Terrorism has been long regarded as an atrocious act of mankind, one of the worst possible actions that could be done by human beings, yet, V for Vendetta, created by James McTeigue, depicts a terrorist who fights for freedom, revenge, and what he finds to be just, completely different from the characteristics of terrorists that all people believe is true. In, V for Vendetta, the main character, known only by the letter V, represents revenge for a society wronged by its government and fights as a terrorist for freedom. V himself had been wronged by the government and knows of the corruption in its ranks, and as such, V has taken it upon himself to take revenge on the government that has wronged him and the people. Through taking it upon …show more content…
himself to take vengeance on the government, V embodies the emotions, thoughts, and revenge of the people who, like himself, have been wronged by the corrupt government. V’s actions in V for Vendetta help develop McTeigue’s theme that the revenge of a wronged society is shared by all its people, and the people who have been wronged are willing to fight for the freedom they had been prevented from experiencing.
The use of irony in V for Vendetta is extremely prevalent and is demonstrated many times over by the actions of characters such as Lewis Plethora, BTN news network, and the government itself. The way McTeigue uses irony demonstrates the flaws in the government and the way the government takes away the personal liberties of the citizens. In V for Vendetta, Lewis Plethora is a news anchor on BTN news network and is known for his passionate support of the government and hate for terrorist, anarchists, and all others who oppose the government. Lewis Plethora fought in many wars and worked in government facilities, such as Larkhill, and he is depicted as a strong supporter of the government and is a representative of the government himself. Of the scenes we see with Lewis Plethora, we see that all his accusations against V directly relate to what the government actually does. At one point, Plethora says “I'll tell you what I know. I know this is not a man. What is he? A man does not wear a mask. What is he? A man does not threaten …show more content…
innocent civilians. He's what every gutless, freedom-hating terrorist is. A goddamn coward,” but, despite his claims, Plethora is basically describing what the government and himself do everyday. The government wears a theoretical mask when the government tries to claim it is helping out the citizens for their benefits, yet Chancellor Adam Sutler says “I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion. I want every man, woman and child to understand how close we are to chaos. I want everyone to remember why they need us.” Chancellor Sutler wants the country to know how important the government should be; He doesn’t care about the people themselves, he cares about whether or not they support the government and whether or not they can be controlled by the government. The government also threatens its citizens through the existence of Mr. Creedy’s “Black Bags.” Citizens are always frightened by the existence of the “Black Bags,” as they basically erase citizens from society in the middle of the night. The “Black Bags” are used to threaten the citizens into silent submission, and it works well until V comes to destroy the corrupt government. Basically, the government and Lewis Plethora both are lying to the citizens of Britain just so they can control them. In fact, the way Lewis Plethora describes V, matches the actions of the government more than it matches V’s actions. The irony that Lewis Plethora presents brings the audience’s attention to the hypocrisy of the corrupt government, as the government tries to limit the citizen’s freedoms, lies to the citizens, and tries to control the citizens through fear. McTeigue used this irony to exemplify the abominable actions of the government; This not only brought attention to the suppression of individual freedoms of the citizens of Britain, but it also supported McTeigue’s theme, as the citizens of Britain feel wronged by their government and are choosing to unite with V to eradicate the government. Irony brought out the hypocrisy of the government inside the movie, and was very effective at supporting McTeigue’s theme. A major way that V helps McTeigue’s theme develop is through the use of symbolism.
V himself claims that he is a symbol, a symbol for the people to follow, so as to stop the corruption of the government. An important characteristic of V is that he is always found in a Guy Fawkes mask which although it represents Guy Fawkes’s plot to blow up parliament, V’s mask also represents the calling for revenge that is shared by V and the people of Britain. On the day V planned to carry out his plan to blow up parliament, V sent out Guy Fawkes masks to tens of thousands of British citizens, so as to start a revolution and gain support from the people. The thousands of citizens willing to put on the Guy Fawkes mask are showing they are united in their call to freedom and united in their anger against the government. V is the embodiment of the people’s anger, he is a symbol of their desire for freedom, and his mask represents his unity with the citizens’ desire for freedom and feelings of anger. Another important symbol that is used by McTeigue is Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, which V uses as his theme music when he blows up the government’s statue, and also when he blows up parliament. If taken as a literal parallelism between the situation the 1812 Overture is used on, the meaning of the music becomes quite ironic, as Tchaikovsky created the music to commemorate Russia’s, thereby the Russian Government’s, defense from an attack by Napoleon Bonaparte; This is ironic as V uses the
music for himself, even though he is the one on the offensive side attacking the government. However, if the symbol is examined at a more indepth viewpoint, as we can see V wouldn’t be commemorating the government as he hates the current government, the music actually depicts the government as the aggressors and is commemorating V’s defense of the citizens of Britain. McTeigue’s use of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture is brilliant, as it demonstrates that the government is the aggressor and is the invading, criminal leader, Napoleon, while V and the citizens of Britain are commemorating their defense of their personal freedom that the government had been taking away, much like Russia commemorated their defense of the Motherland. McTeigue demonstrates through the 1812 Overture that the government, parallel to Napoleon, is the invasive species and that a country is its people, parallel to Russia. The 1812 Overture demonstrates the people’s desire to protect their freedoms and their personal safety from the corrupt, invasive government, much like the way Russia defended itself from the invading Napoleon army, the Grand Armée, that was trying to take over the Russian motherland. McTeigue’s use of symbolism was a strong help to develop the theme of his film V for Vendetta and V was the one who was the core element of those symbols. V said it himself as he was talking to Evey about his plan for parliament, “Symbols are given power by people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people, blowing up a Building can change the world.” As V said, without the support of the people symbols are meaningless, but as he gathers support from the people V is able to accomplish incredible things and even is able to blow up the parliament building thanks to the support of the citizens. V is the strongest symbol McTeigue uses, as V rallies the citizens of Britain and uses their support to destroy parliament and the corrupt government. V is an embodiment of the citizen’s feelings and takes it upon himself to destroy the corrupt government of which the people hate. McTeigue was brilliant in his use of symbols, and he made very effective use of them in the development of his theme. V for Vendetta is a complex movie with several interesting themes that McTeigue demonstrated throughout the film. There were several ways that McTeigue demonstrated his themes, but some of the most important ways that McTeigue demonstrated his theme that the revenge of a wronged society is shared by all its people, and the people who have been wronged are willing to fight for the freedom they had been prevented from experiencing, is through the use of symbolism and irony. McTeigue is a brilliant director who was able to create both an interesting movie and at the same time develop an important theme that all societies can relate to. V for Vendetta, under McTeigue’s skillful directorship, was able to promote the theme that McTeigue planned for the movie to show. Thus, V for Vendetta was very successful in James McTeigue’s pursuit to spread his message of revenge, freedom and unity, through the use of both symbolism and irony.
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
In Kirby Dick’s influential documentary “The Invisible War,” filmmaker Kirby Dick uses pathos, ethos and logos to gain information and supplementary details to make his point that there is an epidemic of rape in throughout the DOD (Department of Defense) and the fact that military sexual trauma (MST) in the United States military goes unheard, mostly unpunished and needs to be addressed at a higher level.
In the first introduction of music, Alex describes how his parents have learned to “not knock on the wall with complaints… I had taught them. Now they would take sleep-pills” (33) when he plays music loudly, showing the control Alex has manifested over his own parents with music. Alex also plays the Ninth by Ludwin van while raping two girls, as they were forced to “submit to the strange and weird desires of Alexander the Large with, what with the Ninth, were… very demanding” (46). By inevitably connecting classical music to violence, Burgess shows that there is little distinction in importance between the two for Alex, and the two become physically linked after the government’s brainwashing. This suggests that you cannot take Alex’s flaws without simultaneously taking those same elements that make him human. The focus on classical music as a pivot of Alex’s humanity accentuates the sympathy felt for Alex as he is being brainwashed, as the previous poetic love for classical music is replaced with “pain and sickness” as Alex had “forgotten what he shouldn’t have forgotten” (139). Without attempting to condone Alex’s actions, Burgess stresses the notion that humanity is not meant to be erased or forcibly removed, even if it means having to come to terms with the flaws that every person
American Sniper is the movie that I chose to analyze because it is full of moral and ethical decisions that have to be made. The movie starts off with a boy at school that has to go pull a bully off of his little brother and he ends up beating the bully up so bad that blood is all over his face. The boys name is Chris Kyle. The film then skips forward to when he is in his twenties and is riding a bronco at the rodeo since that is his passion. He then decides to join the Navy and become a SEAL after he feels like his purpose was to serve his country. He gets deployed to Iraq and the mental part is hard on him especially when he has to shoot a women and a kid when he sees them trying to throw a grenade at a group of Marines. He tries to help
The chapter, Church, has the troop hold up in a church for a few days. In the church, the monks take an immediately likely to the troop help with food and weapon cleaning. A few of the soldiers discuss what they wanted to do before the war. The troops learn more about each other and insight into what faith can be to them.
Truman Capote showcases his very distinct style of writing in his true crime novel, In Cold Blood. Capote intentionally frames ruthless murderer Perry Smith as a relatable, well-intentioned human throughout the whole novel, and employs various rhetorical devices to show us that Perry is not just a stone cold killer. Specifically, Capote uses diction comprised of complex words, interviews conducted by Capote personally in which he interacted with the suspects and their loved ones, and sentence structure that came off as very to the point, in order to illustrate Perry’s dynamic and unique personality, opposed to the one dimensional heartless murderer many made him out to be.
V for Vendetta is a great movie to watch in Civics class. It is a perfect film to discuss issues related to civics as it talks about citizen’s duty to overthrow corruption and more. As it is set against the ‘futuristic landscape of a totalitarian Britain’, this story focuses on a young working-class woman named Evey. In the event of being in a life-death situation, she meets V who rescues her. V makes her realize that she has the potential to do anything she desires and discovers the truth about herself as well as V. This movie is covered with various relations to Civics.
Hosseini’s purpose of writing the Kite Runner was to teach the readers the different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The main character, Amir, is a Pashtun and Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims, then there are Hazara’s that the Pashtuns do not get along with. Hazara’s are not welcomed by the Pashtuns because they are different social classes.
I chose this word because the tone of the first chapter seems rather dark. We hear stories of the hopes with which the Puritans arrived in the new world; however, these hopes quickly turned dark because the Purtains found that the first buildings they needed to create were a prison, which alludes to the sins they committed; and a cemetery, which contradicts the new life they hoped to create for themselves.
The approach towards freedom is hard to achieve against a totalitarian government, but possible to win with the people’s belief. 1984 by George Orwell and James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta portrays the same idealism of the anti-heroes, Winston and V. An anti-hero is “a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose” (“Antihero”). Winston is not courageous, peaceful, and self-centered along the path of freedom for Oceania, whereas the anti-hero, V, is violent in his actions, impatient and careless in his pursuit to free London from the totalitarian government. As a matter of fact, V and Winston have the opposite behaviours; this is significant because it helps to compare the approach of the anti-heroes toward freedom. At the end of 1984 and V for Vendetta, the result of their approach is different from each other; Winston gives up on the liberation of Oceania, while V dies knowing that London is freed from Norsefire Party.
Through this dramatic irony Orwell is trying to picture to the audience the selfishness of the pigs, and so criticizing the selfishness of Stalin and the leaders of the Russian Revolution. The selfishness of totalitaristic leaders is also depicted in V for Vendetta. James McTeigue draws this idea into V for Vendetta through allusions to the Nazi Party and Hitler. This allusion is established throughout the film, with direct representations, such as the close up of the Nazi flag in Gordons house and through the symbolism of the finger men logo which vaguely resembles the swastika. Allusions to Hitler are also drawn straight from Sutler himself. The rhyming of Hitler and Sutler as well as during flashbacks of
In “ V for Vendetta “ Fear became the ultimate tool of this government”. Adam Sutler is able to create a constant fear factor in the citizen’s mind by filtering everything that the media broadcasts. The attack on Old Bailey and Jordan Tower was deemed a “terrorist” act. V was labeled as a “psychotic terrorist”. The media claimed that V used explosives and weapons against unarmed civilians.
Howard Roark’s speech in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead displays the author's personal philosophy of objectivism. Objectivism is an idea that Ayn Rand had developed and promoted in her works of literature. Objectivism advocated for the rights of individual freedoms such as someone being able to do whatever that person desires with their own creations. In this case, Ayn Rand’s character Howard Roark; who had dynamited his own building . Through Rand’s persuading diction, immense detail, and powerful organization, Ayn Rand takes a stand through a fictional character to promote the idea that an individual should be able to live freely without society or the government scrutinizing him.
Rhetorical Analysis V For Vendetta The Speech Precis: The character V, in his speech to the citizens of London, suggests that words are the most powerful weapon one can possess, and the truth can be deep under the surface to reveal even greater power. He supports his claim by referencing historical events, relating himself to his audience, and even blames the people for the problems he is addressing, creating a sense of responsibility. V's purpose is to frighten, motivate, and inform the citizens so that they too will see that their world is corrupt, and cannot be tolerated any longer. He adopts a calm, yet firm tone to emphasize the gravity of what he is saying, while also trying to not act like
The setting of the film, as a whole, displays Marxist ideas of capitalism. One of the foundational themes of Marxist thought is that, within a capitalist society, there will be a distinct polarization between two classes: The ruling class (bourgeoisie), and those whom they rule over (proletariats) (Korczynski, Hodson, & Edwards, 2006, p. 33). V for Vendetta takes place in a not-so-distant future version of a dystopian England.