Certainly, both Aldous Huxley in his furturistic
novel, Brave New World, and George Orwell in his novel of
1984, also futuristic in the era in which it was written, foresaw
the loss of individuality within controlled states. Orwell's dark vision of the future
portrays the personality of Winston Smith being erased and his thoughts controlled.
Likewise, the New World controls thoughts; however, there is a genetic engineering which
mainly does this by means of creating people of certain intellectual and emotional
levels. Added to this caste system is the hypnopaedia, or sleep conditioning, of the
New World.
Yet within Huxley's New World, there are men who
secretly rebel, as does Winston Smith. Whereas Winston keeps a diary of his personal
feelings, Helmholtz of Brave New World reads forbidden books and
writes. Clearly, there is dissatisfaction in both of the worlds created in the
narratives of Orwell and Huxley. When the Savage arrives in the New World, he feels
deeply this dissastifaction as all feelings and thoughts are artificially generated.
There is no sorrow, therefore there can be no real happiness, the savage learns in the
New World.
So, here are some commonalities which also point
to the differences between the two novels under consideration. Perhaps a thesis that
compares and contrasts the two novels could point to similarities in theme and in
character as well as their differences. For instance, a comparison between Winston
Smith and one of the main characters such as Bernard Marx and/or Helmholtz--even John
the Savage, who, like Winston loses his personality--will serve you. Certainly, you can
draw parallels among them as they seek the assertion of their own individuality in a
world that is tightly controlled.
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