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  • Essay / The struggle for individualism in V for Vendetta, The Handmaid's Tale, and We

    Dystopian governments often work hard to erase identity through specific social constructs; they strive to force the people they govern into a cookie-cutter mold. In literature, this shaping is often fought by someone within society, and this fight leads to at least one person becoming a more extreme individual such as V in V for Vendetta, Moira in The Handmaid's Tale, and I-330 in WE l 'all did. . In older dystopian novels, the narrator is often not this individual but someone close to the person battling the mold. In novels that are aimed more at young adults and teenagers, the main character becomes the character who struggles against the government's restricted identity. Finding the struggle for individualism and freedom in identity is a common theme across The Handmaid's Tale, WE, and V for Vendetta. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Government control of women's rights and identities in The Handmaid's Tale, as well as Moira's extreme defiance of it control, give the reader the idea that identity is a key concept in the dystopia that Moira calls home. The government of the Republic of Gilead continually attempts to take away "old" identities from women and give them "new" identities. By changing their names, giving them jobs or titles, assigning them colors that correspond to those jobs, and stripping them of their rights, the Republic of Gilead is brainwashing and forcing these women into an established identity framework and control. In her life before Gilead, the main character's name was June, but in The Republic of Gilead, her name is Offred. With this name, the government essentially designated it as the property of Fred (the Commander). The Republic of Gilead began suppressing women's rights after the suspension of the Constitution. Once they took control, women lost the right to have money, to hold a job, and ultimately, the right to read or write. In losing these rights, women also lost their sense of character, as they could no longer identify themselves by their success, intelligence, and financial security. Despite several subtle government statements, the forced change in identity only became apparent when jobs or titles and the colors of those titles were implemented. Giving women titles like Handmaid, Martha, Wife, and Econowife forces them to think that these are their identities; the colors red, green, blue and multicolored are part of this new identity. Women become servants when they are still fertile. Once their fertility ends, they become non-women and live in the “colonies”. Marthas are women who cook and clean houses and Wives are women who appear to have held some sort of power or been married to a man of power before the Republic of Gilead took over. Econowives are often looked down upon, almost like second-class women because they “are not divided into functions. They have to do everything; if they can” (Atwood, page 24). These titles and roles are basically the only identification of these women in the Republic of Gilead. Identity formation in the Republic of Gilead makes many women uncomfortable, but none seem angrier than Offred's friend Moira. Moira is the citizen of Gilead society who cannot and will not fit the government's mold of identity. The Republicof Gilead adheres to an extremist form of basic Christianity, in which homosexuality is a sin. Moira is not the "ideal" woman from the start, since Moira is a lesbian. Because she is still fertile and can have children, she is forced to be a servant because being a lesbian in this society is impossible. Moira is taken to the Red Center where the "aunts" continually attempt to brainwash all fertile women into feeling that these roles and this society are the best. By brainwashing these women, the government was able to take control of their identities and shape them because “thoughts shape identities more than appearances…” (Eisiminger 4). The Aunts showed pornographic videos so that the Handmaids could see "what they [men] thought about women then", as well as Unwoman protest documentaries in which women were "wasting their time like that, while they should have done something useful” (Atwood 118). After arriving at the Red Center, Moira attempts to escape. The first time, she fails and is subsequently tortured. The second time, Moira succeeded by dismantling a toilet, capturing and threatening an aunt, stealing her uniform, and simply walking out of the Red Center like she knew what she was doing. This escape, and the unknown possibility of success outside the Red Center, leaves Offred with hope of having courage and remembering her life before. Moira's ability to retain some of her former identity, despite becoming a prostitute at Jezebel, indicates to the reader that some identity is better than none. In the dystopian novel Us, Yevgeny Zamyatin allowed the government to succeed above all in suppressing individual identity, except in one cipher, the cipher I-330. In Cipher D-503's journal, the reader begins to see the development of a society in which the government has suppressed all ideas of individuality and identity. In this One State society, D-503 perfectly explains what the One State's goals are by speaking with a new code, I-330. D-503 seems to completely believe in the idea and purpose of the One State, that "...No one is ever 'one', but always 'one of'." We are so identical…” (WE, page 8). By removing all individual identity and giving them the same mechanical identity as that of the government, the single state makes the ciphers believe that the mechanization of the government's identity belongs to them and that they do not have their own. The One State and the Benefactor incite the Table of Hours to prevent the growth of imagination, which can develop and foster mechanical identity. Preventing the progress of imagination within society becomes the key to hindering the growth of identity. Yang Jianfang notes that “…the more central an identity is to an individual, the more likely that identity is to impact cognitions, feelings, and actions…” (Jianfang 167). These feelings, cognitions, and actions are all related to imagination, since imagination sometimes creates these feelings and cognitions that influence actions. In the time table there are two personal hours, leaving everything else in the day scheduled. D-503 hopes for the elimination of these personal hours. He “believes that sooner or later, one day, we will also find a place in the general formula for these hours, one day every 86,400 seconds will be taken into account in the table of hours. » (Us page 13). By removing these two hours, the government would eliminate all freedom. During these personal hours, a figure is allowed to draw, write, meet another figure, walk or run wherever they please. Ciphers are also allowed to lower the blinds in their roomsin order to have sex with another during these two personal hours; these are the only times the blinds can be lowered, and both figures must have authorization from the Single State. If a figure does anything other than have sex, the blinds can't be drawn down. This distinct lack of intimacy encourages a sense of unity but a lack of identity. These numbers have nothing of their own, nothing that they can hide from other numbers like something personal. By giving the codes a name made up of letters and numbers, the government has also found another way to successfully suppress individual identity. Skip Eisiminger states that “…all names are an integral part of the identity of those who bear them and deserve respect” (Eisminger 2). Indeed, the government's lack of respect for cipher names and identities illustrates the government's negative feelings toward the idea of ​​individual identity. D-503 identifies more with a machine than a human because he is given the name of a machine. The sense of identity is still ingrained in the subconscious of these figures, as shown by D-503, even though he finds identity and individualism troubling. Most feminine codes that D-503 comes into contact with are described by D-503 using their names. D-503 describes O-90 as having soft edges, roundness, and a half-moon mouth. These adjectives are correlated to his first name in which the letter “O” is circular and round. D-503 also gives I-330 characteristics which are sharp, angular and hard like the letter "I" in its name. As minimal as these identifying characteristics are, they show that even a figure as brainwashed as D-503 still has a sense of identity in his subconscious. These successes in suppressing identity by the single state are thwarted in various ways by the I-330 figure. Many of his choices are self-defeating and seem very minimal, but his use of D-503 shows that his goal is to get rid of the One State, thus restoring the individual's sense of identity. D-503 is always asked to meet I-330 at the Old House, often at times when he is supposed to be elsewhere according to the Time Table. During his time there, D-503 sees I-330 donning the clothes of the Ancients and drinking and smoking like the Ancients did. By making her own choices, I-330 identifies as a rebel. Her goal of using D-503 to break the One State is a fight that, although unsuccessful, keeps I-330 going and makes her a person with an identity and imagination. Within V for Vendetta, government control over identity is far from clear. less strict than within the We, but it still amounts to a control of individualism and identity. Government control through concentration camps and regulations and controls outside of concentration camps limit the degree of individuality and identity permitted to futuristic Britons. The majority of men and women taken to these concentration camps are homosexuals and radicals opposed to the government. The threat of concentration camps makes many people the ideal citizens of the government. To help keep people in this “ideal” mold of distinction, the government began instituting controls through the use of eyes, ears, mouth, and curfews. By imposing curfews, the government could control the movement and activities of the population. Additionally, the government has used current events to limit citizens' knowledge. The "mouth" of government, or television, was used to transmit only..