Compare And Contrast V For Vendetta And 1984

1087 Words3 Pages

A dystopian government is “futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and an illusion of a perfect society are mainstreamed through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control (1984 Unit Essay Prompt). The book 1984 is a dystopian novel written by George Orwell that was published in 1949. V for Vendetta is a 2006 American-German political thriller film directed by James McTeigue. This paper will be comparing these two fictional dystopian governments to the United States on how they are similar and different. Even though these are fictional novels they are very similar to how the United States of America function today. The US is similar to a dystopian government because the citizens think …show more content…

The nonconformists in both societies are generally treated the same way by being punished. In 1984, Winston was not a good party member because he did things that weren 't approved of by the party and he was looked upon as "a flaw in the pattern [or] "a stain (Orwell,1984)". The party wanted to control every aspect of its people’s lives, they could not have sex for pleasure, had to dress a certain way, and had to love Big Brother in their thoughts and words. If the citizens went against the party rules then they would be punished for it or even killed. Certainly, the situation in America isn’t anywhere near as severe as it is in 1984, but the United States is a government that treats the "flaws in the pattern" in a similar way, they do punish their citizens. The Edward Snowden case is a big controversy in America because he gave exposure to what the NSA is doing. "Mr. Snowden copied 1.7 million intelligence files,...the exposure of the National Security Agency 's telephony metadata collections,...calls made in the U.S.- and internet surveillance programs... and military operations” (Wall Street Journal-Operation). The U.S government wants to charge him for espionage. In V for Vendetta, V the protagonist, opposes his oppressive and controlling British government just like the other nonconformists Winston and Edward Snowden, V states that the "freedoms and liberties the government stands for have become meaningless words” (V for Vendetta). What V believes applies to the American government today, if citizens have liberties and freedoms, then why is Edward Snowden wanted for espionage when every American Citizen is supposed to have freedom of speech and press? Freedom and liberty have become meaningless words like V mentions because the U.S. government still does what it wants

Open Document