How do Orwell and Attwood experiment with dystopian ingredients to reflect developing fears of modern societies? Both George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale prove to be forewarnings of future societies run by totalitarian governments; where civilians are forced to live by their rules and for certain purposes to ensure the governments own goals and aspirations; however, both authors have differentiated dystopian features, or ingredients, to create governments for very different reasons. George Orwell, a middle-class scholar from England, lived in a society where class was almost everything, war had ripped apart the economy and social values were changing; he used the ideas of communism and other fascist regimes of the recent WW2 to implement a dystopia filled with control and suspicion, technological advances, censorship and war, much like the Nazi regime or Soviet Russia, thus reflecting his fear of totalitarianism and one party states who control their countries totally and absolutely. Atwood, of a later generation, grew up reading Orwell’s novels and inspired by them, wrote novels such as The Handmaid’s Tale in order to convey a feminist view of society through a dystopia, interweaving political ideas and sexuality, to forewarn of the effects of unjust governments and namely, the religious fundamentalists in America at the time. Even now these novels can be related to our own modern society, with political reforms in Libya for example.
It is the universal whore, the pander between men and peoples.’ Karl Marx, ‘the economic and philosophical manuscripts’ (1844). This is saying that money makes society function, it not only binds us together, but separates those who have it and those who don’t. - The issue of storytelling, how stories are received, who they serve, is an important theme in Othello - Individuals create stories about themselves to establish an identity  sometimes our stories are imposed on us - Othello states he ‘Saw the handkerchief’ (Act 5, Sc2, Ln66), but what he really saw was a mute fact – facts are meaningless until placed into context – Othello used the wrong story to interpret what he saw. He takes Iago’s lies as facts, believes everything else - Marxism emphasizes the link between power  storytelling  economics. Eg.
Finally, a cartoon about the Occupy Wall Street movement describes how the truth can mislead and warp meaning, thus creating perspectives that generate diverse and provocative insights. The role reputation plays is an idea that influences perceptions relevant to conflicting perspectives. In The Justice Game, Robertson accentuates his own perspective by juxtaposing the more progressive attitudes of his side of the case. Sarcastically, Robertson writes, referring to Judge Michael Argyle’s “novel campaign to end burglary by sentencing burglars to prison for life.”The word ‘novel’ provides sarcasm from the beginning, by discrediting Judge Michael Argyle QC, and pointing out that Argyle is a failed politician, ‘whose judgeship was a career consolation for the Tory MP he had tried several times to become’. Hence, Robertson’s perceptions influence the readers’ mind, which is exactly what he wants, and he continues to sway the reader’s perspective.
The writer of this article talks about how the basement isn’t just a hiding place for a Jew or a refuge to learn but it is a place to rebel against authority when Max transforms it into a setting for creative/political activity by painting over Hitler’s Mein Kampf erasing Hitler’s authority and becoming his own authority. Maslin, Janet. “Stealing to Settle a Score with Life.” New York Times, Published by Janet Maslin, Monday 27 March 2006. Wednesday 30 April 2014. This article is a review on the book itself; however the article also talks about important points involving the main character Liesel Meminger “the book thief” and how they dealt with life during the war.
Shinsky1 Chloe N. Shinsky Mrs. Graham Honor’s English 6 February 2012 East and West: The Eggs in The Great Gatsby As the authors of many novels do, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses contrasting locations to denote forces that are essential to the meaning of his work, The Great Gatsby, an American novel. East Egg and West Egg are used to signify contradicting elements that assist the author in conveying the meaning of the story; society’s moral decay resulting from the possession of vast amounts of money (wealth) or the greedy desire for more money. These two locations are used not only to characterize this aspect of 1920’s American society but are also used to correspond to the types of characters encountered. East Egg and West Egg are "…identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay…” (1:9). But East Egg differs from West Egg because the people dwelling on East Egg have a
Atwood, Kesey and Plath reflect the balances and imbalances of power in contemporary history, each producing works which became symbols of rebellion against conformity. Keasy’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest has been depicted as ‘holey successful as an indictment of modern society ’. The reciprocally dependent bond between power and resistance in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest reflect the progressive nature of the late 1950’s. Keasy’s novel demonstrates as a reflection upon his time working with mental patients, it serves as a critique of
The Intro of the essay asserts the notion that the English language has been disfigured by the human race and is on the residual decline as a resultant. Mr. Orwell attributes this downfall to politics and economic causes but goes on to outline his remedy to correct what he refers to as a “reversible” process. George Orwell goes on to cite passages from several prominent essays and articles, concluding on the similarities in their staleness of imagery and lack of precision. He criticizes the passages, stating that the incompetence and vagueness of such political writings desecrates correct English prose- construction. DYING METAPHORS.
Challenging Gender Audacious, bold, offensive, daring, fearless, irrational, asinine—so many adjectives one may use to describe the proposals of The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. In these great works, typical gender roles restrain characters from achieving peace within their lives, and characters are only able to progress and achieve happiness when they act as the opposite gender; in doing so, the characters illustrate the authors’ desires for a reversal of gender roles within society. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of America as a whole during the Great Depression by following the journey of the Joad family from Oklahoma to California. Chasing the American Dream,
In Cannery Row, through the plot and style of writing, Steinbeck trys to show the world his ideals of a so called “realistic utopia” by expressing his beliefs of mankind and their inner workings, expressing the darker sides of the town to question this “utopia”, and describing bits and pieces of the town seemingly irreverent to the plot to keep the image of the town unartificial. Steinbeck’s analysis of this realistic utopian society is very subtle. He is constantly making different conundrums in the human character then seeing if a particular personality will work well with society. For example: The whore woman, Dora, with a heart of gold. Now and days when the word whore comes to mind, we do not instantly think of her personality or personal values.
She is commenting on the failures of science to neglect their power. She comments on those in power who have had privileged lives as people who are lucky, compared to those who are not. Shelly tries to push the concept of people being conducive to their environments, using the creature as a scapegoat, “I am malicious because I am miserable”. Shelly again uses the technique of alliteration, in this case m, which has a personal and melancholic connotation, to emphasise the state that the creature is in. Shelly shows that aesthetics, intelligence, happiness and sadness are all conducive to the person’s context.