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1984 A Dystopian Society

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A dystopia is an oppressive society maintained through the illusion of perfection and control. Dystopian novels and movies have gained a wide audience in recent years, showing realistic topics often in present society, only more extreme to bring awareness. Dystopian texts often focus on similar key issues- yet society unaware that they are issues due to the illusion of happiness. Censorship allows the government to manipulate what society conceives as true, leading into the inevitable ignorance of the people. The ignorance that everyone unknowingly suffers from causes them to lose their identity, becoming soldiers marching to the same beat set by the government. No one is given the opportunity to form their own coherent thoughts, allowing the…show more content…
The loss of individuality and conformity leads to unhappiness, without the authority to revolutionize and being forced to live life as who government assigned them to be. In Brave New World, they formulated a process “making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before.” (Huxley). In this way, they are not only identical in thoughts and ideals, but in looks, not allowing for any sense of individualism. To have an independent thought in 1984 is considered thoughtcrime. With doublethink, every thing you may think is true you are taught to think the corresponding opposite with it. Wilson states, “and what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right” (Orwell). They could say one plus one is three and one would not know the difference, therefore they can never be there own person. They were not allowed to have a relationship of any kind, friends or lovers, only to reproduce. They are to only love Big Brother and can never know anything else. In Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse Mcclennan represents freedom and individuality. She questions everything and likes to experience everything first hand, not conforming to the ideals of society. She soon disappears, being such a small part of the novel but an important one, Bradbury emphasizing how the government exterminates those who are a threat to their…show more content…
The widespread lack of knowledge does not give society the opportunity to grow. The lack of knowledge is not necessarily bad for the people, as they do not know that they are undereducated. Yet it is overall bad for society because they are caught in an endless oppressive cycle with no chance of getting out. In Brave New World, Huxley warns his readers that the world today could unknowingly be one they do not want to live in, if they were fully conscious of what goes on behind the scenes. Yet even today, people are preoccupied with temporary happiness and consumerism, not taking in the world they are a part of. The people of the novel did not realize the restraints put on them through the unconscious manipulation and propaganda(Huxley). Interspersed with the plot of 1984 are pages from the book O’brien gave him. In the Ignorance Is Strength section, it admits how the classes are separated and how “the essential structure of society has never altered” (Orwell). It never would, just how society is today, the novel essentially being Orwell’s allegory to the time when he wrote it. When Wilson becomes self-aware, he realizes he is incapable of changing anything, only the proles. Even that is a dead end, as “until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious” (Orwell). The novel tells of what happens when
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