Literature is a common and ancient way of getting information out to the public. Although there are some authors who write solely for the love of writing, it is more common than ever for them to use their abilities to express dissatisfaction with the society in which they live. The most famous works written with this intent are the novel 1984, the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, and the graphic novel entitled V for Vendetta. The first two works were written by George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut, respectively. Alan Moore wrote the original story V for Vendetta, with James McTeigue directing the 2005 movie. Each of the worlds these writers have created are not only criticisms of the government in their time, but a prediction of where the world …show more content…
Under the constant threat of the telescreens, Winston is adroit at keeping his true thoughts hidden. In addition, Winston is used to people around him simply disappearing, as if they had never existed. Similarly, the characters in “Harrison Bergeron” are monitored by way of “handicaps”, items that limit their abilities so they are no better than anyone else. George Bergeron mentions that if he is caught without his handicaps for even a minute he could face a substantial penalty. As part of this form of monitoring, the government has taken George and Hazel’s son from them due to his apparent superiority in IQ and physical capabilities. Thirdly, the movie V for Vendetta cuts away from the main plotline multiple times to follow a van circulating the streets. These vans pick up conversations from households in the area. This is most prominent immediately following V’s bombing of the Old Bailey. Through this measure they can ensure that none of the people know the actual events of that night. Surveillance cameras are used in conjunction with a strict curfew to keep the masses inside during hours of the night. Close observation of the public in all three stories allows their governing bodies to remove anyone they consider to be a threat. Each of the authors saw in their society a growing use of …show more content…
Framing innocents among their proletariat is an important similarity the reader sees in the way that they rise to power. In 1984, Winston describes Big Brother as this leader. No evidence is presented that Big Brother exists, and yet the people blindly follow him, united under one face. “Big Brother is watching you” (Orwell 3). This quote confirms both the watchful eye of the Inner Party and absolute control that “Big Brother” has.. Likewise, the characters of “Harrison Bergeron” answer to the Handicapper General, a woman who is in charge of distributing the handicaps to the public. To keep the people in their place, Diana Moon Glampers uses force. In doing so, she tricks them into believing that they are all equal, when in fact they are not. In both the movie 2081 and the short story, Diana is revealed to have no handicaps, giving her the clear upper hand against her people. Glampers is also guilty of falsely accusing an innocent when she allows the media to muddy Harrison’s image. Finally, V fights tyrannical control in V for Vendetta by taking down the High Chancellor. Where Diana differed slightly in the method she used to accuse the innocent, V for Vendetta directly mirrors 1984. After a nationwide epidemic, High Chancellor Adam Sutler promises to restore the country to glory. V later reveals that it was by Adam’s very hand that the country fell into such disrepair. Speaking of Creedy, a man who assisted in Sutler’s
One similarity between the text and the movie was that everyone was equal in every way. It was important that the filmmakers keep this in the movie because it’s the most important detail in the story. In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, it says, “They were equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than everyone else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than everybody else” (1). If the filmmakers had never kept the equality part in 2081, the storyline would not make any sense. In the movie, everyone that needed handicaps had them including George, Harrison, and the ballerinas.
The film 1981 Harrison Bergeron had many characteristics of a dystopian society. For example, propaganda plays a significant role in a dystopian society and in the during the film, it was mentioned that Harrison Bergeron, the son of George and Hazel was arrested six years ago for “propagandist vandalism”. Propaganda in a dystopian society is used to control the citizens, as well as promoting specific societal standards. Also, with propaganda, the leader (Handicapper General) of the society has the power to persuade the citizens to give up their talents, individuality, life, etc. Thus, propaganda plays a large role on social tensions. In addition, this film demonstrates a dystopian society because the leader of the society convinces the citizens to give up their individuality in exchange for a “better”
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty (Gandhi). The power society has over citizens is explored in the two texts Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. The story Fahrenheit 451 depicts firemen who start fires instead of stop them. In this society censorship is valued and books are a main reason firemen burn. Books give you knowledge and knowledge is power which is what this society tries to prevent. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” the topic similarly is about censorship in a more extreme way. People must wear masks and handicaps to prevent them from being different or unique. Intelligent people get a sharp noise in their ear every twenty seconds to prevent people from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
V for Vendetta is a great movie to watch in Civics class. It is a perfect film to discuss issues related to civics as it talks about citizen’s duty to overthrow corruption and more. As it is set against the ‘futuristic landscape of a totalitarian Britain’, this story focuses on a young working-class woman named Evey. In the event of being in a life-death situation, she meets V who rescues her. V makes her realize that she has the potential to do anything she desires and discovers the truth about herself as well as V. This movie is covered with various relations to Civics.
Awakening the Zombies “Everybody was finally equal. They were not only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” This is a short, but powerful excerpt from the short story Harrison Bergeron. Not only does it make you wonder why everyone is equal, but as well makes you wonder how did everyone become equal? In the short story and the movie, Kurt Vonnegut presents a scary view of human society in the United States in the future, in which United States citizens are all uniform. This then leads to their loss of individuality, and therefore to the absolute deformity of humanness. Both the movie and the short story share these themes, they also have a multitude of other similarities, but also have just as many differences. These differences, irony and the symbolism between the two, are what I will be attempting to explore. The first apparent difference between the movie and the short story is that the short story takes place in 2081. In the story the government regulates everything, not just intelligence, but strength and beauty as well, and handicap people appropriately. The strong are forced to wear bags filled with lead balls; beautiful people are forced to wear masks so others would not feel unequal to them in looks. The overly intelligent are forced to wear radio transmitters in their ears, that are tuned to a government station that constantly bombards them with horrible sounds to scramble their thoughts. In the movie, the year is 2053 and everyone is forced to wear mind-altering headbands that rest on their temples. These headbands electronically modify intelligence, effectively decreasing everyone’s IQ to the desired “average” point. Unlike the story, in the movie, no one wears masks to conceal their looks and some are better looking than other making them unequal in appearance to everyone else. Also the only “weight bags” that are worn, is by one dancer on the television that wore a small ankle weight with no resemblance to the enormous weight bags that are described in the story. Another difference is that in the story Harrison Bergeron had the apparent status of a god among these average people. He was fourteen years old, seven feet tall, athletic, good looking, and a genius.
Harrison Bergeron is a story that depicts a society whereby everyone is equal mentally, physically and socially. The people were forced to wear handicaps, masks, weights and headsets in order to be equal with each other in the society. V for Vendetta is a 2005 action packed film by James McTeigue which presents a society that is controlled by the government. The film and the story present dystopian societies and both are stories of the future which shows how the government will slowly start controlling its people. In all the stories, one character stands up to the government and shows significant defiance unfortunately, they end up dying trying to fight the all controlling governments.
Through different experiences, beliefs, values and ideas, individuals can evolve identity through human nature, in society and critical life experiences. Human nature is elucidated dystopically in the works of George Orwell’s novel, 1984, and James McTeigue’s visual, V for Vendetta, which represent divergent societies, bound by totalitarian oppression and degrading human constructs. Published in 1948 by George Orwell, 1984 is a novel set in a future society, scarred by eternal war, ubiquitous government surveillance, controlled history and tyrannical manipulation by the superstate. Winston Smith, a diligent Outer Party member, inconspicuously rebels against the English socialist, ‘Ingsoc’ Party and despot leader, ‘Big Brother’, by regaining
In 1984 and V for Vendetta, the different behaviours of the anti-heroes, Winston and V, illustrate their approach to attaining freedom from the totalitarian government. George Orwell’s 1984 and James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta use the anti-heroes’ behaviour to identify their approach to their cause—liberation from the totalitarian government. For example, Winston is the typical citizen who rebels against the government in a quiet and peaceful way, whereas V is a revolutionist in an excited and violent way. This comparison helps classify the key behaviours, which explains the different approaches the anti-heroes took towards liberation.
The purpose of any text is to convey the criticisms of society, with V for Vendetta and Animal Farm being chief examples of this statement. Through their use of allusion, symbolism and representation, they portray many of society's flaws and imperfections. Such an imperfection includes the illustration of how totalitarian governments abuse the power they have acquired for their own gain, harming the people they are sworn to serve and protect. Through this abusive self-gaining government, we all are liable to become victims of consumer culture caused by the blind obedience to advertising and propaganda, being unable to form or voice an opinion of our own. But this lack of opinion can be at fault because of our own apathy, the ignorance and slothfulness that is contributed to the role we play in our society and the importance of that role's ability to motivate and inspire change.
In this day in age, it is very common to find films adapted from books. Many of those films do a very well in their adaptations, but some fall short. Since it was finished, and even before its release date, the V for Vendetta film has gained some controversy from its own author. But, although the film did not end up how Alan Moore, the author, would have wanted it, he did not contribute to the project, even so, the filmography very clearly kept with the original work and showed itself as a product of the time.
The dystopian novel “1984” and the movie “V for Vendetta”, share a variety of differences and similarities. Both have a totalitarian government in which they have absolute power over politics, religion and human rights. Extensive speech, critical thinking, thoughtful writing, and voice of opinion has either been restricted or limited in 1984’s Oceania and V for Vendetta’s future London. The protagonists in both novels and films have “resisted” their government. However, the methods used to employ their “rebellion” are quite different.
History plays a very important role in Moore’s story, and his ideologies about class distinction are very prominent. For these reasons, cultural poetics and Marxist literary criticism analyzes the story of V for Vendetta in a very interesting and informative way. Using these two literary criticisms, I will analyze how the historical time period and economic class Alan Moore was brought up in shapes his view of the class distinctions in his graphic novel, and specifically how the Shadow Gallery, Evey, and Rose show how prevalent class distinction is in society and the way it stunts individuals and society as a whole. Cultural Poetics involves history. This form of criticism allows history to explain the meaning behind the story and thus allows history to be the context because according to D.G. Meyers, “History serves as the repressed unconscious of literature.”
V for Vendetta is a graphic novel written by Allan Moore. It is a story full of comedy with V as the protagonist who is out to fight and destroy the government and affects innocent people. The novel was later adapted into a film and directed by James McTeigue and written by Wachowski Brothers.
Although the comparisons are well hidden, both today’s society and the story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ share similar qualities. They both deal with equality, which leads to problems and consequences. A second similarity is the struggle of competition and trying to prevent it from occurring, which also leads to problems. Lastly, both struggle with normality, and the fact that it’s hard to accept that different is okay now.
...ught between Orwell and the creators of “V for Vendetta”, because “V for Vendetta” gives hope that a totalitarian government can never gain enough power to be invincible, while Orwell argues the exact opposite.