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Examine the manner in which George Orwell’s
1984 
is a response to Aldous Huxley’s
 Brave
 
 New World 
and both a response to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s
We
. How do they approach the ideas of 
 
Dystopia in similar and different ways?
Utopian fictions offer a vision of the future where, by some means, society has undergone change inan attempt to create an improved way of life for the inhabitants of that world. Often theseimprovements are brought about by technological advancements, changes in social hierarchies,organisation or government- but most importantly, as Brian Aldiss comments, they contrast in someway with our present; though they may not be intrinsically science fictional (Plato’s
 Republic
(c.380BC) and Thomas More’s
Utopia
(1516) are early examples) “their intentions are generallymoral or political”
1
 and are optimistic of a better future.The twentieth century has had a far more violent and nihilistic climate. It has witnessed war on a global scale, increased individualism, the rise of capitalism and aggressive regime changes. It isno surprise then, that “such sober and worthy plans as More’s for a better life on earth have becomeremote for us nowadays; our belief in the perfectibility of man and the triumph of altruism is lessstrong...[and] a desperate environmentalism has become the new utopianism.”
2
The sanguine utopianlineage has tumbled into the realms of dystopian literature, of which George Orwell’s
1984
(1949)
 ,
Aldous Huxley’s
 Brave New World 
(1932)
 
and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s
We
(1920) are the canonicalworks.The pessimistic futures depicted in these three novels are disguised as utopias whereinhabitants are led to believe, by their respective leaders, that the societies in which they live have been established for the greater good of humanity. Each of these novels features a vision where rigid political and social controls are in place to regiment life and in these traditionally bleak dystopias the protagonist battles with their own morality and against the ideals implemented by the authoritarianregime. The ways in which they examine the themes of dystopia appear on the surface to be very
1
Brian Aldiss,
Trillion Year Spree
. (New York: Avon, 1973) pp. 75
2
Aldiss, pp. 77
 
similar though upon closer examination each differs in critical ways. The interpretation of the literarytropes in each novel will lead us to important conclusions about how closely each is a response to its predecessors.The earliest of the fictions, Zamyatin’s
We
, is written in the form of protagonist and narrator “D-5032’s diary and set in the One State- a nation built almost entirely of glass and led by theBenefactor. A “Green Wall” surrounding the state separates it from nature
3
.The inhabitants of the OneState have “numbers” rather than names and live in a system according to “the Table of Commandments”, essentially a timetable– which is the “heart and pulse of the one state”
4
.A 200 year war had reduced the population to 0.2% of its original number, who now live in a system constructedof scientific ethics “founded on subtraction, addition, division, [and] multiplication”.
5
D-503 is a chief mathematician in this society, charged with the task of overseeing the building of a spaceship, the“Integral”, with which the Benefactor wishes to extend their way of life to other planets. There is arevolutionary group, The Mephis, who hope to destroy the Integral.The World State is Huxley’s setting for his dystopia- a unified government which controlsalmost the whole planet. The society is based on the principles of the Ford Assembly line- human beings are manufactured en mass via a process of eugenics and other biological techniques. Fordhimself is revered as God-like; the dates are recorded as AF (After Ford) and his name is used inreference to oaths. Children are raised in hatcheries and then in conditioning centres and arechemically treated to develop into one of five castes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons,ascending in importance. There are also Plus and Minus denominations of each. Alpha and Betachildren are produced by fertilising one egg and allowed to develop naturally whilst other humans arecreated by a process which allows one ovary to spawn thousands of children and are chemicallytreated to stall psychical and mental growth. All are indoctrinated by recorded voices which repeatslogans assuring them that they are well suited to their class. Any unhappiness is counteracted by the
3
 Yevgeny Zamyatin,
We
, (London: Penguin Modern Classics, trans. Bernard Guerney) pp.21
4
Zamyatin,
We
, pp.28
5
Zamyatin
, We,
pp. 30
 
use of “Soma”, an anti-depressant and hallucinogen, which use of is heavily encouraged by thegovernment. Any competitiveness within the classes is bred out as is the need for any imaginativethought thanks to the hypnotic conditioning. There is a group of outcasts, “The Savages” who are keptin “The Reservation”, which Bernard, an Alpha Plus (though mocked for his unusually shortstructure), visits before bringing back a savage, John, to London. Mustapha Mond is the WorldController and it is when John and Bernard return that his ideas are challenged.Superficially, the way society and government are arranged in
We,
are not dissimilar fromthose in Orwell’s
1984.
The story is set in London “Chief city of Airstrip One” (previously Britain), a province of Oceania,
6
one of three super states. Here “Big Brother”, The Party’s leader, is our authoritarian figurehead, whose ideology is “INGSOC”, Newspeak 
7
for English Socialism. There isalso a war which continually perpetuates, assisting The Party in implementing totalitarian control. Thegovernment also operates several “Ministries” whose purpose it is to enforce the law, create propaganda and survey the populous. The protagonist, Winston, a member of the “Outer party”, worksfor the “Ministry of Truth”; his job is to alter and destroy information. The names of the ministries areironic antonyms for their true purpose, their titles examples of “Doublethink”:“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact thathas become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back fromoblivion for just so long as it is needed”
8
6
George Orwell,
1984,
(London: Penguin Books, 2000) pp. 5
7
Newspeak is the language developed by Orwell and used in Oceania. It is based onEnglish but becomes abbreviated and shortened through time and is described in thestory as being "the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller everyyear". It assists in the removal or imagination or creativity which in turn may lead torebellion.
8
Orwell,
1984
, PP. 223
of 00

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