Elements of 1984 in popular novels and anime

As we have discussed at some point in class, Orwell’s 1984 has had a great impact on society and literature.

By illustrating what can happen when  our basic assumptions and beliefs are negated or reversed, Orwell forces us to see anew what there is to value, and thus preserve against all odds, in sustaining the beauty and meaning of the Human Condition. The uniqueness of our species and of each individual emanates from the combination of intelligence, consciousness, motivation, and affect. (Zimbardo, 2010)

Moreover, it has greatly influenced pop culture, coining terms such as Big brother, Room 101, thought police, and so on. My intention is to focus on some particular aspects, concepts, or themes from the novel and briefly compare them to currently popular dystopian novels as well as some popular animes. 

Dystopian Novels

Two of today’s most popular dystopian novels (and their respective films) are Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth's Divergent. The Hunger Games and 1984 share a similar social structure. In 1984, the structure is as follows: Big brother, the inner party, the outer party, and the proles. Big Brother and the inner party are those in control of society, Oceania. The outer party is the working class while the proles are not even considered human beings. In The Hunger Games the head of society is the president (President Snow), followed by citizens of the Capitol, the first few districts, and finally the last few districts. President Snow and the citizens of the Capitol would be equivalent to Big Brother and the inner party. The first few districts are the outer party while the remaining districts are the proles. Another comparison between these two novels is the fact that the accounts in both take place after a war. In 1984, it is mentioned that The Party came into power after a revolution of sorts that took place at some point in history. The protagonist, Winston Smith, even dimly recalls a time when things were different, a time before the ascent of The Party. In The Hunger Games, Panem (the country in which the story takes place) was born after wars that occurred in the USA. Both new powers take over complete control of society, eliminating those who rebel.

As for Divergent, a similarity is the fact that all citizens take a test to see where they belong in society. In 1984, O’ Brian mentions that, because The Party wishes to maintain in power indefinitely, a persons place in society is not hereditary. Something similar occurs in Divergent. Members of society take an aptitude test so as to determine in which faction they should belong. Another similarity between both novels is the use of uniforms. In Divergent, members of each faction wear different clothing that varies in color. The members are to stick strictly to their factions own color. In 1984, citizens also wear different uniforms depending on the part they belong to. All party members wear overalls but the difference between the inner and outer party uniforms is in the color. Meanwhile, the proles can wear what they want as they are considered unimportant

Anime

An anime that has some similarities to George Orwell's 1984 is Shingeki No Kyojin. Whenever this name comes up, people automatically tend to relate it solely to the man-eating titans. However, there is more to the show besides the obvious gore and humanity's fight to survive. Behind the scenes, there is an organization called the First interior squad or the Anti-human suppression squad. They are a regime that many are not aware of and those who are aware know very little about them. They are involved in numerous conspiracies that involve hiding the truth about many different things from society as a whole. The First interior squad goes as far as to eliminate people who think differently, who are deemed to have some knowledge of the truth, who oppose the system, or who could be a possible threat to the system.

I also wanted to mention Tokyo Ghoul.  This anime is set in a Tokyo where beings known as ghouls exist. Ghouls appear to be normal people except that they have extraordinary power and need to eat human flesh to survive. The main character is half human and half ghoul. There is a point in the anime where the protagonist is apprehended and later taken to his captors “hobby room”. I associated this room to Room 101. In 1984, room 101 is where a person is faced with their greatest fear. It is the final step in breaking down a person’s resistance, like what happened to Winston Smith. He had an immense fear of rats, therefore, his face was going to be placed in a cage with rats. So as to avoid this, he betrays Julia.

"When Winston is arrested, violence changes from being a tacit threat to real violence. Winston is tortured in the most gruesome ways, and the time he spends in prison is the unprecedented record of subjective violence in the totalitarian society in 1984. The threat of violence now manifests itself when Winston is interrogated. Violence now becomes more real, physical, and brutal". (Skjorestad, 2010)

Today, room 101 is not only related to one’s greatest fear but to anything that is immensely unpleasant. Whatever is done to a person in room 101 is horrible enough to break their spirit. This is exactly what happens to the protagonist of Tokyo Ghoul, Kaneki Ken. Kaneki is given a drug that weakens his body to almost human standards, allowing Yamori, his captor, to torture him as much as he wants. He is tormented for days. He has his fingers and toes cut off repeatedly (they grow back due to his ghoul healing factor once the drug wears off), an insect (centipede) is inserted into his head though his ear, he is forced to witness the death of a mother and child, and so on. The physical and mental torture takes a toll on Kaneki and he ultimately gives into his ghoul side, a part of himself he had always fought against. In 1984, 

“O’Brien is Winston’s chief interrogator, and when he gets involved, the violence Winston suffers has a clearly identifiable agent. The system, the society is to blame for both Winston’s violence, but also the violence he endures throughout the whole of the novel”. (Skjorestad, 2010)

In Tokyo Ghoul, Yamori represents both the human and ghoul societies which are both to blame for Kaneki’s violence. Most humans are against ghouls and there are many ghouls who are against humans. Kaneki is both human and ghoul and receives the violence that both groups “dish out”. How is this represented in Yamori if he is just a ghoul? The torture that Yamori had Kaneki go though is one that he himself endured at the hand of humans. So, in a way, humans are also involved in the torturing of Kaneki.

Through these comparisons and identification of elements from Orwell’s 1984 in current works and media, I wanted to show that, although not all aspects form the novel are covered or touched in the works I mentioned, some elements are indeed present. As I stated in the beginning, 1984, together with other similar works, has had great influence on society. Because society is influenced, the works produced by members of society will be influenced as well.  I'm sure that some of the elements from these works I have presented wouldn't exist had it not been for novels such as 1984 or Brave New World. Whether conscious or not, these aspects are present in many books, comics, shows, movies, etc. that we see today.

References:

Orwell, George. 1984. London: Harvill Secker, 1949.

Skjørestad, Anstein. 1984 and A Clockwork Orange : a comparative study of how violence affects the main characters with special attention to age and life stage. University of Stavanger, 2010.

Zimbardo, Phillip. "Mind Control in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: Fictional Concepts Become Operational Realities in Jim Jones's Jungle Experiment." On Nineteen Eighty-Four: Orwell and and Our Future. Eds. Abbot Gleason, Jack Goldsmith and Martha Nussbaum. Princeton University Press, 2005.