Title: An Analysis of the Use of Propaganda in the Dystopian Societies Presented in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1984 by George Orwell, and Fidel Castro’s Government in Cuba – Kylie's Blog
Headings: An Analysis of the Use of Propaganda in the Dystopian Societies Presented in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1984 by George Orwell, and Fidel Castro’s Government in Cuba
An Analysis of the Use of Propaganda in the Dystopian Societies Presented in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1984 by George Orwell, and Fidel Castro’s Government in Cuba
Figure 1: A Handmaid views the bodies of criminals hanging on the Wall, with their crimes visible for all to see on a plaque on their chests (Wong).
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Content: In each of these examples, governments use propaganda to influence public opinion in favor of the government. They accomplish this primarily through censorship of media and thoughts. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred muses about the news that Gilead airs; she asks, “who knows if any of it is true? It could be old clips, it could be faked” (Atwood 82), and notes that “they only show us victories, never defeats” (Atwood 83). Similarly, the Party and Castro’s government also censor their media; in Oceania, the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth rewrites history to fit whatever the government claims, and Castro’s Radio Rebelde (and later written publications) always made Cuba’s situation appear better than reality (Infante). Additionally, in order to unify the public in each of these dystopian societies, governments organized rallies designed to promote the ideals of the society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood describes the Salvagings, which are very similar to the Hate Week festivities in 1984. In both, a common enemy is presented before large crowds, and chaos ensues as citizens grow increasingly belligerent toward the enemy.