“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” Common central themes of dystopian fiction are governmental and technological control and loss of individualism. The craft of dystopian literature is a mechanism for authors to discuss reality and project pressing issues into the future. Essentially, the role of dystopia is to warn audiences about the dangers of totalitarianism and restricted individualism. The four dystopian texts, A Clockwork Orange written by Anthony Burgess, Minority Report directed by Stephen Spielberg, Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell and 2 + 2 = 5 sung by Radiohead, are brilliant examples of dystopia that have presented readers with the bleak warnings about potential futures and disturbing observations of our modern society.

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, is a remarkable story established in a setting somewhat resembling our own society but yet is still very different. The language Burgess creates, Nadsat, embodies the novelty of his fictional society. But with it dispersed within our own language, Burgess shows us that we may be headed in the same direction especially since this language is used almost exclusively by the youth. The crass language at the beginning is unfamiliar and uncomfortable for readers to comprehend. “Our pockets were full of deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood […]nor to do the ultra-violent on some shivering starry grey-haired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till’s guts.” This is an exert from the first page of the book. Burgess introduces this partly Russian derived language immediately to shock the readers into acknowledging the harshness of this world. But as the readers continue to make their way through the book, they begin to learn the language as they go and become more familiar with it and more confident and comfortable reading it. Burgess has made this deliberately possible to demonstrate the fact that we could be heading towards such a society ourselves. However, we don’t all realize it because the state is slowly integrating more control over their citizens in a way similar to how Burgess subconsciously develops Nadsat in his reader’s head. Burgess is essentially controlling his reader and forcing them to accept this imposed terminology. In Nadsat, the word orange refers to a man or a person. “Me, me, me. How about me? Where do I come into all this? Am I like just some animal or dog? Am I just to be like a clockwork orange?” Indeed Alex is right about being concerned, are we all to be like a clockwork orange? This intention poses as a warning that the threat of a future comprised of a needlessly controlling totalitarian state will not come about out of the blue, but will be the result of years of gradual transformation. As a consequence, the rise of a totalitarian state naturally begins with the restriction of individualism. Throughout this novel, Burgess illustrates that one of the main dangers surrounding an impending totalitarian state is its subtlety. The only thing we can do is to start paying attention.

The 2002 film Minority Report, directed by Stephen Spielberg, is a dystopia set in the not so far away futuristic setting of 2054. Conforming to the natural structure of a dystopian text, this film explores the ramifications of enforced state control. Throughout the movie, there is a constant digital representation of the eye. This symbolises the authoritarian control and surveillance the state has over its citizens. An example of such a scene is when the officers of Precrime enter an apartment complex in search of John Anderton, and on an advertisement screen in the background, the eye appears. Another scene is when Anderton is supposed to shoot Crow and there is a large billboard of a man wearing sunglasses just outside the window. This technique is subtle but effective in illustrating the ceaseless surveillance the state performs over its public and it is also a relentless reminder of how controlled this fictional society is. One thing to notice in these scenes is that more often than not, this symbol is reflected and refracted through glass and mirrors. In the case of the billboard, when the vision of the scene was first analysed by Anderton, the man was reflected in a mirror and they thought he was a real person. This portrays the reality control that is also present in the film, where we wonder if what we are seeing is actually real. All of this reflection and refraction interferes with the characters abilities to see morally by distracting them with these reflections and the Precog’s visions. As Agatha continues to tell John, “Do you see?“, Stephen Spielberg is also asking his audience the same question. Do we see the reflections we are distracted by? Are we able to look beyond them and see the world the way it really is without a reality control filter interfering? As well as in this film, the eye is also an important symbol in the dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange written by Anthony Burgess. The eye in this text represents the threshold between an individual’s internal thoughts and the world and society they are surrounded by. The state in this novel wants to breach this threshold to control and manipulate the individual’s thoughts and actions from the source. Alex, our anti-hero protagonist, is put through a program called the “Ludovico Technique“. This technique, named after Beethoven, uses his music as the background to the clips the state forces Alex to watch of people doing terrible things. Alex tells us at the beginning of the text that Beethoven’s music holds a special place in his heart. Music is an expression of humanity and by forcing his body to feel nauseous while watching these clips, the state is instilling an artificial aversion towards not only the crimes he is witnessing but also the music itself and what it represented for him. “They put clips on the skin of my forehead, so that my top glazz-lids were pulled up and up and up and I could not shut my glazzies no matter how I tried.” By forcing his eyes open to watch every second of the horrorshow clips in front of him while also manipulating his body to react against them, the state is controlling his response. They are compelling him to conform to their standards of thinking and acting, taking away the very things that make him an individual with the freedom of choice. By also removing his passion for music, the state is chipping away at what makes him human, for what is music but self-expression? It is this expression of self that threatens the state and sustains individualism. The violation of his individuality is presented to the readers by the symbolic exploitation of his eye and this helps us understand the underlying message Anthony Burgess was telling us. This message is none other than the typical purpose of a dystopia also present in Minority Report, which is a warning that governing states, gaining too much control over the individual, are dangerous and should be something we need to avoid in our own future.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is built upon a well-established setting that is packed with fictionally invented technologies, revealing the vast control and surveillance of the totalitarian state. An example of one of these technologies is the telescreen. “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 vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.” This “instrument” does a perfect job of assembling the very delicate setting in which the characters are constantly being watched and scrutinized of every action they take and every word they say. This is the way the totalitarian state of Oceania controls its citizens. With the threat of vaporisation hanging over anyone who doesn’t coordinate with the state’s orders, this constant surveillance rids the people of their freedom of choice and eliminates individualism. “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen.“. Technology is also a fundamental element of the setting of Minority Report. The regular use of technology by the state to keep an eye on their citizens may be disconcerting to us, but is a typical procedure to the people of the District of Columbia. Residents of 931 Powell, residents of 931 Powell. This is Officer Fletcher of D.C. Precrime. Under authority P.C. Section 6409, we are deploying spyders into your complex.” This is announced into an apartment building complex, through a communication line that allows the officers of Precrime to be heard by everyone in the building instantly and nonconsensually. The “spyders” in question are little robots that squeeze themselves into everyone’s apartments to scan their eyes in order to account for all of them. During this obvious raid of privacy, that is unfortunately endorsed by the state, the residents of the building can do nothing but let it happen. Both of these creators have illustrated, through the clever makeup of setting and invented technology, that when the state gains too much control over its civilians, privacy is compromised and individualism is lost. These authors have done a fantastic job of building a world that is in a way very similar to ours. This is crucial in creating a warning against allowing the state to have so much control over the individual.

What are songs but reflections of current society? The song 2 + 2 = 5 by Radiohead has lyrics that are essentially quotes of the present. It shows how we see the world and most importantly it shows that these dystopian texts have done their job to raise awareness about the dangers of extreme state control. The lyrics “two and two always makes up five“ is a reference to dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. In this novel, the phrase “2 + 2 = 5” is a representation of how much control the totalitarian state, or “the Party”, has over the public and the individual. “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.” The Party has instilled so much control over its citizens that they even control logic. This links to the theme of loss of individualism, where the individual doesn’t even have the freedom to chose what they think is logical. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” The lyrics from Radiohead’s song are said in reference to this totalitarian state control, acknowledging that the warnings in these dystopian texts prevailed. However, this song also discusses the fact that even though we may be aware of the potential threat to our futures, it might soon be too late to do anything about it. “You have not been payin’ attention.” This repeated line conveys the message that we have not been paying attention to the slow road our society is taking towards such a future and that we may already be living in our own version of a dystopia. While the other creators have expressed this warning through their meticulously crafted symbols and settings, Radiohead has pointed out our faults upfront. These faults meaning that we have indeed not been paying attention and we must if we want to escape a future similar to what these dystopian texts have depicted.

It’s all well and good to acknowledge the warnings these texts present us, but what good do warnings have if we don’t heed them. Together A Clockwork Orange, Minority Report, Nineteen Eighty-Four and 2 + 2 = 5 have created a valuable portfolio in instructing us on how to move into a better future. We can all agree that the prospect of a totalitarian state is unacceptable and dangerous not only for our society but also our individuality. But in order to truly prevent it becoming a reality, we must open our eyes to the reality around us right now. “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink—greetings!“