Utopia, 1984 Comparison

The idea about human to reconcile the uncertainties of the past with a new or present situation. Throughout the year I studied the texts about, novel 1984 by George Orwell, a film Good Will Hunting and Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In these texts because the characters' uncertainty about the past, they won’t succeed in future situations in their lives. I'm referring from the text of how these uncertainties can have an effect for these protagonists throughout the story until they reach tougher situations.

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.

Although comparing one society to another does not require them to be different in government or human behavior, it does necessarily weight one’s faults against its victories to render it better or worse than the other. This comparative structure, found between Thomas More’s two books of Utopia, poses the country of Utopia opposite the broader communities of world civilization. Despite the comparison of Utopia as distinct from and morally better than widespread society, in truth Utopia is, at best, an extension.

Sex has been reduced to a common action with no social bindings and it is not a gesture of showing love for someone else as people think of it today. When will today’s society be consumed with only the physical aspect of sex? With all of the premarital sex and the age of becoming sexually active decreasing every generation, it leaves a question to be answered; where did the value of love and responsibility of partnership go? Monogamy, in “Brave New World“, is unheard of and taboo to everyone except those who see how powerful love is. The connection that unites people is reduced to a competition to see how many times people have it rather than which the person is. In the book, John knows the importance of love and even resists the temptation to have sex with Lenina. John is among a few people who have not been reduced to mating animals but rather humans that still feel a need for love and companionship.

bell hooks in “Love as the Practice of Freedom” explains thoroughly as to how love is the form to be liberated. Without any love society is blind and continues to practice systems of domination without being aware. However the community should look out for one another not just when a problem impacts an individual. Everyone must be aware of the systems of domination- imperialism,sexism,racism, and classism to create change. When radical love is comprehended it allows the destruction of oppression,exploitation and there is liberation

Is there such thing as living in a true utopia without some underlying trait that ruins the true perfection? What may seem like a utopia filled with peace and prosperity, very well might be the illusion given by true horror and chaos. The definition of a Utopia is described as “A place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions” (“Utopia”). In the world of 1984, Winston Smith lives in Oceania, which is perceived as a utopian society. The members of society are divided into 3 different sections, the inner party, outer party, and the proles. Winston’s life takes place in the outer party, where everyone is constantly under surveillance, personal thoughts are prohibited, and freedom is not really an option. Winston is however different from most of society, because he is self-aware of what is going on around him. He does not conform to what is expected. Oceania and Doomsday preppers are both a good example of what an illusion of a utopian world is. A utopia can transcend to a dystopia talking about doomsday preppers, when members closely follow propaganda which ends up controlling their lives, and citizens constantly try to conform to some image.

In George Orwell’s novel “1984” he discusses how the government keeps their citizens under surveillance to assure they are controlled and so they do not rebel or disrespect their form of government. Their surveillance consists of helicopters scouting around the buildings, looking into people’s homes and the telescreens that watch over people as they live their lives. Some people may argue that we are under the same type of government. We do not have helicopters looking into our house or telescreens that monitor us, However we do have GPS in our phones that monitor our location at any given time, which is like a more efficient way than using helicopters. We have cameras all around the country that monitor our every movement which is a more advanced version of the telescreen. As time passes, we see technology advanced enough to observe our daily lives at any given time, do you think we are under the control of big brother?

It is this fundamental conflict between John’s desire for love and Lenina’s desire for sex that illustrates the profound difference in values between the conditioning of the World State and the natural order. Since decantation, the World State has conditioned Lenina through hypnopaedia, the caste order, as well as Nursery conditioning, to conform to the societal ideals of “Community, Identity, Stability” (p. 5). She is unable to remove herself from the implanted State values as they have become her own personal values as well; they were not inherited, yet they are the influential components to her life.

One may think that the society in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a gross representation of the future, but perhaps our society isn’t that much different. In his foreword to the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley envisioned this statement when he wrote: "To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda...." Thus, through hypnopaedic teaching (brainwashing), mandatory attendance to community gatherings, and the use of drugs to control emotions, Huxley bitterly satirized the society in which we live.

Several conflicting frames of mind have played defining roles in shaping humanity throughout the twentieth century. Philosophical optimism of a bright future held by humanity in general was taken advantage of by the promise of a better life through sacrifice of individuality to the state. In the books Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 clear opposition to these subtle entrapments was voiced in similarly convincing ways. They first all established, to varying degrees of balance, the atmosphere and seductiveness of the “utopia” and the fear of the consequences of acting in the non-prescribed way through character development. A single character is alienated because of their inability to conform – often in protest to the forced

These identical people are brainwashed so they won’t rebel. Emotions were stifled and life is predetermined. Love represents a peril to the cohesion of society - a society founded on uniformity. Sexual encounters are purposefully designed to hide feelings. Sex is encouraged as “orgy-porgy” emphasizing release of sexual urges rather than tenderness or love. The orgy encourages people to perceive that there is total joy in the unity of society. As Lenina says: “When the individual feels, society

Dystopia and Utopia can be explored in many forms of media such as artwork, film, music, poetry and even dance. The easiest and most vivid way to depict these genres to the audience is in films. Films specifically incorporate visual symbolism through colors and settings and screenshot width and filters. Films may also incorporate a subliminal message to the reader through background music used in different scenes. Displaying utopian and dystopian societies through film leaves some imagination to the audience while allowing them to visually compare with the real world around them. For the purpose of exploring aspects of utopia and dystopia through films, I have chosen the films Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927) and the episode Nosedive from

The book 1984 by George Orwell is about a society that manipulates its citizens to believe in The Party by using Big Brother a man who no one’s ever met or seen besides on huge poster that hang in the Victory Square. The citizens in Oceania have to follow strict rules applied by the Inner Party, they do not have privacy and cannot express any type of feelings because the thought police would be onto them. Oceanias ways of doing things conforms to the way a utopian society would function because their citizens do the same routine as one another everyday, they have similar ways of dressing and their jobs are assigned by the the Inner Party. They have no communication with the outside countries and cannot leave Oceania. The reason why this book falls under a utopian society would be because 1984 shares many characteristics a utopian society would.

Two authors who are completely different can have a lot in common in what they write about. African American author Nikki Giovanni wrote a book full of poems called Chasing Utopia, published in 2013. Another African American author, Claudia Rankine, also wrote a book filled with poems called Citizen, published in 2014. Giovanni is more discreet with the story she is trying to tell, where as Rankine tells it how it is.

Through hypnopaedia, people are taught that love and romance are horrible emotions and they are trained to hate those thoughts. When Bernard has feelings for Lenina, Lenina asks him to take soma as a way to get rid of the horrible thoughts of emotion and love. Sex is taught at a very early age and it is very common in this society for everyone to have sex. The citizens are also taught to have multiple sexual partners but have no emotional attachment to any of them. The utopian society is founded in part of this idea of complete sexual freedom and lack of sexual or emotional attachment. It allows the World Controllers to again brainwash the citizens into not having any emotions, and therefore being happy and pleasant at all