Their son, Harrison, was recently taken away for attempting to overthrow the government. The television, through which Vonnegut tells the story, is representative of television’s ability to control and sedate the masses. In the beginning of the story it is seen that everyone is content with the way things are, people being forced to dumb down their natural talents, but when Harrison shows up and tells the people what they are missing out on it is realized that they are content because they never knew how to experience their without restrictions. Harrison is a symbol representing individuality in America, particularly leadership as he says “I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!” He doesn’t then tell them to take up arms against the government, but instead he has the band play music.
In Oceania the society is manipulated by the government through destroying trust of people, the creation of the thought police and the fear that lies in Room named 101. This government manipulation causes people to betray one another something which is approved by the ‘’Big brother” since it allows the discovery of any type of betrayal towards Big Brother. In the society where Winston lives the government has abolished the trust, love and bonding between family and friends, “It was my little girl, said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day.
No one can control this loss of freedom. People are born and rights and freedoms are instantly lost. Even though Aldous Huxley’s story, Brave New World and George Orwell’s story 1984 portrayed different predictions of what society could be in the future both stories shared a common loss of freedom of their people because of restrictions, the governments overstepping power, and brainwashing techniques. In both stories there was evidence of restrictions that lead to the loss of freedom of the people in their societies. One of the main pieces of evidence in George Orwell’s novel 1984 was the use of constant surveillance of their people with telescreens and spies.
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a prime example of what happens when government tries to “control man” and make a, in the government’s opinion, utopian society. Throughout the progression of “Harrison Bergeron,” one can see that trying to achieve total equality by any means is not the ideal way to attain a utopian society. Although the members of the public, for the most part, went along with what was happening it was primarily do to the handicaps that they were forced to wear. In the story the handicapper general Diana Moon-Glampers, a representation of a president or authority figure, is the main enforcer behind everyone wearing handicaps. The handicaps include chains for those who are gifted athletically, masks for those who are beautiful, and earpieces for those who are intellectually above average.
Bain and Hitler wanted to eliminate a certain group of people in each of their situations, to make their city or country better than what it currently was. In the movie The Dark Knight Rises, Bane a main villain in the film proclaims that his revolution's enemies are the rich and the corrupt, who he contends are oppressing "the people", and fooling them with myths of opportunity. By him trying to eliminate the rich and corrupt he is influencing the poor and criminals to join him in his destiny. Bane has many different public speeches, for example he has a speech that talks about “the people” running their own city and that “police will survive as they learn to serve true justice”. The speech helps create an army for Bane, people that fallow under him that want “true justice”, the poor and prisoners are an example.
Big Brother is the example of all the ideals of the totalitarian party. In compare to Big Brother, Winston Smith keeps the idea of democracy underlines freedom; he has to hide his own thought because the Big Brother's party will punish him by death if the party finds it out. George Orwell evaluates of Big Brother's society by describing it as a dark and a gloomy place. It warns that people might believe that everyone must become slaves to the government in order to have an orderly society, but at the expense of the freedom of the people The super-country of Oceania is in a constant state of war in which the novel 1984 is set in, and bomb explosions are omnipresent. The living conditions are poor – very poor – with the buildings broken-down, the food artificial and rationed out, wages poor, and clothing cheap.
He does many things to bring about the rise of the people and the fall of the tyrannical government. There are many different themes and ideas present in this movie. The main theme is totalitarianism and invasion of privacy. Although that type of government was prompted by the extreme fear of the people, as Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” . The people gave up their privacy and most of their rights in order to get what they considered safety, and this is a prominent theme in the movie.
A dystopian government is defined as being an aggressive and oppressive government that maintains order through control of all aspects of its citizen’s lives; this includes eliminating their rights to privacy. This is how the communist party of Oceania worked in George Orwell’s 1984. In 1984 the main character Winston often expresses displeasure and sometimes paranoia about the fact that he can’t say what he wants due to the dystopian dynamics of the party; “you had to live … in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, every movement scrutinized” in comparison people in a western country like Denmark where you can do what you want in your home and the rights of privacy are accepted. Because of this people see it as a basic human right, thus when said people read dystopian novels like 1984 that is as they find that it is a privilege and that they are lucky. Other than allowing people to appreciate various privileges, dystopian art and expression bear marks of a long and interesting history as it derives from the dream of creating a perfect world, also known as a utopia.
| A Clockwork Orange | Brittney Rieder | | | 12/5/2012 | | A Clockwork Orange is a portrait of how human nature reacts juxtaposed with the overarching powers that be molding its’ citizens into submission of their way of life. The loss of Alex’s free-will and its effects show the need for the capability to choose evil and that the efficient way for inmate treatment should not be the goal of the corrections system. There is also focus on the internal fight between good and evil and the power of choice in this struggle. The novel pertains to reality acting as a dystopian funhouse mirror of how the state controls society and treats the incarcerated and as a symbol of rebellion for those challenging the state. It depicts unflinchingly the battle between freedom and constraint plus society’s use of drastic means to set the deviant straight in the place of a rehabilitative program in conjunction with punishment.
The question remains, why should the government go on censoring things online trying to mold society into what it considers right? This situation is commonly found in dictatorship governments where leaders erase all opposing information to their ideology and beliefs. They also threaten their people to abide and adapt to their rules or face punishment. They give them minimum information while they seek to know everything about them. Thus, not only do they take away the right of free speech, but also the right to curiosity.