The Myopia Of Dystopia Term paper

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Throughout human history, matters not which civilization; humanity has endeavored to attain a sociality in which one can live with freedom, enjoyment, justice, and happiness. It is human nature to see oneself in a place where it is flourishing and enjoyable, and unfortunately that is often elsewhere then where one is; after all isn’t “the grass always greener on the other side” (Eng. Proverb).

Countless writers have crafted utopian worlds for the reader to consider and explore and many of those novelists don’t deem the modern-day world as the "good place"(Hermon, Holman) but rather one of the indescribable atrocities of war, disease, hunger etc… A utopian world is a difficult, if not impossible, one to forge. Novels such as Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984 are dystopian novels, with often-satirical undertones within their pages. This works are allegories, sardonic depictions of our societies ills. Each work contain strong hard-hitting political messages with common themes such as the fine line that divides a utopia and a dystopia and the sharp contrast in the perception of the characters within the works and the reader.

In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, takes the individuality of the inhibitors of this world and has made happiness and enjoyment of life in to an artificial feeling with the constant presence of soma, a wonder-drug. In hope of achieving utopia, humankind plunges into dystopia though mass cloning which ultimately destroys humanity. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the controllers of this world try to achieve utopia but in turn reach dystopia were knowledge is gone, due to their censorship of information. In George Orwell’s 1984, achieves dystopia by an inner party within government who strive for domination by controlling love and the individual mind. In Once and Future King, T.H. White creates a utopian world where the idea of equality, peace, fairness, and happiness appears as a result of King Arthur's influence. Novel shows how one individual tries his whole life striving to achieve utopia. The novel shows that the lifetime of one person is not enough to obtain this utopia as King Arthur has to past his ideas for the future generations. In Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, constructs the perfect utopia where the individual, love, and knowledge are practice unlike the other worlds. Looking Backward, and Once and Future King, did what the other novels did not; it strives for utopia and reaches it, at least for a time. Novels that reach utopia keeps and works the ideas of individualism, love, and knowledge into the society; whereas the dystopian novels eliminate such ideas believing it will lead to utopia.

George Orwell presents a world to the reader where there is no chance for a utopia whereas the citizens of that world see their world as a utopia due to telescreens, propaganda and brainwashing that leads to a society of no desires or thoughts. Citizens are not allowed to have personal thoughts or feelings due to the telescreens that destroys the individual mind. Telescreens is a design that is, in every sense, a two way interacting television set that the Party uses to keep people from thinking. A force called the “Thought Police” monitors the telescreens. "Thought police plugged in on any individual wire... in the assumption that every sound you made was over heard"(Orwell 7). We see how this is forced greatly on the people when Winston has to hide himself from telescreens just to write down some of his thoughts. A huge poster with big eyes looms over the people with the perpetual reminder that “Big Brother” is watching them. This is the constant brainwashing the citizens goes trough as they are conditioned at a young ages to love Big Brother and once addicted the party controls them for then on. All the brainwashing of constant propaganda's and telescreen turns the people in the society into drones with only one desire, to love Big Brother.

In 1984 the society obtains true power and maintains dystopia by controlling the power of love both in the filial and romantic sense. Children are brainwash at a young age not to love, but spy against their parents thus destroying the filial love. The children are persuaded to grow up and love only Big Brother. The Party has made the affection of making love to another as a vile and sinful act. "The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act…. The party was trying to kill the sex instinct by distorting it and dirtying it"(Orwell 57). The mere understanding that sex was apart of love was made into be a sin in and of itself, but seen right by the party to have sex to gain new members. The party uses the Ministry of Love that implements tortures to keep control of love to achieve complete domination. Pain of torture is too much to bear as it can strip love and force one to betray, as one would do anything to stop the pain. "I don't care who it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife and three children... You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I'll stand and watch it. But not room 101!"(195). Here is an example of a prisoner who has been tortured for a long period of time by the Ministry of Love that he can stand it no longer, he is willing to do anything they command to stop the agony. Due to this excessive pain he is willing to witness his own spouse and offspring killed before him for the love of the party and not for his family. This is the same process that Winston and Julia went through as they betray each other.

Winston and Julia’s severe torture destroys the romantic love they shared and leads to their mutual betrayal as they turn to love Big Brother and away from one another. This is power that the Party obtains and controls in this dystopia. "Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves"(Orwell 211). On account of the immense torment they suffer, Winston and Julia are lead to the betrayal; “I betrayed you,” she said declares baldly. "I betrayed you"(Orwell 240). After they were drained of the love for each other they were filled by love of Big Brother. This is reason why the people of Oceania are incapable of love on their own will but rather made to love Big Brother and only Big Brother through the power of torture. With this in mind, this society controlled by the party sees itself as a utopia, whereas it truly and sadly a dystopia in readers eyes and will remain so.

Dystopian worlds are often alike; consider Brave New World, which possesses much semblance to 1984. Brave New World shows the individuality striped from it’s people who are forced to live brainwashed and segregated, all unjustly without them knowing of it. The people of this futuristic world see only utopia, blind to the horrors before them. Within this world they have mastered the art genetics and are able to form identical beings pumped out by the dozen. This process is called Bokanovsky's Process, "Bokanovsky's Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!” (Huxley 5). The final result of the Bokanovsky process is mass cloning which does not bring about social stability but the destruction of humanity and individuality. No longer the individual exist, the term individual has a small meaning in this world of similar faces. Controllers of this world are still not done, they continue to strip more and more of human nature away from all things in quest for utopia. The controllers of Brave New World have created a caste system were at birth many human natures are taken away; the controllers act as god and decide who gets what even before birth. One must wonder how a world is equal when it comes to labor? Who gets to decide who becomes a garbage man or a company president? In this society their jobs are chosen before they are decanted from their artificial birth. Society creates different levels of humans so that the lower the class the lower quality of being. Higher classes are not identical for they are made different but are only a small percentage of the total population. The higher class is the one that coordinates society while the true labor backbone comes from the lower classes. To maintain this caste system the administrative upper class must take great efforts to keep happiness and pleasure for the castes groups so they do what they are made to do.

Happiness in Brave New World is artificial with roots in conditioning and the company of the drug called soma. All the people in this society go through conditioning; conditioning that takes away free will and judgment. If a certain group has to pick up garbage, that group will love to pick up garbage. There is no room for the individual mind because the conditioning does not allow the mind to mature in its own way, this is why children were decanted and not born. "For you must remember that in those days of gross viviparous reproduction, children were always brought up by their parents and not in State Conditioning Center"(Huxley 23). The happiness that condition brings to the caste works efficiently. However, sometimes this synthetic happiness needs a boost. The higher and lower caste can sometimes see their misery, which is not intended by the controllers, so these people are given soma. Soma, the magical ultra-drug, is what keeps the population content with there daily lives. "What you need is a gram of soma... All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects." (Astrachan) Between the intense conditioning and soma all the desires of the populous are satisfied there is no need for love, family, or any form of nostalgia.

In this world's endeavor to achieve utopia at all costs, they have paid dearly. Love, both filial and romantic, was trampled under by the mass stampede to attain perfection. Though decanting comes about the lose of filial love because in this world there are no mothers or fathers, or any family for that matter. ”Mother, monogamy, romance. High spurts the fountain; fierce and foamy the wild jet. The urge has but a single outlet." (Huxley 41) The comparison to a wild jet is intended to demonstrate the inherent dangers in these activities; the controlling class encourages and conditions the citizens to have sex with many partners within their caste. No love is possible in this society because it has been weeded out. People of Brave New World even see the love between a mother and child disgusting. “The spectacle of two young women giving breasts to their babies made her blush and turn away her face. She had never seen anything so indecent in her life"(Huxley 111). The only way they can see love is when they go to the savage lands. The savage land is where John is from and through his eyes the reader can truly see this world of dystopia.

The reader of Brave New World can see that the society has not reached anything having semblance to a utopia, as can John the Savage, but ironically the people of the society think other wise; citizens believe they have reached a state of living that many dream of. The people of this world cannot see this dystopia whereas John can. Society disgust John because he is able to see without the contaminants of conditioning and soma clouding his perception. "'O brave new world that has such people in it.'...But the Savage had suddenly broken away and was violently retching"(Huxley 63). The society does not understand John’s reaction other then that they see him as a savage and primitive being. They attempt to reveal their world to John, but with little success. “Bernard and Hemholtz show off Utopia to John. He is more disgusted and moody with each passing day"(Carey 13). It is ironic that the members of this so-called Utopia call John the savage when he truly is not. "But the central irony in Huxley's evocation of the Noble Savage idea is that although John Savage, as he comes to be called, fits the romantic prototype in that he has a natural dignity and intelligence, he is not a savage"(Guinevera 76). This shows that Brave New World to a regular person is not seen to be a utopia; it is seen to be a dystopian horror. Another novel, Fahrenheit 451, reaches for utopia but ends up with dystopia.

Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 shows a society that creates a world of bliss, a world without the causes of pain and confusion, which in turn only leads to a world with no thoughts. The society believes that pain was causing dystopia along with pandemonium. The society of Fahrenheit 451 begins to strive for complete happiness, believing that utopia would soon be reached. To rid pain they made devices to continuously pump in happy thoughts. Such devices resemble television sets except one is completely surround on all four sides by screens and headsets to calm you and dispense happy thoughts. "...in her ears the little seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in... of her unsleeping mind"(Bradbury 11). This demonstrates well how the society of Fahrenheit 451 tries to keep everyone happy and free from pain and confusion by robbing them of feeling. However, these devises are not enough; the human brain has many thoughts and so the society is cornered into having to try to keep the mind free of any thoughts other then happy ones.

This world believes that knowledge from literature causes much unneeded controversy, confusion, and pain so eventually they became extinct. Society wishes the people and not question why. In order too accomplish this objective society has to take away the individual mind that forms from the knowledge it receives. The source of knowledge that the society looks unfavorably upon was books. At first they did not burn books as they thought they could just shorten them. "Classic cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column...whose sole knowledge, as I say, of Hamlet was a one-page digest in a book claimed: now at last you can read all the classics; keep up with your neighbors."(Bradbury 50). By shortening books they believed it would cause fewer thoughts thus leading to less controversy that leads to less confusion and finally less pain. It is those thoughts that instill questions into your mind and this is what the society does not want. Shortening books was not enough so they had to take more...

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White, T.H. The Once and Future King. New York: Ace Books, 1987. You should cite this paper as follows:

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