Imagine living in a world where everybody is constantly being watched and monitored, and where whoever speaks out about the problems with the system gets punished harshly. This is the modern world. The movie V for Vendetta is about a tyrannical government in England and a man who tries to overthrow it. The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is about a world where everybody is genetically designed to perfectly fit their predetermined place in society. In the current event of the Edward Snowden case, a man named Edward Snowden leaked information about the United States government’s intelligence gathering operations. A dystopia is a society that looks perfect on the outside, but below the surface is anything but perfect. The first element …show more content…
of dystopia is that citizens are kept under constant surveillance. The second element of dystopia is that those who are different are punished in some way. The third element of dystopia is that a single figure is in charge or worshiped. The Edward Snowden case shows that American citizens are under constant surveillance and that the person who brings the problem to public attention is severely punished. In this way, the United States is similar to the societies in Brave New World and V for Vendetta. The societies in V for Vendetta and Brave New World both conduct surveillance on their citizens.
The society in V for Vendetta conducts such surveillance by watching and listening to its citizens. This surveillance is shown when V says to Mr. Creedy, “That plan is the reason Sutler no longer trusts you. It’s the reason why you’re being watched right now, why there are eyes and ears in every room of this house and a tap on every phone” (V for Vendetta). This quote shows how when the government does not trust one of its citizens, they will constantly be watched. The society in Brave New World conducts such surveillance by keeping track of its citizens whereabouts at all times. This becomes clear when Bernard says, “A permit for you to initial, Director” (95). As Bernard said this, he was requesting that the Director would sign a permit allowing him to go to the Savage Reservation, which is in the Americas and is where those who live “savage” lifestyles are kept. This shows how the government constantly keeps track of its citizens’ …show more content…
whereabouts. In additions to keeping their citizens under constant surveillance, both societies punish those who are different. The society in V for Vendetta jails and sometimes executes those who disagree with the government’s views. This punishment is shown when Mr. Finch, the chief inspector, says, “Her parents were political activists. They were detained when she was 12” (V for Vendetta). This quote shows how the government prosecutes and punishes those who oppose their viewpoints. Additionally, the society in Brave New World exiles those who are different. This becomes clear when the Director says, “You nearly what’s going to happen to you young men. I was on the point of being sent to an island” (226). In this quote, the Controller was telling Bernard and Helmholtz how he was almost exiled for his differences and that that’s what their punishment will be. In addition to punishing those who are different, both societies have a supreme leader. In V for Vendetta, the society is ruled by a Chancellor. While making a public broadcast, V, otherwise known as “the terrorist,” says, “Fear got the best of you. And in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent” (V for Vendetta). By saying this, he shows how one man used fear to his advantage and therefore became the supreme leader of England. In Brave New World, the society is headed by the Controller. This becomes clear on page 34 when the narrator says, “Mustapha Mond! The Resident Controller for Western Europe!” In this quote, the narrator explained that this one man controlled all of Western Europe. Much like Brave New World and V for Vendetta, the United States also keeps their citizens under constant surveillance.
Both V for Vendetta and the Edward Snowden case show that the citizens of these societies are under constant surveillance. In V for Vendetta, this becomes clear when Mr. Heyer, a member of the government, says, “Our surveillance cameras captured several images of the terrorist though the mask obviously makes retinal identification impossible” (V for Vendetta). This quote shows how there are many surveillance cameras throughout the society. The case of Edward Snowden also shows that American citizens are under constant surveillance. The BBC News article shows this when it states, “ US National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans” (BBC News). This shows just how much the United States government monitors their
citizens. In both have V for Vendetta and the Edward Snowden case, the whistleblowers were severely punished. In the society in V for Vendetta, those who spoke out against the government were persecuted and in some cases killed. In this society, it can be seen when Evey says, “After he died, my parents became political. They protested the war and the Reclamation. When Sutler was appointed high chancellor, they were at the riot in Leeds. I watched on the television thinking I was going to see my parents killed. I remember them arguing at night. Mum wanted to leave the country. Dad refused. He said if we ran away, they would win. Win, like it was a game” (V for Vendetta). This quote shows how the government treats those who speak out against it. In the Edward Snowden case, he was penalized legally for bringing the National Security Agency surveillance to the public eye. The BBC article stated, “He has been charged in the US with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence” (BBC News). This shows how Edward Snowden was charged on many counts and punished for leaking this information. The audience of Brave New World and V for Vendetta cannot help but be reminded of modern American society. Much like in both stories, the citizens are kept under constant surveillance. Additionally, in modern American society, anybody that speaks out or brings problems with the system to public attention gets punished. Unless these issues are counteracted, modern American society will end up like the societies in Brave New World and V for Vendetta.
The book Fahrenheit 451 and the movie Hunger Games both display a dystopian fiction setting. A dystopian setting is when it is a futuristic, made up universe, and the illusion of a perfect society is maintained through corporate, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. In dystopias the characters make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system. At the beginning of each of these the main characters follow through with what their government wants them to do however toward the end of each they start to do what they want or what they believe is better than what the government recommends..
Within both the Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and V for Vendetta it can be concluded that the leaders of the governments included in both are some of these people. They have their own ways more often than not unethical and violent put in place in an effort to obtain the power to which the crave so very much. Also, they have their own methods to discourage those against them whose agenda may contradict with their own, again the methods are often unethical. Both Governments operating within the book Brave New World and V for Vendetta use a plethora of different things to manipulate those lower in society than them. A constant method in both A Brave New World and V for Vendetta includes some sort of crooked or manipulated law enforcement. Also, in both the information given to the media outlets and general public by the government is usually coerced or twisted in order for the government to make themselves look better or to hide
It is commonplace for individuals to envision a perfect world; a utopian reality in which the world is a paradise, with equality, happiness and ideal perfection. Unfortunately, we live in a dystopian society and our world today is far from perfection. John Savage, from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, V, from V for Vendetta by James McTeigue and Offred, from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Attwood, are all characters in a dystopian society. A dystopia is the vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and are characterized by oppression, corruption of government, and abridgement of human rights.
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
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.
Dystopia represents an artificially created society to where a human population is administered to various types of oppressions, or a human population lives under the order of an oppressive government. The novel Fahrenheit 451 and the film V for Vendetta both effectively display this dystopian concept in their works. The nature of the society, the protagonist who questions the society, and the political power that runs the society are examples of how the novel and the film efficiently capture the main points of a dystopian society. The authors of the novel and the film use their visions of a dystopian future to remark on our present by identifying how today’s society is immensely addicted to technology and how our government has changed over the past decades. Furthermore, the authors use our modern day society to illustrate their view of a dystopia in our
Imagine a chaotic society of people who are so entangled by ignorance and inequity that they do not realize it; this would be called a dystopian society. Dystopian societies are very popular among many fictional stories. In fact, in the stories Fahrenheit 451 and “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, dystopian societies are represented. In many of these stories, the people in the fictional societies are violence-loving, irrational people who always seem to do what people of the U.S. society would consider "immoral." These stories are not a representation of how the U.S. society is now, but how it could be in the future. Unlike the society of Fahrenheit 451, the U.S. allows people
1984, a novel by George Orwell, represents a dystopian society in which the people of Oceania are surveilled by the government almost all the time and have no freedoms. Today, citizens of the United States and other countries are watched in a similar way. Though different technological and personal ways of keeping watch on society than 1984, today’s government is also able to monitor most aspects of the people’s life. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are surveilled by the government at all times.
In a dystopian society, the government watches and dictates everything. It is the opposite of a perfect world in the sense that careers and social status are pre-destined. The government of this society does everything in its power to make the citizens believe that this is the most ideal place to live. The word “dystopia” ultimately roots back to the Greek word “dys” meaning bad and “topos” meaning place (www.merriam-webster.com). Citizens in a dystopian society rarely question their government. Many citizens are brainwashed and others are just too frightened to speak out against injustices evident in their society. The Hunger Games and The Giver are perfect examples of dystopian texts d...
Imagine a society in which its citizens have forfeited all personal liberties for government protection and stability; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, explores a civilization in which this hypothetical has become reality. The inevitable trade-off of citizens’ freedoms for government protection traditionally follows periods of war and terror. The voluntary degradation of the citizens’ rights begins with small, benign steps to full, totalitarian control. Major methods for government control and censorship are political, religious, economic, and moral avenues. Huxley’s Brave New World provides a prophetic glimpse of government censorship and control through technology; the citizens of the World State mimic those of the real world by trading their personal liberties for safety and stability, suggesting that a society similar to Huxley’s could exist outside the realm of dystopian science fiction.
A dystopian society can be defined as “a society characterized by human misery”. 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury both demonstrate dystopian societies. However, that does not mean they do not their differences. In each society the government has different ways of controlling and limiting its citizens for doing only what they want them to do. In 1984, violators are brainwashed into loving and following Big Brother as if they never knew the truth and return back to their everyday lives. Fahrenheit 451 also punishes violators in a way that makes them regret and scared to ever do it again instead of making them forget.
What exactly is a dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could be becoming a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason. Dystopian worlds are often seen as fictitious, though this may not be the case in the future.
One of the foremost reasons the government is monitoring the populace is to discover those people in the general public that are involved in major crimes or terrorism activities. Many supporters of state surveillance are of the view that in order to discover those people involved in major terrorist or criminal activities the government must actively monitor all of its citizens through the use of surveillance. Since the government casts such a broad net of monitoring, they are using citizens as a means to an end. Whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, leaked classified NSA flies that expose mass surveillance operations carried out by the NSA (Greenwald, 2013)
Dystopia is a term that defines a corrupt government that projects a false image. Thus, in a dystopian society, making belief and comfort that the society is proper to its followers. One good example of dystopian society is the Hunger Games. The terms that describe that dystopia towards the Hunger games are a “hierarchical society, fear of the outside world, penal system and a back story” (“Dystopia”).
Privacy is not just a fundamental right, it is also important to maintain a truly democratic society where all citizens are able to exist with relative comfort. Therefore, “[Monitoring citizens without their knowledge] is a major threat to democracies all around the world.” (William Binney.) This is a logical opinion because without freedom of expression and privacy, every dictatorship in history has implemented some form of surveillance upon its citizens as a method of control.