Brave New World and 1984 - Book Report/Review Example

Ariel Linn Brad Sealy English 101 Essay 4 Gaining total control of the human mind and all its thought processes in order to achieve a conventional society are the blatant thrusts of Brave New World and 1984. Set into different "futures", the two novels enter a world of the possibility of actually penetrating the free will and decision- making autonomy of humanity to befit a certain mold in an ultramodern society. 1984 is George Orwell's foreshadowing, 36 years set into the future. Brave New World, on the one-hand, is set in the year 632 AF (After Ford), a fictional date that is set after countless wars and insurgencies. We could assume that the After- Ford period is the aftermath of the Ford Capitalist regime in the United States or simply a hypothetical era where a certain "Ford" allows time continuum to be dedicated to him. Our space-age fantasies of state-of- the-art security systems, the rationality and dearth of the concept of love and the "perfect" drug are evident in both novels. However, both novels are set in an entirely future- centric, no- claims- of-the-past, whatsoever era wherein all reminders of the eloquence of the past are completely extinguished from present society. Both novels allude to completely disregarding history. An evident example in Brave New World is the extinction of books containing Historical and artistic information. It was only in reserves that these books were allowed, and nobody in the Brave New World has even heard of Shakespeare. In 1984, books were also a thing of the past and a revolutionary means of speaking, "Newspeak" eradicated "Oldspeak" (words used in the past, more commonly known as Standard English) and were devised to satisfy the landscape of Ingsoc or English Socialism. The purpose of Newspeak is not really freedom of expression but to make all modes of thought, not corresponding to Ingsoc, impossible. In Brave new world, it is the prosperity of natural science such as biotechnology that embraces and dictates society's development. Four compromising innovations makes Brave New World's regime effective. Firstly,, the technique of suggestion in infant conditioning and unknowing drug dependency, Secondly, the developed science of human differences through scientific social stratification (Alpha plus as the supreme intellectual gene, Epsilon's as the lowlifes), thirdly, a less harmful substitute for drugs and alcohol (somma) and lastly, a no nonsense way of eugenics. In 1984, it is political ethics glorification that allows for an obvious one-party regime. The presence of Newspeak, thought police, omnipresent security and the Ministries of Truth, Love, Peace and Plenty are the main ingredients for totalitarianism in 1984. Both stories were clearly set in the West, 1984 being in Oceania, which comprises of North America and the British Isles (specifically in London) and Brave New World being the setting of the next novel, which seemingly is a place in North America. The two settings, being presently prosperous and highly industrial , are actually quite "ideal" to the implementation of conformity, conditioning and thought restriction The two books are both written by realist visionaries, and are bound in futuristic time continuums where people are part of a uniform society that declares the rites and routines they have to undergo in their daily lives. Brave New World and 1984 are both very refined plans of an obsessive-compulsive future. The well- thought- out plans of commodifying human beings as fertilized eggs and labor mechanisms, and conditioning them with such maxims as COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY in Brave New World, and War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength, propagates the minds of the inhabitant of both worlds. Each means of survival is dictated by a single power, each depicting the ideals and maxim of a pleasing existence. A World State is run by a resident World Controller, which, in London, was " His Ford ship Mustapha Mond. In 1984, it is Big Brother, ministry officials and thought police as the authority that is all-knowing of one's activities. It is evident that the stories clearly focus on the idea of the West as being both highly capable and ironically, live bait to the notion of futuristic anomalies. The high price of progress and scientific glorifications, could actually take a toll on the people becoming the conformist robots of the so- called ideal society. Programming the minds of the children in both Brave New World and 1984 is started out early. "Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too-all his life long. The mind that judges and desire and decides-made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions... Suggestions from the State." (Huxley, 13) The powerful tool, more powerful than technology, or genocide, that restricts the minds of the citizens of both Brave New World and Oceania, is not a tangible or highly- technological tool to begin with. In Brave New World, children are kept in a room, punished with electric shocks to condition their minds, to liking sports and hating books. In 1984, dictated daily activities are flashed in a seemingly 24- hour wired television to tell people what they will do next, what updates Ingsoc and Big Brother has for the citizens and how the Thought Police are monitoring each household and could ambush you any minute. The troughs of technology, scientific milestones and genius, although ulterior motivated minds are all put to shame by one psychologically abstract concept. But with the uprising of all these aspects of manipulative devices in a compulsively uniformed society, we ask the question, How was this possible in the first place The answer is conditioning, classical, Pavlovian, Hypnopaedic, repetitive electrodes hot- wiring the human mind. Conditioning focuses on the utility of technology. Conditioning was the means the people were made to follow Big Brother, or think that sexual promiscuity is a given act. Brave New World allows us to get a peek inside the hypnopaedic mind, a mind subconsciously acquiring maxims that, out of the realm of rapid- eye- movement, would be imposed on the self in all aspects of existence. Who creates such maxims Leaders, messengers and the almighty Ford. For a highly- conformist society, people should not just dress the same, eat the same things and even look the same way, they have to think the same way. The same goes for 1984, but the barker of such commands is an evident, omnipotent, and extraordinarily bold leader that the subconscious is yet again attacked to clear-cut routines, feigned gratifications and propaganda situated in different media to not just remind but to repetitively drill the message that "Big brother is watching". "It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same--everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same--people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world." (Orwell, 63) Conditioning, is not even a tangible tool, it is, as we say it, a mind game, gone wrong if instilled improperly. Such is the case on how we perceive the price of progressivism in both advanced societies of Brave New World and 1984. As we allow our societies to be highly- industrialized, and highly- progressive, we have to let go of the aspirations we have of gaining balance in the social construct. It could be that we recreate society to lower our needs and pleasures, or it could be that we conform because we know no other way of survival. In both Brave New World and 1984, human emotions are delimited by conditioning also. According to Huxley, "And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny "(4). The two books clearly use the technique of foreshadowing and paradigms. The technique of foreshadowing is clearly shown by the use of future manifestos. Ideologies of unending totalitarianism, socialism and capitalism, as provided by the maxims above proliferates the minds of the citizens. Paradigms shifts are evident in the reader- character debate of what it implies versus what the reader thinks happiness should be. It is quite disturbing because the pursuit of happiness and essence is the antithesis of what our own definitions of happiness-freedom, passion, love, etc. are still considerably forms of happiness but more so taken for granted and aggravated into a different context. "Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability is not nearly as spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand." (Huxley,96) The motives of passion, freedom, love and justice all our gambled into a universal concept of happiness in both the works. However, in Brave New World, these values are more taken for granted while in 1984, they are more thirsted for. A definite example in Brave New World is the acceptance of sexual promiscuity by everyone. Women have contraceptive belts that they take along with them and which they take like vitamins. Erotic playtime is a childhood activity the trains them to allow sexual taboos to be disregarded. In 1984, Winston finds the idea of queen- sized beds unusual and finds the Ministry of Love the most dreaded and mysterious ministry of all. The Party system also encouraged separation in cases when there are still no children within marriage. It is the case of commonality versus taboo, in Brave New World and 1984 respectively. These are undermined by allowing abstract emotions and values to be tangible for human consumption. The sanctity of morals and the relationships we form in an interpersonal and intrapersonal level are also very much taken for granted that it all becomes a hunting allusion of a reverse- Utopia. After all that has been said and done, the main theme of the two books, Brave New World and 1984 revolve around dystopia. Dystopia is the antithesis of Utopia, an ideal and envisioned society that people seek to achieve at some point in their lifetime, an actualization process transcending contempt. Dystopia, however is a complete regime of totalitarianism where a person's freedom is questionable and where society, is hardly ideal, but more of a reel reinforcing tool of survival. Individuality becomes questionable as it threatens the circuit of society. According to Huxley, "We can make a new one (individual) with the greatest ease-as many as we like. "Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself" (64). . The third- party observer views such follies constructed in pseudo- Utopia as actually missing so much of the society that makes for the ideal in the first place and notionally questions consciousness in the first place. Orwell suggests that "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious "( 43). As different as the two novels try to predict or perceive the future, or how divine intervention in the form of savages and enlightened beings, and Shakespeare, both actually serve as a clear-cut reminder for us, people of the not so distant future, to embrace our individuality and to value our god- given neuro-sociological freedom while it still remains able to decide and decode for its own, and while our society is still not devalued by natural or social science. Works Cited Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World Revistited. New York: Harper and Row, 1958. Moore, Thomas. Utopia. London: Penguin, 1965. Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Penguin, 1948. Pavlov, Ivan. Conditioned Reflexes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Outline I. An evident similarity that the two books have is that they are futuristic satires. A. 1984 is set in 2008, which when it was written was in the future. B. Brave New World is set in 632 AF, which is a fictional date determined to be after the wars that have overcome the world. 1. AF stands for after Ford. II. As much as sets come and go, and give three dimensional affirmatives to our notion of what the future may hold, we search more into why such stories are set that way. A. "Essence" 1. Brave New World 2. 1984 a. "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."(Orwell, 19) B. Both written by realist visionaries, and in futuristic time continuums where people are part of a uniform society. 1. A single person or power dictates survival. 2. Obsessive compulsive futures C. The price of progress, could actually take a toll on the people by making them become some kind of robots. III. Programming the minds of the children in both Brave New World and 1984 starts early in a person life. 1. "Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too-all his life long. The mind that judges and desire and decides-made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions... Suggestions from the State." (Huxley, 13) 2. Conditioning, Classical, Pavilovian, Hypnopaedia. a. Conditioning is the means to make people follow Big Brother, or think that sexual promiscuity is right. 3. Brave New World a. Hypnopaedia b. "And that is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny "(4). 4. 1984 a. "Big Brother is watching you." IV. Dystopia is a main theme found between the Brave New World and 1984 A. Dystopia 1. Antithesis of Utopia, ideal and envisioned societies that people seek to achieve at some point in their life. 2. Huxley's Utopia a. "We can make a new one (individual) with the greatest ease-as many as we like. "Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself" (64). 3. Orwell's Utopia a. "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious "(43). Read More