"Strength Through Unity, Unity Through Faith"

After we watched the three clips of V for Vendetta in class, I immediately went to Blockbuster and rented it because I was so intrigued. As I watched the movie the entire way through, there were many more similarities that I noticed to 1984. Firstly, their society has a strict curfew and a loudspeaker in multiple places on every street to announce things to the population. This is synonymous with the strict code and telescreen in 1984. In both societies, the people in power are attempting to control their people as much as possible so they can hold onto that control. They also aren’t given adequate food; Evey gasped when V gave her real butter later in the movie, asking him where he got it. In 1984, Julia snuck some real coffee for her and Winston as they stayed in the room. I thought the look of the film was similar to what I imagined in 1984, except it was cleaner and more modern than the way I envisioned Oceania.

Another similarity between V for Vendetta and 1984 is that their slogans and party portraits are posted everywhere. In V for Vendetta, the slogan “Strength through unity; Unity through faith” is posted everywhere in the city. In 1984, Big Brother’s face is posted everywhere. At the beginning of the movie, V said, “words will always retain their power.” As we saw later in the movie, when we were introduced to Valerie, the woman who wrote her biography on toilet paper, words changed and some were feared. Different became dangerous, as Valerie said. This relates to 1984 because Big Brother didn’t keep anyone who was a threat to the party. Different or informed or intelligent was a definite threat to the party, and if Valerie had lived in Oceania, she would have been persecuted as well, perhaps for loving someone else more than the party, or even for being different. In the clip about Valerie, she met her love in a beautiful field with rolling hills, much like the Golden Country in 1984.

Also, in the last clip that we saw, their leader was giving a lecture, telling the people listening that he wants their society to realize why they need their government. This is much like how O’Brien explained to Winston that the individual alone is flawed and cannot function properly alone. He explained that the party protects them, makes their decisions so that they don’t have to. Also in the last clip, V looks in the mirror, throwing his mask to the floor, and shatters it. This is very similar to the scene where O’Brien made Winston look in the mirror and Winston was shocked to see himself, his body resembling a skeleton. Both Winston and V hated what their government had molded them to be.