Fahrenheit 451 And Animal Farm

Dystopian literature refers to a genre of fictional writing used to make a criticism about a trend, societal norm, or political system through a distorted worst-case scenario. Three examples of this genre include Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg, and Animal Farm written by George Orwell. Fahrenheit 451 revolves around a society in which books are banned and the effects this law has on society. They keep this law intact through the use of firemen, hired to report to where books are found and burn them all and the novel starts as one of the firemen begins his journey through finding the truth of society. The film Minority Report holds the idea of an institution, Precrime, which can predict crime before

This becomes evident in Fahrenheit 451 as Montag, the dystopian protagonist of the novel, thinks “Of course I’m happy. What does she think. I’m not?” (Bradbury 8). This alaming thought comes to Montag, a firemen who enforces burning books, as his next door neighbor asks if he is happy. This idea, the idea of him not truly being happy upsets him, he insists he is obviously happy. However, this realization only pushes him to discover the horrible realities of society and that he was never truly happy. In relation to Minority Report, in Precrime advertisements it is also said that with zero crime in society, the city is a perfect and organized place (Spielberg). With this idea of a perfect world in mind, who could protest? Along with this being the only information in mind, Precrime is favorable among citizens as they are not aware of the harmful aspects that go with it. Similarly, this idea is displayed in Animal Farm as, “the animals found it comforting to be reminded that, after all, they were truly their own masters and that the work they did was for their own benefit” (Orwell 116). The animals were reminded of this through what Napoleon called “Spontaneous Demonstrations''. They were times in which animals had to stop work and walk around the farm reflecting on and celebrating previous accomplishments that got them to where

As demonstrated in Fahrenheit 451, when Montag mentions his neighbor to Beatty, he responds “We’ve a record on her family. We’ve watched them carefully” (Bradbury 57). In saying this, Beatty reveals the leaders of society do in fact keep records of citizens and watch them. Surveillance is often enforced in dystopian communities as governments or leaders must be weary of the upkeep of laws and restrictions. It is a very strong method of control and allows for them to be aware of everything happening. For Minority Report surveillance is seen throughout the movie, specifically when it is shown that Precrime workers are able to play the visions of the crimes over and over again and see everything the victim does. This displays surveillance as if they are invading their space when they’ve really done nothing wrong. In a society where the government knows and controls your every move, citizens are never truly free. Additionally, in Animal Farm as the animals do their work, “... the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters” (Orwell 135). In this example it’s clear that there is surveillance happening as the pigs overlook the working animals. As they hold whips and walk on their hind legs they resemble that of their previous abusive owner and place fear in the minds of the