Comparing 1984 And George Orwell's Brave New World

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“Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas, they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities and commercials” (Postman). In the novels Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley, and 1984 written by George Orwell both authors portray a vision of the future through an enthralling story. Brave New World explores a world where the people only seek pleasure and are ignorant of knowledge, but do not seek knowledge. In 1984, the government looms over its people, with limited freedoms and access to knowledge. Both societies similarly work as a unit, and have a lack of history and knowledge, but Brave New World explores how this can occur in the control …show more content…

George Orwell wrote his book in 1948, soon after World War II had ended. England had played a major role in the war and was greatly impacted by the threat of Nazism and communism. This leads to 1984 portraying a more extreme outlook into the future, and the potential evils of dictatorship. Orwell could see that the world was on the brink of the Cold War, portraying an external dictatorship ruling over, and the world always partaking in a war. On the other hand, Aldous Huxley had written his book in 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression and after World War I, and during a time when science and technology were on the cutting edge with a sense of hope for the future. This caused him to write about a world in which technology and search for happiness would be pursued at the cost of independent thinking. In his story, people are also strongly motivated by happiness and distraction from any type of problem. Huxley’s book applies more to the current society, because the threat of technology and progress are more imminent than a World War or world dictatorship. Even if this were to occur, the United States would be too preoccupied to even …show more content…

For example, phones and the internet distracts much of the country from what other events occurring in the world. Social media and insignificant celebrity news distracts people from pressing global issues, but as in the novel, people do not have a want or need for other information. “The world 's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can 't get... And if anything should go wrong, there 's soma” (Huxley, 220). Mustapha Mond’s statement illuminates that people do not care what happens in the world, as long as they are happy. Feely movies, or interactive movies that cause shallow pleasure, are comparable to reality television and pornography. Unlike in this book, 1984’s society has no escape from the harsh reality of war and poverty, and are never truly alone. Another example is that people use recreational drugs and alcohol as well as sex to distract themselves from the real world, just as the people of Huxley’s world use soma and sex to escape from reality. “‘Least of all,’ she continued in another tone ‘why you don 't take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You 'd forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you 'd be jolly. So jolly,’” (Huxley, 92). Lenina’s idea of soma reveals that she significantly cares about her pleasure because she had been brainwashed with these ideas from a

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