What Are The Similarities Between Brave New World And 1984

In the dystopian worlds from Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell, both governments have supreme control over their citizens. The authors use hypnopedia, doublethink, and the restriction of language to portray that governments have the ability to control their citizens and strip them of their free will without their consent or realization. Both governments rely on the sacrifice of individuality and a state of mindlessness to reach an ultimate goal of stability and everlasting peace. They still have extreme regulations and punishments for those who do not conform, because it seems like the citizens have the ability to break out of the mold that was created for them. However, these additional techniques to make the

rebellious citizens accept the reality of their oppression is unnecessary, because nurture is more powerful than nature, so no rebellion or deviation from ideal behavior is possible.
The Party and The World State strip free will from their citizens by using doublethink though newspeak and hypnopedia since they believe that mindlessness is the path to reach stability. While trying to trick WinstonA high ranking official in the Big Brother Regime, O’Brien, impersonates an opponent to the party and explains through the alias of Emmanuel Goldstein that “It was not difficult [through] DOUBLETHINK to avoid [having thoughts], but within a couple of generations even the possibility … would have vanished … There would be [no] crimes and errors … simply because they were nameless and therefore unimaginable” (Orwell 390). Likewise in Brave New World, while giving a tour of the Hatchery, Mustapha Mond states that the conditioning of the children is complete when “at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind… all [their] life long. The mind that judges and desires decides- made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!”... “Suggestions from the State.” (Huxley 21). In both worlds, the government’s goal is to eradicate the possibility of the “crimes and errors” by making them “unimaginable” which would bring about a stable world, but also eliminate choice since the only options become the “suggestions from the state” and confine them “all [their] life long”. To have free will, one must have the ability to choose their own path. This could mean upsetting the government or committing a crime at the cost of a constant state of peace, however, through the methods of removing words from the dictionary to create doublethink, and the hypnopedia, the people no longer have the ability to make their own decisions since all of their possible judgments are what the states have nurtured them to be. These methods are not meant to satisfy the people or empower them to become better, but to create the ideal person to avoid any uprising or instability within the people. The World Controller insisted, “‘Stability. Hence all this.’ With a wave of his hand he indicated … the huge building of the Conditioning Centre” (Huxley 31). The conditioning is to reach stability, but the price is one too high to pay. This state of mindlessness is not conscious, but a purposeful deceit from the government in order to minimize what it believes to be the greatest danger to mankind, instability. Unlike current day punishment, the people are not simply reprimanded from making choices contrary to what the government believes to be good, but the people no longer have the free will to even arouse any instability.
Despite the conditioning measures taken by both governments to reach stability, they have severe consequences and correction methods for those who they predict will dare to think outside of the realm prescribed to them by the state.

In 1984 the punishment is far more violent and physically abusive, however, both 1984 and Brave New World’s government’s punishments have the same purpose, to rid society of the undesirable traits that could cause rebellion. O'Brien, a high raking inner party member in 1984, tells Winston that he brought him to the Ministry of Love " To cure [him]! To make [him] sane!.. Winston, … no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them" (Orwell 319). A more figurative punishment in Brave New World is exile. The news of Brenard’s banishment “galvanized [him] into violent and unseemly activity … “Oh, please don’t send me to Iceland. … Give me another chance. … Still shouting and sobbing. Bernard was carried out. “One would think he was going to have his throat cut,” said the Controller" (Huxley 154-155). Both parties “destroy” those who might cause change. The punishments they are given equal the pain of having one’s “throat cut” or reconditioning them until they have no part of themselves left, until they’ve “change[d]”. Bernard and Wiston have the ability to think outside the box so were disciplined in an especially harsh manner. They underwent the same conditioning methods of doublethink and hours of hypnopedia as the rest of their comrades but the government has a backup plan. Once Bernard returns with John to the civilized world, the director of the DHC states “I propose to dismiss him to a Sub Centre of the lowest order [for] best interest of Society, as far as possible removed from any important Centre of population” (101). All of the crimes the government commits against its unorthodox have the justification of increasing well being of the rest citizenry. Bernard

and Winston had not yet caused a revolt, but the government took cautionary steps in order to “cure” them.
Contrary to the governments’ beliefs, In the end, these techniques are unnecessary since despite the knowledge and the dissatisfaction with the suppression of the ‘rebel’s’ life, they do not have the ability to follow though their plans to disrupt the stability. The extensive conditioning leaves it's subjects irreversibly influenced on the government manipulation. Even the most obviously high risk citizens like Winston and Julia do not have the ability to cause a revolt. They “Sometimes… talked of engaging in active rebellion against the Party, but with no notion of how to take the first step” (191). While Helmholtz in Brave New World did not want to overthrow the World Controllers, the conditioning still ran deep in his veins. When John was reading Romeo and Juliet to Helmholtz, Helmholtz couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the abstract topics raised. Instead “he laughed and laughed till the tears streamed down his face… “You can’t expect me to keep a straight face about fathers and mothers. And who’s going to get excited about a boy having a girl or not having her?” (The Savage winced; but Helmholtz, who was staring pensively at the floor, saw nothing.)” (123).