Numerous controversial ideas have played profound stepping stones in societies climb to try and create the perfect society. The vision of a perfect world through self sacrifice was exploited by the government in the novels 1984, by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. These books portray the atmosphere of that perfect world through government control. In each novel a single character is outcaste because of his refusal to conform. This refusal leads the characters to an ultimate conflict with an individual closely related to the government.
1984 Quotes + Explanations • “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Book 1, Chapter III Page 35. This slogan is a prime example as to how the party controls its citizens. By falsifying records and changing the past, Big Brother is always looked upon in a bright, angelic light. However this is a tremendous lie, and Winston is placed in a world of turmoil when he wants to uproot this lie.
Consequently, this excessive amount of censoring and perpetual revision of the past causes the memories of citizens to become vague and hazy; people become more willing to believe whatever the Party tells them. Because the Party exploits history to serve the own purposes, it uses the past to control the present and future as well (“Who controls the present, controls the past. Who controls the past, controls the future” 248). Orwell’s prophetic vision of how censorship results in a society that does not think, talk about or concerned themselves with anything other than what the government tells them. 1984 opens up awareness to help prevent future societies from becoming the horrific dystopian one in the
There is no doubt that both the book and novel versions of 1984 present us with a world that has no hope. By the end of both, Winston has not only been defeated and his wished-for revolution turned out to be a hoax, but he has become a true traitor to everything he stood for. As Winston told Julia, “"What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you that would be the real betrayal” (Orwell 166). By wishing for a terrible thing to happen to Julia instead of him, Winston stopped loving her (286)
Graphic Organizer | Introduction | What is your opinion on the topic posed? What other thoughts will you include in the opening of your opinion piece?I definitely think that the allure of power leads people to behave in poor and unethical ways. When power gets to people’s heads, they go crazy. Macbeth, the speaker in the Second Coming states that only powerful people are happy and dictatorships. | Body paragraphs (one paragraph per reason) | Three reasons why you feel that way and real-world examples or quotations for the text you will use as support: Reason 1: When Macbeth found out he had a chance at being king, he didn’t want to let anyone in his way.
The similar fear of the state's abuse of power and technology at the expense of human individuality present within these novels speaks to the relevance of these novels within their historical context and their usefulness for awakening people to the horrendous consequences of their ignorance. Eventually all the alienated characters come before some prophesising hand of the government who is ready to rationalize the right and duty of the government to possess such control over its people. In 1984 this is during the torture of Winston for his crime of not loving Big Brother. Orwell then reveals the horrors of an advanced dystopia through O’Brien such as the death of the individual, "Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind.
The government, just like the wealthy and rich, was so power hungry that they disregarded the people’s kind acts and defaced them as if they were animals. The people come first in society. Unlike back then, today is a whole different story. The president of the United States would not try to rip off the American people or disregard them in any way because of the fact that it was completely unconstitutional. The Obama Administration tried its best to benefit the people and help them in ways that were never thought possible.
The Burning Truth Fire! It is hard to believe firemen start fires rather than putting them out. Yet that is what happens in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. Dehumanization takes place as the advancements in technology make people less emotional and less capable of independent thought. This is exactly what the totalitarian government, in Bradbury’s Novel, wants for their mindless society.
Therefore, the US created unconditional terms of surrender, knowingly going against the Japanese ethic of honour and against the institute of the emperor, whom most Americans probably wanted dead. Consequently, the use of the atomic bomb became a way to avenge America's fallen soldiers while also keeping the USSR in check in Europe. The Japanese civilian casualties did not matter in this strategy. Also, it did not prevent the Cold War, as the USSR was just a few years behind on a-bomb research. At the time, revenge, geopolitics and an expensive project that could not be allowed to simply rust away, meant the atomic bomb had to be hastily deployed “in the field” in order to see its power and aftermath – though little was known about radiation and its effects on humans.
Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed" (Orwell, 256). Having the citizen direct their hate everyday for two minutes at a nation in war, helps keep them distracted and blind to the Party's ability to keep them oppressed. "Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of torture is torture.