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Transcript

CONSTRUCTION ET EXPRESSION DE SOI

How does a totalitarian regime destroy the individual ?

Articles and testimonies on totalitarianism(East Germany + Czechoslovakia)

1984 - George Orwell, 1949 (Extracts)

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood, 1985

The Giver - Phillip Noyce, 2014

"At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display,had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features. [...] On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one ofthose pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran. Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of figures which had something to do with the production of pig-iron. The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. [...] Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The blackmoustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston’s own. Down at street level another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single word INGSOC."

1984 EXTRACT

propaganda

1984 EXTRACT

"In your ear you’d prefer to stick to Oldspeak, with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don’t grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?” [...] “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidily defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. [...] By 2050 earlier, probably – all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disapperead. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron – they’ll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be. Even the literature of the Party will change. Even the slogans will change. How could you have a slogan like “freedom is slavery” when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now."

newspeak

1984 EXTRACT

"Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vi- sion which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

telescreen

TEXTES NON-LITTERAIRES

Atwood on the totalitarianism in The Handmaid's Tale - Simon Houpt - The Globe and Mail - April 28, 2017 :

"When the original film adaptation came out, she and the filmmakers held two screenings, one in West Germany and the other in East Germany. The Berlin Wall was in the midst of being dismantled, she recalled. "And the reaction of the audiences was very different." "In West Germany, they're talking about aesthetics and directing and, you know, colour choices and biographies and things like that." In East Germany, "they watched it very, very intently. And they said, 'This was our life.' They meant the feeling that you couldn't trust anyone." "There were a lot of people reporting on a lot of people. Not because they were women and not because they were men, but because that's what happens in totalitarianisms.""

"Imperceptibly but irresistibly, not deliberately but inevitably, given the form of economics engendered by the totalitarian system, everything begins to resemble everything else: the buildings, the clothing, the workplaces, the public decorations, public transport, the forms of entertainment, the behaviour of people in public and in their own houses. This general standardisation of public and private spaces is a faithful reflection of the deep intentions of the totalitarian system and it necessarily has a standardising effect on the way of life and its rhythms, narrowing the range of alternatives and the sphere of desires and aversions, of sensual experience and taste. It flattens the world in which people live. In such an environment, uniqueness languishes and stories become interchangeable."

"There are two immediate ways in which totalitarian pressure surgically removes their historicity: directly, in other words through censorship and self-censorship, both of which have an extraordinarily evolved sensitivity to anything that might capture, in any essential way, the historical dimension of life; and indirectly, by the destruction of historicity in life itself. It is, of course, extraordinarily difficult to grasp the historic quality of a moment when a global attack on the very notion of history is taking place, because it means trying to tell the story of the loss of story, the story of asthma. This double pressure automatically forces a creative person to turn his attention to private life. And yet — as I've already said — private and public life today (particularly under totalitarianism) are inseparable; they are like two linked vessels, and one cannot very well capture one truthfully while ignoring the other. Private life without a historical horizon is pure fiction, a facade and ultimately a lie.

Stories and totalitarianism - Václav Havel - (Revolver Review) - April 1987 :

WHY DID I CHOSE IT ?

THE HANDMAID'S TALE

- Inside POV -> Offred's feelings = how she lives it -> badly (sad, intrusive thoughts, misses freedom, scared)- Representation of totalitarian regime -> dress code, opresive laws, propaganda (TV + wall of execution)- Separating induvidual from family and friends- Reducing the language to ready-made religious sentences = reduce free thought = reduce the chances of rebellion.

WHY DID I CHOSE IT ?

1984

- Inside POV -> feelings of Winston about his situation- Representation of totalitarian regime -> no privacy, propaganda, censorship- Newspeak = reduce the language = reduce free thought = reduce the chances of rebellion

WHY DID I CHOSE IT ?

ARTICLES - TESTIMONIES

- Censorship (3°) - No private life (3°)- Fear of others (1°)- Destruction of individuality (2°)

WHY DID I CHOSE IT ?

THE GIVER

- Inside POV -> feelings of Jonas- Deprived of feelings, thnigs that make their humanity- totalitarian regime -> dress code, assined functions, propaganda, no privacy

I) manipulatED

II) kEPT FROM THINKING

III) DEPRIVED OF what makes them human ?

Propaganda, threats (creates paranoia = tears people apart), censorship...

Dress code, repressive language, assigned functions...

No feelings, colors, no privacy... (thoughtcrime ?)

INTRODUCTION

CONCLUSION

I) manipulatED

handmaid's tale :

In the book, The Handmaid's Tale, the population is being manipulated by the government. Indeed, executions are a way for the leaders to scare the population and, this way, people abide by the law because they live in constant fear. This fear, creates a feeling of paranoia inside the populatio : people are scared to each other because they are scared of what hey could do to them. There is no unity between people, they are alone against each other. This destroy the individual as it make them become a survivor who does not trust anyone anymore and who is ready to do anything to survive. Moreover, propaganda is extremely present in the book. As a matter of fact, the only programs we can watch on the TV are about the war and how the army of Gilead saved the country against said ennemies (who are of course not at fault)DEVELOPPER

How does a totalitarian regime destroy the individual ?

The giver :

In this trailer we can really understand that peole are being manipulated. Indeed, every morning they have to take an injection which is said to be good for them while it is actually something that deprives them off their feelings, etc. They are manipulated into trusting the governement, whiwh convinces them they live in harmony and peace, while those are ony existing because of commiting murder and spying on the population. Moreover, they have to abide by different rules which seem to be really important for everyone. As a matter of fact, they have been taught from a very young age that they cannot disobey th rules or they would be punished. This manipulation of the population strars directly on childrens, in school.

1984 :

Constant propaganda + winston's job

II) kEPT FROM THINKING

How does a totalitarian regime destroy the individual ?

handmaid's tale :

In the book, the dress code has a really important place. Indeed, each individual from a diferent category has a diferent outifit they are imposed to wear. This is typical of a totalitarian regime as it keeps the individual from thinking and expressing their personality through the clothes they wear. Moreover, it puts them in a category they are forced to be into. This way people look like dolls who all look like each other and who we cannot distinguish. Everyone becomes the same. The thing of imposing the outfit keeps people from thinking as, in addition with other things, it becomes for them an autoatism to wear thoses clothes. They hardky feel like themselves anylore, they only do what they have been taught to do beause it would be to dangerous to go another way.

The giver :

We can see here that the population is kept from thinking as people are being assanied functions. They do not get to chose who they want to be anymore. They have to follow a path which has been choosen for them. This keeps them from developing as an individual as they cannot express their personnalty through who they are and what they do, anymore. Moreover, we notice there is also a dress code here, ruling the society, as in THT. People are not free to chose the way to dress as those kind of things are not considered important anymore and they can create conflict. This also keeps people from developping as an individual. Indeed, everyone has to look the same, it is impossible to distinguish people based on what they wear, we cannot learn anything about them, unless, maybe, their assigned function. In this society,, people are not free to be who they wish they were.

1984 :

newspeak

How does a totalitarian regime destroy the individual ?

III) DEPRIVED OF what makes them human

handmaid's tale :

In the book, Offred falls in love with Nick. Sadly for her, it is forbidden for her to fall in love and have a life with the person she loves because, from now on, she is only an "object". As a matter of fact, the only thing she can and has to do is bear children. That is her one and only function, and she has to remain as so. She cannot tak part in a love story anymore, those are only things from the past. She is not even considered a human being : she is her funtion and that alone. She cannot have a family and the children she bears are not considered her children, one bit. She is expected to have a cold heart, deprived of feelings.

The giver :

In this trailer, we notice that the characters actually cannot see colors or have feelings. Indeed, those aspect f humanity are being kept secret by the government in order to control the population. They do not even know about the existence of such things, they are like robots, they have never felt anything once in their lives. This regime is taking their humanity away from them in order for them to stay cooperative to a system which looks perfect but is actually biased. Moreover, they have no privacy, they are constantly spied on (outside, in their house, etc.) they can never be alone with themselves, they do not know what it is to have privacy. Once again, they are like robots, constantly controlled.

1984 :

No privacy

INTRODUCTION

In this oral presentation I am going to talk to you about the impact of a totalitarian regime on an individual. I am going to developpe on this subject, focusing on four diferent documents. The first one will be the book written by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, published in 1985. It tells us the story of a woman who is living in and trying to escape a totaltarian regime. The second document I will be talking about is an extract from the book 1984, written by George Orwell and published in 1948. It is the story of a man who lives in a totalitarian regime. Other documents I chose are extracts of article on testmonies of people who lived in totalitarian regimes. Finally, I will talk about the trailer of the movie "The Giver", directed by Philip Noyce and released in 2014. The movie is inspired by the book of the same name (written by Lois Lowry) and is a dystopia in which everyone thinks they are living a perfect life while they are in fact under the control of a totalitarian government. All of those documents are related to a totalitarian regime and allow us to see through the eyes of the people who lived in them. Basing myself on those documents, I will answer to the question : How does a totalitarian regime destroy the individual ? In the first place, I will talk about how the populations are being manipulated. Then, I will focus on how they are kept from thinking. Finally, we will see how people are kept from what makes their humanity.

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, we can say that a totalitarian regime destroys the individual by manipulating them to trust the government and distrusting other individuals. This leads to poeple living in fear and constantly worrying about going to prison or losing their lives. Moreover, individuals are being kept from thinking. This means they cannot resonate by themselves and express themselves anymore, they only follow the herd. Finally, in a totalitarian regime, individuals are often kept from things that make their humanity such as feelings or privacy. They are never alone with themselves, they do not feel anything. As they are not considered as humans, they hardly feel as so.