Fatherland/1984 Comparison/Contrast Essay
There are many parallels and differences between George Orwell’s 1984 and Robert Harris’ Fatherland. Both take place in a dystopian society after an alteration in history that causes the success of a corrupt governmental regime. Seeing as 1984 was written in 1949, this had many books, Fatherland included, to take many cues and gestures into their own stories. These are the comparisons and contrasts between the protagonists, leading female characters, and the endings.
Winston and March are both the middle-aged protagonists of their respective books. Similarly, they are also washed up and do not like the society in which they live in. They played their parts in blending in, but neither put the extra…show more content… Both had identifying articles of clothing; Julia had her sash, Charlie had her blue coat. They were the opposites of what the standing societies stood for, Julia enjoying sex and had numerous partners in the past, where Charlie liked to stand out and avoid the norm, both things the conservative societies tend to dislike very much. Another similarity between them is that they could play the system, and were able to play ‘roles’ in order to blend into the society, Julia playing model citizen, and Charlie playing German native; through their acting, they actually made it arguably better than the protagonists. Finally, what truly happens to either, it is unknown at the end of their books, it can only be guessed at.
In contrast, Julia was native to her country where Charlie was a visiting foreigner. Another difference is that Julia didn’t really care about the facts surrounding the formation of her society, while Charlie was all about gathering and figuring out the implications of them, following the protagonist for said facts and information. In their contrasting endings, Julia is known to have been caught by the secret police along with Winston, but it is unknown if Charlie makes it across the border uncaught, it’s up to the