Brave New World Compared to 1984

Brave New World and 1984 are similar in illustrating a dystopic version of society, where the state strips individuals of their deepest humanities. The two governments illustrated, however, choose very different ways in which they control the individuals to achieve their societal goals. Brave New World succeeds in this, by the government making life satisfying for its people, through their conditioning, consumerism, sex and drugs (soma). The people believe that they are happy in the society which they live, and dont realize that they have been stripped of the opportunities to seek love, endure pain, consume things like art or religion, which are all things that make us feel fully human. The governmental party of 1984, accomplishes this by trampling outer Party members into allegiance through economic distress, fear, surveillance, and dumbing down the language.

Brave New World is a novel about a future society where everything is under the authority of the government. The current hype in technology is paraded around as individuals have their own helicopters and can travel from place to place very quickly. Children are not born, rather they are incubated using embryos from females that are then fertilized. During the gestation process their social status is pre-determined, this allows the government the ability to ensure that any one social group, does not have the ability to grow larger than the other. This creates equality amongst the groups. Once children are incubated and born, they are continually conditioned to consume goods in the capitalist system and to support society by participating in activities. By not allowing the citizens to have extra time on their hands, this leaves not time for contemplation or fruitless thoughts. Because the only focus in this society is the present and future, history is neither taught nor is it recorded. In this society you can have sex with whoever you want and whenever you want, because sex in this culture is purely for enjoyment and recreational purposes. Citizens in this society dont have parents or siblings, and they dont get married. If one starts to feel any type of human emotions or overwhelmed, they take the drug soma, which makes them feel relaxed and worriless.

The novel 1984 is different in its view of the future and how the governmental control would affect society. Opposed to the society of Brave New World where technology is readily available to all its citizens, 1984 only allows the use of technology to the Party and upper castes of the government. Modern conveniences are not for everyone in this society, the rest of society has to do with broken-down housing, terrible food, and artificial gin. Everywhere in society they endure the fear of being monitored, in each home they have telescreens which watch their activities and continually display governmental ads to help continue the brainwashing and conditioning. The government uses the Ministry of Truth to control history by re-writing it to suit their needs at any time. The government in this novel is known as Big Brother.

While 1984 and Brave New World both depict a government focused on totalitarianism, they each approach it in their own way. Huxley focuses on the happiness of its citizens by keeping them satisfied with their lives, as well as encouraging sex and the use of drugs. On the other hand, Orwell uses media to endure fear and violence into its citizens in order to control the society. The telescreens are never allowed to be powered off and the citizens are in a state of perpetual anguish, that they may be caught for a thought crime and punished. In contrast Brave New Worlds focal point is making citizens happy with the life and class that they were assigned. They are conditioned from the time they are born, throughout their childhood, with the social views and thoughts that are predetermined for the class in which they were assigned. This keeps everyone focused on the trivial things in life, without looking for a deeper meaning in life. If everyone is satisfied or content with life, then no one will have a need to rebel against it. While both governments use different forms of control in order to maintain the society in which they live, the main difference lies in the use of punishment or reward as its motivation.

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