A Brave New Wolrd vs. 1984

1984 and Brave new world are novels known to be a warning about the potential dangers of totalitarism and its impact in society. The former novel, written by George Orwell, describes a dystopia: “As opposed to «utopia», describes a society oppressive and closed on itself, usually under the control of an authoritarian Government” (Santiago). On the other hand, Aldous Huxley, author of Brave new world, writes about a utopia, a world which “describes a future happy state of humanity, in which each person has satisfied their needs and there is a benevolent government that provides everything you need” (Santiago). Huxley and Orwell's books have some characteristics in common, specially the Mechanisms of Control of the societies:

• Ignorance is strength and death meaningless: both novels highlight the fact that the saying 'ignorance is bliss' is real. In both texts people are physically and psychologically controlled so they cannot start a revolution and try to free  themselves; although the methods are different, they are effective and the main characteristic of that oppression is the omission of information:  in 1984, all books that were considered inappropriate were burned or edited by the Ministry of the Truth, eliminating not only history but people' information; in Brave new world there are no books and people since they were born were treated and tortured to dislike reading and nature. Another example is TV, in which the programs that are transmitted are the government ones. Through this both books try to make us understand that for the governments is easier if the society they are ruling is ignorant because they will not protest against any decision, due to the fact that they do not have the knowledge, they are not informed. Regarding death, in 1984 people disappear every day as well as they die daily, they are constantly threatened by the government, they suffer every day so much that death became meaningless up to the point that is no longer a matter of importance if you live or die, for the government you are just a number not a human being. 

•  Importance of emotions: satisfaction, happiness vs fear: Both novels are written from the viewpoint of happiness and freedom as forbidden or controlled elements. 1984 represents the idea of happiness as danger, Big Brother prefers to keep society scared and afraid and forbids happiness and all the positive feelings (even the ones from relationships among people) because is easier to keep under control scared people. Taking away happiness is taking away freedom. On the other hand, Brave new world prefers giving an exaggerated amount of comfort and satisfaction through drugs (called soma) to control people and their actions: they are all the time giving happiness to the crowds to make sure they do not need or require other necessities that can lead into rebellion, such as reading, thinking, criticizing. They attempt to get people through their basic\natural instincts and manipulate them through for example sex, food, leisure, etc. It is important to mention that the “abuse” or “overuse” of something leads to less consideration/importance of it in a near future, so in this case, the consequence of a constant fear or daily satisfaction is that people do not longer consider those feelings as crucial, unique or natural but feelings that are a must in their routines to complete their lives.

• • Rejection of past: what the two of the books have in common is the complete rejection of their past: the ruling groups manipulate, edit and delete information about all what their societies were until the point that nobody longer remembers how things were before. Eliminating the past is eliminating history, is eliminating people's identity and it is an easy way to control and create a society according to what the ruling groups want.
  
  
  
  
• Family: Family is known to be the center of society and this is the critical point that in 1984 and Brave new world is attacked. They do not let families prosper; families and relationships as well as natural birth are forbidden for society. If the fundamental point of society is destroyed, there are no possibilities for rebellion or the creation of groups that could act against government. Basically the concept in here is "no families, no giving birth, no hopes". In Brave new world, babies are created and cloned in labs only with the purpose of maintaining human kind; babies are treated to reject nature and information: the government is corrupting the most pure thing in the world, taking away all the possibilities for society to develop the critical thinking and awareness needed to act against the system, so they are taking away hopes for a better future.

 As a way to conclude, through their books, Huxley and Orwell wanted to warn us the most terrible consequences in society if we keep acting without thinking about our future. I believe they were brilliant, they were one step forward to conclude all this, and they were so aware and realistic. Even if we think that all that is written in their books is way too exaggerated to happen in our real world, I encourage you to take a minute to think about our current society and its basis. We actually can find some elements that control us in some ways, for example Facebook, which totally represents Huxley’s vision of control through pleasure and satisfaction: we expect people accept us and "like" our status or photos, the more likes we have, the more satisficed we are.

So, according to what you know: Do you think we can end like Orwell or Huxley's societies? What would be necessary for thi to happen?  

Spoiler alert! : As  second conclusion and a way to integrate V for Vendetta in this reflexion, I want to point out the fact that whereas in 1984 Winston is finally made part of the society Big Brother wants (he is absorbed and made part of the system), V in V for Vendetta achieves what Winston does not: Rebellion.  Actually, V makes a change in the society he is part of and breaks down with the totalitarism, kills the bad guys and ends with the oppression. Although V dies, he becomes part of the idea of rebellion that people adopt to free themselves, and as V said: “Ideas are bulletproof”.

As a bonus, what do you think would have happen if Winston finally scaped the oppresion and became a free man?


References:

Huxley, Aldous. Brave new world. Penguin Books, 2008.
s.f. November 16th, 2014. <http://www.pensnest.co.uk/A-Level%20Pages/mod5compare.html>.
Santiago, Juan Manuel. Bibliopolis. s.f. November 16th, 2014. <http://www.bibliopolis.org/articulo/1984.htm>.

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-four. London: Penguin Books, 1954.