Similarities Between 1984 And The Truman Show

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Nearly two and a half centuries ago, the American Revolutionary war was waged over an idea that is still even contested about in today's society. That provocative idea is called freedom. It sparked the colonial revolt in the thirteen colonies and it split the the United States in two during the American Civil War. As well as being involved with war, the idea of free will has also been at the center of the entertainment business, especially with these titles: The Truman Show and the novel 1984. Both of these titles are centered around the concept of freedom, except each has a different outcome. In The Truman Show, the protagonist (Jim Carrey) is able to make his own choice to obtain free will. However, in the book 1984, the protagonist is unable …show more content…

To illustrate, the ending of 1984 is supposed to be an example of what can happen if government gets too much control. Specifically, the book's conclusion portrays Winston Smith sitting in a café thinking about his time in the Ministry of Love where he was tortured for rebelling against the party. Winston revolted against the government for several reasons, but the main one lies with his hate for the party. No one else influenced him to do this, therefore Winston had total control over his actions. As an example of this, Winston stated that “We are enemies of the party” (Orwell, 170). This means that he openly hates the party and wishes to defy them. This statement proves that he wanted to and had the freedom to make the choice to defy them, although his decision did get him killed. Despite the possible repercussions, he still went through with it because he had free will to do it; it was not until the party discovered him did he lose his free will. To put this into perspective with today's society, if the United States removed all the rights that Americans have now, then it would not stop people from defying the government’s actions of removing free will. Individuals will still break the new laws to keep their liberties, no matter the consequences. Therefore, today’s society will never lose its free will as long as there are people willing to keep

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