In his novel, 1984,
George Orwell writes about a dystopian society in which the people live
under a totalitarian system under constant oppression, war and an almost
omnipresent, omnipotent government ruled by someone simply known as Big
Brother, in which the minimum disobedience or the slightest aspect of
individuality could lead to serious or even deadly consequences. However, the
majority of these people seem to be fine with this totalitarian, tyrannical
rule and somehow they even like or enjoy living under this way and they even
admire Big Brother, or rather, they love Big Brother. How could that even be
possible? The answer to that is simply manipulation and control. But what kind
of manipulation does Orwell deal with? And how is it possible to overcome that
manipulation? The answer, lies in V for
Vendetta.
Manipulation
through history
and propaganda
As we know, the main character of the novel, Winston
Smith, works in the Ministry of Truth that is in charge of manipulating,
changing or even destroying historical records of any kind in order to make the
people believe whatever they want them to believe. For example, at the
beginning of the novel we can see that there is a conflict among the three
great nations: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia. We are aware at the beginning
that Oceania and Eastasia are in a conflict against Eurasia, but at the last
third of the novel we see a change and suddenly the conflict is between Oceania
against Eastasia, the nation that was once an ally, now is an enemy and
everyone would believe that the conflict has been like that forever, they would
completely forget that just yesterday Eastasia was an ally, because they would
have no reason to ever doubt what the Party says.
Oceania was at war with Eastasia:
Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. A large part of the political
literature of five years was now completely obsolete. Reports and records of
all kinds, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks, photographs--all
had to be rectified at lightning speed. Although no directive was ever issued,
it was known that the chiefs of the Department intended that within one week no
reference to the war with Eurasia, or the alliance with Eastasia, should remain
in existence anywhere
1984, p. 149.
We see how the Party changes the history in the way
they want to, they can perfectly say one thing and change it completely the
other day and people will believe them no matter what. We also know that the
Party doesn’t allow any kind of individuality, which includes the fact that
people are not even allowed to have photographs that they could use to remember
the past. The party has such power that they can alter the past however they
want to and by doing that they can justify their actions in the present. Another
interesting aspect is when we see Winston dealing with this kind of change, even
though he initially works for the Ministry of Truth and he practically knows
how this system works he ends up succumbing to what the Party tells him because
he starts to doubt about his own thoughts, he starts to think that maybe the
Party is right. It is also interesting to see how propaganda is also used to
control in a more subtle, but effective way trough the posters of Big Brother
or the Two minutes hate which made the people to look up for the Party as the
ones who will always be right and the ones that would protect them.
The language
One of the most interesting methods of manipulation in
1984 was how the Party uses language
itself to control and limit people’s thought. This language is known as
Newspeak and basically consists in the elimination of “unnecessary words”.
In your heart you'd prefer to stick to
Oldspeak, with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don't
grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the
only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?
1984, p. 43.
The Party uses this method of eliminating words every
now and then, because language is an incredible powerful tool, language is what
allows us to think, and to express, and by eliminating words, they eliminating
thoughts too; or rather, thoughts become limited. The Party would simply
eliminate any word that could lead to any kind of independent and rebellious
though to make the people more obedient and more dependent of them. Orwell
(1946) talks about this topic and how language is in a bad way:
I have not here been considering the literary
use of language, but merely language as an instrument for expressing and not
for concealing or preventing thought. Stuart Chase and others have come near to
claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext
for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don't know what Fascism
is, how can you struggle against Fascism? One need not swallow such absurdities
as this, but one ought to recognize that the present political chaos is
connected with the decay of language, […]. If you simplify your English, you
are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the
necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be
obvious, even to yourself. (p. 8)
We can relate what Orwell said to the book itself. In
order to face the Party the people needs language to express what they feel, to
express what is wrong with it, but if they don’t know such words, then how can
they fight back?
Fear, oppression and individuality
One thing that 1984
and V
for Vendetta have in common is the
use of fear and oppresion as tools to keep the people controlled. One of the
ways to do that is through the use of cameras positioned in different locations
with the excuse that they were being used to protect the people, but in reality
they were using to watch over the population, to make sure that were not be
able to even think about something that goes against their ideologies. All of
this fear produces the nations of both novels to become obedient, they won’t dissobey
their governments by any means because they know that if they do they will come
for them; and worst of all, they will believe that the only person to blame is
themselves, because they will believe that the nation is doing the right thing.
'Who denounced you?' said Winston.
'It was my little daughter,' 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. Pretty
smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In
fact I'm proud of her. It shows I brought her up in the right spirit,
anyway.'
1984, p. 190.
The aggresivenes of the nation, not
only produces fear in the eyes of the population, but at the same time it works
as an intrument to show to the people the power of the nation, and with power
it comes admiration. The population, even though they fear the government, also
admire it, because the nation is strong, the nation is all powerful, nobody can
go against the nation, they are always right, the people are wrong. And so, by
this train of thought, it becomes easier for the nation to manipulate the
people and here is when one of the most important aspects of both stories come
into play and that is how both governments want to get ride of individuality
and culture in order to make the population not even dare to think by
themselves. They must be like sheeps following their shepherds, up to the point
in which both governments erradicate everything that could interfere with their
desires.
All of these paintings and books. I didn’t even know there were things
like this.
You couldn’t be expected to know. They have eradicated culture…tossed it
away like a fistful of dead roses…
All the books, all the films…all the music…
V for Vendetta #01, p. 12.
Individuality is a powerful thing, is what allows us
to distinguish ourselves from others. But reaching individuality can be
complicated. If we look social networks such as Facebook we see a lot of people
claiming to be “unique and special” but by doing that they are just being equal
to other people and in 1984 the
individuality that Winston and Julia try to reach is actually a well organized
plot devised by the Party to actually make them like other people who tried to
go against the nation. Rooney (n.d.) mentions the following:
The increasingly mocking repetition
of Winston’s
privately uttered words (and of his
inner thoughts) conveys the
idea that, rather than being a safe
haven for the autonomous
self, an individual’s mind can be
breached and controlled by the
Party. An even darker possibility
emerges—that Winston’s
dream of rebellion is neither
original nor voluntary but has been
planted there all along by the
Party. If so, then all assumptions
about freedom and individuality to
which Winston (and the
typical ‘Western’ and ‘middle-class’
reader of novels) adheres
are suddenly made to appear no more than vain
delusions. (p. 73-74)
We can
clearly see that individuality in 1984
is just a mere illusion; something that can’t be really reached while the Party
keeps his eyes on us and something that will be impossible to reach if we
continue being part of the party. But being separated from the government can
be terrifying, because the people of 1984
and V for Vendetta have been
living under its rule their whole life. They don’t know other way of living and
who can blame them? Change their living style so suddenly is a horrific
thought, they will feel like they are losing some part of themselves. But here
is when V for Vendetta makes his
move, in the moment when Evey is being menaced to be killed, she accepts it because
there is nothing else that she has to loose, and that is the moment of
revelation, that is the moment when she can become free of the control of the
government, she has become free of the prison that is the government.
But just one person isn’t enough, at least not in 1984, Winston by himself is helpless and
even if he manages to reach individuality; and therefore, freedom, it wouldn’t
be enough, but what if the Proles also realized about that. The government wouldn’t
be capable of facing that, because once the people notice that there is no
reason to fear the Party anymore, that there is nothing to lose. That’s when
the Party will lose all their power.
'If there is hope,' wrote Winston, 'it
lies in the proles.' If there was hope, it MUST lie in the proles, because only
there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of
Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated.[…] But the
proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength. They
would have no need to conspire.
1984, p. 57
References
Gray, K. (2014). V for Vendetta
Revised Essay. Retrieved from
https://kristophergray291.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/v-for-vendetta-revised-essay/
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario