Similarities Between 1984 And Ella Minnow Pea

When works of literature deal with social and political issues, they use different means to portray a message. The dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell, explores political issues while presenting the reader with a warning of dangers as a result of totalitarianism government. In contrast, the utopian novel, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn presents the reader with political issues such as abuse of power within a totalitarianism through a juvenalian satirical tone. While both Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn and 1984 by George Orwell focus on political issues by utilizing powerful literary elements to depict the author’s message, 1984 develops a more effective portrayal of the message through the use of powerful diction, development of significant characters,

The diction that is found in 1984 is quite more profound and resonating than Ella Minnow Pea. Orwell introduces the setting by exposing that “Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold...there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black moustachio’d face glazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own” (Orwell 2). Using words such as “cold”, “glazed”, “dark”, and “deep”, created the sense of oppression early on in the novel to succumb the reader to the setting throughout the rest of the book. Also, by putting “big brother is watching you” in all caps gives a tone/sense of emphasis to the reader to deepen the affect. In Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn revolves his novel around this pangram produced by Nollop and the loss of letters within in on the statue which limits him later on in the novel. In the beginning, Ella mentions in her letter about “How different the world would be today if not the sentence which lexically gifted Mr. Nollop issued forth! How we cherish his contribution to the English-speaking world of one short sentence that employs with minimal repetition each of the twenty-six letters of our alphabet!” (Dunn 5). By using such words as

These three aspects of powerful diction, effective character development, and compelling symbols allow for each novel to be compared and contrasted as to which one portrays a message more effectively. While they both are similar by creating messages against totalitarianism and the plots presented, 1984 still essentially turns out to be more effective. Collectively, the differences between the novels do not dissipate the significance of effective writing, instead they emphasize it. Though they both take different approaches to display similar messages, the important take away is that some novels may portray similar ideologies but how the author strategizes to do so is what makes the message more