The Theme of Dystopian Society in the works of Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury
Introduction
All the three books, 1984 that was published in 1948 and written by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World that was written in 1931, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 are the examples of dystopian literature. Dystopian literature is the kind of fiction that offers a negative perspective on the society of the future and the problems which are likely to be faced by humankind as a result of their political, environmental and economic activities. While utopian fiction portrays the future being advanced and prosperous as a result of the improvement of technology that assists them in their everyday lives, dystopian literature works completely vice versa.
In the case of dystopia, technological advances may cause damage to humankind in the form of enslavement, the people are mandatorily divided into groups characterized by certain duties or functions within the societies they live in. A psychological control over people by means of a collective loss or rewritten history and complete dehumanization are frequently used as the main issues addressed in the literature of this type. It is evident that dystopian literature of the 20th century is greatly influenced by the historical events having occurred during the period.
The dystopian literature at its best was written as a response to the Stalin era in the USSR, the Nazi regime in Germany. Dystopian books may also reflect some wars. Dystopian literature may also discuss one's personal freedom, the outcomes, and price of being individually opposed to dictatorship, the extent to which the technological progress changes the lives of people and views of society in general.
All the aforementioned books being a dystopian fiction are, however, different In their nature and some themes which are discussed in them. Consequently, the following paper will compare and contrast 1984 (Orwell), Brave New World (Huxley), and Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) in order to find similarities and disparities in the dystopian literature of the authors.
Dystopia as a Genre
As it was previously noted, all the three books are the examples of dystopian literature. Thus, before the discussion of themes, ideas and other similar or different aspects of dystopia it is necessary to discuss the genre itself and its main implications.
Dystopia originates from utopia being, in fact, its antonym. It means that while utopia means some place or state that is perfect in terms of its social order, legislation, politics and so forth dystopian literature discusses the futuristic exaggeration that is mainly aimed at criticizing a societal norm or political system of the time. In the universes, which are created in dystopian literature, some kind of power and control maintains the image of a perfect society and political system while, in fact, it is absolutely vice versa.
Control in dystopian literature oppresses society. The types of control by which regulate the societies may be the one or more of the following: Most dystopian works present the world in which oppressive societal control and the
Corporate control (society is controlled by means of advertising, media by a large corporation).
Bureaucratic control (the control of society is assured as a result bureaucratic system, that frequently consists of incompetent workers in this area)
Technological control (technology (robots, computers and so on) is the tool that helps control society)
Philosophical/religious control (some philosophical or religious ideology is the course of the state and society and provides the basis for a dictatorship)
In few words, the authors who write dystopian literature provide the pessimistic perspective of the future. “The dystopians look to the future not with the optimism of those who believe that man's increasing mastery of nature will bring greater happiness but with the pessimism of those who believe that the more man controls nature, the less he controls himself (Dalrymple, 2001). Despite all the aspects of the technological advance which humankind may benefit from, the negative consequences will be more obvious.
The dystopian literature differs in its themes from book to book. There are such types of dystopia as:
Ecological dystopia
Economic dystopia
Political dystopia
Spiritual dystopia
Science and Technology dystopia (Sicoe, 2013)
As it may be deduced, the types of dystopia depend on the means by which the control of society is performed.
Orwell’s, Huxley’s and Bradbury’s Perspectives of a Dystopian Society
As the notion of dystopia itself is discussed and explained the similarities and disparities of 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are necessary to discuss as these books are ones of the most popular examples of dystopian which provided the basis of the genre.
What are the means by which societies are controls in these books? As Miller states the “world in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World has one goal: technological progress (Miller, 2011)”. Thus, the society in the book is governed by technological control. At the same time, it is easily observed that in Orwell’s 1984 population is governed by the combination of bureaucratic control (even the main character works in a complicated system consisting of many parts) and philosophical control as the course of the politics is based on philosophy of Ingsoc (English Socialism) though constantly changing. Talking about Ray Bradbury’s dystopia it may be said that society in Fahrenheit 451 is governed by both technological and philosophical control (people watch TV instead of reading books, while the ideology of society implies burning them).
The most obvious and important aspect of society in all the three books is that society itself is based on distorted morals and patterns of behavior. For instance, in 1984, such pictures as warfare (“a ship full of refugees being bombed (Orwell, 2009)) bring satisfaction to people and became a form of people’s amusement. In Fahrenheit 451 children possess weapons and shoot each other. In Huxley's Brave New World, morals differs from those of contemporary society. While society we live in is based on family, success, love and so on, the society in the book is occupied mostly with the development of industry, economic and technological growth (Miller, 2011).
Another similarity that connects all the three books is the development arc of their main character. All the three main characters lead their lives, in most cases a meaningless and dull one, before a girl or a woman appears in their lives. These women change the main characters’ lives, views, and, as a result of such changes they begin the rebellion against their society. After facing a female character who changes their lives forever, all of them understand that the current ideologies, means of social control and so on are based on some false beliefs.
Another theme of the dystopian books is the government that involves in history and constantly alters it. In spite of the fact that these themes are present in both Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, in Orwell's novel such alteration puts an emphasis on the essence and the nature of the regime.
The only novel that stands out, in this case, is Brave New World where the history of the past is explained as it is but the patterns of behavior and paradigm of the society are so shifted that it is observed as a repulsive one. For example, living in families, marrying only a one person and being born from mothers as people are born in laboratories and such institution as a family is no longer observed in the society of Brave New World portrayed by Aldous Huxley.
The settings of these books are influenced by technological advance as well. While in Brave New World the negative outcomes of technological progress are the main emphasis of the book, the societies in the other two novels are also influenced by it (for example, telescreens are used as the means of societal control and are furnished in each house along with the fact that in Fahrenheit 451 people's main amusement is television).
Moreover, the both books narrate the story that occurs in the post-nuclear setting. In 1984, the war is another way to control society as it is omnipresent, constant and has patriotic implications as well. In this case, Huxley's Brave New World is also different from the other two novels since there was no war. However, while patriotism connected to conflicts is not present in the books, the control of masses is performed by different means, namely, a drug called soma.
Conclusion
As it may be concluded, all the three novels besides being dystopian literature have many aspects in common. All the books discuss the possible negative outcomes of the current course of history, ideologies, and morals. The authors tell us about the dangers of dictatorship (notwithstanding the means by which it is maintained), technological progress and false ideologies which may lead to paradigm shift in people's minds.
References
Dalrymple, T. (2001). The Dystopian Imagination. Contemporary Literary Criticism, 168,
47-52.
Orwell, G. (2009). Nineteen eighty-four. Everyman's Library.
Sicoe, V. (2013). Utopia and Dystopia – The Many Faces of The Future. Retrieved January
18, 2017 from http://www.veronicasicoe.com/blog/2013/04/utopia-and-dystopia-the-many-faces-of-the-future/
