Oppression by the Government
Literature
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Oppression by the Government
V for Vendetta by Allan Moore is a political graphical novel. The main character is V who is a revolutionist and freedom fighter (Moore). The government of the time is ruled and is full of dictatorship such that the citizens get spied on whatever they are doing. The act of spying against the citizens demeans the freedom as well as the rights of the citizens, and this triggers the call for a revolution in the quest of the government to respect the rights of the citizens to which have been infringed. In this, we get to understand that V for Vendetta is a societal based piece that prompts us not to forget our rights as citizens and therefore we have to keep the government on toes for the guarantee of our freedom and rights.
In V for Vendetta, each of the different institutions of the NorseFire government gets to be named after the different parts of the body (Moore). The head represents the leader’s offices at the Downing Street that happens to be the real-life location headquarters for the authoritative body of NoseFire. The eye represents the surveillance which was mainly dispatched to work along with the ear so that the senior departments such as the head and the finger would maintain the grip on power and the people of Britain and was eventually destroyed by V with a bomb. The finger represented the law enforcement, the implication of the different names is basically that the government in itself is a human body. The mouth was the propaganda division of the NorseFire government, the nose was the investigation department and consisted of the rebranded police force. The ear was the audio surveillance division and was dispatched to work alongside the eye in the chancellor’s quest for power and tighten his grip over the public but was later destroyed by V.
V is fighting for the freedom of the people an idea he believes that the government is corrupt and is led by its interests rather than those of the people. The NosrFire government has forgotten the reason why it was elected neglecting the people and this angers V where he initiates the journey to unveil and eliminate the corrupt leaders calling the people to stand against the monstrous government for their freedom to be achieved. In this quest, he blows major buildings in an attempt the Norsefire government. The concentration camps are used for the settlement of the men who are considered impure, where the scientists developed a deadly virus and tested it on the people in the camps, thus it was more like a laboratory for the scientific experiments.
The citizens are in fear of persecution as they are powerless, almost all the people in power possess the most fear as indicated in the film. The NorseFire government use the technique of fear intimidating the people to gain power. On multiple occasions, the news explains that the government is there for the people ensuring their protection and for their good. The reality later dawns that the government causes all the events to which possess the motive of making the people believe that they need the government for protection. Stories were also made to cover up the weaknesses of the government and anything that made it seem like its authority was weakening, for example, the cover-up of the first explosion. The government does so because they are afraid of not being under control of every event that happens. The chancellor, Sutler, and Greedy were among the people in power and to whom were subjects of being in fear of criticizing the government (Moore). The idea of the fox masks was to act as a shield against the power of fear over the people as with the conditioning power of fear, the people were unable to express their true standings, morals, and values and they had to put the masks every day to conform into the society’s ways. The idea of wearing the mask was to hide their true identity as if a person could be unmasked, he or she could be in the risk of persecution and this made the people live in fear and felt safe with the protection of the mask.
Due to the increased terrorist activities that V had triggered, the government to further control and instilling fear to its people puts into effect a curfew to which all the regular citizens are subject to, and the onset of the curfew is announced via the vintage looking loudspeakers.
“Yellow coded curfew is now in place. Any unauthorized personnel will be subject to arrest; this is for your protection” (Moore).
That was a similar message that was used to instill fear in the people in the claim that the NorseFire government was in protection of its citizens.
In the V for Vendetta, young girls like Evey are forced to consider prostitution due to poverty that has been associated with them. In the case of Evey, she is an orphan as her mother died in a nuclear war attack and her father was arrested and prosecuted by the NorseFire government (Moore). Due to this situation, she is forced to work in different environments to which does not keep her financially stable and eventually she decides to become a prostitute. On 5th of November is the day of the failed gunpowder plot where the protagonist V decides to bring down the dystopian government that was led by NorseFire.
It is important for Evey to remain V as is anonymous and his identity is unknown. The scrutiny by the government in the citizen’s affairs may not work well considering that Evey resisted the rape against the police officer to whom she was secured by V. Therefore to fight for her rights she has to remain unnoticed to avoid persecution just like her father. The continuation of V is an endless cycle in the fact that the government of the time was used in spying its citizens and infringing on their rights. The same characteristics are evident in the current governments to which they enact laws to spy on its people, the rights of the people are infringed, and the aspects of corruption and dictatorship are also prominent in the leadership of today.
Work Cited
Moore, Alan. V for Vendetta. Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2006.
