SETTING IN DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE

1984

SETTING

• The city is dominated by the four ministries of the Party
• The names of the departments are misleading and are the exact opposite of the function of each office
• Takes place in London at an unspecified time in the future
• Based off of...

IDEAS/BELIEFS

• The tele screen in every citizen’s room appears a constant stream of propaganda
• “Big Brother is Watching You” the citizens are being watched at all times
• Language as mind control is called “Newspeak” The language makes it difficult to conceive disobedient or rebellious thoughts
• Brotherhood is “an organized body of rebels committed to the destruction of the Party”
• “Thought Police” punish thoughtcrime (personal/political thoughts that are unapproved by the government)

CHARACTERS

• Winston Smith (rebellious, fatalism, hates the Party strongly and commits countless crimes)
• Julia (Winstons lover, hates the Party wishes to rebel, pragmatic, type of person to “live in the moment”)
• O’Brian (powerful member of the Inner Party and pretended to be part of the Brotherhood)
• Big Brother (supreme ruler of Oceania, leader of the Party, war hero, and original instigator of the revolution that gave power to the Party)
• Emmanuel Goldstein (Enemy do the People, once an important member of the Party but became a traitor and was sentenced to death, escaped death and formed brotherhood)

HANDMAID’S TALE

SETTING

• Political group called the Sons of Jacob overthrew the U.S. government
• Republic of Gilead (Gileadean law is based on extremist reading of the Old Testament, extremely oppressive)
• Black Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to the “Homelands”
• Takes place in the near future of our own world

IDEAS/BELIEFS

• Sex outside marriage is forbidden
• Ordinary people become complicit in the horrendous acts of a totalitarian regime
• Women are deprived of their individuality to make them docile carriers for the next generation
• Gilead created a vocabulary that ignores and warps reality to serve the needs of the new society’s elite
• Men are defined by their military ranks
• Women are defined by their roles as Wives, Handmaids, or Marthas

CHARCTERS

• Offred (belongs to the class of Handmaids, cruel physical and psychological burdens of her life in Gilead torment her, intelligent, perceptive and kind)
• The Commander (Offred’s Commander, bears responsibility for the entire totalitarian society, poses an ethical problem for Offred)
• Serena Joy (had been an advocate for traditional values and establishment of the Gileadean state, but is bitter about the outcome, can see her own difficulties but not that of other women, cruelly concealed Offred’s lost daughter’s whereabouts)
• Moira (embodiment of female resistance to Gilead, stands up to authority directly)