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What Is The Similarities Between 1984 And 1984

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Totalitarian states need power to survive. The societies of Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984 create power using two different methods: pleasure and fear, respectively. However, there is a common thread between both worlds. Both states recognize and abuse human nature and human relationships to facilitate continual power. Huxley and Orwell warn about the methods totalitarian states use to obtain power. The characters of John and Winston reveal the incompatibility of authoritarian power and human relationships. Strong emotions, such as grief and love, stemming from human relationships transform both characters into rebelling against their society. Both societies prevent them from forming loyalties to curb rebellion by making them seem …show more content…

The values of both societies prevent John and Winston from forming loyalties, showing the incompatibility of human relationships and power. Huxley’s view of power, through the use of commodification, is subtle. The World State indoctrinates people into believing in infantile sexual interactions and constant renewal of everything. When John asks Lenina to “make a promise to live together always. . . outliving beauty’s outward, with a mind that doth renew swifter” (Huxley 168), she replies in disgust. John’s view of genuine human relationships is living with the love of his life for a long period of time. He insinuates that relationships create long-lasting loyalty. However, Lenina is taught to constantly want new things and constantly change partners. Thus, the World State’s values prevent any long-term relationships forming as the people are easily disinterested. The World State essentially turns love and relationships into an exercise of commodification, where they give up old things when they get bored. John, of course, desires an intimate long-term relationship and he vows to love Lenina even when she grows old. However, because of the World State’s values, no one can gain a long-term relationship because everything is treated as a commodity. The removal of long-term relationships prevent loyalties which lead to rebellion. Huxley uses this to warn against governments using instant …show more content…

John is a very strong character who rebels because he believes in meaningful human relationships. However, without anyone to share his views, he is overwhelmed by the power of the World State’s indoctrinations. The people’s collective unity and the element of pleasure make John submit. He has no relationships around him that would support his rebellion. He is one person fighting against a mob of indoctrinated people. When John fights against the World State, “somebody started singing ‘Orgy-porgy’ and, in a moment, they had all caught up the refrain and, singing, had begun to dance. Orgy-porgy, round and round and round, beating one another in six-eight time. Orgy-porgy” (Huxley 228). The people overwhelm John with their united chants and acts of sexual pleasure. John has no choice but to join in because of the nature of social pressure and pleasure. This quote emphasizes the number of people around John in this bombarding chant that heightens the effect of social pressure on him. It is after pressuring John and enticing him with pleasure that he submits to the World State values, unknowingly. The power of collective unity and pleasure force a strong character, like John, to lose because an individual cannot fight against the brainwashed force of the society. John cannot fight because he has no one who shares

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