Metropolis And 1984 Essay

Through the study of intertextual perspectives, the relationship between context and key values can become clearer. The personal and historical context of an author can lead them to write about important values of that time. The novel, 1984 by George Orwell, is a dystopian text about an oppressive government that controls the citizens every movement. George Orwell was inspired to write by the totalitarian regimes of his time such as Hitler and Stalin. He also wrote with his Democratic Socialist views in mind, advocating for those who were of the poorer classes. The 1927, silent film Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, has a divided society between the wealthier people in the city and the poorer, working class living underground and working long hours
The workers live underground and their lives are controlled by the machine. They work 10-hour shifts and are subject to machine explosions if somebody stops working. Maria encourages the workers to wait for a mediator, when she preaches to them in the catacombs. During her sermon, she uses the Christian allegory/allusion of ‘the tower of Babel’. She uses this tale to promote peace between the workers and the people in the city. She uses the epigram, “The head and hands require a mediator … It must be the heart”. This metonym, uses hands to represent the workers and the heart to represent Freder, therefore foreshadowing the ending of the film. She is a threat to Fredersens control of the workers because she leads them away from him, in hope for a better life. Lang, was inspired to write about rebellion, because of the dialectical materialism that occurred during the time. This was a Marxist theory that both political and historic events were the result of a conflict of social forces. He also wrote during the time of the French Revolution, when the French citizens rallied against their country's political