1. David Yang<br />IB English SL 3<br />2011.4.18<br />Paper 2<br />One might believe that having a person as the leader of a group of people is better and necessary in order to maintain order, but sometimes when the leader of the group is given too much power, conflicts occur. Winston from 1984 by George Orwell, McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, and Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury all demonstrate the statement how “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.<br />The protagonist of the book 1984 by George Orwell, Winston, shows how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Under the totalitarian rule of the Party, every move of Winston is watched and monitored. The absolute power the Party has over each individual of the society is unfair and unjustified. There is no privacy at all in the society Winston lives in, and individual thinking is not allowed. The phrase that “Big Brother is Watching You”, which occurs many times throughout the book, symbolizes the absolute power of the Party. Winston is one of the very few that is brave enough to think differently from other people and go against the Party secretly. However, since the Party has absolute power, Winston eventually gets caught and sent to Room 101 which he fears the most. Such cruel and unethical treatment done by the Party to a person can only be done when a person or a party has the majority., if not all, of the power. Orwell aims to convey the message that we should avoid letting someone or a certain party get too much power over us as we can see the terrifying consequences of totalitarian rule. <br />In addition, McMurphy, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, also shows how conflicts often occur when one has absolute power. After McMurphy, the protagonist of the novel, arrives at the mental institution for a few days, he realizes the power Nurse Ratched has over the patients. Everything the patients do or say is observed by Nurse Ratched and the other staff, similar to how every move of Winston is monitored by the Party in 1984. Nurse Ratched controls what time the patients can watch TV, how many cigarettes they can smoke, or even how much medicine they need. But it is not until later in the novel does McMurphy realize that Nurse Ratched not only has power over the patients, she has “absolute power” of the “committed” patients. For the committed patients, Nurse Ratched gets to decide when the patients can leave the mental institution, which means if she does not want to let McMurphy leave, he will have to stay forever. The absolute power the Big Nurse has eventually leads to the suicide of Billy Bibbit and the attack of McMurphy on Nurse Ratched. Kesey uses the relationships of Nurse Ratched with McMurphy and other patients to show how corrupted people with absolute power can be. Kesey also informs the readers through One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that absolute power should be avoided at all times, we should not need to be in total control by other people, no matter what the circumstances are. <br />Moreover, Guy Montag, from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, demonstrates how absolute power not only can be horrifying, but it can also jeopardize our civilization. In the futuristic American society Guy Montag lives in, people do not have much individual thoughts. For example, Montag’s wife watches television all day long and does not have good communication with Montag. As a firefighter, Montag’s job is not to put out fire, but to burn books. With the government having absolute power, anyone who hides or reads books is arrested and punished. At first, nobody seems to question the motive behind burning books. However, after Montag reads his first book, he realizes how scary absolute power can be. Montag realizes that they are burning all the books because the government does not want people in the society to have any individual thoughts, or any action against the government. Therefore, Montag tries to save as many books as he can, especially the important ones. However, it is really difficult for Montag to convince people the importance of books as they are already brainwashed by the government. Through Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury argues how difficult it is to live in a society with someone having absolute power, and it is nearly impossible for one to have any freedom or individual thinking at all. <br />What we think and how we think are often more or less influenced by the ones with power: politicians, scientists, or even teachers. However, Winston from 1984, McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Montag from Fahrenheit 451 all demonstrate how corrupted and dangerous power can be. Although we should always have some power in our society in order for us to live in harmony, absolute power should always be avoided under all circumstances. <br />