1984 and the Adjustment Bureau
Comparative Wiki
Comparative Wiki
February 7, 2014
George Orwell’s 1984 and Phillip K. Dick’s The Adjustment Bureau are both set in the large metropolitan areas London and Brooklyn, respectively. The novel 1984 tells of a dystopic society set in the dark future where everyone is aware they are being watched and unable to express free will. The story of The Adjustment Bureau seems normal enough, until the viewer finds out the shady truth of the peoples’ pre-determined, highly monitored fate. These two stories exhibit a number of similar, disturbing situations; both stories contain a central power which monitors and controls the population, both stories have a powerful governing figure who is never seen, and both stories reveal a government which follows a strict plan for the society as a whole.
In the world of 1984, the society is kept under control by four ministries and the array of citizens within the inner party. The rest of the population consists of the outer party and proles, the first of which is the important mass of workers within the society. These workers are constantly watched through a device called a telescreen which is a large TV that cannot be turned off. “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…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”1. What this means is that the thought police are the central power who closely monitors everybody and who are highly feared. In the Adjustment Bureau, David Norris arrives at work where he finds strange, suited men who seem to have frozen time and are altering the thoughts of Norris’s friend 2. These men are from the adjustment bureau which keeps track of every individual through the use of animated books. These books show a person’s path in relation to “the plan”3. When these individuals stray from this master plan, members of the adjustment bureau revise their thoughts and keep them on track for their destiny. These men travel through a complex system, possibly in another dimension,
George Orwell’s 1984 and Phillip K. Dick’s The Adjustment Bureau are both set in the large metropolitan areas London and Brooklyn, respectively. The novel 1984 tells of a dystopic society set in the dark future where everyone is aware they are being watched and unable to express free will. The story of The Adjustment Bureau seems normal enough, until the viewer finds out the shady truth of the peoples’ pre-determined, highly monitored fate. These two stories exhibit a number of similar, disturbing situations; both stories contain a central power which monitors and controls the population, both stories have a powerful governing figure who is never seen, and both stories reveal a government which follows a strict plan for the society as a whole.
In the world of 1984, the society is kept under control by four ministries and the array of citizens within the inner party. The rest of the population consists of the outer party and proles, the first of which is the important mass of workers within the society. These workers are constantly watched through a device called a telescreen which is a large TV that cannot be turned off. “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…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”1. What this means is that the thought police are the central power who closely monitors everybody and who are highly feared. In the Adjustment Bureau, David Norris arrives at work where he finds strange, suited men who seem to have frozen time and are altering the thoughts of Norris’s friend 2. These men are from the adjustment bureau which keeps track of every individual through the use of animated books. These books show a person’s path in relation to “the plan”3. When these individuals stray from this master plan, members of the adjustment bureau revise their thoughts and keep them on track for their destiny. These men travel through a complex system, possibly in another dimension,
that can be accessed through ordinary doorways which means that everyone necessary can be adjusted quickly. In both stories, an organization such as the thought police or adjustment bureau is able to scrutinize the population and make changes against the peoples’ will, whether they know it or not. These organizations don’t run themselves though, they each have a leading force who calls the shots.
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In 1984, the reader is quickly introduced to the leading figure who runs the government. “On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran”4. This poster is seen extremely often throughout London, and on the telescreens at some times. Big Brother, although extremely influential, has never been personally seen by anyone. The lack of contact is mirrored in The Adjustment Bureau; (insert chairman quote here)… Obviously the chairman is in charge of the men from the bureau and he is the writer and editor of the plan. Although similar in some ways, the presence of the chairman is quite different from 1984, where in
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The Adjustment Bureau the common population is completely unaware of the chairman’s existence. These two powerful figures are more than just supervisors of the people, they have created a plan to better the society as a whole.
Big Brother is the head of the government who is to make sure that the good of the many comes before the good of the few. The slogans of the party are:
“WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”5
In order to keep a strong leader and an ignorant population, these slogans are engraved in the consciences of the people. The media portrays the economic and social situations of Oceania as perpetually prosperous and the past is revised constantly by men and women working in the ministry of truth. This makes sure that the plan for the society to be a fully functioning, well-oiled machine is kept to. There is also a master plan in The Adjustment Bureau, although the viewer is never fully aware of what this big plan is, there is an explanation for why the people’s free will is not legitimate; why the adjustment bureau exists to keep the people on a track. “We actually tried Free Will before. After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman Empire we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own. You gave us the Dark Ages for five centuries... until finally we decided we should come back in. The Chairman thought maybe we just needed to do a better job of teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. So we gave you the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution. For six hundred years we taught you to control your impulses with reason, then in 1910 we stepped back. Within fifty years, you'd brought us World War I, the Depression, Fascism, the Holocaust and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that point a decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fix”6. As a result, the people of the world have no true free will, except for the main character Norris, who broke free from the plan. Unlike in 1984 thus far, in The Adjustment Bureau the people have some chance of losing some of the controlling powers and gain true free will. Though the future looks brighter for the latter, the society of 1984 and the society of The Adjustment Bureau both are on track for a plan which is to better society as a whole by means of eliminating free will.
Although 1984 is a bit darker than The Adjustment Bureau, the themes of central powers, controlling leader figures, and the execution of a master plan are all important similarities that make it possible to compare each story and to look between in order to better understand the general ideas. These two stories illustrate the lack of free will of people as is apparent in real-life situations as well as in the fictional stories.
Big Brother is the head of the government who is to make sure that the good of the many comes before the good of the few. The slogans of the party are:
“WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”5
In order to keep a strong leader and an ignorant population, these slogans are engraved in the consciences of the people. The media portrays the economic and social situations of Oceania as perpetually prosperous and the past is revised constantly by men and women working in the ministry of truth. This makes sure that the plan for the society to be a fully functioning, well-oiled machine is kept to. There is also a master plan in The Adjustment Bureau, although the viewer is never fully aware of what this big plan is, there is an explanation for why the people’s free will is not legitimate; why the adjustment bureau exists to keep the people on a track. “We actually tried Free Will before. After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman Empire we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own. You gave us the Dark Ages for five centuries... until finally we decided we should come back in. The Chairman thought maybe we just needed to do a better job of teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. So we gave you the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution. For six hundred years we taught you to control your impulses with reason, then in 1910 we stepped back. Within fifty years, you'd brought us World War I, the Depression, Fascism, the Holocaust and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that point a decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fix”6. As a result, the people of the world have no true free will, except for the main character Norris, who broke free from the plan. Unlike in 1984 thus far, in The Adjustment Bureau the people have some chance of losing some of the controlling powers and gain true free will. Though the future looks brighter for the latter, the society of 1984 and the society of The Adjustment Bureau both are on track for a plan which is to better society as a whole by means of eliminating free will.
Although 1984 is a bit darker than The Adjustment Bureau, the themes of central powers, controlling leader figures, and the execution of a master plan are all important similarities that make it possible to compare each story and to look between in order to better understand the general ideas. These two stories illustrate the lack of free will of people as is apparent in real-life situations as well as in the fictional stories.
1 Orwell George. 1984 (New York: Penguin Books, 1949) Pg. 6, 7
2 ”The Adjustment Bureau”. Wikipedia. Np, nd. Web. 9 February 2014.
3 Ibd.,
4 Orwell. 1984. Pg. 5
5 Orwell. 1984. Pg. 7
6 “The Adjustment Bureau Quotes”. Imbd. Np, nd. Web. 10 February 2014.
2 ”The Adjustment Bureau”. Wikipedia. Np, nd. Web. 9 February 2014.
3 Ibd.,
4 Orwell. 1984. Pg. 5
5 Orwell. 1984. Pg. 7
6 “The Adjustment Bureau Quotes”. Imbd. Np, nd. Web. 10 February 2014.