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Intertextual Concern In Fritz Lang's Nineteen Eighty-Four

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A comparative study of intertextual perspectives and contextual concerns in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis and George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four enhances a responder’s appreciation of the power of literature to stimulate a sustained contemplation of transcendent values. Lang’s noncommittal and artistic portrayal of the dialectic between capitalist oppression and the proletariat revolution captures his deeply ambivalent attitude towards modernity and the social fragmentation of Weimar Germany. Additionally, Orwell espouses a need for equality and freedom through the lens of 1930s totalitarianism, providing a cautionary critique of the elite’s accumulation of arbitrary power and the complete subjugation of freedom. Hence, a comparative …show more content…

The rise of Fascism in the Spanish Civil War, despite Orwell’s efforts to fight against their abuse of power, led him to adopt a pessimistic outlook on the impact of revolution. Initially, similar to Freder, Winston is compelled by a lack of freedom in his society to resist the manipulation of free thought in his repeating diary entry “down with Big Brother.” Hence, the repetition in “If you loved someone, you loved him” underscores how emotive memories of his mother, a symbol of his connection to the past, enable Winston to retain his humanity and internally rebel against the Party by rejecting their “rewritten history.” However ultimately, Winston’s rebellion is crushed and he is tortured into exclaiming “Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia!”, wherein the truncated syntax reflects his broken spirit as Orwell highlights the inability of the individual to overcome totalitarian oppression. Thus, where Lang glorifies Freder’s success through an uplifting soundtrack, Winston is reduced to a mindless adherent of the Party in the ironic ending “He loved Big Brother,” with his loss of humanity reflecting society’s defeatism after WWII. Therefore, comparing these conflicting perspectives on the power of governments to suppress the individual highlights the dynamic nature of socio-political

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She serves no purpose other than to fuel Winston’s misdirected anger— and there is a lot of anger to go around. With thoughts of “...[tying] her naked to a stake and [shooting] her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian” (Orwell 20), Julia’s presence succeeds in proving Winston’s own flaws— and apparent instability. The dystopia in which he lives has successfully worn down his rationale, leaving him a spiteful and desperate

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Having eliminated all bonds of human connection between individuals, the Party intended that ‘the sex instinct will be eradicated… neurologists shall abolish the orgasm’ where the high modal declaration depicts the frightening measures imposed by the administration to prevent revolution. Thus, the relationship between Winston and Julia serves as an outlet of instinct but is also an expression of rebellion against the status quo: ‘their embrace had been a battle… It was a political act.’   Further, the ‘glass paper weight’ motif serves as a reminder of the past, a beacon of hope but in the arrest shatters, signifying defeat to the state. Ultimately, as Winston falls short of liberation, he disintegrates into a shell of his former self: betraying Julia and becomes a mindless vehicle of the Party’s propaganda for Big Brother.

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Up until he is tortured into loving “Big Brother,” the sacrifices Winston made were all in the name of attacking “Big Brother” and him seeking freedom of thought. The risks he took, that ultimately wound him broken in the ministry of love, all were in the name of what he truly loved and cared for. In the end, the power of an “all-powerful” government was made apparent when everything Winston loved, including Julia, were sacrificed by Winston. The torture and the mental strain Winston was subjected to broke him as he devoted all of his love toward “Big Brother” and nothing else. George Orwell use of sacrifice as a tool to convey love and what character cared about not only showed the power of free-thinking but also the dangers of a totalitarian government like “Big Brother.”

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Rebellious Rage: Julia and Winston Rebel In the book, 1984 written by George Orwell, Winston and his one time lover, Julia, and partner as long with his ally, lead together into rebellion to take down Big Brother and the Party in a whole. In 1984, the government is strict and overbearing towards their citizens making them glance over their shoulders, scaring them to force them to obey. The overwhelming surveillance in 1984 leaves distrust between the supreme ruler of Oceania and their citizens. Another example of a corrupt government style leads to torture for no particular reasons, like getting information out, it’s just to change the victim's views.

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Many a literary critic claims that the strongest aspect of the book 1984 by George Orwell is its plot. Indeed, there is some merit in this conclusion, as the entire purpose of Orwell’s writing of this book was not to create a literary classic, but to warn the public about the dangers of communism if it got out of hand, and what better way to do this than to write an engaging plot? Others may claim that 1984’s greatest strength is in its character development. This aspect, too, is quite strong in the book, as not only are the minor characters effected in serving the dystopian theme, but the major characters are believable and very human in their failings. Winston’s transformation from an oppressed office worker to revolutionary and finally

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“Ballistic imaging and microstamping technologies have the potential to reduce gun violence by improving the solve rate of gun-related crimes”(Giffords Law Center). Requiring microstamping and ballistic identification for any and all firearms can help detain and detect the person responsible for any local shootings. Microstamping is a needed adjustment for all firearms. This micro adjustment will enable us to find more evidence that police cannot in crime scenes and help find and track exactly which gun fired the bullet. In a blog posted by Towne Currier he explains the reason for this certain development: “The development of this tool is because of the challenging identification of a firearm due to the multiple sources of randomness present

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Both Winston and Julia have a lot of personality that goes against the Party and Big Brother, so when their true character comes out they end up getting into trouble. Through the “characters’ actions”, in 1984, Orwell suggests individuality leads to rebellion. Winston and Julia’s actions show that their own individuality leads to rebellion. Winston and Julia’s uniqueness leads them to rebellion in George Orwell’s, 1984. The Party doesn’t allow the citizens of Oceania to think their own thoughts in fear of a rebellion against the government.

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The novel describes the journey of Winston Smith as he rebels against the Party and tries to maintain his human qualities. By creating a totalitarian government in the novel 1984, George Orwell is able to express how important humanity is to not only Winston but also

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George Orwell was an English novelist and journalist best known for his dystopian novel 1984 which was based on totalitarianism. Winston Smith, an employee in the Records Department for the Ministry of Truth and protagonist of this story, lives a life characterized by rebellion and hatred for the Party. His doubts for the Party’s actions and its control on truth begins to take a journey of discrete insurrection and the meeting of Julia, a young woman with cunning spirit and a worker at the Fiction Department. The plot rises as both of them have corresponding views on the Party; in this particular excerpt, George Orwell establishes antsy with this situation as Winston and Julia are caught by the Thought Police. Orwell’s use of repetition, details

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This also shows how willing Winston is to sacrifice himself for love, as it can end in both of them getting caught. In addition to this, one of the first times that Winston talks about Julia, he begins to feel the rebellion. “Thus, at one moment Winston’s hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police” (Orwell, 14). Publicly revolting in Oceania is extremely dangerous since there is too many telescreens watching over him. “All that they did was to keep alive in him the belief, or hope, that others besides himself were enemies of the Party” (Orwell, 17).

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Dystopian texts espouse a variety of didactic messages that depend significantly upon both the context and zeitgeist of the time in which they were created. Differences can be found when comparing the techniques and perspectives the authors have chosen to represent their contextual concerns to audiences. Together both Fritz Lang’s silent black and white film ‘Metropolis’ 1927 and George Orwell’s novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (*referred to as 1984) 1948, confront and provoke audiences to consider the impact that (abusive power + unquestionable control= insert question statement) can have not only on the characters in these two texts, but also on the cultural and political lives of the reader and viewer. By subjugating & dehumanising the lower classes, dictators are

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“Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed - no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull” (Orwell, 25). This depiction of absolute oppression by George Orwell in his novel 1984 is his idea of the future in a totalitarian dystopian world where there is no freedom, fairness and everyone is completely brainwashed. Similarly, the government in Terry Gilliams movie Brazil control and monitor their citizens, oppressing them to the point they are afraid to have a disloyal thought about their government, reminiscent of thought crime.

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The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has described the innovation process as a “back-and-forth start-and-stop model” that is “hectic, unscripted and collaborative” (OECD, 2010). Innovation does not always coincide with research and development, except in governmental situations. Looking at the political reality in the U.S. and the likelihood that there is no support for a federal cap and trade system, a carbon tax might be a possible solution which could reduce the budget deficit (McKibbin et al., 2012). One reason to prefer a carbon tax over cap and trade is to follow what was done in the European Union which passed its cap and trade system. This lead to free allocations, which essentially meant gains for those receiving windfalls, while a carbon tax avoids uncertainty.

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Living through the first half of the twentieth century, George Orwell watched the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. Fighting in Spain, he witnessed the brutalities of the fascists and Stalinists first hand. His experiences awakened him to the evils of a totalitarian government. In his novel 1984, Orwell paints a dark and pessimistic vision of the future where society is completely controlled by a totalitarian government. He uses symbolism and the character’s developments to show the nature of total power in a government and the extremes it will go through to retain that power by repressing individual freedom and the truth.

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George Orwell’s novel 1984 presents us two characters who are entirely different, but still complement each other entirely, the protagonist Winston and his love-interest Julia. Julia’s optimistic character highlights Winston’s fatalistic one. Winston believes he and Julia are compatible and can relate to each other because they share the same believes. They both detest Big Brother and want to rebel against the Party. While this is true, their similarities seem to end there.

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