1984 & Handmaids

1984 Quotes

"We are the dead" "Three hundred million people all with the same face" "Two plus two equals five" "Imagine a boot stamping on a human face.. Forever" "Proles and animals are free" "Big Brother is watching you" Metaphor for him and Julia being the pieces of coral in the paperweight, "fixed in a sort of eternity"

1984 Critics

Jordison: "A great bad book" Time Magazine: "an utterly depressing view of what the world may be like in 35 years time"

1984 Context

- Orwell witnessed absolute political authority in Spain, Germany and the Soviet Union in the age of advanced technology. - Published 1949 at the dawn of the nuclear age, his post-atomic novel seemed frighteningly possible - Ideas of surveillance, Nazi Germany in 1930's children brainwashed, 1984 kids described to be like "little spies"

Handmaids Tale Quotes

"Thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last" "Keep your mouth shut and look stupid" "How easy is it to invent a humanity"

Handmaids Tale Critics

James: "If The Handmaids Tale doesn't scare on, doesn't wake one up, it is because of the lack of satiric bite" McDowell: "shows the real dangers of women closing their eyes to patriarchal oppression"

Handmaids Tale Context

- Religious conservatives criticised the 1960's sexual revolution and heightened feminists fears that their gains would be reversed - One in four women affected by environmental pollution, reflecting societies worry about nuclear wars