The Hope in Dystopian Society in Children of Man and V for Vendetta

Is it simple to remain hopeful through harsh moments? Sometimes, it appears that we reach uncontrollable circumstances. We get the chance to think about whether we will have the option to live individual encounters since everything begins to turn out badly. The two stories, “V for Vendetta” and “Children of Men,” both offer the focal topic that exhibits the loss of humankind and hope always being there. The use of characterization, conflict, and symbolism us the moves and choices made by characters to get their usual core interest.

Characterization is an essential element that marks both stories. In “V for Vendetta,” Evey is characterized as a sixteen-year-old girl, which is the perfect product of what her country expects from her: naivety, ignorance, and weakness. An outcome of the events and the decadent situation in which English society has plunged and in a country with a totalitarian government where individuals are sublimated and lose the power to think for themselves by becoming more or less useful tools of gear. Although through the story, Evey seems lost in the uncontrolled world in which she lives, the tension between her hard experiences made her the only possibility of hope in society. An article named “Politics behind 'V for Vendetta'” by Andrew Smith claims, “The main character, V, opposes the oppressive and controlling British government. The viewer is quickly forced to decide whether he or she feels that V is a freedom fighter or a terrorist” (Smith). While V believes that he is a freedom fighter, he is also taking revenge so the reader may not understand all of his choices. It takes until the end of the story to realize for sure that he is doing the right thing.

In contrast, in “Children of Men,” the main character, Theo, is a man in his forties who always has a face of loneliness. He is a character who lives in a democratic society and no longer believes in anything, and who lost all his illusions when he lost his son Dylan. In his youth, he was an activist fighter alongside Julian, his wife, but disappointed he gave up the fight. This character moves forward and becomes another person. He undergoes a dynamic change throughout the film, becoming more and more involved in the events. Unlike Evey, Theo did not have a type of torture to make him change. At first, he did not care for anything, but then his goal was to make sure Kee and her baby were safe to save the world, giving it hope.

Not many people realize right away, but symbolism represents an essential element. In “V for Vendetta,” a symbol is reflected in Valerie's letter, which represents the power of words. When Evey is imprisoned and tortured most of her days, her only consolation was the mysterious letter she found in her cell. The letter was written by a woman named Valerie, who was imprisoned a few years before only for being lesbian and said, “But it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us.. But within that inch, we are free” (p.156). Thanks to Valerie's letter, her words encourage Evey to preserve her integrity. Valerie's letter gave Evey reasons to move forward, deny continuing to endure abuse, and, most importantly, finds her strength.

In contrast, in the film, “Children of Man,” the Black teenager Kee's baby, becomes a symbol of hope for all humanity. She is pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. Still, the government would never allow an immigrant's child to survive, so the only option is to save her with the Man Project, which investigates the causes of women's infertility. At the end of the story, the baby was considered an opportunity of hope when all the soldiers and citizens bowed respect towards the baby, although they knew Kee was an immigrant. That baby represented a new generation and a new world. Both stories may have different symbols, but the point of their story is to make a better society and not lose humanity.

Conflict is one of the essential elements of both stories. In “V for Vendetta,” for example, several conflicts are created throughout the story. Still, the leading cause of the others would be V's remorse and dislike towards the government after he was imprisoned and tortured years back, making this conflict internal. After giving out the hardest lesson V could have given to Evey, learn to overcome fear, he had to tell her about Valerie's letter. V explains that the letter is real and motivated him the same as Evey, the main character says, “Valerie wrote this letter in her own hand while she lived. Delivered to me. The words you wept over were those that transformed me. Five years earlier” (p.175). This context demonstrates that V did go to the concentration camp where there were Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, and blacks. The camp makes him feel a thirst for revenge toward all the individuals who tortured him. However, in “Children of Men,” the central conflict is external and is based on a totalitarian government that is always alert to illegal immigrants. For that reason, immigrants are taken to a type of concentration camps to be tortured and left to die. Although these stories may have different types of conflict, both share the same dystopian society and similar hope to make a difference. In the article“Why 'Children of Men' remains relevant with each passing year,” it says, “When the September 11 attacks occurred.. we were stranded for three or four days, and I was talking with Gael, I remember, and thinking about what’s going to happen, trying to understand what was going to shape this new century,” (Riesman). This refers to when the author of “Children of Men” was inspired to create the story. He was experiencing a similar situation and wanted to demonstrate the feeling of doing certain things against one's own will.

Both stories take place in a dystopian society. A dystopian society is an undesirable world to live in and makes people have a terrible life. Both stories experience this, but with different types of government. “V for Vendetta” reflects a political system with all the characteristics, controlling the media, censorship, or the cult of the leader. Gregory Claeys collaborates with his book, “Dystopia: A Natural History,” by stating, “But as a psychological state, dystopia may also be conceived to be humanity's starting point. We may view ourselves as a mentally fragile species today. But many of us have far less to fear than our ancestors” (Claeys, 2016). In this case, a dystopian society, with the government's help, can cause several damages to anyone's humanity. Moreover, this is what happened to Evey at the beginning. After being mistreated by the government, she became a woman who struggled with low self-esteem. This led to her not being able to open herself up to the world and being afraid.

The two stories, “V for Vendetta' and “Children of Men,” both show that there is always hope even in a dystopian society. This is shown by being aware of the situation, how to change it, and imagine how it could be if action is taken, gained enormous power and keep their hope. The difference is that 'V for Vendetta” is a totalitarian while “Children of Men” is a bureaucracy government. In “V for Vendetta,” being a totalitarian government affects the story by making a perfect product of what the country wants from society: naivety, ignorance, and weakness, while in 'Children of Men,” it is a bureaucrat government while pretending to be a democracy and making society do things against their will. It is in this way that the authors show that people should never give up even in the worst scenarios. Nothing is a punishment. Everything is a teaching lesson or training period.