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Alan MooreA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Norsefire uses body parts to symbolize the function of various parts of their government. These parts need each other for the entire “body” to work. The Eye operates visual surveillance; the Ear operates audio surveillance; the Mouth is the state’s media propaganda; the Nose is the investigative unit; the Finger is the military police; the Head is the group of leaders from each branch plus the Leader. Each branch functions according to its name. For instance, the Ear and the Eye hear and see everything done by the British people.
All parts of the Norsefire “body” work in unison to oversee and operate their fascist regime. These departments invoke “the body politic,” a metaphor that imagines a polity as a physical body, which emerged in Ancient Greek philosophy as early as the 6th century BCE.
“England Prevails” is a verbal motif that has ties to both The Interconnected Tools of Fascism and The True Nature of Anarchy. It begins as a salute used by the Norsefire government. The Leader, in particular, closes his interactions with these words and demands that his subordinates do the same. Characters rarely, if ever, utter the slogan when not in conversation with the Leader.
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By Alan Moore
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