Technology In Dystopian Literature

This is first shown when Hazel states she believes she would make a good Handicapper General, George responds to her by saying she’d be “Good as anybody else,” due to the fact that nobody can be better than anybody at anything. This is especially prejudicial against politicians because they will not be able to have progressive ideas. If everyone who runs for office must wear handicaps that forces them to be the same as everybody else in the nation it forces a state of stagnation of ideas for the country. Another example of the culmination of positive change is presented during a conversation between Hazel and George. George compares competition to the dark ages by saying “If I tried to get away with it, then other people'd get away with it—and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else.

How Powerful is Knowledge? As once said by Francis Bacon, “knowledge is power”. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, Montag finds out the power that comes with knowledge. Montag receives knowledge, which causes him to question everything he knows, from his happiness to everyone around him. He realizes that virtually the entire population is ignorant and just think that books are a kind of poison.

Although other critics may see that V for Vendetta is a simple film with an action-filled plot, it most definitely fits into the dystopian genre, which can be recognized by the restriction of individuality, the constant surveillance of the citizens, and finally the citizen’s fear of the outside world. One of the key dystopian elements shown throughout the film is the limitation of independence and freedom. The leader of the country Adam Sutler recognizes his power over the whole country after seeing the fireworks that blew up the Old Bailey: “Without control, man is nothing more than any other stinking, sweating, brute animal.” With this, the government leader of the nation believes in totalitarian control over the citizens, which leads to the constraint of the citizen’s individual thoughts and eliminates

As Harry Browne once said, “Since no one but you can know what 's best for you, government control can 't make your life better.” In Fahrenheit 451, a book by Ray Bradbury, he shows ways on how the government is controlling society with surveillance, technology, and censorship. The government gets to decide what is to be done and what comes in and out of that country. In the novel, it shows how the firefighter, Guy Montag, is different than the other people in that society. These aspects of government control are directly going towards Montag because the advance in technology put into the watchdogs that are in Bradbury’s novel is unbelievable. Multiple news articles suggest that the government is, in fact, controlling our every move.

The Great Corrupter “The great corrupter of public man is the ego. Looking at the mirror distracts ones attention from the problem” (Dean Acheson). Anthem by (Ayn Rand) illustrates that people, in general, are egoistic, she demonstrates this through the book Anthem. Near the End of the book Equality uses a new set of rules for him and the Golden One, they just got away from a controlling gov’t, but Equality is now controlling the Golden One. What the Council doesn’t understand is that everyone has a personality, and they often have very different personalities, a few characters stand out, their ego is very large, the world council and Equality.

Although there are many definitions to explain what knowledge specifically is, it never fails to contradict ignorance. The dystopian society that Ray Bradbury creates in Fahrenheit 451 is ignorant to the vast amount of knowledge that is present in the world. This is partially the fault of the government which enforces the burning of books, but the people are also to blame. They choose to believe that “ignorance is bliss”. In contrast, “If ignorance is bliss, there should be more happy people,” (Victor Cousin).

Anthem is about a man, Equality 7-2521 escaping his government. This government is very much the opposite. Everyone is very blind and obedient in Anthem. Despite following different ideas, the book and movie possess many similarities. Where both stories create symbolism and a corrupt government, Rand promotes individuality, but Moore promotes unity as a means to seek change.

Mildred and her friends believe that reading anything that causes emotion to come out is bad. Mildred’s friends voted for their president based on how handsome he was compared to the other candidate, “’I think he’s one of the nicest looking men to become president”’ (Bradbury 93). They didn’t vote for the good of the country. Mildred and her friends are defiantly ignorant and this is proven in their actions. Knowledge is a common theme throughout the noel.

Alexia Redondo p3“Control: To direct the behavior of; to have power over; to direct the actions or function of;” (merriam-webster). The overview of the society in the novel Anthem is, the people of the society believe in equality, the opposite of individuality, and a Dystopian society which is the “perfect” society, but one citizen named equality 7-2521 does not believe in a “perfect” society. The process behind creating a collective society in Anthem requires control over education, family, and knowledge. Education is a huge roll in every person's everyday life, but in the novel Anthem the society doesn't not agree. In the novel Anthem there are a plethora amount of occupations the society controls over a individual, such as education.

When Equality takes his discovery to the World Council of Scholars, they are angered by his discovery of light and tell him that they have “much to say to a wretch who have broken all the laws… How dared you think that your mind held greater wisdom than the minds of your brothers.” (Rand, p.71). Similarly, in communism and collectivism, people are expected do things for the group rather than themselves. Just as Equality’s invention of light was rejected, Rand’s novel The Fountainhead was also rejected by many publishing

The books, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Feed by M.T. Anderson, each describes a dystopian future where technology is dominant, and literature is close to extinction. In these futures, technology causes humans to dumb down. While societies strict social standards creates each person to be similar to one another, allowing groups to be manipulated easier. The books have a similar theme; don 't let technology get out of control.

Montag’s search for justice is him looking for knowledge that the government is trying to destroy and replace with simpler forms of entertainment such as TV. "’So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless (85).’" People have gotten so politically correct that they would rather get rid of all different ideas than learn to understand and accept them. This laziness to deal with others lead to the government to destroy the ideas of different thinkers than what is considered normal to them.

Why does a street sweeper dare come into here?” (Rand 62) As Equality walked in there he felt very looked down on, and they saw him as nothing important. The council thought they were more important than him. Collectivism was showing in this part by the council thinking they were higher than Equality when he walked into there home. Before he found the Subway underground he used to think that the everybody thought of everybody as the same people except for the council of scholars, who are the smart people of the society and look down upon people who are less superior than them. All in all people do not think of everybody as the same people, some people think they are higher than the person next to

In the novel, books are no longer aloud to be used by the people and a lot of new technology has taken it’s place. This means people lose knowledge and all they focus on is the new and different technology. In the novel Beatty comes to talk to Montag about books and the new technology in the world. Beatty states, “‘We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal.

Thus, Fahrenheit 451 is a very immersive and deep novel that has many revolving themes about it. Namely censorship, government power and the one explored here, the power of knowledge. In this book, it 's not the books themselves where the fear originates but rather what they contain and what they can influence on others, which is quite frightening to Montag 's government. Also the people choose to be ignorant because the government made them feel such a way that it results in this vicious cycle which only a few have broken from, such as Montag, Clarisse and her family, Professor Faber and the group of people Montag