Strella 6
Steve Strella
Ms. Yantis
English 105
23 March 2004
Tyrants, Terror, and Technology
Secret police. Wire taps. Human cloning. Genetic engineering. All of these are terms that one may hear in Tom Brokaw’s reports when they flip on their television to the nightly news. While they may be considered modern terms to us, they were foreshadowed in the fantasy worlds created by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World and George Orwell in 1984. Unfortunately, the scenarios envisioned in these books are not completely out of the question for our world, and one can argue that every day we grow closer to living in one. Both authors present two separate dystopias, governed by totalitarian regimes with almost complete physical, mental, and social control over their citizens; this control is reached both through the use of science & technology, as well as the use of sheer terror and oppression.
The dystopias created by Orwell and Huxley mirror the fears that Americans and other Westerners felt throughout the Cold War: communism and dictatorship is spreading rapidly, and unless something is done to stop it, it will eventually reach us too. The “governments” in both novels took elements of the totalitarian nature of the Soviet Union and Hitler’s empire, and created a scene where life is extremely bad due to deprivation, oppression, and terror. When describing Big Brother in 1984, Orwell seems to give him the physical traits of Soviet leader Josef Stalin: “an enormous face, more than a meter wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black mustache and ruggedly handsome features” (Orwell 1). It’s also possible to connect O’Brien to the young Hitler, rising to power; “O'Brien expresses the gospel of eternal power that Hitler had preached in extreme form” (Protherough). One can also look to the character names in Brave New World, and see that they have counterparts in the real world:
“Bernard Marx (named after Karl Marx, the philosopher and economist whose theories were adopted by communist societies), Sarojini Engels (named after Friedrich Engels, Marx's colleague and supporter), Lenina Crowne (named after V. I. Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and Premier from 1918-24), and Polly Trotsky (named after Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary and writer)” (Hochman)
The novels serve as an alarm to those reading them; especially those who were living around the time the books were published. They vividly, and in some cases horrifically, describe the conditions that people are living through under these oppressive leaders. Orwell does this well, not only in describing Big Brother’s power over his people, but as well as the scene in which people live. Winston Smith describes the town as full of “gritty dust,” and hallways that “smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats” (Orwell 2). With the addition of the seedy, grimy, poverty-stricken portions of London as well as the unreliability of the electricity services, you can also see the parity between the government and the people when it comes to technology.
However, this oppression is achieved differently in each of the novels. While both of the governments use science and technology to achieve a level of control that they deem acceptable, the way they use this technology differs. The World State created by Huxley uses science and technology to achieve social stability and social control. These methods were generally covert, or the people were conditioned from birth to accept the methods and not question the government. Opposite of Brave New World, Orwell creates a world that also utilizes technology to keep its populace under control, but also strikes fear in the heart of its citizens with mental and physical tactics. Big Brother and the Parties want people to know of their methods, because they feel the fear that they instill in their people will stop them from resisting the government.
It is not any surprise that Orwell chose to write about a totalitarian government and the oppressed people living under it. He himself has had direct contact with this. In 1921, he signed up with the Indian Imperial Police. His reason, when asked afterwards, for joining was “I wanted to submerge myself, to get right down among the oppressed, to be one of them and on their side against the tyrants” (“George Orwell”). While stationed in Burma, he saw first-hand the torture and control a government can have over its people. It was after this experience that he decided he wanted to be a novelist, and inspiration for his future works is clear.
Just as Orwell had been inspired to write political novels on totalitarian regimes, Huxley was influenced in including science and technology so heavily in his books, especially Brave New World. Huxley’s family was filled with scientists, some who had been quite well known throughout the science community. Huxley, as well as his brother and half-brother, can thank his grandfather for his science roots. His grandfather was a leading biologist during the advent of Darwinism, and was quite famous. Also, his brother Julian was a noted biologist, and his half-brother was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1963 for his work in physiology (“Aldous Huxley”).
For the most part, Big Brother and the two Parties of 1984 use technology to control the actions and thoughts of their citizens, and do it in a fairly open manner. The government maintains control over its people by creating a sense of fear in that if they resist the government in any way, they will be dealt with swiftly and severely. Also, the government does a great job of reminding the people that they are always being watched. Posters of Big Brother are plastered everywhere; his “eyes” are constantly examining your every move. These posters proclaim loudly “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING.” Also, large telescreens sit in the living rooms of nearly every citizen, spewing government propaganda non-stop, as well as serving as a monitoring tool for the government. It is from these screens that come the Two Minutes of Hate; the image of an enemy of the state is shown on the screen, and the people are indoctrinated to hate that person as well. For the every Two Minutes of Hate, the target was Emanuel Goldstein, the alleged ringleader of the rebel group The Brotherhood. The government propaganda machine led everyone to believe that “he was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party's purity. All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching” (Orwell 12). However, there are some forms of control that the government uses that isn’t necessarily covert. One of the most important is the changing of history to fit the government’s needs. This happens to be Winston’s job. Technology is extremely vital to the tactics used by Big Brother and the ruling Parties.
Huxley’s use of science and technology is more extreme, and goes as far as to interfere with the natural reproduction of humans. The World State’s Bokanovsky Process clones human embryos to form thousands of clones. Also during this process, the scientists could pre-determine where the baby that resulted from the cloned embryo would be in the social caste system, which was made up of five levels. This shows the power that those in the highest class, the Alphas, wield over everyone else. The lives of the World State are “a fully engineered existence in which both people and their environment are remade to society's specifications” (Hochman). Because of the conditioning that everyone receives when they are being produced, they rarely rise up against the government. However, just to make sure that everyone remains happy, the government utilizes the drug soma both on its own terms, as well as allowing the citizens themselves to use it. Soma keeps the people happy, almost in a euphoric state. With both of these tools, the World State has created a control over its people that is near impossible to break. As George Woodcock observes:
“There is no need for violent or overt repression. Men are so conditioned from the time the spermatazoon enters the egg in the Hatchery that there is little chance of their breaking into rebellion; if they do become discontented there are always drugs to waft them into the heavens of restorative illusion.”
Even if one were to break free of the government’s stranglehold, they would not be able to gain the support needed from the other citizens, and ultimately would fail.
Both of the governments created by Orwell and Huxley do a fantastic job of administrating control over their people. While controlling how the people under them will act, they also are able to quell any rebellion or resistance that may occur swiftly. It is without question that these totalitarian regimes rely heavily on the technological and scientific methods of control they have created.
Works Cited
"George Orwell." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 15: British
Novelists, 1930-1959. 1983: Literary Resource Center. 19 Apr. 2004
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Hochman, Jhan. "An overview of Brave New World." Exploring Novels. 1998:
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Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: The Penguin Group, 2003.
Protherough, Robert. "George Orwell: Overview." Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers, 1st ed.. 1994: Literary Resource Center. 20 Apr. 2004
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