Many countries experience or have experienced the terrors of totalitarianism. The government taking total control is very prominent in literature and in real life and ends up driving wedges between many groups of people. Totalitarianism is shown through the government using their power unfairly, using it to exclude groups that they believe are a minority or do not support what the government does. The book, Flawed by Cecelia Ahern, magnifies the problems of an overpowering government that can be seen in the real world. Dystopian literature can relate to the complicated human life without people even realizing it. The government using totalitarianism can happen when government power is being overused without fully being justified. When Celestine …show more content…
In real-world situations, a "totalitarian state pursues” the “conquest, to the exclusion of all others” (Britannica). The government always has bias no matter what, and many times people in the minority find themselves being excluded by the government and its supporters. People who have done wrong in the government's eyes are made to seem bad and should be avoided. This totalitarianism can be seen in the United States when the issue of slavery is brought up because the government worked to segregate the white majority from the African American minority. Correspondingly, in Flawed the people in the minority that had done wrong to the government are segregated from the rest of the citizens. Flawed people have different clothing needs, different rules, and there are even bus seats that “only Flawed people are allowed to occupy” (Ahern 37). The Flawed people are targeted because of the government's beliefs over what they did wrong, even if it was out of the goodness of their heart. The government ensures that no one forgets that they are Flawed or that someone they know is Flawed. People who are Flawed are treated differently without others even knowing what mistake they made to become Flawed. The real-world and the book, Flawed, makes people realize just how much totalitarianism causes bad judgment and
The following section wil analyse how the totalitarian systems in the novels are constructed and list the important aspects they consist of. Due to word-limitations the concentration is put only on the main aspects: The head of the system, laws and punishments and the concept that the systems are constructed up on.
To conclude, because the government was able to use censorship and promote ignorance, they were able control and manipulate their citizens. This novel also has resemblance to our world, this novel is a reminder of how powerful media can become if used the right way, society can be mislead into thinking false things. By promoting ignorance, the citizens started having very bland lives with no depth. People did not talk about ideas and feelings because they were obsessed and dependent on instant pleasure, they will start denying they own feelings because of this. Television and easy access to entertainment made books nonexistent.
In his novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury entices and allows readers to interpret the deeper meaning of the text, which lies far beyond the characters and the setting of the dystopia. Throughout the 50’s and 60’s, many people were deprived of religious freedom due to the extremity of communism. USSR, during the Cold War, required countries to be communists limiting them from their necessary freedoms. Within each of the multiple tragedies in which the story explores, there is a link to the peril and warfare that occurred while this book was written. Bradbury binds the issues with communist countries in the story, and relates it to his fictional text highlighting communism as ineffective system of government and an excessively controlling atmosphere. For example, in 1968, Czechoslovakia attempted to release from the strict Soviet control. A new Czechoslovakian leader, Alexander Dubcek, tried to restore a shattered freedom that has been taken away since the end of WW2. Czechoslovakian People freely expressed themselves and read banned literature, which resulted in the Soviet Union sending Warsaw troops, tanks, and with little retaliation from the Czechoslovakian citizens, transformed them into an uncompromising communist nation. Although this even happened after Fahrenheit 451 was created, it was foreshadowed by Bradbury due to the nature and mindset various countries withheld in the 1950’s. Hence, Bradbury conceals various components of the world’s flaws by means of allusions and metaphors, ultimately paralleling the world to a dystopian society. Bradbury highlights that the world’s major flaw is limiting and restricting people from their necessary basic freedoms.
“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.” A quote by Eugene V Debs in his speech in Canton, Ohio, on June 16, 1918. Enter dystopia. In a universe already tarnished by future time and changing, pessimistic ideals or unconventional social standards, tyrants have the tendency to act as the main antagonist who enforce the moral laws of their worlds upon the innocent. And in George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the authors explore the ideas of dystopic tyrants though antagonists O’Brien and Mustapha Mond, who portray their ability to control through their individual societies’ extreme ideals
A dystopian text is a genre that is an allegory written by the author to demonstrate the dangers within our current political climate, often exaggerated in a future context. Using techniques of oppression and a totalitarian regime ruling groups are often able to take control of societies. Today I will compare George Orwell’s iconic dystopian text 1984 and Peter Weir’s film, The Truman Show. Written in 1949, 1984 is set in society which is terrorised by the ideologies of a totalitarian government. Orwell focusses on parallels between Stalin’s Soviet Union and the Party in 1984 in relation to the toxic nature of the totalitarian regimes. Similarly, The Truman Show depicts a man that’s unknowingly the star of a TV reality show about his own life.
George Orwell’s key objective throughout his novel, 1984, was to convey to his readers the imminent threat of the severe danger that totalitarianism could mean for the world. Orwell takes great measures to display the horrifying effects that come along with complete and dominant control that actually comes along with totalitarian government. In Orwell’s novel, personal liberties and individual freedoms that are protected and granted to many Americans today, are taken away and ripped from the citizen’s lives. The government takes away freedom and rights from the people so that the ruling class (which makes up the government), while reign with complete supremacy and possess all power.
A totalitarian government is where one person controls everything and civilian rights are taken away. In George Orwell's novel, 1984, Winston lives under a totalitarian government. Throughout the novel, it is shown how the government controls everything and how the citizens of Oceania cannot exercise basic rights. Citizens in countries with this type of government, both past and present, are manipulated and every aspect of their lives are controlled. In the novel 1984, Oceania is controlled by a totalitarian government, which is similar to the system of Soviet Russia and North Korea because they use close monitoring and threats of war against their citizens.
A utopian society represents a perfect, idealistic civilization, while a dystopian society describes an unpleasant environment for the individuals living within it. George Orwell’s 1984 portrays many characteristics of a dystopian society. Very similarly, Veronica Roth’s Divergent tells the story of a government that forcefully separates and controls its citizens. 1984 and Divergent both share the presence of harsh regulation and control from their respective governments. Orwell and Roth’s novels compare Ministries and Factions, conformity and obedience, Proles and the Factionless, and government regulation, in a similar, yet negative way.
Do you feel like your government is watching you? Do you believe the word Dystopia applies to your society? If you answered yes you could be living in Nazi Germany or you are a citizen of Oceania in the book 1984. The reign of a totalitarian government usually leads to a society with a description exactly like that of a dystopia. Throughout history there have been many powerful governments that have forced citizens to conform to certain standards. Even today we have governments with a power over its citizens so strong it's almost like a prison. Yet probably the most notable of these totalitarian regimes was Nazi Germany. The dystopian book 1984 by George Orwell centers around Winston, a skittish and rebellious comrade. Who has constant thoughts of insurgents against his country's totalitarian government known as “Big Brother”. Nazi Germany and the fictional
The fear of government control is a leitmotif in many dystopian literature stories; therefore, strong, oppressive central governments feature prominently in this genre. Both Brave New World and 1984 provide examples of this type of government, which superficially appear to be quite different. Although the outward aspects of these governments appear to be in opposition, they both use conditioning and societal manipulation to maintain control of their citizens in worlds affected by industrialization.
These examples display the inevitable fact that all over the world subtle but significant events are taking place that appear to signify a shifting toward a totalitarian government, much like the one present in 1984. This is extremely disturbing because most people will agree that the life lived by the characters in 1984, is not one of any value. Though they are “protected” from several of the problems that many of the free world citizens and officials face, they have no control over their thoughts or actions. This leads to unbearable uniformity. It is chilling to know that though George Orwell’s book was written as fiction, portions of it are becoming factual.
Sonny's Blues" written by American writer James Baldwin and "Hills like White Elephants" by American novelist Ernest Hemingway are two captivating short stories that delve into complicated themes and emotions through drastically different means. Sonny’s Blues, a story of family, addiction, and reform; offering a poignant exploration into brotherhood and the struggle of identity. Hills like White Elephants - a misleading story of a simple Spanish train station, paralleled by a young couple's thought provoking, systematic avoidance of issues at hand. While both narratives explore the complexities of relationship dynamics and the struggle of power imbalance in familial connections, they do so through very different methods of storytelling such
Dystopian novels are written to reflect the fears a population has about its government and they are successful because they capture that fright and display what can happen if it is ignored. George Orwell wrote 1984 with this fear of government in mind and used it to portray his opinion of the current government discretely. Along with fear, dystopian novels have many other elements that make them characteristic of their genre. The dystopian society in Orwell’s novel became an achievement because he utilized a large devastated city, a shattered family system, life in fear, a theme of oppression, and a lone hero.
In these novels, a dystopian society is represented by having conflicts with the government's censorship of knowledge, early on establishments of the common theme of identity deficiency, and the
Many countries experience or have experienced the terrors of totalitarianism. The government taking total control is very prominent in literature and in real life and ends up driving wedges between many groups of people. Totalitarianism is shown through the government using their power unfairly, using it to exclude groups that they believe are a minority or do not support what the government does. The book, Flawed by Cecelia Ahern, magnifies the problems of an overpowering government that can be seen in the real world. Dystopian literature can relate to the complicated human life without people even realizing it.