Brave New World And 1984 Comparison Essay

They’re watching and listening to your every word, creating society from a test tube, taking away your freedom, liberty and rights to have emotion. This is what it is like to live in the dystopian societies created in the novels 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The society in 1984 has a totalitarian government. The society in Brave New World has a more liberal government. Both novels have a protagonist that disagrees with the way their society is being governed. Both authors create a society which breaks down typical family bonds. The two dystopian societies may seem opposite in the way they are governed because of the amount personal freedom, but they have multiple commonalities.
The society in 1984 has a totalitarian government. The main character from 1984 Winston Smith, lived in a society run by a figure head named Big Brother. “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran”(2). The quote shows the everyday propaganda of that dictator. That type of propaganda is put there to remind the civilians that Big Brother can see and hear everything they do. Although the common person have never seen Big Brother they are all trained to worship him at a very young age. In Oceania, the country where Winston

lives, has strict societal beliefs that have to be followed indefinitely. They are called the party slogans and they state: “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (4). The people of Oceania have no freedom; they are constantly being watched and listened to by the government and they can be put in jail or even killed for just thinking something against the party. Compared to the society in Brave New World, the society in 1984 is a worse dystopian society because of the lack of personal freedom.
The society in Brave New World has a more liberal government. The civilians from Brave New World’s London live in a society run with liberal views by the state and the ten world controllers. The common principle that everyone lives by states: “But every one belongs to every one else,” (40) This moral means that you can having sex with anyone you like at any time, and the action is not seen as scandalous. It is also considered uncivilized and is frowned upon by others to not live life this way. Their society, in theory is a perfect one because of the “instabilities” they were able to overcome.

“In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has an opportunities for being noble or heroic… where there are no wars, where there are divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted, objects of love to be fought for or defended.”(237)

In this quote one of the world controllers is explaining how their world works to a “savage.” Because the average person wants most of these things for our world, their society could be considered perfect.

But, taking away everything bad in people's lives it makes things boring. The people all over their world can’t enjoy almost any of the things we enjoy because they don’t have an understanding of our freedoms. Monogamy means nothing to them, nor does any emotion other than happiness. By giving them their “freedom”, they also took away their key rights to emotion and this makes them a dystopian society. Despite this, they are better society when compared to the dystopian society in 1984 because they have more personal

freedom.
Both novels have a protagonist that disagrees with the way their society is being governed. Their governments took away the society’s rights to change the way they were being governerned. Winston wants his government to be abolished and start fresh. “His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals-- DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER... over and over again, filling half the page”(18). He began writing this statement after thinking about the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was rumored to be a secretive group of rebels who wanted the destruction of Big Brother and the party. The thought that there could be more people who resented their government made him mindlessly write his true feelings even though these feelings could get him arrested. Because his rights are limited under the reign of the government, even thinking these blasphemous thoughts was inconceivable, not to mention writing them down. Unlike Winston, John the savage just wants the freedom to be unhappy. “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, poverty, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin,...I’m claiming the right to be unhappy”(240). He wants the people in his society to be able to feel real emotions like the ones he reads about. He is not satisfied with the boring lifestyle they are trained to love. John wants poetry, Shakespeare and God to be enjoyed by the people of London. He feels that it is unjust of his government to take away the right to not be happy and thinks it should change. The fact that they both hated the way their governments where being run is what makes the two dystopian societies similar.
Both authors create a society which breaks down typical family bonds. In America the children have a better connection with their parents than with their country because they are allowed that personal freedom. But in Brave New World there in no attachment to family because people don’t have one. People “are the incubators. And opening an insulated door he showed them racks upon racks of numbered test tubes”(5). The people of Brave New World were born from test tubes and raised in “conditioning” centers. In these centers, they were raised to like certain things and hate others. They were also conditioned to think of family as disgusting and ridiculous. “What suffocating intimacies, what dangerous, insane, obscene relationships between the members of the family group”(37). This excerpt was said by a World Controller to students training to be directors of a conditioning center. The reaction he got to this comment included shudders and nauseousness. This shows their society’s true feeling about family. Although the citizens in 1984 had families in the traditional sense, they didn’t have the love and community we associate with the word.“It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children…[he] had overheard some compromising remark and denounced his parents to the Thought Police”(24-25). Their family dynamic is thrown off because the parents fear their children. Also the children are willing to give their parents to the police over one negative thought or comment toward their country. That is why it is so odd for a child to be cold to their parent in order to win praise in the eyes of the government. The way their societies take away their personal freedom by conditions family makes theses dystopian cultures resemble each other.
In conclusion, the two dystopian societies may seem opposite in the way they are governed; however, they have multiple commonalities. The society in 1984 has a totalitarian government. The society in Brave New World has a more liberal government. Both novels have a protagonist that disagrees with the way their society is governed. Both authors create a society which breaks down typical family bonds. By reading books on dystopian society we can learn to be thankful for the rights we have. We can also be aware of how life could be if we were to have our rights taken away. One could infer that overall George Orwell was trying to show us that we should fight for our rights regardless of the consequences, while Aldous Huxley was trying to show us a twisted sense of our ideal society and that it might not be so ideal after all. Personal freedoms are what makes an ideal society. Being able to voice your opinions, praise your God and marry who you want are just some of the freedoms that can be found in some of the best societies. Americans, in general, take for granted the rights that are receive just by being born within our borders. Americans are so pampered to the point where the common people doesn’t know all the rights given to them by the Bill Of Rights. If people don’t know what rights they are legally allowed by law, how can they know if they’re being taken away? The simple answer is that they can’t; therefore, they get taken advantage of. That is how people end up in a society that they hate being governed by people who only have their own best interest in mind. All because they don’t have the personal freedoms that allow them to be who they are.