1984_vs._Brazil

1984 vs. Brazil Futuristic novels depicting human’s competition for freedom from abused authority has haunted us from the instance they were conceived. These cautionary stories seen in the novel 1984 and the film Brazil both depict the same scenario of government gaining strength as the individual’s rights are lowered. These two tales allow us to realize that as soon as our rights begin to decrease the governing force is increasing simultaneously. Winston of 1984 recollects a childhood memory of a time when he actually had a family, before his natural rights had diminished. The memory was of his mother and sisters and how they had to share the family’s rationed bars of chocolate. In his memory Winston had rebelled against his mothers instructions and stole his sister’s ration of chocolate. As Winston grew older his mother had been taken away as well as his siblings. Families everywhere, torn from each other, while the government officials calling the shots grew in power. Eventually, in the present time that 1984 takes place Winston’s rights had diminished as well as family relationships, rations, freedom of speech and freedom of actions. In the feature film Brazil, the main character Sam experiences the same lack of individual rights as Winston. During the film Sam is trying to escape from the authority as he continues his search for what he thinks may be the only pleasurable thing among his mechanical life; Love. As the movie continues he is eventually caught and the government try’s to correct Sam’s problem as the rest of the movie continues as part of his Dream. This instance and many others throughout the film depict an absolute high power. Another instance is when his air conditioning malfunctions and it takes forever for the Air conditioning engineers to file all the paperwork allowing them to work. This same scenario can be seen in the Stalinistic/Communistic periods. When a country is under one high power, they cannot keep up with supply and demand in every area. For example: They may have a warehouse full of jackets somewhere where they are not needed, when there are people dying from cold because of lack of jackets in the northern parts of that country. When the head of power realizes that jackets are needed in the cold parts of the country it is too late and they are not needed anymore. All in all, these cautionary tales give us the power to change a possible future. As individuals we must stand steadfast in our natural rights as human beings and make absolute power an impossibility. 1984 and Brazil are cautionary because they warn us of the possible reactions when the individuals rights are decreased.