Former President Gerald R. Ford once said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." This quote embodies Aldous Huxley's vision of the future in Brave New World. He envisioned a world, similar to today's society, where the government uses pleasure and a perceived freedom as tactics to control its people. Through sex, drugs, and fabricated happiness, the people of Brave New World's society are governed in such a sly manner that they don't realize the lack of privilege they face every day. On the other hand, in 1984 by George Orwell, an overpowering character, Big Brother, had control over society through fear and surveillance.
While both 1984 and Brave New World depict views of the future, they differ significantly in their portrayal. In 1984, Winston, an Outer Party member, harbors thoughts that contradict Big Brother's propaganda. After attempting to join the Brotherhood, Winston is captured and tortured until he complies with Big Brother's demands. The novel's underlying theme is that fear is an inescapable part of our lives that controls us. In contrast, Brave New World's government allows its citizens to indulge in their desires, effectively controlling them through their wants. Bernard, a member of Brave New World's society, introduces John, a man from the Savage Reservation, to the Brave New World. John is extremely rebellious because he cannot conform to the society's lifestyle. Eventually, he succumbs to the nation's will and breaks his promise of not having sex before marriage. Overwhelmed with shame and the effects of Brave New World, John hangs himself. Although control is often achieved through fear and pain, it can also be obtained through luxury and satisfaction.
To a degree, today's society has taken on that mindset as Americans throw out 1 million pounds of material per person, per year. Sex was also viewed as an insignificant act that would take place at orgy porgys, with whoever was around, and where "everyone belongs to everyone else" (Brave New World Sex Quotes). Although society is not as liberal with sex as Brave New World, men today have an average of seven sexual partners in their lifetimes, while women have four. Materialism and sex have become a measure of what people are expected to live up to, even if it is wasteful or licentious. Along with consumerism and sexual pervasiveness, the media is used as a means to control and litter the public's minds. The media has become an ever-present force in today's society. In Brave New World, hypnopedia can be compared to the media in present culture. In the book, hypnopedia, "the greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time" (Quotes), infused children's minds with information that brainwashed them to behave as Brave New World's society taught them. Today, people are bombarded with information from the internet, televisions, and radios that can cloud and overwhelm the mind.
Several conflicting frames of mind have played defining roles in shaping humanity throughout the twentieth century. Philosophical optimism of a bright future held by humanity in general was taken advantage of by the promise of a better life through sacrifice of individuality to the state. In the books Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 clear opposition to these subtle entrapments was voiced in similarly convincing ways. They first all established, to varying degrees of balance, the atmosphere and seductiveness of the “utopia” and the fear of the consequences of acting in the non-prescribed way through character development. A single character is alienated because of their inability to conform – often in protest to the forced conditions of happiness and well being. Their struggle is to hide this fact from the state’s relentless supervision of (supposedly) everything. This leads them to eventually come into conflict with some hand of the state which serves as the authors voice presenting the reader with the ‘absurdity’ of the principles on which the society is based. The similar fear of the state’s abuse of power and technology at the expense of human individuality present within these novels speaks to the relevance of these novels within their historical context and their usefulness for awakening people to the horrendous consequences of their ignorance.
According to Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World both predicted that society would eventually be governed by a global totalitarian system; however, the key difference between both their predictions is the method by which society’s cognizance would be undermined. Orwell claimed that contemporary society would be controlled by overt modes of policing and supervising the social hierarchy, whereas Huxley stated that society’s infatuation with entertainment and superficial pleasure alone would be enough for the government to have absolute control over the public. Unfortunately, today’s society is not an Animal Farm. All jokes aside, Postman’s assertion of Huxley’s theory, “what
Much can happen in a matter of minutes; a man can go from thinking he is happy to thinking his life is falling apart, or can change from hating someone to loving them. These experiences sound outlandish, but they happened to Guy Montag, the main character in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Winston Smith, the main character in George Orwell’s 1984. These two dystopian novels are about the characters discovering major problems in their societies, and then trying to fix them. Montag lives in a society where television controls people’s lives and books have become illegal. On the other hand Smith lives in Oceania, a territory led by a totalitarian regime. This regime is headed by Big Brother and is referred to as the Party. By examining Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, it is seen, not only through the dehumanized nature of society, but also through the theme of lies and manipulation that both Orwell and Bradbury wish to warn of a horrifying future society.
1984, a novel by George Orwell, represents a dystopian society in which the people of Oceania are surveilled by the government almost all the time and have no freedoms. Today, citizens of the United States and other countries are watched in a similar way. Though different technological and personal ways of keeping watch on society than 1984, today’s government is also able to monitor most aspects of the people’s life. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are surveilled by the government at all times.
Imagine a society in which its citizens have forfeited all personal liberties for government protection and stability; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, explores a civilization in which this hypothetical has become reality. The inevitable trade-off of citizens’ freedoms for government protection traditionally follows periods of war and terror. The voluntary degradation of the citizens’ rights begins with small, benign steps to full, totalitarian control. Major methods for government control and censorship are political, religious, economic, and moral avenues. Huxley’s Brave New World provides a prophetic glimpse of government censorship and control through technology; the citizens of the World State mimic those of the real world by trading their personal liberties for safety and stability, suggesting that a society similar to Huxley’s could exist outside the realm of dystopian science fiction.
Imagine a world where everything is controlled by the government. Imagine a world where science, literature, religion, and even family, do not exist. Imagine a world where citizens are conditioned to accept this. This is exactly how the world is portrayed in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The focus of the World State is on society as a whole rather than on individuals. Some characters from the novel have a harder time accepting the conditioning. Through these characters, we learn the true cost of a government-dominated society. In Brave New World, Huxley conveys that a totalitarian government will provide happiness and peace by abolishing individuality and free thinking.
Ultimately, common ideas found in the novel 1984, totalitarianism, surveillance, and lack of privacy are also ubiquitous in modern society and government. Big Brother and modern day government have been able to control its citizens through surveillance equipment, and fear all for a little more power. There is much to learn from such an undesirable form of society much like the one of Oceania in 1984. Examining Big Brother government closely, alarming connections can be made to real-world government actions in the United States and the cruel world within Orwell's book.
When writing his novel 1984, George Orwell was conveying his disapproving thoughts about the actions of the fascist dictators that were attempting their rise to power during World War II. The dystopian society created in the novel was created as a warning to those who supported the dictators at the time, including Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini, and the negative effects that their power would bring. Although Orwell’s intentions were not to prophesy what the world would be like, society today is beginning to closely resemble that of 1984. The similarities between George Orwell’s novel 1984 and society today are becoming increasingly more significant because of an excess use of technology, a lack of privacy, and the extreme measures taken by the government.
The fear of government control is a leitmotif in many dystopian literature stories; therefore, strong, oppressive central governments feature prominently in this genre. Both Brave New World and 1984 provide examples of this type of government, which superficially appear to be quite different. Although the outward aspects of these governments appear to be in opposition, they both use conditioning and societal manipulation to maintain control of their citizens in worlds affected by industrialization.
Contemporary society is blinded by new and improved technologies only created for the increase of apathy. Neil Postman has declared that the novel, Brave New World, can be used to connote our society is slowly changing into that dystopia. Aldous Huxley, the author of this piece, conveys his idea that what we love oppresses us, and will ultimately be our downfall. In George Orwell´s novel, 1984, he states that what we fear and hate will be our downfall. In my view, what we love has more of a grasp over us than what we hate. We keep what we love around us at all times, opposed to staying away from our fears. I agree with Huxley, and also with Postman´s interpretation.
There are lots of ways to compare 1984 by George Orwell to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. They both have to do with very futuristic ideas.
In 1984, George Orwell explores the many facets of a negative utopia. Orwell seems to focus on the measures that the government takes to maintain a public of plebeians who have no personality or identity and believe that they are not unique individuals, but instead are part of a greater senseless mob of people who constantly work for a hostile and oppressive government which is involved in incessant wars. These people are taught to love. They then learn to fear their government because they believe all of the propaganda that is constantly instilled into their minds. They willing follow their government without contest for the duration of their meaningless lives. The government controls all forms of the media (thus denying the people the basic right of free speech) and use it to personify the government (known as “big brother”) .The government therefore seems omnipotent, or all knowing and always correct. Forecasts are changed from one week to the next always proving the government was correct. As was mentioned before, many of the rights that present day Westerners take for gran...
This Perfect Day belongs to the genre of "dystopian" or anti-utopian novels, like Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984. Yet it is more satisfying than either. This Perfect Day is probably Ira Levin's greatest work of his career. Levin's work, despite being written in 1970, is very plausible having realistic technology, such as scanners and computers which watch over the entire family, the entire population of the world. This novel could be used to show the dangers of a Utopian society as well as being full of anti-Communist and anti-racist sentiment. This Perfect Day also displays the feeling that communist and segregated institutions can be defeated, as the protagonist Chip over powers the "family" and their vile Uni Comp as well as rising above the segregated community he reaches after fleeing the family. This work could best be placed in an area of the curriculum where it is the students job to learn that although everyone might not be equal, nor should they be, they are still human and deserve to be treated with the respect and kindness we would expect to be treated with. This work could be used in conjunction with other works of literature that display the same ideals against communism and discrimination as well as a lack of compassion for others. Other works that could be used in cohorts with Levin's This Perfect Day, are Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and even the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Both of these novels show the dangers of trying to create a Utopian society and the chaos it causes. In Harrison Bergeron, handicapping has become an American institution and it is the governments responsibility to make sure that everyone is equal in every way which ends up causing chaos and rebellion. The Handmaid's Tale shows the dangers of when an extreme group takes over the United States after a nuclear holocaust, with women being placed in a submissive role to men, only being used to reproduce. This Perfect Day could also be used in a section with novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin which portray the evils of racism and discrimination, just as the land where Chip ends up after escaping the family, is very racist and segregated. He is forced to endure the taunts and tortures of the folks who had fought Uni from the beginning, yet he rises above these bounds to return and destroy Uni Comp, thereby destroying the family.
Comparing Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Huxley’s Brave New World, the authoritative figures strive for freedom, peace, and stability for all, to develop a utopian society. The Utopian society strives for a perfect state of well-being for all persons in the community, and over-emphasizes this factor, where no person is exposed to the reality of the world. As each novel progresses, we see that neither society possesses family values nor attempts to practice them.
The lack of meaningful sex has taken away all the emotion in the society as well as every other emotion that comes with it, such as rebellion. All of this taken away to create a stable society with no emotion. However the evaluation of emotion is different in each novel. For example, in The Handmaid's Tale, monogamy is a value that practiced an praised because of its biblical purposes. On the other hand, in Brave New World promiscuity is dominant because they want a strong community that has a secure society with discomforts. In the Handmaids tale the handmaids and their Commanders are required to have sex only to produce a child however not on her own with the commander to avoid emotion. Offred, the handmaid, clearly doesn't like doing it but there was not a better choice, "I do not say making love, because this is not what he is doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate....nor would rape cover it...There wasn't a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what I chose.... Kissing is forbidden between us. This makes it bearable. One detaches oneself. One describes" (Atwood 110-111). Offred feels no emotion towards the Commander, she has sex purely because she has been given no choice, she refuses to call this act making love and this is because she feels no love. Conversely, in Brave New World, it is taught that promiscuity is the normal way to behave in their