Oppression as Exemplified in Brave New World and 1984

Oppression as Exemplified in Brave New World and 1984

Huxley Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four "Oppression that cannot be overcome does not give rise to revolt but to submission." This concept can be clearly seen in both Brave New World and 1984, even though the structure of their societies are different. The goal of their respective governments is the same, total control of society. The governments use similar tactics of manipulation, with the purpose of keeping the majority in ignorance and submission.

The governments in 1984 and Brave New World weakened their citizens with ignorance and silenced them with fear. In 1984 the proles were considered to be completely without thought, and regarding the actions of the Party they in fact were. The ignorance of the proles allowed them to continue on with their lives without the burden of knowledge of the Party. Those in the Party who had somewhat of an idea of the motives and deception of the higher members were silenced with the fear of death and torture. This enabled the party to prevent a revolt from ever occurring. The people who were caught and subjected to torture were not killed or injured to confess their crimes, instead they were physically, intellectually and emotionally reborn. They loved the Party and more importantly they loved Big Brother.

In Brave New World this triumph over the individual and destruction of the sprit of man does not happen in the same way. The citizens in Brave New World have almost no need to be reborn to love the Party, or the State in their case. This is so because they truly had no human spirit in the beginning, for without true love and nurturing from parents and real interaction with others at young ages, and without even a real birth, those in Brave New World do not need to be changed by the state because all that they have learned is that which the state as imbued them with. There is, however, precautionary measures of fear, used in case the preconditioning of an individual was reversed at some point in time. The citizens grow up with the fear of being shipped to a far off island for a life of intense manual labor if they do not succumb to the standards of their society. The control of the people was to assure the power of the main leaders, such as Big Brother and the World Controller.

For the societies of 1984 and Brave New World to exist, the manipulation of the citizens must occur. In 1984, the Party has control over everything, including the minds of its people. Double think is a kind of manipulation of the mind, used by the rulers of Oceania. This makes people accept contradictions, and believe that the party is the only institution that distinguishes between right and wrong. It denies the citizens any possibility of questioning rapid and hypocritical changes in the policies of the Party. Doublethink