FREE ESSAY ON A BRAVE NEW WORLD AND 1984 DISSIMILAR

A BRAVE NEW WORLD AND 1984 DISSIMILAR

A Brave New World and 1984 Dissimilar
Although many similarities exist between Aldous Huxleys A Brave New 
World and George Orwells 1984, the works books though they deal 
with similar topics, are more dissimilar than alike. A Brave New 
World is a novel about the struggle of Bernard Marx, who rejects the 
tenants of his society when he discovers that he is not truly happy. 
1984 is the story of Winston who finds forbidden love within the 
hypocrisy of his society. In both cases, the main character is in 
quiet rebellion against his government which is eventually found to 
be in vain.
Huxley wrote A Brave New World in the third person so 
that the reader could be allotted a more comprehensive view of the 
activities he presents. His characters are shallow and cartoon-like 
(Astrachan) in order to better reflect the society in which they are 
entrapped. In this society traditional notions of love and what 
ideally should come out of it have long been disregarded and are now 
despised, Mother, monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; 
fierce and foamy the wild jet. The urge has but a single outlet. 
(Huxley 41) The comparison to a wild jet is intended to demonstrate 
the inherent dangers in these activities. Many of the Brave New 
Worlds social norms are intended to save its citizens from 
anything unpleasant through depriving them of the opportunity to 
miss anything overly pleasant.
The society values, ACOMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY, 
(Huxley 1) supersede all else in a collective effort. Soma, the 
magical ultimate drug is what keeps the population from revolting. 
What you need is a gramme of soma... All the advantages of 
Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects. The drug is at 
the forefront of their daily lives providing freedom from lifes 
every ill. The word comes from the Sanskrit language of ancient 
India. It means both an intoxicating drink used in the old Vedic 
religious rituals there and the plant from whose juice the drink was 
made- a plant whose true identity we dont know. (Astrachan) The 
drug is used as a form of recreation, like sex, and its use is 
encouraged at any opportunity, especially when great emotions begin 
to arise.
They are conditioned to accept this to calm and pacify 
them should they begin to feel anything too intensely. The 
conditioning also provides them with their place and prevents them 
from participating in social activities which they neednt take part 
in. (Smith) Class consciousness which Americans are so reluctant to 
acknowledge is taught through hypnop?dia (the repetition of phrases 
during sleep akin to post hypnotic suggestion) for all social 
classes:
These names are letters in the Greek alphabet, familiar 
to Huxleys original English readers because in English schools they 
are used as grades- like our As, Bs, etc.- with Alpha plus the best 
and Epsilon minus the worst. In Brave New World, each names a class 
or caste. Alphas and Betas remain individuals; only Gammas, Deltas, 
and Epsilons are bokanovskified. (Astrachan)
The conditioning is begun at an extremely young age and 
is by modern real-world standards cruel, AThe screaming of the 
babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, 
almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now 
gave utterance. (Huxley 20) The childrens Pavlovian conditioning 
with electric shocks is later compared to the wax seals which used 
to grace the seams of letters (Astrachan), Not so much like drops 
of water, though water, it is true, can wear holes in the hardest 
granite; rather, drops of liquid sealing-wax, drops that adhere, 
incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally 
the rock is all one scarlet blob. The entire society is 
conditioned to shrink away from intense emotion, engage in casual 
sex, and take their pacifying Soma.
In 1984, a first-person book partly narrated by the main 
characters internal dialogue, the great party leader is Big 
Brother, a fictional character who is somewhat more imposing than 
Ford, of Huxleys book, named after the industrialist Henry Ford 
(Astrachan). The main character Winston fears Big Brother and is 
much more aware of his situation than any of the characters in A 
Brave New World who are constantly pacified by soma. In A Brave New 
World history is ignored completely whereas in 1984 it is literally 
rewritten in order to suit the present.
The role of science in both books is extensive and 
complicated. 1984s telescreens cannot be turned off, as A Brave New 
World has feelies, an advancement on talkies which added sound, 
feelies add tactile senses to a movie as well. Science and human 
progress is not acknowledged in A Brave New World (Smith) excepting 
when it increases consumption, whereas it is twisted with ironic 
titles in 1984, They were homes of the four Ministries between 
which the entire apparatus of government was divided: the Ministry 
of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, 
education, and the fine arts; the Ministry of Peace, which concerned 
itself with war; the Ministry of Love, which maintained law and 
order; and the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for 
economic affairs. Their names in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, 
Miniluv, and Miniplenty. (Orwell 8) The God (Ford) of A Brave New 
World encourages production and consumption of shallow objects to 
complement the shallow minds of its citizens.
1984 was written as a warning against the results of 
having a totalitarian state. Winston bears the blunt of his 
mistakes, the crime of individuality and dissention. A Brave New 
World is as much a satire on the reality of today (the reality of 
Huxleys day) as it is a novel about the future. ANeil Postman 
...warned Awhen a population becomes distracted by trivia, when 
cultural life is defined a s a perpetual round of entertainments, 
when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby talk, a 
people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville 
act, then a nation finds itself at risk; cultural death is a clear 
possibility.(Kruk) Huxley seems to feel that society is progressing 
toward a materialistic and superficial end, in which all things of 
real value, including the relationships which make people human, 
will be quashed.
The two works vary greatly, A Brave New World is the 
Huxleys expression of fear that mankind will create a utopia by way 
of foregoing all that makes life worthwhile. Orwells work rings 
more sharply of secret police paranoia. Indeed, Winston is taken to 
room 101, while Bernard is merely transferred to an uncomfortable 
location. The hypocrisy is much more evident within A Brave New 
World as well, owing to the controllers having had a son. Both 
books forewarn of a day when humankind might fall slave to its own 
concept of how others should act.
The two books ask not whether societies with stability, 
pacification, and uniformity can be created, but whether or not they 
are worth creating. It is so often that one wants something and in 
wanting romanticizes it, thus bringing disappointment when the end 
is finally obtained. They serve as a reminder that it is necessary 
to have pain to compare with joy, defeat to compare with victory, 
and problems in order to have solutions. Both books end on negative 
notes; Bernard is exiled to work in Iceland and Winston is subjected 
to psychological treatment and then killed.