Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 Comparison to the Matrix Essay

Ray Bradburys novel Fahrenheit 451 speculates on a future society in which there is no real knowledge, just a faà §ade of lies because there are no testaments of truth, books. This book shares a plot much like that of the Warner Brothers blockbuster, Matrix, in which the human race is kept in the shadow of the truth by being put into a virtual reality. In both stories a destroyed civilization is being suppressed by an evil leader. Also, in both of these works have an average man rise from the ashes of his previous life and become instruments in the changing of the way life is. Of course, no story would be complete without the tenacious leaders who push the chosen ones to become what they are. Morpheus is the leader of the light, as is†¦show more content†¦with equipment to combat the lack of knowledge in the population. ?He picked up something no larger than a .22 bullet,? says Montag when Faber is giving Montag an earpiece to let Faber help him in whatever situation he may be in and to coach him through the process of his mission against the ignorance. Morpheus also combats their dark forces by uploading cool new programs to enhance his strengths. For example, Morpheus tells tank to upload fighting programs to Neo and Neo responds, ?I know kung-fu!? To illustrate another comparison of characters, Beatty, a chief of the fire station and promoter of the saying ?Ignorance is bliss,? is responsible for getting rid of knowledge and replicating his own ignorance onto others. Agent Smith does exactly the same action, replication, yet his action is literal. Beatty, the destroyer of knowledge and of enlightenment is totally and completely the same as Agent Smith in Matrix. Beatty knows the truth, what most do not know, about life, and what?s in books. Beatty talks up a storm to those in the dark and essentially turns others into a living copy of him. Both men are deliberately trying to put the world out of the loop by making all others just as they are. Agent Smith jabs his hand into an innocent and they are turned into him. Beatty has already put his thoughts into his fellow firemen and can be shown when Beatty explains his ideas at the greasy poker table. None of the men object to any word utteredShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Ray Bradbur y s Fahrenheit 451 And Film Techniques1421 Words   |  6 PagesContextual environments affect the way in which texts deal with the notion of truth and reality. This is substantiated with language techniques in Ray Bradbury s Fahrenheit 451 and film techniques in the Wachowski Brother s The Matrix, which are analogously established in dystopic versions of the future, illuminating the trepidations of the age in 1953 and 99 respectively. These texts share parallels in their themes such as conformity, censorship and subversive control, influenced by a communalRead MoreRay Bradbury s Fahrenheit 4512323 Words   |  10 Pagesis not accepted, or even worse, a detached society where emotions no longer exist. By reading the first few pages of Fahrenheit 451, readers immediately get the feeling of a dystopian society. Firemen creating fires, instead of extinguishing them, and technology that has taken their society to a whole new level of entertainment. These are exaggerated ideas right o ff the bat, yet Ray Bradbury carries the readers through the story in order to show them his own outlook on the future- in fact, all dystopian

Essay on George Orwells Shooting an Elephant - A Moral...

A Moral Dilemma in Orwells Shooting an Elephant nbsp; Unanticipated choices one is forced to make can have long-lasting effects. In Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell, the author recounts an event from his life when he was about twenty years old during which he had to choose the lesser of two evils. Many years later, the episode seems to still haunt him. The story takes place at some time during the five unhappy years Orwell spends as a British police officer in Burma. He detests his situation in life, and when he is faced with a moral dilemma, a valuable work animal has to die to save his pride. nbsp; Orwell is an unhappy young policeman who lives in mental isolation. He hates British imperialism, he hates†¦show more content†¦I was an obvious target and was baited, and when he is tripped during a soccer game, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter, which seriously assaults the ego of this young man. He says that . . . I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. Helping to oppress the Burmese causes him to feel guilty and to hate his job more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. While standing in this quagmire of hatred, Orwell encounters one of the defining moments of his life. nbsp; An innocent chain of events forces Orwell into a position in which he must choose between two undesirable options. When he goes to check a report that a tame elephant under the influence of must has broken loose and is causing damage, Orwell takes a medium caliber rifle which is much too small to kill an elephant, but I thought the noise might be useful in terrorem. Upon finding that a coolie has been killed by the elephant, Orwell trades his .44 rifle for a much larger gun simply for self-defense. This is a critical mistake; the Burmese who are following him assume that, since he now has an elephant gun, Orwell has decided to kill the elephant. The crowd quickly grows to over two thousand natives, which rattles Orwell. As he says, . . .it is always unnerving to have a crowd following you. This is especially true for a young representative of the Queen who knows the crowd willShow MoreRelated Moral Issues and Decisions in George Orwells Shooting an Elephant600 Words   |à ‚  3 PagesMoral Issues and Decisions in Shooting an Elephant      Throughout Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, he addresses his   internal battle with the issues of morality and immorality. He writes of several situations that show his immoral doings. When George Orwell signed up for a five-year position as a British officer in Burma he was unaware of the moral struggle that he was going to face. Likewise, he has an internal clash between his moral conscious and his immoral actions. Therefore, OrwellRead MoreAnalysis Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell988 Words   |  4 PagesEric Arthur Blair, or commonly known as George Orwell, is the author of many compositions. Blair, the author of two of the most famous novels of the 1920s; Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, was born in Eastern Indian. He joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma but resigned in 1927 to become a writer (BBC). Orwell’s style of writing can be described as bold and vivid. He puts the truth in his writing. Orwell’s novel, â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† was published in 1936. In the novel, a colonial policemanRead MoreShooting An Elephant Analysis730 Words   |  3 PagesGeorge Orwells 1936 Shooting an Elephant, is a nonfiction narrative essay about an incident that occurred during the time of Orwell’s service as a police officer in Burma. The essay is centered around an event in which he was forced to shoot an elephant, resulting in a battle between his own personal beliefs and the expectations of those around him. In human nature, often times, humans will play certain roles which are dictated by what others expect of them. Humans will adapt to the environmentRead MoreShooting an Elephant Literary Analysis895 Words   |  4 PagesInevitable Morals George Orwell’s 1930 short story â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† demonstrates the total dangers of the unlimited authority a state has and the astounding presentment of â€Å"future dystopia†. In the story, Orwell finds himself to be in an intricate situation that involves an elephant. Not only does the fate of the elephant’s life lie in Orwell’s hands, he has an audience of people behind him cheering him on, making his decision much more difficult to make. Due to the vast crowd surroundingRead MoreEssay on Orwell and Colonialism542 Words   |  3 PagesColonialism I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool. So ends George Orwells poignant reminiscence of an incident representing the imperialist British in Burma. Unlike Soyinka, who wrote about colonialism from the Africans point of view, Orwell, like Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, presents the moral dilemmas of the imperialist. Orwell served with the Imperialist Police in Burma while it was still part of the British CommonwealthRead MoreLiterary Analysis of â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† by George Orwell1152 Words   |  5 PagesIn â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† George Orwell achieves two achievements : he shows us his personal experience and his expression while he was in Burma; he use the metaphor of the elephant to explain to describe what Burma looked like when it was under the British Imperialism. The special about this essay is that Orwell tells us a story not only to see the experience that he had in Burma; he als o perfectly uses the metaphor of the elephant to give us deep information about the Imperialism. By going throughRead MoreThe Feminine Mystique And Shooting An Elephant898 Words   |  4 PagesBoth The Feminine Mystique and â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† discuss the confrontation between the self and society. In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan addresses â€Å"The Problem That Has No Name† referring to the widespread unhappiness of the housewife due to their obligation to uphold their ideal image rather than pursuing their dreams; in â€Å"Shooting an Elephant†, George Orwell comments on the societal expectations of imperialism and its effects on people who have the duty to uphold the law. In both ofRead MoreAnalysis Of George Orwell s Orwell Shooting An Elephant 1189 Words   |  5 Pages   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant†: Effect of Imperialism in Burma Imperialism is a state of mind, fueled by the arrogance of superiority that could be adopted by any nation irrespective of its geographical location in the world. 1. Evidence of the existence of empires dates back to the dawn of written history in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, where local leaders extended their realms by conquering other states and holding them, when possible, in a state of subjection and semiRead MoreAnalysis Of George Orwell s Shooting An Elephant 953 Words   |  4 PagesThe area of focus I chose was a work from the Innocence and Experience chapter. The work of fiction that I chose to analyze is â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† by George Orwell. The main question is whether what he did in the story was ethical. This story is about the inner fight between right and wrong, â€Å"if I do this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  or â€Å"if I do that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  or â€Å"what if I don’t do anything?† Bottom line is you’re damned if you do, and damned if you donâ₠¬â„¢t. We all do this in some form or fashion, we all have that inner voice tellingRead More Colonialism and Imperialism Exposed in Shooting an Elephant and Heart of Darkness1360 Words   |  6 PagesColonization Exposed in Shooting an Elephant and Heart of Darkness      Ã‚  Ã‚   As a man is captured, his first instinct is to try and break free from his shackles and chains. Primal urges such as this often accompany humans when they are forced, as in capture, to rely on their most basic instincts to survive. In this manner, natives in Africa acted upon instinct when the Europeans arrived to take their land and freedom. The short story Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell and the novel Heart

Antigone1 Essay Example For Students

Antigone1 Essay Do what you believe is right. This is a phrase common to us all, brought to our attention by parents, reinforced by teachers, and preached by leaders. But how does one define what is right? Is it what we believe in our hearts, or is it what we know is acceptable? This is a predominant dilemma that can be traced throughout society, and is the main focal point of Sophocles play Antigone. Written in 441 B.C., Antigone is one of the earliest records of the conflict between Natural law and Positive law. Sophocles deftly exposes these two philosophical standpoints and their respective moral and political aspects by way of the two main characters, Antgone and Kreon. Antigone is a champion of Natural law, while Kreon practices the Positivist approach. Both characters deem their behavior superior towards the other, and both assume religious justification for their actions. Sophocles ultimately proves that with so much support for each philosophical standpoint, a solution to the dilemma is har dly in sight. Natural law can be considered the morally correct approach to authority and justice. It is the idea that one should make decisions based upon what they deem morally appropriate within themselves. Antigones support of this approach is apparent in her refusal of Kreons order when she buries Polyneices anyway. She loves Polyneices and believes in her heart that there is no other alternative. She is aware that by burying him she would be breaking the law and risking her own life for it. I will bury him myself. If I die for doing that, good: I will stay with him, my brother; and my crime will be devotion (87-90). To her this is the only morally acceptable solution. Her support of Natural law resolves her to perform what she believes in her heart to be right, casting aside any social and political upholding that prove to be opposition. Positive law can be considered the politically correct approach to authority and justice. It encompasses the idea of a society and community with laws, and that those laws are necessary for everyones well-being. Kreon evokes a Positivist attitude by shunning any morally appropriate notions brought on by his kinship with Polyneices, and pursuing a stance that he sees as politically necessary for the good of the society. This is the underlying reason for his decision to forbid the burial of his nephew. He believes that if he succumbs to feelings of love, then he will be deemed weak and therefore weaken his city-state. This position becomes apparent when he utters the lines if I see disaster marching against our citizens I shall not befriend the enemy of this land. For the state is safety. When she is steady, then we can steer. Then we can love (224-229). This ultimately sums up the Positive law belief that society always comes before self, that once the society is safe, then you are permitted to allow for yourself. With each philosophy located at opposite ends of the social spectrum, a dilemma is unavoidable when the two face each other. This is the backbone for the entire plot of Antigone. On one side is Antigone, who pursues her self-righteous beliefs whole-heartedly and without question. On the other side is Kreon, who acts in response to what he believes is best for the society. Both characters are justified in their behavior. It is their motives that set them apart from each other. Antigone knows that she will suffer personal anguish if she does not carry out her actions. But if I had let my own brother stay unburied I would have suffered all the pain I do not feel now. And if you decide what I did was foolish, you may be fool enough to convict me (572-574). She acts in her own personal interest, concerned for her well-being. She believes that her motive is one that should be accepted, that love for a brother could never be viewed as foolish. Kreon, on the other hand, makes his decisions as a king rather then an uncle. He is concerned with keeping the city-state in order, and his public perception untarnished. I caught her in open rebellion, her alone out of all the nation. I wont be a leader who lies to his people. No: I will kill herIf I rear a disorderly family, I am feeding general disorder (798-802). He cannot let feelings like love and kindness for Antigone prohibit him from ruling a nation. Both Antigone and Kreon believe the gods support their positions. Antigone believes that by Kreon denying Polyneices a proper burial, he is denying him a right granted by the gods: The living are here, but I must please those longer who are below; for with the dead he will stay foreverthese principles which the gods themselves honor (92-100). She believes that he will not be granted life after death if he is not buried, and that the gods permit all a chance at immortality. Antigone also assumes the approval of Zeus, the king of gods, by believing he granted her justice to break the law: I did not believe that Zeus was the one who had proclaimed it (the denial of burial); neither did JusticeThe laws they have made for men are well marked out (550-555). These lines state that she believes it is apparent that Kreon denying the burial of her brother is deemed unlawful by the gods, therefore justifying her Naturalist behavior as not only acceptable but necessary. Kreon believes that Zeus has granted him power as king and permits his Positive law rulemaking. Zeus who sees all will see I shall not stay silent if I see disaster marching against our citizens (223-224). Kreon considers support for a rebel (Polyneices) as a disaster to his city-state. He also assumes that Zeus will support his decision against any disaster of his community. This is why he implicates the rule against Polyneices burial. He sees him as a traitor and anyone showing support for him would be one as well. This is an obvious detriment to the good of his society and he assumes power granted by the gods to prevent it. This justification shows the gods supporting Positive law action as the social norm and fuel ing the decisions that Kreon makes. With both characters assuming religious approval for their actions, it is impossible to exploit any mistakes that may exist within the two philosophies, making a conclusion that much more difficult. When two dissenting viewpoints such as Positive law and Natural law convene amongst a central issue, there is hardly ever a just conclusion. Throughout the play, each character rattles off the reasons for their actions. Both also justify their actions religiously, believing they are the ones acting accordingly by the gods. The entire plot is a construction of conflict between personal and social motives, a scene not uncommon in todays society. Sophocles attempts to answer the debate by ultimately showing that the gods approved of Antigones motives and that Kreon should have buried his nephew. But with so much unnecessary bloodshed committed at the end of the story, it is impossible to believe that this is the final decision. The two contrary perception s, Positive and Natural, are so built up against each other that violence is practically unavoidable. This is hardly a solution to the debate, the fact that everyone dies. Rather, it is a sign that the debate will live on for all of eternity. .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 , .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .postImageUrl , .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 , .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1:hover , .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1:visited , .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1:active { border:0!important; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1:active , .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1 .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u08ce658a46e4c9fde30c84a8df83feb1:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The opressivness of Captialism EssayThe Positive law and the Natural law philosophies have been traced throughout history, and as this play suggests, hardly a conclusion has been made. It is much like a Socialist-Capitalist debate in many respects. Even though America is viewed as a Capitalist society and evokes Natural law morale, there are still people who preach the ways of Communism and Positivism. It is just the opposite in other countries such as China, where Communism and Positive law are rulers and people there fight for Natural rights. The debate will always be there, with people conflicting over actions done for themselves, and those done for the good of society. Antigone was the first public display of the two dissenting philosophies. That is why it holds so much more importance then just a good piece of writing. Antigone should be viewed as one of the first politically powerful works created. It defines the notion of acting for individualism against pressures to conform. To view it as something ancient would be a costly mistake, it sets the stage for radical thinking and rebellion, issues that will play a role in the future of our society. Bibliography: