Two Different Societies: Two Twisted Foundations Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orewell’s 1984 were both composed surrounding times of war in the twentieth century. The authors were alarmed by what they saw in society and began to write novels depicting the severe outcomes and possiblities of civilizaton if it continued down its path. Although the two books are very different, they both address many of the same issues and principles. In Brave New World Huxley creates a society which is carefully balanced, and the two factors that maintain the balance are reproduction and production. The reproduction aspect comes from the government's control over the creation of people, and breeding them to fulfil particular purposes and …show more content…

(Readers are just fortunate that Huxley did not go into the details). In Brave New World, intercourse is completely separate from reproduction. The females in this society that are fertile are repeatedly conditioned to use contraceptives. Exclusive relationships are also abolished to render sex mindless and meaningless, and of no more significance than eating a chocolate bar. In Oceania sex is treated in an opposite manner. Sex is discouraged unless within the sanctions of marriage, and even then it is divorced from pleasure and is only a means to reproduce as a ‘duty to the party.’ Seeing as both the family and sexual relationships have been destroyed or distorted, it is not shocking that both worlds almost welcome death. In Brave New World, people barely exist in the first place: their lives are so banal and interchangeable it is not hard to imagine this type of society viewing death as meaningless. In 1984, people merely cease to exist. One day they are there and the next they are gone. People in this society accept that they will probably never see that person again, and move on. There is an interesting difference in the way these two novels treat the ‘proles’. Both authors emphasize that the masses are easily contented. Huxley’s lower castes of Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons are content easily with work of the non-challenging nature, closely followed by drugs, sex, and relaxation. These castes are viewed as so obsolete and so