Cash 1
Taylor Cash
Ms. Sloan
ENG 101
29 November 2016
Comparing 1984 and Brave New World to Our Society Today
Although 1984 was written in 1948 and Brave New World was written in 1932, they hold
a disturbing similarity to the world today. George Orwell, who wrote 1984, and Aldous Huxley,
who wrote Brave New World, may have wrote these books for entertainment and made up
dystopian societies, without the thought that they may one day be the reality that some of us face.
However, that is certainly not the case looking at our world today. It is very clear that Orwell and
Huxley can predict the future because of the many, many similarities between the two books and
the world today.
In 1984, the government has telescreens in all public and private places. Telescreens,
otherwise known as televisions in our society, can never be turned off. The telescreens broadcast
government propaganda and news, but only what the government wants the people to see, as
well as cameras that spy on citizens’ private lives. “The telescreen received and transmitted
simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above a very low whisper, would be picked up
by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque
commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.” (Orwell 3) Today, the government and other
individuals can hack your computers and spy on you without you having any knowledge of it.
Throughout the world there are also surveillance cameras that track your every move as you go
about your daily routine. It is very hard to escape a watchful eye in today’s world, just like in
Cash 2
1984 almost all of your moves are being watched and documented by someone somewhere
somehow.
In Orwell’s book 1984, there is a global war that has been going on since the beginning
of time and there is no sign of it ending anytime soon. Winston begins to realize that the enemy
keeps changing. One week they are at war with Eastasia, and Eurasia is their ally. The next
week, it is just the opposite with Eastasia as their ally and Eurasia as their enemy. “But to trace
out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any given moment, would
have been utterly impossible, since no written record, and no spoken word, ever made mention of
any other alignment than the existing one.” (Orwell 33-34). The government uses the war to to
keep the population of Oceania in a state of constant panic and fear. Today we have the war on
terror, with no end in sight, we live in constant state of fear and worry of an enemy who could be
