can brainwash their citizens into thinking that the government is right. Doublethink is present in both the novels through their contradicting slogans and presence of government control in their lives. The Capitol uses their slogan in order to get people to accept the games while the Ministry uses their slogan as propaganda to brainwash their people. The right of resistance is taken away from all the people in each novel in order for the government to control them. If the people chose to rebel, they are taken away or punished as a whole. By taking away rebellion, the government can use the past to their advantage or even change it for their own
Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1961. Print.
Through out the course of history there have been several events that have been a pivotal point which has molded the behaviors and thoughts of this century. A lot of notable activist and authors wrote stories and speeches about how they believed that this day and time would be like. A lot of these views were very accurate surprisingly. In the novel 1984 author George Orwell gives his vision on how he believed that the countries would be like if they kept going the way they were.This report will give you a brief rundown of the characters, theories and principles of this novel along with some of my personal insight of the novel.
There is a quite a lot of relevance and connection to our world and Orwell novel that is displayed daily. We can start with the United States where as in the novel; the brother hood uses tele-screens and hidden microphones across the city to monitor its member’s daily lives to make sure that every citizen acts accordingly. The United States use surveillance cameras, wire taps, and satellite and other sorts of means to monitor our citizen on a constant day to day basis due to fear of terrorist attacks and other tragedies from happening. But I think it's a great way to induce public safety for the general population where most Americans see it as a wrongful way to maintain public order.
Orwell describes the telescreen as “An oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface on the right-hand wall”. The resemblance between today’s televisions and the telescreen of Nineteen Eighty-Four are obvious. The telescreens in Orwell’s novel were bi-directional, sending and receiving images, constantly asserting propaganda. “The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely,” resembling a PC, something many people permanently leave turned on. The Party, through the use of extremely invasive and advanced technology, is constantly monitoring Oceanians. Although, to the best of our knowledge, th...
Firstly, the most disturbing of these comparisons are shown in real-life Orwellian society. Of course
An important aspect from both of the novels is the abolishment of history. This is part of the way The Party (1984) is able to manipulate its citizens. In Brave New World, we see that the majority of people are so artificially content and drowned in irrelevant information that they don’t care what happened before their time- or even a week ago in their own lives. The only mention of “history” is the reference to Henry Ford, a person who has been inaccurately displayed but embraced by the citizens of the New World as a god-like figure. “History is bunk” is quoted from Ford and prophesized throughout the story by Mustapha Mond, the powerful head of state of the New World.
In order to do so, I had to ask myself some important questions like: Is the telescreen in the book the same as the cameras at work watching us or the satellites the government has in space that can see you move about in your home or record your vehicles license plates? Is this just a mere coincidence or is the story a true telling of what has and is to come in the future? There are things in the book that will not be exactly as something that we have in our country today though it might serve the same purpose and they will be defined through logic and simple explanations. The three most obvious similarities that I will talk about are the classes differences, the slogan ?War is Piece? and the fact that even though with different intensity, both governments have their hands and control in every aspect of society?s life. The three differences that I will write about are the legal systems of the societies, the privacy people have or don?t have and love and emotions between people.
The Party seemed to have complete and utter control over the citizens of Oceania. Each morning, citizens were forced to work out and were watched through the telescreen present in their rooms (Orwell 31). Workers such as Winston were all forced to participate in the Two Minutes Hate where they were all required to watch a very provocative video that stirred everyone up. There were extreme consequences if one did not participate in the Two Minutes Hate or even the work out every morning. Through the ever-present telescreens, the Thought Police were able to watch every single person at any given time which created a huge amount of fear in people (Orwell 2). Orwell tried to show people that a totalitarian regime would seek to fill everyone with fear in order to ensure obedience from all. The threat of the Thought Police was mentioned frequently throughout 1984 by Winston. He was constantly afraid that the Thought Police would discover all of his traitorous actions and thoughts, and as a result, make him disappear (Orwell 64). Through the use of telescreens and the Thought Police, Orwell demonstrated the theme of totalitarianism and showed his readers the negative effects that a totalitarian society can have on a
Telescreens, which are both televisions and cameras, provide never-ending knowledge over society’s lives. The constant watch over the people by the Party is shown when Orwell says, “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously… You had to live… in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized,” (Orwell 3). Telescreens give the government all of the people’s knowledge. The government easily finds the people’s weaknesses and gains power over them. Oceania fears what the government will do to them with the knowledge that they have, so they abide by the rules. The fear of being tortured stops the people from rebelling. If a society never revolts and simply agrees, then the government has achieved absolute control. The Party also creates Newspeak, a new language, that reduces the complexity of thought. The reduction of ideas in Oceania shows how society’s knowledge is decreased when Orwell states, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it… Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller,” (Orwell 52). By reducing the complexity of a language, the Party takes away the people’s ability to express
Towards the climax of 1984, after the thought police member Mr. Charrington’s discovery that Winston and Julia disobeyed the party’s commands, O’Brien purges Winston to points of breakage until he conforms his thoughts to party agenda (Orwell 209). “Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane”(Orwell 209)! Through this purging, evidently Orwell believes government should not posses abilities of purging its citizens for promotion of its agenda. Government appears to exist so powerful that party members have abilities to purge whomever they please whenever they please. The example of Winston getting beaten for a disagreement with the government serves to impose fear on the reader against an omniscient government. Subsequently, the party appears excessively surveillent, specifically from the utilization of telescreens. “You had to live- did live, from habit that became instinct-in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized”(Orwell 6). Since Telescreens watch everything citizens do, Winston seeks privacy to the point where he turns his back on the telescreens, for that exists the only way he can ensure absolute privacy. Orwell utilizes the detail of telescreens excessive monitoring for the advocation for a limit to governments power, specifically, the power of monitoring citizens. Aside from the detail of telescreens possessing too much ability for monitoring, government of 1984 restricts any form of affection between two people. Evidence of restrictions on relationships, regardless if sexual in nature, persists when Julia and Winston sneak around for privacy (Orwell 96). Since Julia and Winston partake in secret rendezvous for interaction, these precautions taken by the couple serve to further Orwell's
Works Cited for: Orwell, George. 1984. The 'Standard' of the ' London: Penguin Books, 2008. Print. The.
Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1984. Print.