Brave New World Vs Handmaid's Tale

The utopia's in both Brave New World and The Handmaid's Tale, use different methods of obtaining control over individuals weather its in a relationship or having control over a whole society, but are both similar in the fact that humans are looked at as instruments. In both societies, the individuals have very little liberty and are always controlled strictly by the government. Brave New World and The Handmaid's Tale create fictional places where the needs and desires of humans are met, but not as well as they should be and not without a price. I think that the leaders in both books sacrifice the majority of the people for the minority. They are selfish and have gone a few steps to far in the severity of the way they run their society.
These novels prove that the individual's freedom is sacrificed in dystopic societies when the government controls the knowledge, individuality and relationships of each person in order for there to be stability in the society. In The Handmaid's Tale and Brave New World, through issues of class systems and the control of reproduction, Margaret Atwood and Aldous Huxley forewarn that in an all-powerful society, it is destined to become corrupt.

Both novels treat humans as items and not as human beings. In HMT, the entire structure of the Gilead society was built around the single goal of reproduction. Gilead is a society facing a crisis of radically dropping birthrates and to solve the problem, it forces state control on the means of reproduction. The society's political order requires the overthrow of women. The government strips the women of the right to vote, the right to hold property or jobs, and the right to read. The women's ovaries and womb become a "national resource" to the society. Even thought this setting takes place in the future, it's almost like these events happened in the past because of the way they treat women. Is almost like history is repeating its self and that some people have not learned from the mistakes we have done in the past. Handmaids are socially conditioned in Gilead by the Aunts. At one point Offred even realizes the next generation of women will be easier to control because Gilead will be all they know. It's also important to note that in Gilead women are segregated even from each other, the Wives from Handmaids, and both from the poorer Econowives. Because the women are not united in thought or spirit, they are less likely to rebel, and thus easier to control. The women are controlled so much that the state completely remoulds their attitude and this is evident even to women that are independent like the narrator of HMT, Offred. Offred makes this evident when she is lying in the bathtub naked. "I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I'm a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping."

Offred views have changed on reproduction as the novel progresses. Originally she believes her body was an instrument, an extension of herself but now her body is only important because of its "central object", or womb which can bear a child. In BNW, we can see that humans are also treated as possessions but in a different sense. This directly follows the economic rules of supply and demand. Through the Bokanovsky and Podsnap Processes, the lower class is mass-produced on assembly lines to satisfy the needs of a market, just like any other manufactured good. The doctor in BNW proclaims the World State's belief that human beings are things meant to be "used up until they wear out." With respect to sexual pleasure, World State citizens are conditioned to view themselves, and others, as commodities to be consumed like any manufactured good. In both novels, the humans are treated as nothing more than "things" that can perform tasks imposed by the government. Personally, I think that the way they run the society in both of these novels are completely absurd and I don't know how someone had a sick enough mind to think of something like this. Also, sometimes I feel like I am just a minuet part of society and everyone is telling me what to do and it almost feels like I am being controlled just like Offred in HMT but I know at the end of the day that I have rights and I can make a difference. Even though both of the novels are fiction, it still shows that extreme power from the government can lead to control over the whole society. Sometime we take our lives and the government for granted but we don't know how lucky were truly are to live in the society that we are in today. There are even other parts of the word that have today that have an unstable governments but we try and do our best to help out people in need. This caring and responsibility for is something that is not evident in the two novels and the government has so much control that it is extremely hard for anyone to step up and change. In both novels, the humans are treated as nothing more than "things" that can perform tasks imposed by the government.

In HMT, Offred remembers her mother saying that it is "truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations." Offred's satisfaction after she begins her relationship with Nick shows the truth of this insight.
Offred's situation restricts her horribly compared to the freedom her former life allowed, but her relationship with Nick allows her to regain the smallest piece of her former existence. The physical affection becomes a reward that makes the restrictions almost bearable. Women in general support Gilead's persistence by willingly participating in unwanted sex, serving as Handmaid's by imposing the state. On the other hand, BNW is similar in the fact that the individuals believe that the society is normal, but different for the reason that they are conditioned to believe that from birth. They brainwash everyone to believe that they are all significant and important to the society but really they are all just one more identical embryo that was produced on an assembly line. This is evident in the following quote. "Every one works for every one else. We can't do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn't do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else. We can't do without any one" The state creates a superficial world through the use of conditioning, and escapes from reality using such drugs as soma, which is "the perfect drug". The citizens of BNW are programmed to enjoy their destiny and contribute to the social stability of their utopia. Science and technology have created a world where no one ever needs to suffer and the leaders are free to control their "flocks of
sheep".

In HMT, the novel illustrates a dystopia in which the state controls the behaviours and actions of its people in order to maintain its own stability and power. A major difference between the two is that in HMT, control is maintained by constant government surveillance, secret police, and torture, but in BNW the same thing is maintained through technological use that starts before birth and last until death. The use of technology in BNW actually changed what the society wanted and the controlling state of Gilead maintains power through force and intimidation. The government of BNW retains control by making its citizens so happy and superficially fulfilled that they don't care about their personal freedom. Although both novels use different methods of force to control the society, both result in the loss of dignity, morals, values, and emotions and in short, a loss of humanity.