Compare And Contrast Essay On 1984 By George Orwell

For centuries, people have been trying to fit everything in our world into categories. By creating a hierarchy with these categories, people can put their favorite things into higher categories to prove that they are better than other work in that field. Literature, with a definition that is different for everyone, is normally kept in the category of well-done written work. This means that your grocery list or books that fall short of the standard of greatness necessary are not considered to be in this category. Yet, video games often have a well written story, but are left out of the category of literature because they aren’t written down work like novels are. Well done games can accomplish what a well written novel can, if not more. Video
games can be a form of literature if they have a well written and thought out story, a moral or theme that they want the players to take away from the game, can evoke emotion out of the players, and leave a lasting impression on the players. Not all books or video games should be considered literature.
One thing that great novels are known for are being social commentary for their time. Video game are capable of doing this too. Spec Ops: The Line, released in 2012 by 2KGames, is a first person military shooter. The story starts off with interesting characters, a challenging setting, and a thought out conflict, which are the makings of a good story. Though, unlike others in its genre, The Line presents you with a protagonist that ends up not being the hero, even though the desire to be one is what drives him insane. They find themselves shooting enemy countries’ soldiers at the beginning, but as the game goes on they begin to kill other American soldiers and innocent civilians. For what may be the first time, players are questioning what they are doing while they play this game. This game does not make the killing easy or thoughtless as many other shooting games do.
Players are required to do these morally tough missions to move on in the game. In a chapter titled “The Gate,” they must drop white phosphorous, which burns the skin, onto soldiers below them. While the three characters argue over if this is right or not, the player ends up having to do it. After it is done, they realize that they also dropped the phosphorous onto a group of civilians. Players have to slowly walk by the bodies of the civilians and watch their teammates go crazy with guilt as they do not believe in this mission anymore. This game is a commentary on other violent games in its genre and could be said to be a commentary on patriotism and war in general. This game does not romanticize war like other games. It teaches a lot about war and killing, showing that it is not something pretty and fun. It is morally and ethically challenging, and this game does a great job of showing this by the dissonance the player feels towards their protagonist that is slowly going insane from his choices.
Now, compare this game to the classic novel 1984 by George Orwell.
Released in 1949, this novel is a social commentary for his time about or nationalism and censorship. His novel brings to light the problems with totalitarian government, which was seen in the Soviet Union and could be seen happening in the future. The story is about a world controlled by Big Brother and the Party who cast most people into an oppressed lower class. The protagonist, in the lower ruling class, feels like he is a hero as he secretly fights against The Party that is always watching him. Readers feel hope as he starts to have thoughts against the party, hoping that he will be the one to put an end to this awful regime. In the end, he is not a hero. He ends up betraying his love interest and falling back under control of Big Brother, having contributed nothing to the rebelling and making no change in his world. This story makes the reader feel shock and fear as they read about the conditions the people have to face and how at the end they are able to get the protagonist to crack and accept the Party again. They are powerless to change anything as they read, except for the way they think about things in their own world, leaving a lasting impression on
them.
Both of these works make their audience question the world they live in and the choices they would make if they were in the situations. Both novels evoke emotions of shock and helplessness in their audiences as they are forced to continue even when they don’t agree with the protagonist’s choices. They are both well written, having complete stories with good conflicts and settings. They both have characters that we think are going to be heroes but end up failing our expectations, thus teaching us a lesson about their world and our own. Only one of these two is considered literature because of the medium it is written in.