The novels Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Nineteen Eighty Four by Gorge Orwell are very famous dystopian novels which have been written in the mid of twentieth century. The fear of technology development and human 's freedom leads the governments in both novels to establish a fake stable society in order to create a perfect new world. This paper will discuss both novels focusing especially on only three main themes which are dictatorship, Soma versus Victory Gin, and the freedom of two societies. From these three aspects, the current paper will discuss the impact of each aspect in the society at that time and also in our present time.
Key words: state, fiction, utopia, dystopia, Orwell, Huxley.
Introduction
Brave New World is a novel written by Aldous Huxley in 1931 and published in 1932. The novel set in the year of “632” A-F “After Ford” which refers to the time after the production of the first model of T car by Henry Ford who is the founder of Ford motor companyin London. The title of Brave New World 's is derived from Miranda 's speech in the Tempest of William Shakespeare, in Act V, Scene I “O wonder! How many godly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in it”. The most significant theme in brave new world is the development in the economic system in the world state as well as how technology has brought the impact of these themes in social life of citizens. We can say that Brave New World is Huxley 's warning;
”Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their anatomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. ”(Postman)” In the book Brave New World citizens actions are influenced by soma, and hypnopedia. While Big Brother and fear was used to control the citizens of Oceania.
Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World were both written by men who had experienced, what was in their time the largest and most violent war in history. These tremendous world events revealed the truly deplorable and destructive nature of the state mixed with an inherently domineering human nature. Huxley and Orwell portray a satirical depiction of the eventual state of society as an extrapolation of the condition of the world in their own time showing similar stories of totalitarian dominance and complete control of society by world states. And while these narratives have similar dystopias the ways in which the world falls into control and that state supremacy is maintained is a stark contrast making for an interesting comparison. Huxley's image depicts a world in which the industrial revolution expanded beyond material goods to the mass production of humans themselves.
During the early 20th century, the world was caught in a great political and social upheaval with the establishment of communism and fascism in Europe. This new ideology, coupled with the start of the Second World War, sent the world in distress. George Orwell an Aldous Huxley both began to create different worlds in their respective books, 1984 and Brave New World, which embodied their vision of what a future society might look like after the conclusion of the war. Key to both of these new societies is the development of advanced technologies that can be used to control the population, brainwash the children, demonstrate power, and manipulate the past. Central to both societies is the development of technology to control the population.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a pessimistic and dystopian novel. Throughout the novel we are shown a sense of oppression and totalitarianism. In the beginning of the novel Winston, who has a strong sense of individuality rebels against Big brother, who is the dictating party. He writes in big words in his diary “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.”(Orwell 2013: 36-37) At the end of the novel the party tortures and brainwashes Winston into accepting the ideals of the party.
M.H.Abrams states that “Dystopia means a bad place…in which certain ominous tendencies of [the] present social, political, and technological order are projected in some future culmination” (78). The best examples in dystopian literature are George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. These two novels are identified as the standard dystopian narratives in the twentieth
Huxley’s book Brave New World became a book that people could see all of their worries in. Brave New
Huxley's ideas that our society is numbed by things that we love and that everyone is almost happy to be somewhat oppressed is almost too real. It is pretty easy to see and make connections after evaluating our society that we live in. I agree with Neil Postmans assertions claiming that Brave New World is most relevant to our society. One of Postman’s claims that i related to is “people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” this is expressed in the book by the simple quote “community, identity, stability”(1).
The Brave New World is based on the concept of totalitarianism and seems to decipher a futuristic world where science and pleasure form a feudalistic society. The book explores the negatives of a so called successful world where all are happy with what they have but the satisfaction is achieved by sacrificing freedom and responsibility. The book explores the risk of using science and technology to there own advantage to make the perfect new world. The society has paid a high price for being happy because they are all the same, they do the same things and they work the same. The science and technology they used in there Utopian world made the citizens fake and they weren't expecting to end up all the same.
Since the beginning of human civilization, a form of government has been enacted to ensure a nation’s continuity; however, these institutions often become exceedingly powerful over their people. In Brave New World, the author, Aldous Huxley creates a theme expressing the significant danger that resides in the existence of extreme, administrative control over a populace, as leaders will retain their power continuously and unregulated. At the time when the this narrative was devised, the rise of communism and dictatorships were a threat to human rights. Through the creation of the dystopian society indicated in the novel, people are able to realize the effects of these types of governments. The thematic political issues are developed by utilizing
“It is a frightening experience, indeed, to discover how much of Huxley’s satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time.” – New York Times Book Review. Brave New World is a novel written by Aldous Huxley and his criticism on the society he lived in. Huxley delivers a message in his writing of controlling technology enhancements before they control us. He criticizes scientific developments because these methods of controlling the population can soon become a reality.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a dystopian novel written in 1932 outlining what society would be like if we used scientific advancements to create a “perfect” society. The story is set in the future in England. Society is broken up into castes called epsilon, delta, gamma, beta, and alpha. Members of each caste have a separate role to play in their society. From the stage of fetal development, steps are taken to separate the castes and make them best suited for the work they do.
Is Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World still a relevant text in today's modern society or is it no longer relevant in today's modern society? Yes, Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World is most definitely still relevant in today's modern society. Even though Brave New World’s society is pretty much different from our society today, there is still some things that are still relevant today that are in the book. One thing that Brave New World is relevant in our modern society today is the drugs and alcohol. In Brave New World, the soma is what the people use for a drug.
In the novel Brave New Wolrd Aldus Huxley talks about many social and political issues in his time. Alsud Huxley uses many literary elements to talk about these political and social issues and masterfully crafts them to take part in the meaning of the book as a whole. The main literary devices the author uses are satire, repetition, and imagery. The main focus of the novel Brave New World is satire to the most extreme.
In Aldous Huxley’s dystopia of Brave New World, he clarifies how the government and advances in technology can easily control a society. The World State is a prime example of how societal advancements can be misused for the sake of control and pacification of individuals. Control is a main theme in Brave New World since it capitalizes on the idea of falsified happiness. Mollification strengthens Huxley’s satirical views on the needs for social order and stability. In the first line of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, we are taught the three pillars on which the novels world is allegedly built upon, “Community, Identity, Stability" (Huxley 7).
In many ways the World State in the dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is extraneous to our society of the modern day. However, there are many similar aspects between our two worlds such as drug use, discrimination, feminism, education, and even technological advances. The irony is in the way we view the World State. Certain ideas of this society seem completely absurd; yet the comparison of our society and the World State are in reach of each other.