Alan Moore's V For Vendetta

Alan Moore’s “V for Vendetta” represents a dystopian future where most of the world has been destroyed by nuclear war. Moore’s view of the world is black and white and he argues that anarchy is the only way everyone can be truly free. In the novel, the Norsefire fascist government lead by Adam Susan, keeps Britain safe by censoring and heavily surveilling its citizens. The message of the novel is that we must always strive for freedom even if said freedom is dangerous.

One of the primary themes found in the novel is freedom versus control, however, at the heart of the narrative lies is the importance of accountability on the part of the individual, and in an over-arching scope, on the part of the entire population. Freedom is easy when it

The most prominent example is the idea of the last inch of oneself referenced in Valerie’s letter. That last inch of you, as presented by the novel, means the power over oneself and over trying circumstances. People can use force to take from you almost anything; they can take your possessions, or they can kill you or your loved ones. But the last part of you, your ideals and your values, cannot be taken; only you can give them up in the face of adversity. It is this last inch that matters, it must be fought for no matter the cost, and once given, is gone forever. That image speaks to the larger message of the

One thing it represents is anarchy. V’s distinctive symbol, a V within a circle, often appears defacing party property, and accompanies a deliberate act of defiance by V. It also bears a great resemblance to the symbol for anarchy, only upside down. Later in the novel, after V compromises Norsefire’s ability to monitor their constituents, a little girl is shown graffiti tagging a wall with the symbol; a visual metaphor for the public’s decent into anarchy.

The V also represents epiphany, transformation, and self-actualization. Several characters, when they reach a new understanding about themselves or the world around them, raise their arms to the sky, forming a V shape. This occurs when Finch comes to understand the power he has over his own life, and as Evey takes on the mantle of V.

V’s mask represents a few things. On one level, it represents the concept of identity vs. the ideal. We never see V’s true face, and he instead adopts the mask as his true identity, abandoning the flesh and blood person underneath and becoming something bigger. V’s true identity is never revealed because it doesn’t matter who he turned out to be - he represents a greater ideal, and abandoning his individual identity underneath the mask is the embodiment of