Brave New World And 1984

Total Control

The idea of a ruling party attempting to maintain and gain control over its citizens is a common theme in literature. In George Orwell's 1984Ñ'the protagonist, Winston, attempts to fight back against the ruling totalitarianism-inspired party, but is overcome by the Party's power. Furthermore, the unique individuals created in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World who do not fit in with the utopian society created by the government, are forced to leave. Although in different ways, both of these works serve as warnings as to how governments might attempt to gain and maintain total control of their citizens.

One way that governments attempt to control their citizens is through the use of sex. Firstly, the government depicted in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, encourages sex when it explains that by delaying desire, instability may arise within its population. The government makes sex a normal part of life by encouraging erotic play between children when they are young, making every citizen more comfortable with sex as they grow into adults. The Controller states, "Stability, Stability. The primal and ultimate need. Stability. Hence this," (43) while showing the children engaged in erotic play, illustrating that controlling sex also controls the individual. Also, the Controller alludes that, "A world in which the social obligation to be sexual defuses passion," (Bromige 2) which, if not defused, would lead to individualism that threatens the government's control. On the contrary, In George Orwell's 1984, the government prohibits sex for its implications of individuality. "Its [the Party's] real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy," (58) meaning the government not only feels that sex is unnecessary from the perspective of pleasure, but also that the only reason for sex is to produce more loyal party members. Moreover, the Party sees sex as a way of citizens expressing individuality, which opposes one of the Party's principal goals: the removal of all individualism from its citizens. Finally, through all its attempts to stop sex, ultimately, "The Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort and dirty it."(58) In conclusion, stifling or encouraging sex to destroy personal instability is a prime example of how these governments attempt to control their citizens.

Besides the use of sex, another way that governments attempt to control their citizens is by different means of enforcing their control. In Brave New World, the government uses drugs to keep control over its citizens when they are not needed for work. The government rations a drug called soma to all of its citizens, many of which depend on for happiness and entertainment when they are not working for the benefit of the government. And as Mustapha Mond explains, "And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts," (237) asserting that by giving the citizens Soma, they will prevent themselves from ever being out of line. Also, by giving the citizens Soma, the government is affirming that, "All activities are transitory, trivial and mindless... hallucinatory escape (through soma) replaces personal growth." (Neilson 3). On the other hand, 1984's government uses constant surveillance, propaganda, and intimidation to keep its citizens in line. By using multiple forms through which to address its citizens, "The Party barrages its subjects with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind's capacity for independent thought," (Phillips 2), consequently keeping control over its citizens' minds. Finally, the Party's icon, Big Brother, serves as an intimidating reminder to the Party's citizens that the government knows all. "You had to live--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized," (2) asserts just how much of an intimidating environment the Party succeeds in creating around its citizens with its constant threat of surveillance. All things considered, the governments' different ways of controlling their citizens in order to remove the threat of individuals stepping out against the government are very effective, whether using pleasure or fear.

A third way that governments try to control their citizens is by managing their knowledge. The government directly controls the intelligence of its citizens when it controls the production of its people in Brave New World. The leading party produces citizens of different intelligence levels, as Mustapha Mond explains in terms of the intelligence of his citizens, "The optimum population is modeled on the iceberg - eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above." (223) And sticking to Mond's theory, "By and large the citizens... are incapable of constructive, imaginative thought; Mustapha Mond asserts that they have been so conditioned--in order to preserve the stability of their world." (Clareson 3). Once again, along with this iceberg theory Mond explains that when individuals are content with their purpose in society, there is no unrest, therefore the society as a whole is more stable. Any by manufacturing individuals to take certain places in society, the government is able to ensure a more stable humanity. In a different manner, the government created in 1984 is able to control the knowledge of its citizens by strictly controlling everything that its citizens hear when the Party changes history and uses propaganda to brain wash its citizens. Firstly, "By controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the Party can justify all of its actions in the present," (Phillips 4) which is precisely why the Party has a whole department dedicated to rewriting history, to validate its current actions. Furthermore, the Party succeeds in brainwashing its citizens into believing the Big Brother campaign. A description of the Big Brother mural states, "It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move," (1)