In both Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell, as well as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the authors employ similar methods for leadership to keep their respective fictional societies, in check. Orwell creates the socialist society of Oceania and the main character and protagonist, Winston Smith, to highlight authoritarian injustices perpetrated by the leadership of his tyrannical government. Similarly, Atwood creates a society named the Republic of Gilead, and the main character and protagonist, Offred, to explore the loss of civil liberties under a misogynistic, autocratic theocracy. In both dystopian novels, however, government maintains its power in similar ways. For example, the leadership in both Orwell’s and Atwater’s societies,
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In the Orwellian society of Oceania, those who are caught by the Thought Police are tortured into not only repentance, but a complete ideological change through re-education, and utter submission to the Party. Winston explains his prison experience saying, “How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had continued, he could not remember. Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, and sometimes it was boots” (Orwell, 240). Completely inhumane torture tactics were implemented in Oceania to both scare people into political submission, and to erase through brainwashing, any illegal information obtained by the criminal. Alternatively, the punishment for women obtaining illegal information in Gilean, takes the form of Salvagings, or public executions, striking fear in the hearts of the female population. Offred describes these gruesome scenes, when she says, “The three bodies hang there, even with the white sacks over their heads looking curiously stretched, like chickens strung up by the necks in a meat shop window; like birds with their wings clipped, like flightless birds, wrecked angels.” (Atwater, 180). Thus, although the consequences of citizens’ obtaining illegal information differ between the two novels, both governments use extreme fear tactics to motivate their populations to submit to their will.
These two horrifying dystopian societies shed light on the dangers of totalitarian rule. Such governments violate all civil liberties to perpetuate their power. While the two novels vary in the specific treatment of their victimized populations, the author’s share a common warning about the potential inhumanity of
In the Orwellian society of Oceania, those who are caught by the Thought Police are tortured into not only repentance, but a complete ideological change through re-education, and utter submission to the Party. Winston explains his prison experience saying, “How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had continued, he could not remember. Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, and sometimes it was boots” (Orwell, 240). Completely inhumane torture tactics were implemented in Oceania to both scare people into political submission, and to erase through brainwashing, any illegal information obtained by the criminal. Alternatively, the punishment for women obtaining illegal information in Gilean, takes the form of Salvagings, or public executions, striking fear in the hearts of the female population. Offred describes these gruesome scenes, when she says, “The three bodies hang there, even with the white sacks over their heads looking curiously stretched, like chickens strung up by the necks in a meat shop window; like birds with their wings clipped, like flightless birds, wrecked angels.” (Atwater, 180). Thus, although the consequences of citizens’ obtaining illegal information differ between the two novels, both governments use extreme fear tactics to motivate their populations to submit to their will.
These two horrifying dystopian societies shed light on the dangers of totalitarian rule. Such governments violate all civil liberties to perpetuate their power. While the two novels vary in the specific treatment of their victimized populations, the author’s share a common warning about the potential inhumanity of