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The Man In The High Castle And 1984 Comparison Essay

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The Man in The High Castle written by Philip K. Dick and 1984 written by George Orwell are two well known dystopian books that investigates the dangers of totalitarianism and authoritarian control. Both books take place in a society full of mayhem, where freedom and individuality is forbidden and the government exerts complete control over its citizens. The two stories differ in the way that they portray the government, the technology they use to control the populace, and the attitudes of the central characters. In The Man In The High Castle, the author anticipates a future in which the Axis forces won World War II, splitting the United States into two parts: the Japanese-controlled West Coast and the Nazi-controlled East Coast, with a neutral …show more content…

The government keeps individuals under observation using surveillance cameras and radio broadcasts. To further assert control over the public, the government also deploys a group of enforcers known as the Kempeitai, “We do not have the ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy. Where one can do right with no effort because he can detect the obvious” (Dick, 260). This excerpt explains how the population is manipulated by the government. The citizens know that they do not live in an ideal world, but are yet unable to change it. Tagomi, Trade Minister of the Japanese Pacific States, has strongly negative feelings towards his government, and begins to question his own reality and societal role, “We're blind moles. Creeping through the soil, feeling with our snoots. We know nothing. I perceived this... now I don't know where to go. Screech with fear, only. …show more content…

The main characters' attitudes towards the repressive governments they live under varies between the two novels. The characters in The Man in the High Castle are in constant quarrel with the authorities. Juliana Frink is dedicated to fighting for her independence, and joins a resistance organization. The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is a book (in-universe) which portrays an alternate reality in which the Axis powers are overthrown and defeated. Frink is eager to find the elusive author, known only as ‘the man in the high castle.’ In contrast to Juliana, Robert Childan continuously struggles with his feelings and emotions for the Japanese throughout the novel. He is torn between disliking them, because he must obey, and idolizing their absolute power, “Life is short, he thought. Art, or something not life, is long, stretching out endless, like a concrete worm. Flat, white, unsmoothed by any passage over or across it. Here I stand. But no longer. Taking the small box, he put the Edfrank Jewelry piece away in his coat pocket” (183). Childan is pushed over the edge when Paul, a client of his, unintentionally offends him by joking that the Edfrank Jewelry might be mass-produced and offered for sale as a lucky charm. Robert demands an apology from Paul for implying that American art is only useful for copying, which is a sharp departure from his customary

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Jeanne never sees the battle fronts or the policy changes, all she sees are the results they have on her everyday life. She deals with the racist undertones formed by the anti-japanese war propaganda. While in the camp she fears she will just be beaten and despised once outside, but this does not happen. Instead she faces the minute racism that is the most common form of bigotry. Jeanne faces this racism from not only students but teachers and strangers.

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Like many children her age, the girl in Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor was Divine had the opportunity to attend a “summer camp.” However, the camps that the girl and her family endured were not like traditional summer getaways but instead state-sponsored prisons designed to keep the populace “safe.” Instead of enjoying the water slides and rope swings that other children her age got to experience, the girl struggled with establishing an identity that fit with the rest of her society. With her use of neutral tone and language, Julie Otsuka explores the creation of the cultural identity that is established by the Japanese-American people as they are confined in Concentration camps designed to keep the nation safe. Pulled from their homes,

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In the Novel, Farewell to Manzanar By Jeanne Wakatsuki & James D. Houston, the novel describes the experiences of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her families experience at the United States government internment camp, before, during, and after their lives in Manzanar internment camp. Throughout the novel, it explores many different types of hatred towards Japanese Americans during this time period. This paper will talk about the different forms of hatred depicted in Farewell to Manzanar and the actions of the United States conducted toward Japanese Americans. Before the war, immigrants from Japan came to the United States to find work and provide a better future for their families in the States.

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The movie, The Village, and the novel 1984 provides new insight and connections on a “utopian” society. Both are very similar to each other in a way that their utopian society has many flaws. 1984 is about a rebellion against an iron-fisted totalitarian government while The Village is about an attempt to protect the innocence of people. In these societies, the leaders lie in order to try and achieve a utopian world. Both societies have different purposes to control the people through fear, but despite their attempts to create a utopian society, they were only successful to a certain extent.

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His father was taken away in the middle of the night for something he didn’t do. The boy watched as his father left with only a bathrobe and slippers on as he was denied his dignity and stripped of his humanity. This occurred in Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine, a book that depicts a family of Japanese Americans that were torn apart and sent to an internment camp. They experienced prejudice and racism while living in conditions that weren’t fit for thriving. This book represents the thousands of Japanese Americans that suffered during World War II because of the fear that stemmed from the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan.

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Part III, The War in Japanese Eyes, allows the reader to receive a Japanese perspective and also grasp how devastating the results of war were. Chapter 8, “The Pure Self,” Dower explains the Japanese traditions and culture, along with the humiliation and discrimination the Japanese received. The Japanese believed their culture was unique, and spent this period of time during the war focusing on themselves and their race. Whereas yellow was the color of illness and treason and the Japanese were usually referred to as yellow, the color white symbolized purity which stood for the American race. On the contrary, the Americans were also known as demonic.

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The novel 1984 by George Orwell and the movie V for Vendetta are both dystopian themed works of fiction. Both depicted the dangers of a totalitarian type of regime and the horrors that come along with it. In 1984, Winston Smith the main character, lived in a poverty-stricken country called Oceania wherein the government controls all aspect of the people 's lives. On the contrary, in the movie V for Vendetta, the main characters named V was a vigilante who sought to overthrow the totalitarian government of London. He met a girl named Evey Hammond, who just like Winston Smith in 1984, was stuck in a country ruled by despotism.

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In 1984, somebody could not go as far as thinking for themselves and one’s inner thoughts were even said to be a crime, a “thoughtcrime.” Big Brother is everywhere in 1984, the regime has cameras, audio recorders, the youth reporting on adults, thought police, etc. The government knows, hears, and sees all that is happening in its society. In Fahrenheit 451, the government does not allow any of the people to read or write books because that is the expression of one’s individualism or self beliefs. The government controls how people think and perceive things through the television they watch, and if found with a book or anything in that nature, they will burn it and sometimes maybe even the person involved in

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The Man In The High Castle takes a different approach, showing rebels fighting the new ruling government (Nazi Germany as well as The Empire Of Japan) as well as some people who forcefully put into challenging positions trying to decide between their past lives or one that could bring the United States back to its former glory. Both of these books show the government of the United States of America being taken over by new governments and follow the lives of people before and after the new ruling governments while also showing what they will do to fight or simply conform to the new standards of living given by the new societies. I think Margaret Atwood borrowed a lot of ideas from Man In The High Castle like, new governments being put

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In the united states today the government has so much power than what people may think. They have control over innocent citizens. The kind of power the government has over us has gotten to a limit where now they know where we are at and all of our private information safe on our cell phones. George Orwell’s novel 1984 gives a great example of how the government controls the people. In the novel they tell us about the government from Oceania, and how they control every single second of the citizens’ lives.

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Comparisons between the world that Orwell described and current world activities can be made. The novel 1984 depicts a totalitarianistic government which can be related to historical events such as World War II, and to events that are currently happening today such as the NSA and the spying incidents that occurred in the United States. The novel of 1984 displays themes of totalitarianism. One example directly from the novel 1984 is this quote written by the author George Orwell; “Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere.

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