Brave New World And 1984 Comparison Essay

Literature frequently tries to depict what a perfect world would be like. A world without war, without class, without major problems. As utopian as this idea seems, it more times than not depicts that of a dystopian society. Peace can only be achieved by suppressing the oppressed, class can only be disavowed through false ideals, and major problems can only be removed by creating new ones. Both George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World express these themes. Both novels deal with a totalitarian dystopian society that denies freedoms to their people.

In Huxley's Brave New World, the society is one where rudimentary freedoms are stripped from the people through conditioning. Most of them don’t even realize that they are practically enslaved. From even before birth, their class and life are already determined. From there, they are programmed to be what that is that they are determined to be. John, someone who has not been raised in the same unfree society as the others, speaks out about the lack of freedom. He states to the leader of the world, Mustafa Mond, "But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin." Mustafa Mond replies that John is seeking the right to be unhappy. This quote and the
“president’s” response practically sum up the entire idea of the dystopian society. Freedom’s, such as happiness and individuality, are given up in exchange for safety and comfort. People are born with the feeling they are free, when in all actuality they are programmed by the totalitarian society to be who they are.

In Orwell’s 1984, much like Huxley’s novel, basic freedoms are taken away from the lower class proles without them even realizing it. The conditioning these people go through is much less blatant than that of those in Brave New World. Here they are simply threatened to not disobey. History as they know it is changed daily to support the ideals of the party. Through these actions the totalitarian society is able to program their lower citizens without them even knowing. In both novels, the governments do this in order to protect their citizens, but all it really does is make them slaves to society. One of the party slogans, “Freedom is slavery.” is an example of doublethink, another way of subtly controlling the people. The party scares its citizens into being dependant upon each other and reliant on the party through this slogan. It simply means that if you are independent from the party you will fail. Another instance of the total power that the party garnered is when they finally finished “reprogramming” the main character Winston. “He accepted everything. The past was alterable. The past never had been altered.” It doesn’t matter what the people thought or did, in the end the party always won. They could influence people and the people would never know they were influenced at all.

In both novels, the totalitarian rulers, whether it be the alphas in Brave New World, or the party heads in 1984, are able to control the lower classes. The former breeds them to not rebel and follow their teachings, the latter brain washes them. Though nothing nearly as horrible happens like that in our society, subtle events and statements have large influences over us. The ways in which we are told to conform to society are much more like that in 1984. We see news, whether it be “fake news” or objective, everyday. This shapes our perspective on the world. Other outlets such as advertisements and celebrities also have the same influence of making us choose one thing over another. There is no government involved here, unlike in the novels, and hence there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. It is just the natural way in which society impacts our daily lives.

Both novels discuss totalitarian dystopian society that deny freedoms to their people.
Though the ruling parties of the hierarchy of their societies make daily life seem regular and free, it is anything but it. George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World depict worlds in which people are brainwashed through conditioning, whether it be as babies or in everyday life. Though the same thing doesn’t occur in modern American life, influences such as television and social media have a way of persuading the average citizen to act a certain way and believe in certain ideals. The novels’ dystopian societies are the extreme of what biased and subjective information can do to our
world.