Comparison essay

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” But in the novel 1984 by George Orwell and the film V for Vendetta directed by James McTeigue, both governments use methods such as monitoring civilian lives and the distortion of historical facts in order to prevent civilians from having freedom of self-thought and to prevent civilians from knowing their government’s faults. Both governments use these methods in order to emphasize how they’re ready to take any action if they feel threatened so they can maintain ultimate power
In the novel 1984, Big Brother monitors its civilian’s lives through the ThoughtPolice, “telescreens,” and the Junior Spies in order to prevent them from speaking their thoughts to others. There were occasions where Winston, the main character, thought he committed a crime and Big Brother would come for him. In the first occasion, Winston found himself writing “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER,” in his diary, even after realizing he had committed thoughtcrime, Winston continued to write in his diary, “They’ll shoot me I don't care they'll shoot me in the back of the neck I don't care down with big brother,” he then heard a knock on the door thinking it was the ThoughtPolice. There was also the occasion where Winston finds himself wandering in his thoughts during the Physical Jerks, the lady in the “telescreen” notices and pulls him back to reality by calling him to do better in his exercises. Also towards the end of the book, when Winston is captured, Mr. Parsons walks into his cell, Winston asks him why and who denounced him, Parsons tells him because of thoughtcrime and that it was his little daughter, who was part of the Junior Spies. The Junior Spies is an organizatio...

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...unce that they captured and killed V, they even demonstrate the police “shooting V,” who really isn’t V but the victim disguised as him. As Inspector Finch continues to investigate V, he discovers that there was a virus created and a cure for it too and Adam Sutler decided to target “a school, a tube station, and a water treatment plant,” to rise fear in civilians and to win the election. Adam Sutler was behind the death of 80, 000 civilians. This goes to show how Adam Sutler took the action of killing 80,000 people and lied about it to gain power and continued to lie in order to prevent civilians from knowing the truth. But unlike the civilians from 1984, the civilians in V for Vendetta knew that their government was lying to them and they followed V’s plan on November the 5th to show they were sick of lies and wanted justice.

Works Cited

1894
V for Vendetta