Totalitarian Control In 1984 And Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Throughout the exploration and plot development of George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, new technology expands each government’s totalitarian regime, encouraging more extensive control in an already established dystopia. Protagonists Winston Smith and John the Savage encounter aspects of their own situated societies to contain methods benefitting the ruling parties. Such methods include their daily entertainment and activities, banal instituted propaganda, and finally torture and punishment for abhorred actions. While these methods may not primarily induce a sense of powerlessness in the adhering people, they still are crucial for appeasing any heated emotions and still reiterate a sense of national or party pride in every …show more content…
Thus, actions such as the purge and removal of information and constant surveillance lie embedded in the foundational roots of this totalitarian society. In 1984, Winston finds himself restricted in expressing his freedom and thus takes akin to documenting his thoughts. Winston begins to write in his private diary as an only means of true expression and entertainment, free from oppression or view of any body or camera, and purposely does not abide by the attempted implemented New Speak, a redefined and chosen word- based language. Winston’s restricted freedom prove Oceania’s, the presiding party, true effectiveness in removing unnecessary levels of entertainment and happiness in order to induce their principle: using fear to remove fun. Equally important, propaganda and surveillance in Oceania like the popular slogan, “Big Brother Is Watching You” allow the implementation of ideals to be viewed daily by the citizens. Winston encounters these posters as well as general verbal reaffirming-the-party statements continuously on his telescreen, a device used for government control …show more content…
Enjoyment and recreation as well as maintaining a passive state allow the “World State” to prosper with a differing – than 1984 - isolationist removal method. Adding to this theme of unknowing appeasement, one of the party leaders believes that any painful emotion is harmful; blind happiness is necessary for stability. Bernard, an Alpha class member, attends multiple “feelies,” or movies that reach the sense of touch as well as sight and hearing as a means of fulfilling his happiness and follows the instituted Fordian religion without truly understanding his imprisonment within the system. Fordian religion, very much a form of sexual brainwashing, impacts Bernard and though his nonconforming thoughts allow him eventual isolated freedom, Bernard doesn’t truly begin to see society for what it is until he travels to the Savage Reservation. Additionally, the success of the World State continues due to their implemented class system and form of distribution; biological manipulation allowing for up to 96 similar copies of the same person and daily distribution of the calming hallucinogen, soma. John attempts to start a revolt after his mother’s death and realizes that the lower-caste Deltas are being fed poison (their daily allotment of soma) and that they must be saved, inducing a riot, but in addition the shocking of