Brave New World Vs1984

Nineteen Eighty-Four & Brave New World


Nineteen Eighty-Four By George Orwell, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are both dystopias. Both novels focus on society’s domination of the individual, however in Brave New World the government rules with pleasure, while in Nineteen Eighty-Four the government uses pain to control its citizens. Both novels show that the things around us will one day lead to our demise, although Orwell feared it would be the things we hate, while Huxley feared it would be the things we love that would ultimately lead to our destruction. Winston and Bernard both ultimately fail because of the dystopias in which they live, because of how they are both controlled by their societies, however Winston must fight to find traces of the truth, while Bernard has it all at his fingertips. Both novels use entertainment, oppression, and elimination of the old in order to provide unity for the leadership.
Winston and Bernard both faced oppression, however Orwell warns that externally imposed oppression will overcome society, while Huxley believed that the oppression in which society lives they will grow to love. Huxley saw that there would be no need for a dominating force to control citizens and remove their individualism, but rather that they would love that technologies that removed their power to think for themselves. In Nineteen Eighty-Four the fact that “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” (4), keeps people scared and therefore in compliance, but in Brave New World Soma is used anytime time an individual steps out of line or becomes unhappy (217).
Sex is a key component in each novel, however the culture in which Winston lives fights desperately to destroy the joy sex brings, while the world Bernard inhabits does everything to exploit sex, to overload their citizens with pleasure. In Winston’s world sex is mundane, bad, and dirty, it is not meant to be enjoyed but is rather another task completed for the government, for Bernard sex is... [continues]

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