Topic > Censorship and Dehumanization in "V for Vendetta" and "Brave New World"

The government's control over its citizens is significant to the regime and it is this domination over their people that leaves little room to question authority , but rather conform to the ideologies of the regime. This is depicted in James McTeigue's V for Vendetta and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Both the film and the novel show significant aspects of how the two governments use censorship to influence citizens and behave cruelly where society uses dehumanization as a means of control. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay The government is determined to create a stable and ideal society, however, the distinction between citizens is censored by the government, resulting in totalitarian rule. This portrays the negative influence a controlling government has on people. To prevent it, citizens must rebel against authority and unite. The government censors the community's perspective and affects their social status. In both works, controlling governments have a negative impact on people by tightening laws and restrictions on society, making it ideal. This is seen in Brave New World when the director states: “the secret of happiness and the love of virtue is what you have to do. All conditioning aims at this: to make people love their inevitable social destiny." The Director emphasizes that the World State has the ultimate authority over everyone in society. This exemplifies the fact that caste members of the community are “conditioned” at a young age and are tasked with carrying out daily tasks to create an ideal society. Regardless of what a human being is capable of, the World State aims to make "people love their inevitable social destiny", which means that their rights and freedom in society are curtailed, however, they are conditional to feel happy. Conversely, in V for Vendetta, the government is also censoring the community's perspective and impacting their social status. This is evident in the film when V mentions “cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where you once had the freedom to resist, to think and speak as you saw fit, now you have surveillance systems that force your compliance.” The government finally demonstrated the use of totalitarian rule as one of the aspects to govern the citizens. The controlling government's use of "cruelty and injustice" is depicted, meaning that injustice and ferocity are shown towards citizens who "oppress" them into expressing their feelings in society. These two controlling governments are both different because of the way censorship is used against society. The government in Brave New World uses a "conditioning" method to make people "love their inevitable fate", meaning that citizens perform the desired task set by the government. government. However, in V for Vendetta, the use of “cruelty and injustice” is used so that citizens can carry out their duties as a society instructed by the government. Ultimately, the way each government maintains control over its citizens is different, but the goal is the same. Through the oppression of their citizens they can achieve greater government. Another way the government has a negative impact through the use of laws and restrictions against people in Brave New World when the Controller states "One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them", once again harking back to the attention on conditioning. Citizens do not have the freedom of thought to ask themselves what they owebelieve, they are simply taught to believe blindly. Similarly, in V for Vendetta, the negative impact of government is evident when V states, “a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility for our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing nothing we gave it away." It becomes clear that V understands that freedom of thought would give him the power to fight against the government. In both works, the contexts are similar because in Brave New World, citizens are "conditioned to believe things" at a young age. Similarly in V for Vendetta, the government is strengthened to accept their life in a society controlled by a “handful of oppressors”. Both works show the negative impact of government on society and the impact on the social status of individuals, conditioned and censored resulting in a totalitarian government in order to create the ideal society. This shows how the government is determined to create a utopian society using censorship and conditioning. However, the lack of distinction between individuals is censured by the government. The government's use of dehumanization and identity stripping is vital to creating a utopian society through methods of control. This is evident in Brave New World as there is a distinct caste system that determines each member's identity. This is achieved through a Bokanovsky process in which there are "ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines". This exemplifies how there is no such thing as individuality as identity is assigned to them based on a caste and they are exactly identical. Through this process, the government manages to strip a citizen's identity and is therefore able to control them more effectively . On the other hand, V for Vendetta provided a significant insight into how the negative impact of government can harshly strip a citizen's identity in V for Vendetta when Evey reads Valerie's letter in the cell where she was captured and becomes refers to the cruel injustice Valerie suffered at the hands of the government. The letter read: “They shaved my hair and held my head over the toilet and told lesbian jokes.” This explains why Valerie was a lesbian and had feelings for her girlfriend named Ruth. However, Ruth killed herself because she could not live with Valerie's betrayal. Later, they came for Valerie who was also stripped by government officials and severely mistreated her by "shaving her hair" and holding Valerie's head "down the toilet" while making "lesbian jokes." These events stripped Valerie's identity because she loved an identical gender that was oppressed by the government and therefore the government is therefore able to control society and oppress an individual's feelings. These two ideas contradict each other because the citizens of Brave New World are assigned an identity based on a caste, however, in V for Vendetta, the citizens are dispossessed by the government for loving their own gender. Governments are urged to create a stable society with the Bokanovsky trial and by stripping an individual's identity in order to maintain control over their society. Another example of dehumanization is seen when Bernard's characterization is shown in the book. This was evident in Brave New World when the Director states, "if I ever hear again of any violation of proper standards of child decorum, I will request your transfer to a sub-center, preferably in Iceland." This shows that the director is stating how Bernard's characteristics, not being "childish", are inhumane from the director's point of view, and therefore threatens Bernard to move him to Iceland due to his behavior. This is also shown in V for Vendetta when Evey is tortured by V, in.