Similarities Between 1984 And The Anthem

Midterm Essay 1984 by George Orwell and The Anthem by Ayn Rand are both novels about people who live under a totalitarian regime and who go against their governments. In 1984, Winston Smith works for his government’s media outlet. He reads books, articles, magazines, and anything they tell him to and then translates them into a new, more limiting, language for the people to read. He gets caught going against the government and is tortured until he changes and agrees with the Party. In The Anthem, Equality 7-2521 lives under a government that makes every single person equal. They all love work and each other equally. They are forced to use the words “we” and “they” instead of “I” and “he” or “she,” respectively so that their thoughts are always

They created a new language called Newspeak that doesn’t have words that allow people to express their thoughts, or even have thoughts that go against the party. Words and ideas like revolution don’t even exist in the society. They use fear by putting two-way televisions everywhere so they can permanently watch everybody. Even if they aren’t watching, people are behaving because they don’t know if someone is watching or not and they are afraid of what will happen if someone sees them breaking a rule. When someone thinks or does something that goes against the regime, the Party takes them in a prison and tortures them until they change or sometimes just kills them. They aren’t afraid to use force in order to keep their power. The Party also uses a common enemy. There is someone named Emmanuel Goldstein who supposedly wrote a book trashing the Party and everybody hates him. The Party plays a TV show every day called Two Minutes’ Hate where Emmanuel is talking and everybody is booing and collectively hating him. The Party also tells the people that they are at war with one of the two other major civilizations. These things keep the people in line so the government can have

They use language by removing words like “I” and “he” and “she” so people are forced to think of every person the same, including themselves. By taking “I” out of their vocabulary, the government makes their society a collectivist society. A collectivist society is one where everybody gives up their own personal rights and freedoms in exchange for a better society and government as a whole. The people are always thinking about “we,” meaning everybody, which shows that they have given up their freedoms already. Because of this, everybody is equally friends with everybody and treating anyone differently is a sin called the Transgression of Preference. Everybody loves their jobs, and nobody can do things alone. The Scholars threatened to destroy Equality and his invention, the light bulb, just because he worked alone on it. They also use history to keep their control. They burned countless books so that people wouldn’t be able to read and find out about the past. Finally, they use force. Once, a person discovered the word “I.” They called him The Transgressor and he was burned alive for discovering the