V For Vendetta

The theme of masks is a significant theme throughout the book through the book. In all war people use

Many people in the world desire to possess characteristics about themselves that they do not own. Social masks allow people to change the way people view them. People attempt to put on social masks by lying. The novels 1984 and The Picture of Dorian Gray by George Orwell and Oscar Wilde create connections between the characters through the use of social masks to protect themselves from the dangers of their societies and their own self.

When something consumes you such as a society and tells you what you have to be, how do you avoid the mask? The poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Dunbar and the novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury both use a mask as a symbol. The mask symbolizes how closed off people are, and how they hide themselves and their emotions from society. These “masks” are worn to protect yourself from the cruel and treacherous society that has been created. The new society has taught people how to cover up their true emotions with these fake smiles and shining eyes.

We try to hide our flaws, so we wear a mask to conceal our imperfections. We are hurt and unable to fully recover, so we put on a mask. We are a monster, so we wear a mask to hide our vile and devilish ways. We want to appear to okay, even though inside we are dying a little bit each day, so we put on a mask. Wearing a mask is a lot like being a wife and a mother. A wife and mother is many other things, such as a cook, a nurse, a taxi driver, a cheerleader, a lover, a daughter, a worker, and maybe even a student amongst other things. We juggle our self between all these different persona’s. In O’Connor’s, “Good Country People” many of her characters wore mask to conceal the things they didn’t want seen. Hulga pretended to be a rude, uncaring brat to hide her hurt she felt from losing her leg at an early age. Manley Pointer disguised himself as a Bible salesman to take advantage of people, when he was nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. While the matriarch of the family, Mrs. Hopewell insisted that everything was fine. Everyone has their own way of getting through tough situations and circumstances and these country people proved they were no different from the rest. “In one of her essays, “The Regional Writer” Flannery O’Connor spoke of, “the particular crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet.” (Driskell and Brittain, The Eternal Crossroads). These such characters in this

Many symbols are used in V for vendetta one of these is V’s mask, also known as the Guy Fawkes mask. This mask is now one of the most popular symbols ever, it is seen everywhere: in the 80’s the comic book series ‘V for vendetta’, then in the film adaptation in 2005 and now it’s a popular symbol with the cyber terrorist group ‘Anonymous’. In the film adaptation of ‘V for vendetta’ the mask is used to conceal the true identity of the protagonist V. During one of the last scenes of the film, V is choking Mr. Creedy and he says to him “Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.”. This clearly shows us that V doesn’t want to be remember as a man, as men die, but he wants to be remembered as an idea, as ideas can last forever.

This proves Gergen’s thesis, “I doubt that people normally develop a coherent sense of identity, and believe that to the extent that they do, they may experience serve emotional distress” (172). By having several masks or selves, is how we are able to adapt to changing society. With these multiple masks we are able to achieve acceptance and know who we are as individuals. Throughout life we must adopt masks when facing different circumstances; it is through these masks that we see how we change as individuals. If we spend our lives trying to stick to one mask, we can find ourselves to feel lost, depressed, or invisible. Change is good; however we must still stay true to ourselves when using masks. They are a part of us as individuals but they are not us.

Masks portray a sense of mystery. “No one could see me clearly. No one could see my face.” Lucy, Grealy. Masks. Print. The unknown is often intriguing. Generally their worn to portray a character or someone other than yourself and symbolize an imaginary life. For Lucy, it portrayed a sense of freedom. The freedom from being stared at, teased, lonely, and occasionally envious of others. Halloween is the only day that Lucy experience’s an ordinary life. Unlike the majority of other days’ mask are customary and her disability is masked. Providing her with the confidence to express herself freely by asking questions and making comments. “Studies show children with disabilities are two to three times more likely to be bullied than their non-disabled

The government is able to force the citizens to keep their masks continually through propaganda. The main character Fles, as well as all of the other members of society, believe that if they see their real faces, instant death would overcome them. Fles was hopping on rocks near the river when he tripped, sending his mask off his face. When he peered into the water, Fles was dumbfounded to not die and flabbergasted to see that he was beautiful. He ecstatically ran into the establishment, his town, to show the world what was behind the masks, but to everyone else, Fles’s actions were unheard of and completely abhorrent. Before the establishment members killed him, “Fles’s eyes pleaded with them, yet the only thing they saw in his eyes was the intent of harm, not help.”(Unknown, 3) This quote shows the use of equality by force because the people in Fles’s establishment are so afraid of the consequences set in place by the government that Fles’s aberrant behavior was worth killing him. The threat Fles proposed seemed greater than the death of one person. Overall, the self-preservation the townspeople used against Fles is explained by the government’s use of propaganda which is obtained by equality by

James McTeigue uses symbolism in the film V for Vendetta to juxtapose the idea of individuality and the resistance of forced conformity. The first important symbol used in the film is V’s mask. This symbol is shown in all of the scenes V appears in and again in the very last scene. In this scene thousands of citizens gather wearing the masks and remove them. Masks often symbolize a character hiding their identity. This final scene when the citizens remove their

Everyone uses masks to free them to do, say or act in a manner that they normally wouldn’t. People use them all the time, whether it is just changing to treat someone a certain way or just needing to be a different way to make a situation better, but can also be used in harmful ways that can be used to compel violence. Masks manipulate us to hide from our true selves, they will make the one who wears one inferior to all others. In the story, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the world is in the middle of the biggest war ever, the power of masks and anonymity throughout this time period establish the terror. They put on these masks to give them the freedom to commit terrorizing acts and have no shame, alike with how William Golding allowed his characters have their power over the others. Golding had his characters apply paint to their faces which then altered the boy's mindset to act in a detrimental way. The mindset these boys obtain leads to many cruel parts in the story, including the killing of other boys on the island. This demonstrates the effect and power of being anonymous that is provided to these blood-thirsty boys. Before Jack and the boys used their masks to release their inner-savage, they were civilized, but having anonymity enables them to kill, not only pigs but other boys.

In We Wear the Mask, the author’s purpose is to push the reader to feel something about the way things were in his perspective.

V for vendetta, V wears the Guy Fawkes mask to hide his identity and the physical scars. The Guy Fawkes mask was to design to look like Guy Fawkes stylised by David Lloyd. The Guy Fawkes mask shows only one facial expression which is a charming smile. This gives a dark secret behind who is in the mask which in this case V hides his scars and to keep his identity in hiding. When V wears the mask you don’t know what are his intensions almost like he is looking down on you, in other words having a high status. The Guy Fawkes has a white face with black moustache, black eye brow, black beard and has two pink spots both right and left.

Contrary to his belief, the narrator does not have a mask on. Although the narrator believes in a misconception that he is ‘playing the role of a boy,' when in fact, what he considers to be a mask is simply his body and his male appearance. The narrator is never in a real need to ‘play a role' because nobody really actively tries to find out who he really is. His peers, based on his appearance, all assume that he shares the same sexual orientation as they do.

“V for Vendetta" is a movie about freedom, about human struggle against the state, the government of the sacrifice of a symbol. V for Vendetta was born from the successful combination of a sudden, seemingly incongruous things: out of the comic’s conventions and the anti-globalization pathos. I think this movie is a combination of the of Lewis Carroll’s abstract absurdity and George Orwell’s totalitarian nightmare. Alice meets with Hitler. Evey dressed up and went out on a date, but instead of rabbit hole, she found the black "funnel". Once the British had already made a movie "It Happened Here," an alternative fantasy on the theme of the Nazi’s occupation of England - now the enemy did not come from outside but from the inside. In the near future, England is living under a power of tyrant, neurotic clown with flabby face. Supreme Chancellor autocratically governed the country. Bishops are concerned about the moral health of the nation. People are constantly live in fear of external threat after the tragic virus attacks a few years ago. Every person sentenced to death if he keeps a Koran. Same thing for the "unnatural" sex. There was nothing else to be executed for;

V for Vendetta is a movie that immediately grasps the viewers attention. It has a tendency to seem twisted and dark. However, after examining the film more closely the themes began to emerge and started to make sense. V for Vendetta seems to align with Plato’s ideals making V’s actions seems less terroristic and begin to shape up to be that of a vigilante.