Other Dystopias

Question 1

Metropolis (1927): context

Answer 1

post WW1 Germany was rife with failed coalitions and financial issues as they had to pay reparations after the war

this created great shame in Germany

Question 2

Metropolis (1927): dystopian themes

Answer 2

surveillance

advanced technology and industrialisation

uniformity, robotic, lack of individuality

rituals and ceremonial worship

destruction, powerlessness and sacrifice

class divide — upper classes live in high rise towers, while workers power the machine

rebellion — workers planning an uprising in the city catacombs

Question 3

Black Mirror

Answer 3

beginning with the familiar and gradually becomes unfamiliar, alienates the reader

Nosedive — lack of real human connection, obsession with appearances and status, false appearances, dependence on technology, hierarchy, meaninglessness of life, lack of identity, the need for humans to fit in and be accepted, rebellion (some don’t adhere to the ‘rating’ system, outcast as a result)

Question 4

dystopian books

Answer 4

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1924)

The Machine Stops by E M Forster (1909)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

The Time Machine by H G Wells (1895)

Question 5

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

lack of individuality

Answer 5

everyone in this world knows their task and understands their part in the great purpose

they shave their heads and use numbers as names to avoid anything even remotely resembling individualism, everyone looks exactly alike

Question 6

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

a catastrophe leading to the regime

Answer 6

the One State was created after the Two-Hundred Years’ War which destroyed civilization

Question 7

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

a totalitarian dictatorship presented as a saving force

Answer 7

the One State solved hunger

“True, only about two-tenths of the population of the globe did not die out. But how beautifully shining the face of the earth became when it was cleared of its impurities!”

a totalitarian dictatorship presented as a saving force

Question 8

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

destruction of love and the meaning of sex

Answer 8

once hunger was vanquished, the State set out to kill love

sex is still necessary, but the people can sleep with anyone they please whenever they want

O-90 is D-503’s state-sanctioned lover (the meaning of sex stripped away), she is too short to be allowed to have children and is unhappy about it

Question 9

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

complacency, aiding the regime, blind faith in the regime

Answer 9

D-503 is a mathematician and rocket scientist who’s thrilled to be a part of the program

he writes a diary describing his work on the spaceship Integral and trying to convince anyone who reads it of the brilliance of the One State

he is very excited about the prospects of the ship, and enthusiastically explains how the One State is going “to unbend the wild curve, to straighten it out to a tangent - to a straight line!”

Question 10

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

restriction of individual thought

Answer 10

I-330 offers to have an excuse written up for him by a corrupt doctor and he wants to denounce her to the ‘Guardians’ of the state

but he starts having dreams, also forbidden by the state and considered a form of insanity, which makes him less willing to turn in I-330

“we, people of today, we know all too well that dreaming is a serious mental disease”

Question 11

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

desensitisation to violence, public executions, silencing of opposition or dissenters

Answer 11

D-503 arrives at the Plaza of the Cube for an execution, which he refers to as a celebration of “the victory of all over one, of the sum over the individual!”

he discusses the Well-Doer, their supreme leader, and the Machine to be used to kill the criminal

the criminal is then placed in the Machine and the Well-Doer essentially atomizes him

D-503 notes how passionate and excited the onlookers are at these executions and feels quite excited and enthusiastic too

Question 12

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

rebellion

Answer 12

I-330 has alcohol and cigarettes and it is lethally illegal to own such things, she also earlier suggested she could get ahold of a note from a corrupt doctor to allow D-503 time off work

Question 13

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

isolation and the outsider

Answer 13

D-503 confesses that he can’t actually tell dreams from reality anymore, and goes on about his day feeling fundamentally detached and separated from the people around him

“I felt I lived separately from everybody; I lived by myself separated by a soft wall which absorbed noises; beyond that wall there was my own world”

Question 14

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

the inability of any regime to quell and destroy love

Answer 14

D-503 is haunted by I-330. He doesn’t know where she’s gone or why she has such a hold on him, but he seems to have developed some kind of love for her

he wanders out to find her, but he cannot and overstays his allotted free time daydreaming about her

Question 15

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

silencing of opposition, the demand for orthodoxy and absolute conformity

Answer 15

the Day of Unanimity arrives and everyone gathers to listen to hymns and watch as supreme-leader the Well-Doer makes an appearance

a vote is taken, with everyone supposed to be voting for the Well-Doer in unison, but a small percentage of the crowd votes “nay”

the next morning, D-503 reads a report stating that the dissenters were “sick” and needed to be purged

Question 16

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

the underground resistance movement

Answer 16

D-503 notices a sheet of paper mounted on a wall that reads “MEPHI” and the city is full of similar signs

I-330 reveals that she belongs to MEPHI, the resistance movement, and she takes him through a secret tunnel under the Ancient House to the world outside the wall

in the world outside of the wall, people grow hair, wear cavemen furs and have sex whenever and with whoever they want and other things deemed inappropriate by the One State

I-330 and the other members of MEPHI want to blow up the wall and reunite humanity, she says these people were survivors of the Two Hundred Years War who remained in a primitive state instead of “advancing” like the people in the city

Question 17

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

plans for revolution

Answer 17

D-503 and I-330 discuss their plans for the Integral (i.e. letting MEPHI take it over)

D-503 maintains that revolution will be impossible since the last revolution has been achieved but I-330 tells him to name the highest number and insists that there can be no final revolution

Question 18

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

the silencing of oppostion

Answer 18

the newspaper declares that “THE ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS ARE AWAKE!” and that everyone must submit to the Operation or die – the silencing of opposition

Question 19

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

submission and defeat of the protagonist, advanced technology, betrayal

Answer 19

with I-330 gone for good, D-503 decides to undergo an operation that completely burns all of the emotions out of his brain and cure the love he has for I-330 (the “surgical removal of fancy”)

when they’re done, he cheerfully tells them all about MEPHI and his various undertakings with them

I-330’s death should upset D-503, but the operation seems to work (destruction of human emotion)

Question 20

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

the use of torture, strength of I-330

Answer 20

after being subjected to the Operation, I-330 is brought before him, along with a large group of prisoners but she refuses to testify in his presence, despite being tortured multiple times

I-330 gets arrested, but not even torture gets her to break and she goes to her death without regrets

Question 21

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

triumph of the resistance movement, dismantling of the regime, hope for the future

Answer 21

while D-503 has undergone the Operation, the MEPHI has been working tirelessly and even with D-503’s betrayal, their great work is underway

parts of the wall have collapsed, birds are returning to the city, riots are breaking out and those emotions the State is trying so hard to stamp out seem to be reasserting themselves

a hopeful ending for the reader, demonstrates that oppressive regimes will eventually fall

Question 22

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

complacency of the protagonist, blind follower of the regime, hopes that the State will triumph over resistance

Answer 22

D-503 expresses hope that the State will triumph “for Reason must prevail”, but it doesn’t look promising

Question 23

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

power and control

Answer 23

the One State controls every aspect of its citizens’ lives – everyone lives in glass apartments, have numbers as names, are assigned lovers, are forbidden from dreaming, have assigned walking times and the state controls who is allowed to have children

the state wants their citizens to act like living machines, devoid of individuality or anything that might get in the way of The Plan

naturally, as in all dystopias, there are points in the book where that power starts to slip and chaos rumbles in, the Green Wall starts to come down and all of that power and control suddenly looks insignificant

power in this world stems solely through collective action, even MEPHI must act together if it wishes to defy the State, but on the other hand, power is ultimately in the hands of individuals, whose choices to act are like pebbles that start an avalanche

the Guardians hunt down enemies of the state

Question 24

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

dreams, hopes and plans

Answer 24

the state has all kinds of plans, and D-503 is a big part in many of them

they’re building a ship to travel to other worlds and conquer them, which seems to be the central focus of the government’s future

the One State has spent 1,000 years helping everything unfold exactly, precisely the way they want it to, but one of We’s points is that such absolute planning is impossible

chaos creeps in, whether it’s rebels like I-330, or the simple appearance of an unexpected outcome, life isn’t a mathematical equation, no matter how much the rules of humanity try to set it up that way

Question 25

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

the theme of rebellion

Answer 25

under an oppressive regime, there will always be those who rebel and in this book the resistance movement is called the Mephi

however, the protagonist D-503 does not feel any desire at all to rebel and does not support the resistance, unlike Winston Smith in 1984 or most heroes in these kinds of stories, he seems to like the state the way it is

he definitely prefers what the state is offering to the rebels’ plans

the reader is relieved to see the Mephi beginning to grow in influence but D-503 is not, a reminder to demonstrate what a government as horrible as this can do to people

it’s not that state that makes him unhappy, it’s people’s rebellion against it, he can’t understand why people want to fight against the state, and he’s troubled when they suggest that life under it can be anything but ideal

Question 26

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

identity

Answer 26

in We, identity is an extension of the state’s control; people don’t have names, they have numbers, they are defined by mathematical constants and their lives don’t extend beyond whatever totalitarian drudgery the state serves up for them

but as the novel goes on, we start to see flashes of something more: individual identity peeking through that blank, boring façade

I-330 is the best example—she gets to drink and smoke, after all—but other members of this society start showing it as well

the point seems to be that human individuality can never be totally stamped out, even after thousands of years of trying, we’ll never be cogs in a machine, no matter how much we want to be

people lack individuality – they are prevented from thinking freely as dreams are forbidden and have become a mindless drone, all accepting of their roles within the State and never questioning it

Question 27

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

happiness

Answer 27

like in Brave New World, happiness is artificial

in We, it exists only as a sort of mathematical harmony, and in attaining that harmony, we lose everything that makes us human because humans are inherently imperfect, perfection like this is artificial

Question 28

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

sex

Answer 28

like everything else, sex is controlled by the state

the people have to get permission to have it, and it almost acts as a mechanical service rather than anything affectionate or caring

the One State believes that sexuality can be reduced to a meaningless biological function, like urination or eating, the state must also recognise that sexuality is a powerful means of expressing individuality, and must therefore be heavily controlled

sometimes in the book sex a mere physical act, but sometimes it is an expression of love, like that between D-503 and I-330

the times when sex becomes more than a biological function reminds us that there are some things the state can’t completely stamp out, we’ll always need sex and the connection it brings

Question 29

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

D-503

Answer 29

a kind of microcosm of the greater society that created him, he embodies their philosophy of complete submission to the State: of individuals proudly and happily serving as cogs in a giant machine

he is the chief architect of the Integral and constantly praises the State whenever he can

the story covers his transition away from obedient automaton and into full-bore humanity, it’s a frightening process, and one he’s not sure he wants: he often refers to his emerging emotion in terms we normally associate with a contagious disease: “I continue to believe that I shall recover” – rebellion being associated with illness and disease

he doesn’t see anything wrong with having no emotions, or functioning as a little piece of a big engine, we see no love or passion in him, we see nothing that he fears or hates, nothing that inspires him beyond the State itself

Question 30

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

D-503’s downfall

Answer 30

by the end he willingly undergoes an operation to get rid of his emotions, which perhaps shows the ability of the state to beat the ‘individual’, and after the operation, he reverts back to his former state of “purity” and cannot fathom why anyone would oppose the state

“I hope we will win. More than that: I know we will win. Because reason should win”

the sad tragedy of the book is that after everything, he has slipped back into the same state of mindless automation that he started at – similarity to Winston being defeated in 1984

Question 31

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

a catastrophe leading to the current regime

Answer 31

the characters live in a world that is ruled by “the Machine” and have been living underground due to the unsuitable conditions at the Earth’s surface

Question 32

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

isolation and lack of human connection

Answer 32

most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth, so each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine

travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary, while communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine

real human interaction rarely takes place

Question 33

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

worship of a higher power, blind faith

Answer 33

over many years the people below the surface began to change and worship the Machine

Technopoly, a kind of religion, is re-established, in which the Machine is the object of worship, people forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own

the Mending Apparatus—the system charged with repairing defects that appear in the Machine proper—eventually fails, but concerns about this are dismissed in the context of the supposed omnipotence of the Machine itself

Question 34

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

lack of individual thought

Answer 34

with all thoughts on the machine, new ideas and thoughts are shunned and so is human interaction

Vashti is content with her life, which, like most inhabitants of the world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing second-hand ‘ideas’

the life support apparatus required to visit the outer world is abolished, most welcome this development, as they are sceptical and fearful of first-hand experience and of those who desire it

Question 35

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

rebellion and resistance

Answer 35

Kuno is a sensualist and a rebel

he persuades a reluctant Vashti to endure the journey (and the resultant unwelcome personal interaction) to his room, he then tells her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world

he confides to her that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission, and that he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine

Question 36

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

silencing and punishment of those who resist and refuse to conform

Answer 36

the Machine recaptures Kuno, and he is threatened with ‘Homelessness’: expulsion from the underground environment and presumed death

those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as ‘unmechanical’ and threatened with Homelessness

Question 37

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

overreliance on technology

Answer 37

defects begin to appear in the Machine and at first, humans accept the deteriorations as the whim of the Machine, to which they are now wholly subservient, but the situation continues to deteriorate, as the knowledge of how to repair the Machine has been lost

the Machine apocalyptically collapses, bringing ‘civilization’ down with it

before they perish, they realise that humanity and its connection to the natural world are what truly matter, and that it will fall to the surface-dwellers who still exist to rebuild the human race and to prevent the mistake of the Machine from being repeated

E.M. Foster’s The Machine Stops argues that a world controlled by technology will eventually turn catastrophic for the human race

Question 38

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

loss of human connection and the destruction of human relationships

Answer 38

the machine in theory is an excellent idea and had saved the human race but under the surface there are many things wrong with the new underground society

the main issue seems to be isolation and little to no human contact — “The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms”

the people who live in the machine no longer communicate face to face but from monitor to monitor

this lack of human interaction has led to a dependency on the machine and has brain washed the people who live within it

Question 39

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

worship of a higher power

Answer 39

“I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine.” “Oh Hush!” said his mother, vaguely shocked. “You mustn’t say anything against the machine”

Vashti and most of the other people inside the Machine fear it and even refuse to speak bad about it in fear of their own lives, or perhaps this is because they genuinely respect and worship the Machine

the people have come to worship the Machine as some sort of diety — the words “Machine”, “Book” and “Committee” are capitalised, symbolising a higher authority figure or God-like diety

the “re-establishment” of religion — this society knows that the Book was made by humans but seems to be referring to it as something that is of a higher power

this shows a form of faith that the society has in the Machine even though humans built with the technology they had obtained

concerns about the failing of the Machine are dismissed in the context of the supposed omnipotence of the Machine itself

Question 40

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

over reliance on technology

Answer 40

The Machine Stops argues that an over reliance on technology will end up leading to a society that has no chance of survival

throughout the story, isolation because of technology has led to little human interaction and an over reliance on machines

even though humans created the machine, they worship it as a power that is unmatched and invincible — technology ended up replacing any other authority figures for this society including religious figures such as gods or kings

it is clear that when society relies too much on technology, the technology will overtake the people, then collapse, leaving behind the ruins of a civilisation

people will become complacent, and they will not realize that the Machine has taken control of every aspect of life and necessity — this leads the people to believe everything they are told, and by the time they realise that technology is corrupt, it is far too late

Question 41

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

desensitisation to violence

Answer 41

Alex and his gang assault a scholar walking home from the public library; rob a store, leaving the owner and his wife bloodied and unconscious; beat up a beggar; then scuffle with a rival gang

they then break into an isolated cottage and terrorise the young couple living there, beating the husband and raping his wife

Alex visits a record store, where he meets two pre-teen girls, he invites them back to the flat, where he drugs and rapes them

Question 42

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

(stripping away of free will, conditioning, destruction of human nature, the need for a perfect society, brainwashing and indoctrination)

Answer 42

Alex is chosen to undergo an experimental behaviour modification treatment called the Ludovico Technique in exchange for having the remainder of his sentence commuted

the technique is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is injected with nausea-inducing drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence

as an unintended consequence, the soundtrack to one of the films, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, renders Alex unable to enjoy his beloved classical music as before

the prison chaplain accuses the state of stripping Alex of his free will

Question 43

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

power of the state to always triumph over the individual

Answer 43

Alex’a old violent impulses have returned, indicating that the hospital doctors have undone the effects of his conditioning

he finds himself half-heartedly preparing for yet another night of crime with a new gang but finds himself taking less and less pleasure in acts of senseless violence and begins contemplating giving up crime himself to become a productive member of society and start a family of his own

his thoughts about giving up crime give hope that deep rooted violence in human beings can be overcome

however, it also demonstrates the power of the state over the individual and seems to demonstrate that the state will always triumph and succeed

it can be argued that the transformation Alex experiences is hard-earned and long overdue; it is also freely chosen and deeply personal for him

Question 44

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

destruction and loss of free will

Answer 44

Alex is placed into an experimental treatment program called “the Ludovico Technique” where he is brainwashed into feeling deep nausea whenever he is exposed to anything violent

this has the effect of turning a formerly dangerous criminal into a risk-averse shadow of his former self — he’s so physically revolted by the idea of violence that he’d rather suffer himself than put anyone in harm’s way

in other words: he’s lost his free will

the Government believes that the stability of the State trumps the happiness of its citizens, and readily abolishes moral choice (a fundamental human trait) in the name of stability

Alex fights vehemently against the notion that his freedom to choose should be compromised at all, as free will is what makes him human to begin with — a central part of being human is free will

while Alex has freedom of choice, he is as human as possible, but when Alex is rendered unable to choose violence, due to the Ludovico Technique, Burgess sends the message that he is no longer human, but a mere clockwork orange

key questions — is moral depravity better than forced morality? are evil and suffering (freely chosen and caused by people) better than a docile, peaceful state (engineered by the Government)?

Question 45

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

manipulation and government control

Answer 45

the Government in A Clockwork Orange will do anything to ensure its own survival, as well as the stability of the State

it employs questionable scientific techniques in order to manipulate its citizens into becoming moral exemplars

the manipulation technique used on Alex is, essentially, behavioural modification through associative learning

the Government seeks to suppress individuals and individual choice in favour of the stability of the State, largely to ensure its own survival

so it is prepared to do anything necessary, including distributing propaganda and censorship, employing morally questionable scientific techniques to “reform” criminals, and employing criminals as state patrol to threaten other citizens (and potential political dissidents)

Question 46

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

the silencing of opposition

Answer 46

the State does not tolerate dissent and anything or anyone that threatens its stability

it has begun to incarcerate dissidents like F Alexander who aim to rouse public opinion against it and thus threaten its stability

demonstrates the silencing of opposition and the state’s need for absolute orthodoxy

Question 47

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

the state seeks power above all else rather than having benevolent motives

Answer 47

the main idea behind the Ludovico technique is that it makes the population both calm and grateful

it’s less about reducing crime than it is about making sure that the voting public understands who is to thank for the sudden crime reduction

Question 48

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

the protagonist perpetuating the regime’s absolute control and aiding those in power

Answer 48

the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” like Guy Montag burn any that are found as well as the possessions of those who read these outlawed books

this is much like Winston in 1984, he is a tool of the state and plays a part in perpetuating the censorship and absolute control of the regime

Question 49

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

rebellion and resistance

Answer 49

Guy Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge

he eventually quits his job and commits himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings

while at work with the other firemen ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman before the inevitable burning, Montag steals a book before any of his co-workers notice, he later hides this under his pillow when he returns home

Montag reveals to Mildred that, over the last year, he has accumulated a stash of books that he has kept hidden in the air-conditioning duct in their ceiling — he tells her that the two of them are going to read the books to see if they have value

Montag hides his books in the backyard before returning to the firehouse late at night with just the stolen Bible, he hands Beatty the book to cover for the one he believes Beatty knows he stole the night before, but keeps all his other ones — continued resistance, even after being suspected by his superior

Montag obeys the chief, destroying the home piece by piece with a flamethrower, but Beatty discovers Montag’s ear-piece and plans to hunt down Faber so Montag threatens Beatty with the flamethrower and, after Beatty taunts him, burns his boss alive and knocks his co-workers unconscious

Question 50

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

another character spurring the protagonist’s rebellion

Answer 50

while returning from work, he meets his new neighbour, a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan

her free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and his own perceived happiness

Montag overhears Clarisse and her family talking about the way life is in this hedonistic, illiterate society and his mind is bombarded with Clarisse’s subversive thoughts

would Montag have started down his rebellious path of self-doubt, guilt, and illegalities if it hadn’t been for Clarisse? wasn’t he already “different,” before she came along? or was it her subversive thoughts that sparked his own?

she questions Montag about his job (How long have you been a fireman? Why do you do it?), questions that no one else in his position would ever be willing to answer

her constant questioning and subversive thoughts push Montag, already-doubt-ridden, over the edge, Clarisse never tells Montag what to think; she just shows him that thinking is an option, she invites him to do it for himself, and he walks through the door she opens

Question 51

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

isolation and the outsider

Answer 51

Clarisse faithfully meets Montag each night as he walks home

she tells him about how her simple pleasures and interests make her an outcast among her peers and how she is forced to go to therapy for her behaviour and thoughts

Montag looks forward to these meetings, and just as he begins to expect them, Clarisse goes missing and he senses something is wrong

Clarisse McClellan is an outsider in this society – she likes nature, she isn’t into violence or TV, and she’s not into vacant socializing, she’s interested in odd things, which is what draws her to Montag – he’s a fireman without the typical fireman qualities

Clarisse dies – perhaps suggesting that in this world, people like Clarisse cannot survive for long, she is incompatible with her surroundings and doesn’t fit in

Question 52

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

resistance from other characters

Answer 52

the woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing to light a match and burn herself alive instead

Question 53

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

the destruction of knowledge, mindless consumerism, complacency, lack of individual thought

Answer 53

Captain Beatty, Montag’s fire chief, recounts the history of how books lost their value and how the firemen were adapted for their current role

over the course of several decades, people began to embrace new media (in this case, film and television), sports, and an ever-quickening pace of life

books were ruthlessly abridged or degraded to accommodate short attention spans

yet comic books, trade papers, and sex magazines remained, as these fed into the mainstream population’s desire for mindless entertainment

Question 54

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

firemen and burning books

Answer 54

advances in technology resulted in nearly all buildings being made out of fireproof materials, and the traditional role of firemen in preventing fires was no longer necessary

the government instead turned the firemen into officers of the state: instead of putting out fires they became responsible for starting them, specifically for the purpose of burning books

books were condemned as sources of confusing and depressing thoughts that only complicated people’s lives

Question 55

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

(the importance of books and literature in giving us knowledge and allowing us to think freely, without them we become mindless and complacent drones)

Answer 55

Montag and Mildred discuss the stolen books, and Mildred refuses to go along with it, questioning why she or anyone else should care about books

Montag goes on a rant about Mildred’s suicide attempt, Clarisse’s disappearance and death, the old woman who burned herself, and the imminent threat of war that goes ignored by the masses

he suggests that perhaps the books of the past have messages that can save society from its own destruction and that the knowledge they contain are crucial

Question 56

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

mindless entertainment, lack of individual thought, distractions, numbing of the mind, dependence on technology

Answer 56

Mildred’s friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, arrive to watch the “parlor walls”

Montag turns off the walls and tries to engage the women in meaningful conversation, only for them to reveal just how indifferent and ignorant they really are

Montag watches as Mildred walks out of their house being burned down, too traumatized about losing her parlor wall family to even acknowledge her husband’s existence or the situation going on around her

Question 57

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

people not being as the first seem, the state corrupting people and changing them

Answer 57

Beatty tells Montag that he had a dream in which they fought endlessly by quoting books to each other

thus, Beatty reveals that, despite his position as the fire chief, he was once an enthusiastic reader

Question 58

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

betrayal, mistrust, destruction of family connection and loyalty

Answer 58

a fire alarm sounds and they drive to the destination, which happens to be Montag’s house

Beatty orders Montag to destroy his own house, telling him that his wife and her friends reported him after what happened the other night when he recited the poem Dover Beach

Question 59

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

silencing of opposition and those who do not adhere to the norm

Answer 59

the exiled book-lovers live in the countryside

Montag meets the exiled drifters, led by a man named Granger — they are all former intellectuals

they have each memorized books should the day arrive that society comes to an end and is forced to rebuild itself anew, with the survivors learning to embrace the literature of the past

Question 60

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

hope for the future, rebuilding of society

Answer 60

Montag and the group of exiles watch helplessly as bombers fly overhead and annihilate the city with nuclear weapons: the imminent war has begun and ended in the same night

everyone else is immediately killed, while Montag and the group are injured and dirtied, but manage to survive the shockwave

Granger teaches Montag and the others about the legendary phoenix and its endless cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth — he adds that the phoenix must have some relationship to mankind, which constantly repeats its mistakes, but explains that man has something the phoenix does not: mankind can remember its mistakes and try never to repeat them

the exiles then return to the city to rebuild society

Question 61

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

censorship, control and restriction of knowledge

Answer 61

in this world, books are banned? but not only are they banned — if anyone is caught with books in their possession, the fire department burn their house and all their belongings to the ground

arguably, in Fahrenheit 451, the content of books does not matter; the process of reading and thinking does – banning books is a way to curb individual thought and prevent the people possessing any knowledge that could lead them to resist the regime

because books present so many varying perspectives, it’s up to the individual not just to read, but to read and think, therefore books lead to individual thought which is what the regime is trying to suppress, and does so by burning books

Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a world of strict rules and order where books are illegal, free thought is essentially prohibited, and activities are tightly organised

Question 62

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

complacency and complicity

Answer 62

much of the restrictions on the general populous are self-enforced

the government has taken away the citizens’ ability to dissent and veiled all dissatisfaction with a cheap version of “happiness,” aka television

this means that little external regulation is required, as the citizens conform contentedly to the status quo – the tendency for people to remain complacent and ignorant of their own oppression

Beatty is a villain not for his book burning, but for his philosophy as he is the only character to understand the ramifications of his work and revel in it anyway

Question 63

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

technology and modernisation

Answer 63

television is responsible for replacing literature, intellectualism, and curiosity

it has also become a substitute for family, friendship, and any sort of real conversation — for example, Mildred calls the TV her “family”

the TV reigns supreme in the future because of the “happiness” it offers, people are happier when they don’t have to think

technology is the government’s means of oppression and control, but also provides the rebel’s opportunity to subvert, by not watching TV – as sex does in 1984 and THT

the novel’s main concern seems to be the perversion of the natural world by man’s use of technology

technology like the Mechanical Hound and advancements like the many-walled TV parlour define the futuristic setting and act as a warning against the dangers and abuse of technology

Question 64

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

knowledge

Answer 64

in Fahrenheit 451, wisdom and knowledge are gained through both experience and scholarship

most important is critical thinking and challenging ideas rather than accepting them as absolutely correct

mentors and teachers are integral to this process, not only for passing on knowledge but for opening the door to independent thought – Montag receives such guidance from Clarisse, Faber, and Granger, who all pass on their wisdom and knowledge of books to Montag

Fahrenheit 451 proves that books are integral to learning and knowledge, without them we lack the ability to think freely and are limited to the knowledge given to us by those in power

Question 65

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

violence

Answer 65

undercurrent of violence throughout the book – teenagers kill each other, TV is filled with violence, even driving a car brings on the crazed thirst for speed and destruction and the fires that destroy people’s homes are repeatedly described as “beautiful”

violence is an outlet, and the cravings for such behaviour mark the dissatisfaction of the general populous

this is very similar to how violence in 1984 and THT is sanctioned by the regime in rituals like the Two Minutes Hate and the Particicution, which is designed to allow people to displace their feelings of anger and frustration, so that they are never directed at the regime itself

Question 66

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

identity

Answer 66

the crisis of identity is at the core of Fahrenheit 451 – as Montag learns from a series of mentors and teachers, he sees his own identity melding with that of his instructors

this is also a means of scapegoating because if your identity is not entirely your own, then you are not entirely responsible for your actions

the people are uniform and lack individual identities, they blindly comply with the regime’s censorship and control and do not think for themselves

when Montag can’t deal with the guilt of being a ‘traitor’, he has an identity crisis which begins when Clarisse asks him if he’s happy and Montag feels “his body divide itself” – he imagines that his new, rebellious half isn’t him at all, but is actually Clarisse and when he speaks, he imagines her talking through his mouth

when Faber ends up inside Montag’s head via the earpiece, we see more confusion of identity, Montag even distances himself from his own hands, which in his mind are the dirty culprits breaking all the rules: his hands act, he doesn’t

Question 67

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

dissatisfaction

Answer 67

everybody seems to be happy – they watch TV all day, they’re never forced to face anything unpleasant, and they’re never truly bothered by anything

but under the surface, most people are horribly dissatisfied but unwilling to admit it. Why else would Mildred try to overdose on all those pills?

the deep dissatisfaction that runs through the population is subdued by mindless activity and an insistence on happiness, both on the part of the government and the citizens themselves

Question 68

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

the protagonist as an outsider, engages in rebellious activity

Answer 68

Montag has inklings that all is not right with his world even before he meets Clarisse, and his actions show this

for one, he doesn’t turn in a clearly renegade individual (Faber, whom he met in the park spewing poetry), and he’s been hiding away books behind his ventilator grill for quite some time now

he’s inquisitive, intelligent, and free-thinking

in his world, these traits are all highly illegal and in his mind, he’s a traitor

at times he is not even aware of why he does things, feeling that his hands are acting by themselves - these subconscious actions can be quite horrific, such as when he finds himself setting his supervisor on fire, but they also represent his deepest desires to rebel against the status quo and find a meaningful way to live

Question 69

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

the protagonist being imperfect

Answer 69

Montag is by no means a perfect hero

the reader can sympathize with Montag’s mission, but the steps he takes toward his goal often seem clumsy and misguided

faced with the enormity and complexity of books for the first time, he is often confused, frustrated, and overwhelmed

as a result, he has difficulty deciding what to do independently of Beatty, Mildred, or Faber – similar to Winston

Question 70

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

in what ways is Montag rebellious?

Answer 70

he is curious about books, questions the system and takes action by reading

Question 71

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

complacent characters, representing the average citizen

Answer 71

Mildred Montag helps us understand the status quo so we can appreciate the deviation from it, acting as a foil to highlight the significance of Montag’s actions

she’s bland, vacant, and obsessed with television

attempts suicide, showing her to be deeply unhappy, she’s severely bothered by the fact that her life is empty and filled with hours of mindless television

she represents the average citizen in this future world, so her dissatisfaction suggests that there is widespread dissatisfaction beneath the complacency of the masses, they are just unwilling to, or perhaps lack the capacity to, question the regime

Question 72

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

a source of hope and knowledge in the book

Answer 72

Granger has made peace with his own rebellious inklings and devised a system to indulge them – all without getting killed (an impressive feat in this novel)

it is Granger who divulges the novel’s lesson about life being cyclic - mankind builds up a body of knowledge and then he destroys it and falls into a dark age

but Granger remains hopeful: “The wonderful thing about man,” says Granger, “he never gets so discouraged… that he gives up”

Granger’s words stay with Montag (and with the reader) even after the city is bombed to the ground, a source of hope and knowledge in the book

the phoenix is a symbol of hope, rebirth and new beginnings – gives us hope at the end of the novel that society can be rebuilt

after the bombing of the city, Granger compares mankind to a phoenix that burns itself up and then rises out of its ashes over and over again

Question 73

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

the use of technology to control society

Answer 73

Brave New World warns of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies

one illustration of this theme is the rigid control of reproduction through technological and medical intervention, including the surgical removal of ovaries, the Bokanovsky Process, and hypnopaedic conditioning

another is the creation of complicated entertainment machines that generate both harmless leisure and the high levels of consumption and production that are the basis of the World State’s stability

soma is a third example of the kind of medical, biological, and psychological technologies that Brave New World criticizes most sharply

Question 74

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

the incompatibility of happiness and truth, numbing of the mind to avoid facing reality, ignorance and complacency

Answer 74

Brave New World is full of characters who do everything they can to avoid facing the truth about their own situations

the almost universal use of the drug soma is probably the most pervasive example of such wilful self-delusion

soma clouds the realities of the present and replaces them with happy hallucinations, and is thus a tool for promoting social stability

but even Shakespeare can be used to avoid facing the truth, as John demonstrates by his insistence on viewing Lenina through the lens of Shakespeare’s world, first as a Juliet and later as an “impudent strumpet”

Question 75

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

the prioritisation of happiness and stability over truth and freedom

Answer 75

according to Mustapha Mond, the World State prioritizes happiness at the expense of truth and awareness: he believes that people are better off with happiness than with truth – ignorance is bliss

the World State controls and muffles all efforts by citizens to gain any sort of scientific, or empirical truth

it also attempts to destroy all kinds of “human” truths, such as love, friendship, and personal connection

the search for truth also seems to involve a great deal of individual effort, of striving and fighting against odds, the very will to search for truth is an individual desire that the communal society of Brave New World, based as it is on anonymity and lack of thought, cannot allow to exist

Question 76

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

the dangers of an all-powerful state

Answer 76

like George Orwell’s 1984, this novel depicts a dystopia in which an all-powerful state controls the behaviours and actions of its people in order to preserve its own stability and power

but a major difference between the two is that, whereas in 1984 control is maintained by constant government surveillance, secret police, and torture, power in Brave New World is maintained through technological interventions that start before birth and last until death, and that actually change what people want

the government of 1984 maintains power through force and intimidation, whereas the government of Brave New World retains control by making its citizens so happy and superficially fulfilled that they don’t care about their personal freedom

in Brave New World the consequences of state control are a loss of dignity, morals, values, and emotions—in short, a loss of humanity

Question 77

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

examples of total government control and power, lack of free will and autonomy

Answer 77

the Controllers who govern the World State have maximized human happiness by using advanced technology to shape and control society

people are grown in bottles and brainwashed in their sleep during childhood, as a result, the citizens of the World State are physically and psychologically conditioned to be happy with their place in society and the work they are assigned

every citizen belongs to a “caste,” ranging from highly intelligent and physically strong Alphas to Epsilon “semi-morons”

all citizens have instant access to pleasures of all kinds and they are conditioned and socially encouraged to be sexually promiscuous

whenever citizens do experience an unpleasant feeling, they are encouraged to take soma, a drug which provides a “holiday” from negative emotion

Question 78

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

worship of a higher power

Answer 78

“My Ford,” “Year of Our Ford,” etc

throughout Brave New World, the citizens of the World State substitute the name of Henry Ford, the early twentieth-century industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, for Christ or God

this demonstrates that even at the level of casual conversation and habit, religion has been replaced by reverence for technology—specifically the efficient, mechanized factory production of goods that Henry Ford pioneered

Question 79

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

alienation and the outsider

Answer 79

the motif of alienation provides a counterpoint to the motif of total conformity that pervades the World State

Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, and John are alienated from the World State, each for his own reasons

Bernard is alienated because he is a misfit, too small and powerless for the position he has been conditioned to enjoy

Helmholtz is alienated for the opposite reason: he is too intelligent even to play the role of an Alpha Plus

John is alienated on multiple levels and at multiple sites: not only does the Indian community reject him, but he is both unwilling and unable to become part of the World State

the motif of alienation is one of the driving forces of the narrative: it provides the main characters with their primary motivations

Question 80

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

commodification of human beings

Answer 80

Never Let Me Go takes place in a society where the lives of ordinary citizens are prolonged through a state-sanctioned program of human cloning

the clones grow up in special institutions away from the outside world and as young adults, they begin to donate their vital organs

all “donors” receive care from designated “carers,” clones who have not yet begun the donation process

the clones continue to donate organs until they “complete,” which is a euphemism for death after the donation of three or four organs

Question 81

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

passivity and acceptance of fate

Answer 81

Miss Lucy, one of the guardians, tells the students that they are clones who were created to donate organs to others, and after their donations they will die young

Miss Lucy is removed from the school as a result of her disclosure, but the students passively accept their fate

Question 82

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

sheltered, isolated and restricted lives

Answer 82

Ruth, Tommy and Kathy move to the Cottages when they are 16 years old and this is the first time they are allowed in the outside world, yet they keep to themselves most of the time

Question 83

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

power of memory, fixation on the past

Answer 83

the novel ends after Tommy’s “completion”, where Kathy, seeking a quiet life, drives up to Norfolk and briefly fantasizes about everything she remembers

Kathy copes with the losses in her life by turning to memories of the past, she preserves the memory of Hailsham long after it has closed and often reminisces about her time spent there, just as she preserves her memories of Tommy and Ruth long after their deaths

the novel’s title epitomizes this desire to hold on, the phrase “never let me go” is somewhere between a plea and a demand, reflecting a deeply human need to hold onto, and be held by, loved ones - Kathy’s memories are her way of holding onto everyone and everything she has lost

Question 84

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

unreliable memory

Answer 84

however, Kathy’s memory is also fragmented and somewhat incomplete, her narrative is a process of recovery and an attempt to make sense of her memories – much like Offred

she admits to forgetting and misremembering details, showing that memory is just as fragile as it is powerful

her first-person narration also highlights the absence of other characters’ memories, Ruth and Tommy only appear as reflected through Kathy’s memory, which means that their own thoughts and motivations remain somewhat ambiguous

Question 85

The Time Machine by H G Wells

weakness and stupidity of people, overreliance on technology, safety

Answer 85

the Time Traveller sits on a hill and looks out at the world, which looks peaceful, like a garden

he starts to come up with a theory about how things came to be the way they are, he believes that strength and smarts are only useful when you have to deal with hardship and danger

so when everything is fine and people live in comfort, there’s no reason to be strong, the safer life is, the less strength you need

the people of the future have made things so safe with technology that they’ve become weak and stupid – similarity to BNW

he looks down on the Eloi, who don’t realize that they are like cattle and becomes upset about the passing of human intelligence, calling it suicide: people were smart enough to make the world a more comfortable place – but as the world got more comfortable, people became less smart

Question 86

The Time Machine by H G Wells

class divides, hierarchy

Answer 86

the Time Traveller realises that there are two different species of humans in the future

there are the graceful but dumb child-like people who live aboveground, and there are the horrible monster-like people who live underground

he gives these two groups of people their names: the aboveground people are the Eloi; the belowground people are Morlocks (he theorises that the Eloi are the descendants of aristocrats and the Morlocks are the descendants of the working class)

the Time Traveller first thought that the Eloi were kept in idiotic comfort by machines, then he thought the Eloi were the masters of the Morlocks, but ow he thinks the Morlocks are in charge in some way and soon realises that Morlocks eat Eloi

clearly, the Morlocks ran out of food, and so they turned to the obvious replacement: the Eloi

Question 87

The Time Machine by H G Wells

society and class

Answer 87

when the Time Traveller jumps into the far future, he finds a society where the Eloi play all day and don’t do any work, it looks much better than the Time Traveller’s own time, which is full of conflict and anxiety over the issue of class – who has to do work and who gets to profit from the work of others

however, the future stops looking appealing to the Time Traveller when he realizes that the class conflict and class structure of his time have merely evolved rather than being erased

in both cases, the working class tends to be invisible or hard to find - in the 1890s setting, the working classes are practically invisible, we spend most of our time with the Time Traveller and his professional friends, all of whom seem fairly well off and we hardly see or hear anything about the servants, who are definitely there behind the scenes making this life of leisure possible

in the future, this division of social class comes out in the split between the Eloi and the Morlocks, while the Eloi live easy lives, free from work, the Morlocks live in the dark, underground and work

so, while the future might look like an exaggeration of the 19th century, the novel is making a suggestion about where humans are heading

Question 88

The Time Machine by H G Wells

dehumanisation

Answer 88

the Time Traveller describes the Eloi as very beautiful and graceful, as having “hectic beauty” and being “pretty little people”, but refers to the Morlocks as “human spiders”, “new vermin” and “nauseatingly inhuman” – similar to how Winston sees the proles as less than

like Winston and his admiration at how the proles have retained their humanity, the Time Traveller grows to admire something about the Morlocks because unlike the Eloi, they are not lazy and idiotic, he says they are “retained…more initiative”

Question 89

other dystopian texts to compare to

Answer 89

The Long Walk by Stephen King

Black Mirror by Charlie Brooker

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Children of Men by PD James

A Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K Dick

The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson