In both of these novels, Orwell and Huxley create these governments through different means of control. In 1984, power is gained through physical control, psychological manipulation and technology, whereas the government in Brave New World focuses solely on the use of technology to obtain power. In 1984, the Party uses psychological stimuli to overwhelm the mind’s capacity for independent thought. The omnipresent telescreens provided in each room constantly advertise the failures of the party in the appearance of success and triumph to manipulate the society and make them think the Party is gaining success. The telescreens also monitor people’s behaviour everywhere they go. The Party continuously reminds its subjects that “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” so they know that their behaviour is being examined at every turn, and this fear is conveyed when “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.” Another way the telescreens are used to exert influence on the people is to post its slogans, “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” The Party also thwarts family structure by introducing children into an organisation called the ‘Junior Spies.’ This institution brainwashes the children and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any disloyalty to the Party. This is to prevent independent thought from a young age. Another form of the Party’s manipulation is to suppress sexual desires by treating sex as a procreative obligation which results in the creation of new Party members, then the Party builds up and transforms people’s emotions into hatred for the Party’s political enemies; most of which have been created by the Party for this purpose.
Not only does the Party manipulate people, it also controls its subjects’ bodies. The littlest of bodily movements can lead to arrest; a facial twitch or a nervous shudder is viewed as a sign of disloyalty. Party members are forced to endure hard morning exercises each day called ‘Physical Jerks’ and then must work long, excruciating days at government agencies where people are kept in a state of exhaustion. Anyone who opposes the Party is punished through torture, starvation and the actuation of their deepest fears. Weeks of brutal torture allows the Party to gain control of the subject’s mind and control reality, convincing the subject that 2+2=5.
George Orwell reveals in 1984 that technology, which is predominantly used for working toward good, can be used to facilitate evil and cruelty. In addition to the telescreens, the government has also hidden microphones across the city allowing them to monitor everyone all the time. The Party also purchases high-tech machinery to exert mass control on economic production and sources of information and methods of torture to inflict on the Party’s enemies.
In Brave New World, the state gains control by making its subjects feel like they’re living in a perfect world, where they’re perpetually happy. This is achieved through the creation of soma tablets. The people in Brave New World struggle to face reality and do what they can to avoid the truth and reality of their situations. Soma tablets allow people to obscure reality with false hallucinations of happy and care-free images, wiping away depression and making it a popular tool.
Another controlling technique is hypnopaedia. Infants are ‘conditioned’ into their social castes, as the Director tells a group of new students “we also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialised human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries.” The director calls this brainwashing procedure conditioning. He demonstrates the use of negative reinforcement as he shows the students an instant in which Delta infants are electrically shocked while gazing at flowers and other pretty picture books. The aim is to adapt their associations with these peaceful, charming images with pain and terror.
by
garrick8 (student)
