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Comparing Authority In Nineteen Eighty-Four And A Taste Of Honey

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It is clear that power and authority are relevant themes in both Nineteen Eighty – Four and A Taste of honey, as the protagonists in both texts lack power throughout the plot novel and within themselves. A Taste of Honey is set during the capitalist times in the 1950s in a patriarchal society, women where deemed powerless by their male counterparts. In contrast Nineteen Eighty – Four, a dystopian novel, is set in a totalitarian world controlled by a higher authoritative power, that keeps the characters constantly living in fear. Similarly to A Taste of Honey, Big Brother takes the form of a personified male authority. Highlighting the point that women held no power over their lives, the characters within the text prove this, because the power in both texts …show more content…

In Nineteen Eighty – Four, power is represented by the totalitarian rule of Big Brother. Through the use of the ‘Thought Police’ Big brother attempts to control the thoughts and actions of the Oceania, stealing their power and freedom. The Party aims to eradicate any type of free will. Any violation of laws result in serious punishment, as they would have committed a ‘thought crime’ . Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novels grasps this concept when he writes, ‘Freedom is the freedom to say the two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.’ Freidrich Nietzsche wrote that ‘only that which had no history is definable’ which directly relates to Ingsoc’s slogan ‘who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.’ These ideas make it clear that if someone can change the past, they can control the future. If the population are unaware of their history they have no guidance or example of how they are supposed to behave, so it is easier for the government to control their behaviour. We also have to note the government is predominately male, so we witness numerous counts of misogyny. Such

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