Free Will And Individualism In George Orwells 1984 And...

Qualities of an Oppressive Society Free will and individualism are rights that have been used as symbols of peace and progressive, but they also have been viewed as weakness and a liability. Although free will and individualism should be viewed as good, there are times in history when they were considered a problem. These times are addressed in George Orwell’s 1984 and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Both novels choose to outline the lost of free will and individualism through the lens of an oppressed group, and while the oppression that each group have their differences, both express how free will and individualism is suppressed and how people lived under oppression without their rights. In 1984, the loss individual rights is illustrated in†¦show more content†¦This is a common sentiment in oppressive society, who need the absolute submission of its populace, with primary example being the slave culture of the united states as portrayed in Beloved by Toni Morrison. With the slave society as her canvas, Toni Morrison uses it express the of oppression that the freed slaves felt during their time in slavery through their memories. Many of their memories feature psychological torture in the form of verbal abuse, physical torture through excessive beatings, torture, and rape, and emotional torture though the loss of a loved one(s) to the slave trade or to natural causes. Through the eyes of Sethe, Morrison mainly explores all two of the three aspects through her different memories, and the culmination of these experiences granted her master power over her, even after she obtained her freedom. An example of her oppression by the slave owner is when she was physically assaulted by men working for her owner in order to take her breast milk. These actions were meant to be a show of force and to keep the slaves unresisting because of how easily everything can be taken away from them. Sethe is not the only one to express memories of their oppressed life a s Paul D, a friend of Sethe, relates his experience of being forced to wear an iron bit; however, it was not just the iron bit the hurt him the most. Instead, it was his realization of the hopelessness of his situation during his encounters a rooster, who he thinks â€Å"looked so...free.