Compare and Contrast Essay: Brave New World Versus 1984

Close your eyes and imagine a world free of war, suffering and pain; an environment that provides all the necessary luxuries to maintain eternal happiness; one that is stable, friendly, peaceful and enjoyable. In this world, every inconvenience known to man is rid of. We are no longer affected by disease, aging, heartbreak, depression or loneliness; conformity is at hand and stability is achieved. Now envision a world where there is no love, families do not exist, humans are no longer conceived yet created in test tubes, and sexual promiscuity is not only acceptable but enforced. Picture an environment where there is no religion, art or history. The human mind and body is assembled accordingly and we lack the freedom of

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orewell’s 1984 were both composed surrounding times of war in the twentieth century. The authors were alarmed by what they saw in society and began to write novels depicting the severe outcomes and possiblities of civilizaton if it continued down its path. Although the two books are very different, they both address many of the same issues and principles.

As Winston Smith reflects, “The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in.” (Orwell, 16) The Two Minutes Hate takes the rage that persons may feel toward the lack of control over their own lives away from the Party and turns it against claimed enemies of the Party. Because Big Brother is declared to be kind and good, any enemy is automatically evil and bad. There are also spies to keep the citizens as ignorant as the prisoners in Plato’s cave. The Thought Police keep people afraid, discouraging independent thinking; even children spy on their parents. The children, Orwell writes in 1984, "were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations. The family has become in effect an extension of the Thought Police. It was a device by means of which everyone could be surrounded night and day by informers who knew him intimately" (Orwell, 133). No relationship should be more important than loyalty to Big brother. Moreover, the last thing that controls the people is the telescreen. The telescreen not only watches citizens, but also tells the Party’s lies that change history. But, like prisoners in the cave, the citizens have no other reality to compare it

1984, a novel by George Orwell, represents a dystopian society in which the people of Oceania are surveilled by the government almost all the time and have no freedoms. Today, citizens of the United States and other countries are watched in a similar way. Though different technological and personal ways of keeping watch on society than 1984, today’s government is also able to monitor most aspects of the people’s life. 1984 might be a dystopian society, but today’s condition seems to be moving towards that controlling state, where the citizens are surveilled by the government at all times.

     1984 and Brave New World, written by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, respectively, are both books that reflect the authors vision of how society would end up at the course it was going at the time of the writing of the book. Both books were written more than fifty years ago, but far enough apart that society was going in a totally different direction at the time. There are many ways to compare these two books and point out the similarities. On certain, deep levels they are very much the same, while at first glance, on the surface, they are very different. One point that in some parts is the same and some very different, is the governments in each of these books method’s of control.

He implies this ideology on the government’s excessive use of Propaganda. The novel begins with Winston Smith, a protagonist, walking into his house gloomily. Inside his home, a “telescreen” play loudly and continuously. As Winston looks outside, he sees that, “Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black-mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own” (Orwell 6). Orwell implies the reality of how the totalitarian government is able brainwash people with the power of propaganda. By using imagery, “eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything,” he describes the vivid picture of a depressing environment of totalitarian society. This sequentially reflects people’s psychological mind due to the government’s misuse of propaganda. Orwell further stresses totalitarians’ abuse of power through the use of appeal to fear, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” This statement reminds the citizens who hold the

The totalitarian government loathes freedoms and deplores rebellion, and by combining these ideas they create the perfect conglomeration of ideas which pushes the people of Airstrip One even further down the ideologies that Big Brother approves of.  Because of all this hate and rage being directed at Goldenstein, Eastasia, freedoms, and the rebellion, the people still are not aware of their own status as individuals creating an endless cycle ignorance.  Another way the The Party exhibits control is through the use of the Two Minutes Hate.  As it is described by Winston, it is “A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer…” (Orwell 14).  The Two Minutes Hate activity utilizes some of the pent up frustrations the people have accumulated  through not being able to exercise their freedoms and turns it into pure rage.  Hate and anger course through the crowd as they are unable to form a single coherent thought that isn’t what the government wants them to think.  The Party, for these two minutes, is able to create a stranglehold on the emotions of the people and can steer them in any direction they choose.  Orwell demonstrates here how the themes of rage and loathing are going to play a big part in his novel as well as how government decreases unique thinking by playing up emotions rather than critical thinking.  And the key part about the Hate period is that “...

Huxley's work, Brave New World, is a book about a society that is in the future. This book contains many strange things that are generally unheard of today. Yet we see that some of the ideas that are presented in this book were already present in the 20th century. The idea of having one superior race of people can easily be seen as something that Hitler was trying to accomplish during the Holocaust. Huxley presents the society in his book as being a greater civilization. A totalitarian type of leadership is also presented in his book. According to him, this would be the best and most effective type of government. Hitler also thought that a totalitarian government was best. We see several similarities between Hitler's Germany and Huxley's

Aldous Huxley wisely inserts many instances of distortion to the elements in Brave New World to successfully caution the world about its growing interest in technology.

Two classic novels, 1984 written by George Orwell and Brave New World penned by Aldous Huxley both possess similar topics and themes. In both novels societies are striving for a utopia, or a perfect society. These novels also take place in societies with versions of totalitarian governments, which is a government that rules by coercion. Not only are the topics similar, but in both novels a rebellious character is the protagonist; Winston Smith from 1984 and John the Savage in Brave New World. Another parallel in the books are the tactics that the government uses to instill fear and power over the citizens. A common theme expressed in Orwell’s novel 1984 and Huxley’s novel Brave New World is that government uses

     As I read Brave New World and 1984, I noticed how some of Aldous Huxley and

The book 1984 was written in 1949, and Brave New World was written in 1949. The two authors have similarities in the books, in the sense of the topic of society. When 1984 was written, World War two had come to an end,and communism was spreading putting a lot of fear on many countries. In George Orwell’s book, the biggest problem was socialism, and dictatorship taking over the world.

George Orwell’s dystopian classic “1984” was a warning for the whole world to not fully trust your government. Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931, almost two decades before “1984”, and not too long after the first world war, at the beginning of the Great Depression, and a devastating flu virus that had claimed millions of lives. Though both stories have been written in a time unlike today, people should still be frightened of the possibility of becoming true. Unfortunately, it’s already too late to worry about it becoming true because it’s the world’s reality. Both “Brave New World” and “1984” are very close representations of the modern world because of politics, and technological and social aspects of the modern day world.

Back in the 1930's when "Brave New World" was published, no body dreamt that world of science fiction would ever come into reality. Surely there must have been a time though when a machine that could wash clothes too, seemed like science fiction. That machine has come into reality though. With today's technology and already seeing how far we've advanced scientifically, who's to say we

This thesis discusses the common comparisons that are drawn between the dystopian novels 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and modern America and how they have affected Americans’ perception of US government. Although many people have not read 1984, the details of the novel have become so ubiquitous as a pop culture reference that most people understand that the word “Orwellian” implies surveillance, totalitarianism, and engagement in war, despite the fact that these aspects of the novel do not fully encompass the warning that George Orwell heeded. Propaganda and manipulation of language, though far less commonly alluded to by the media, are the aspects of 1984 that are the most similar to their counterparts in American