Anthem Propaganda And When The Sleeper Wakes

This not only destroys the history records like in 1984 but also destroys the literary works of philosophers and authors so that there is nothing left to challenge the beliefs of the government. The burning of books also has a similar effect to the newspeak from 1984. The eradication of literature takes away the complex, deep thoughts of individuals. Another reason for destroying books is that people do not like to envy those who have read more than them. The job of a fireman is to destroy books and promote ignorance in order to create equality. In fact, Beatty, a fireman says that “the word ‘intellectual’ …became the swear word it deserved to be”. Instead of books, citizens entertain themselves with the seashell radios attached to their ears

These babble machines spread news and keep the citizens under control. “The black police hold every position of importance in the city…once or twice they got out of hand and tortured and mutilated wounded and captured insurgents.” This message shows how the babble machines are used to create fear amongst the people. It communicates how any resistance against the council is pointless. This is an attempt to suppress any further uprisings against the council. In Anthem propaganda is used to equalise everyone like in Fahrenheit 451. The society believes that everyone lives and works for the benefit of everyone else. Collective pronouns like “we”, “our”, “they” are used in the place of “I”, “my” and “he” so that the idea of individualism does not exist within the society. They are forced to believe that they are nothing more than a minor and an insignificant part of a whole. Even their names reflect this as everyone is identified with collective nouns like “Democracy”, “Liberty” and “Solidarity” followed by numbers like in the name “Equality

In 1984, all marriages need to be approved by the Party. Couples are not permitted to show sexual desire or strong emotions towards each other. There is a group called the Junior Anti-Sex League who aim to deprive citizens of sexuality by promoting artificial insemination. They believe the sole purpose of sex is for procreation, not pleasure and that it is their “duty to the State”. Julia explains, “when you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you’re happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother?”. Besides having their sexual needs suppressed, family bonds are annihilated. Children become an extension of the secret police and are encouraged to spy on their parents. Winston calls them “little savages” who “were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations.”. The Party has realised how dangerous the natural instinct of parenthood and love is to their society and aims to ensure that citizens feel loyalty only to Big Brother. In a similar way, the couples in Anthem are matched by the Council of Eugenics. They are only