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Brave new world and handmaids tale
Comparison of Brave New World and The Handmaids Tale
1984 George Orwell Key Idea of Freedom
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Happiness is an emotion effect defined by positive surroundings. It is been proven that to reach happiness, you will have to surround yourself by the people that truly makes you happy. When it comes to the topic of comparing two characters from different novels features some similarities, most of us readily agree that they both live in a different society from us. They were also treated differently, though, it isn’t impossible to think that they do have some sort of similarities. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of what are some of the differences and similarities of these characters side by side. Whereas some are convinced that Bernard and Winston do not share the same features. However, others may obtain that …show more content…
They were locked in a society where nobody can prove what defines real happiness. While Bernard do his best to reach his own happiness, which is tough because he doesn’t even get much joy out of soma, Winston puts into his attempt to achieve his own freedom. These two characters didn’t get to be happy because they were different from others. They tend to think that they do not belong into societies where they are controlled and brainwashes. Their societies is lack of freedom and …show more content…
Everyday they are forced to watch whatever is on the screen, on the other side they are being watched. Big brother watches everybody through telescreen and makes them listen to him on whatever he says. A quote from the novel 1984, chapter one, “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.”, his rebellious side has showed up by turning his back from the telescreen, from big brother. Although, he seem that it felt safer, he still have the side of him which secretly scares
George Orwell once offered this definition of heroism: ordinary people doing whatever they can to change social systems that do not respect human decency, even with the knowledge that they can’t possibly succeed.
Readers often find themselves constantly drawn back to the topic of George Orwell’s 1984 as it follows a dystopian community which is set in a world that has been in continuous war, has no privacy by means of surveillance and has complete mind control and is known by the name of Oceania. The story follows a man by the name of Winston who possesses the features of “A smallish, frail figure… his hair very fair, his face naturally sanguine [and] his skin roughened” (Orwell 2). The novel illustrates to readers what it would be like if under complete control of the government. As a result, this book poses a couple of motifs’, For instance part one tackles “Collectivism” which means the government controls you, while part two fights with “Romance” with Winston and Julia’s sexual tension as well the alteration of love in the community, and part three struggles with “Fear” and how it can control someone physically and mentally.
Throughout the book he tries to overcome the government, but in his heart, he knows he has no hope of thriving because “…was already dead” for committing ThoughtCrime and involving himself in acts worthy of death (Orwell 36). All of his character traits combined lead him to his ultimate death. His attraction to beauty makes him keep hold of objects and things considered suspicious, his rebelliousness causes him break nearly all of society’s rules, and his curiosity steers him toward people and places that eventually causes the Winston torture he endures in Ministry of Love. Winston could have had some false hope of a better world where he could get away from all of the harsh rules and regulations of the Party, but in reality, his personality traits dragged him through a life already pre-written and stamped with an early
Winston finds a loophole to expressing his thoughts through writing in a journal. Since Big Brother is always watching everything that Winston does through telescreens, he cannot verbally express his feelings towards The Party without being caught. Living in a world full of mostly uniformity, Winston obviously stands out as a recalcitrant individual. Winston is fully exposed to The Party at all time, leaving him without any privacy. Winston uses his writing to express his individuality, but he does not even feel completely safe because “The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed--would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” (15) Even when he is not expressing any opinion verbally, Winston is still in danger of being caught by the Thought Police, leading him to have a hatred and conflict with The Party because they do not allow him to express his individuality. Winston is never alone, even when he is physically alone, which diminishes his sense of any privacy. Winston’s invasion of privacy by The Party does not end with the telescreens. In Oceania, “In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” Thus, implying happiness can be determined by ones mindset. However, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World creates a vision of a utopian society that achieves happiness by altering the mindset of its populace to believe they are happy. In a society depicting such a strange ideology of the future, people are no longer as happy as they make their minds up to be, but as happy as the government allows them to be. Canadians are repugnant to Huxley’s world despite the many similar issues between Canada and the New World State. The excessive use of chemicals, obsession with consumerism and illusion of happiness prove that the Canadian society is becoming increasingly similar to the Brave New World.
Firstly, O’Brien, a member of the inner party, uses technology to accomplish complete control over the public through the means of telescreens, hidden microphones and torture machines, ‘Any sound that Winston made… could be picked up by [the telescreen]. [Winston] could be seen as well as heard’. This emphasises to the reader the extent of control that the party can exercise over the public, enabling them to eliminate any potential rebels. Furthermore, this loss of freedom and individuality exterminates any real friendship, family or love forcing the public to turn to Big Brother for companionship. This in turn minimises the chance of rebellion as everyone views Big Brother as a figure of comfort and security, ‘As he seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector…’ O’Brien also uses a torture machine on Winston, ‘[He] had never loved [O’Brien] so deeply as at this moment’. This machine enables O’Brien to manipulate Winston’s views, personal opinions and even feelings. O’Brien is able to make Winston view the world as he wants him to, even to the extent of making Winston love him, his tormentor, the person inflicting the pain. ...
It was a quite normal day in April when Winston Smith was making his way home from work. The conflict in the story becomes more clear when Winston passes multiple decorations of Big Brother, reminding him that Big Brother is always watching. Winston reaches his home. Home, usually a safe place, is not so safe in this society. "Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.” (3). Home is well known as a place of safety and privacy. In Winston’s world, the government has so much power that no one in the society is safe, even in their own home. This is what happens in a totalitarian society; the people don’t rebel or push for a revolution when they can enabling the government to completely abuse it’s power. If the people living in London had revolted against the government, the extremity of how controlled the people are would not be so
The world changes so rapidly, so how could anyone predict the future? People have different beliefs of how the world will be in the next few generations, but a main concern is whether the society will improve or downgrade. Huxley is a renowned author, but after Brave New World, he can be perceived as a theorist. Aldous Huxley suggests that happiness is slowly becoming an emotion that relies on superficial experiences as it is in Brave New World.
Throughout the novel the totalitarian government, called Big Brother, is constantly attacking the people psychologically. One of the first things that strikes protagonist Winston Smith is a poster in the street, reading “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (Orwell 5). From the very beginning of the book, the government is already shoving fear down on top of the citizens of Oceana. This threat is not all bark either, but all citizens are being monitored by cameras and microphones everywhere. In every single room there is a “telescreen” with propaganda of how great the country is. Nazi Propaganda leader Minister Joseph Goebbels said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." And that is exactly what Big Brother did. They had complete divisions set apart to change the history of the country to make it sound like they were doing great. The people who remembered the truth (like Winston) were considered rebels of the state and were to be “vaporized” (Orwell 51). It was not e...
In Brave New World, happiness is a topic that is brought up often, this being evident through the constant appearance of soma within the novel. With these constant mentions of happiness, Huxley is trying to tell us what it means to be truly happy. Within the novel, happiness is an artificial emotion created by soma in conjunction with hypnopaedic conditioning. We can see that in the society of Brave New World, happiness, in its traditional sense, has become obsolete; this is evident when Lenina Crowne is in a helicopter with Henry Foster above London and she says that “everybody’s happy now,” (65). This quote shows that within the novel, happiness has become a term that is thrown around casually, just like the drug that is used to induce it. By doing this, Huxley is trying to tell us the difference between artificial happiness and true happiness, what we see in Brave New World being artificial happiness. True happiness requires sacrifice, risk and sadness. As John says, when speaking with Mustapha Mond in his office: “I don 't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want
The perspective of one’s reality is limited to one’s mind; if one controls their mind, then one can control that person’s world. This is the ideology by which the Party survives. The citizens of Oceania live with the knowledge that every aspect of their lives is being observed and controlled constantly. This is seen visually with the use of the telescreens and the thought police. Winston explains life under the control of Big Brother as so, “You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in
A Brave New World is a thrilling combination of both malicious and brilliant morals and symbols. This “Brave New World” is a dystopian society set in 2540 A.D. or 632 A.F. (After Ford). It is a novel about how happiness cannot be artificially grown or taught, it is one’s own and is different for everyone. Bernard and Helmholtz are the only people in their dystopian society to really think for their selves. The most significant characters in the book are Bernard Marx, John the Savage, Lenina Crowne, Mustafa Mond, and Helmholtz Watson. The setting of this novel is primarily in London, England, but changes to New Mexico as well. Huxley’s Brave New World incorporates characteristics of his childhood, critical
Every part of life is regimented and controlled, but the only crime is ‘thought crime’: independent thinking and individualism. Big Brother is the figurehead of the Inner Party, and throughout the book, it is heavily implied that he may not really exist. The people are divided into Inner Party members, who control the government, Outer Party members, who make up the middle class, and Proletarians, or Proles, who make up the uneducated lower class. He utilizes strong but vague descriptions of the world around Winston to hint at the state of the world without directly saying it. He describes a bright cold day, which seems to perfectly depict the world's bleak state in a sort of indirect way (Orwell, 1948).
In this case, the government has to use severe actions to ensure they will never act in this way again. Winston Smith, is a minor member of the ruling Party and is aware of some of these extreme tactics. Since Winston is not completely brainwashed by the propaganda like all the other citizens, he hates Big Brother passionately. Winston is one of the only who realize that Big Brother is wiping individual identity and is forcing collective identity. He is “conscious of [his] own identity”(40-41) . Winston continues to hold onto the concept of an independent external reality by constantly referring to his own existence. Aware of being watched, Winston still writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”(21) in his diary. Winston believes whether he writes in his diary or not, it is all the same because the Thought Police will get him either way. Orwell uses this as a foreshadow for Winston's capture later on in the novel. Fed up with the Party, Winston seeks out a man named O’Brien, who he believes is a member of the ‘Brotherhood’, a group of anti-Party rebels. When Winston is arrested for thought crime by his landlord, Mr.Charrington, who is a member of the Thought Police. Big Brother takes Winston to a dark holding cell, to use their extreme torture strategy to erase any signs of personal identity. Winston's torturer is O’Brien, the man he thought to be apart of the brotherhood. Winston asks
Would one rather have a life with no control over what happens; or would one want to have a life with some power, but a limited pursuit of happiness? The Government in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 let the citizens do whatever they want to do. The only exception is that they are not to be left alone to think about life and the enjoyments that are involved; they are supposed to live and forget. Illegal activities are considered normal in these novels. America’s society compared to these two Utopias is completely different. Things that make one happy might be illegal in America’s society, but are considered normal in the novels.