Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Remember, Remember the 5th of November...


            In the book V for Vendetta, we are transported to a futuristic Europe where society has fully transformed into a dystopia.  Citizens have lost all privacy and greatly fear the government.  V presents himself as the leading figure in the fight to change this futuristic dystopian society.  We see this in the opening scene where he and Delia stand on top of a roof and watch the Houses of Parliament explode as V admits he has made this happen.  The book presents the harsh reality of what must happen if a revolution is to take place in a society.  Resistance and violence are to be expected if a drastic and permanent change in society is to occur.  We have seen this in the past with the American Revolution and it has even occurred recently with the revolution in Egypt.  In each of these instances, resistance and violence caught the attention of the government and change commenced.  While these characteristics of revolution are not ideal, they are the unfortunate reality to a revolution because they are the quickest and most efficient way to change negative circumstances.  Because of this reason, the actions of V throughout the novel are justifiable and beneficial to help the people of England question the motives of their government and ultimately rise up to stop the wrong doings of a government that is supposed to protect their freedoms instead of suppressing them. 
As I began reading V for Vendetta, I was excited to be reading a book with pictures to go along with the text.  When I read books a way to help me remember the plot and the characters is by imagining the story as a movie in my head.  V for Vendetta was an exciting change because these images were already presented before me.  The characters and scenes came to life and I felt transported into the V and Delia’s world.  But as I began to read, this different approach to a book became a little more distracting than I had expected.  In scenes where there was the most action, such as when the Fingerman attack Delia or when V blows up “Madam Justice” I felt myself getting lost amongst the pictures.  It was extremely difficult to follow along with the story when the picture boxes would get smaller or bigger and the word bubbles would get mixed around in each of those boxes.  I found myself get flustered when I would accidently go to the wrong picture box and have to find the correct one.  Clearly I am not a comic book reader, but reading V for Vendetta has opened my eyes a different approach to reading and I think I’ll be able to get used to it.   

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