Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 is a post-apocalyptic book that begins in an oddly clean and sanctioned society of the future. This place in the novel is called “the World State.” We see in the beginning of the novel a young group of kids whom are students, getting a tour of the “London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” from the factory’s director. It makes it more odd when you learn that his name is The Director as well.
The Director shows the students the process of which embryos are developed inside little test tubes and bottles then brainwashed and conditioned to believe a certain ideological moral “truth” that the society as a whole must abide by. This brainwashing, also known as “hypnopaedia” or “sleep-teaching,” develops the children to truly follow the same ideals in the values of their society over their own individual opinions. Every single entity’s main task is to provide for the whole community That is their life.. It’s their duty to consume and work for their world. This makes the World State’s economy extremely strong. Be a consumer and do your job.
In order to make everything run much more smoothly, these embryos are filtered off into certain castes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Alphas are very intellectual, healthy, and the ideal human; Epsilons short, lack knowledge and common sense, and are the societal standards of unattractive.
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They have figured out that the best way to keep non-Alphas under control by giving them dangerous chemicals and practices while they’re still in the test tube. This puts them at a disadvantage and causes an upset in brain function. In the case of this world, they use alcohol and oxygen deprivation and the lower castes are grown in batches, so that hundreds of the embryos are all exact copies of one another.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, written in 2008 is a story about a young girl named Katniss Everdeen who is growing up in a time where the United States has been destroyed by war and poverty. It is now called a country called Panem and is ruled by a single dictator in the distant Capitol, referred to as the “President.” Katniss lives in District 12, the least wealthy District whom is known for mining coal.. This is where they struggle with poverty, starvation, and very little to no help from the Capitol. Every year, the whole country of Panem tunes into the Hunger Games, where a boy and a girl from each of the 12 Districts are chosen to participate.
These Hunger Games are seen as a punishment from the Capitol for the uprising the districts had against them. In the games the boys and girls are commanded to fight to the death in an arena while the rest of Panem watches on their televisions. This is mostly a plot of entertainment but the less wealthy Districts see it that way. Katniss is a strong and has extreme survival instincts forged from her constant fight for survival as well as her own family’s. She is an individual that will sacrifice everything for those who she loves.
These are both great books/ series that is arising a lot of things we hear in the news today. Hunger Games is now a movie franchise and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the same of Brave New World sometime soon. I personally loved both of the books and would highly recommend them to any and everyone who enjoys dystopian/utopian fiction.
Both novels share the idea of the masses being strongly controlled by a dictator, in every facet of their lives. The characters of Bernard Marx and Katniss Everdeen both feel a discontent with being so closely controlled by the government and they rebel in their own ways. It would also be interesting to discuss how keeping society apart from other groups would help them to be controlled. In The Hunger Games District 12, where Katniss lives, is not allowed to know about lives in the other districts, and in Brave New World the separate castes do not intermingle. One of the major themes in this book, classism is evident in the novel Brave New World.
The division of the five castes shows just how society is divided up in the novel. The order from highest to lowest rank is Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. The theme of classism is also evident in the Hunger Games due to the separation of the districts. Although the Capitol is not a district, they are still citizens and they are of much higher class than anyone in any of the districts.
They’re much wealthier, and unlike the others, they do not have to send tributes to participate in the Hunger Games annually. This shows the privilege that they have over others. However, not everyone in the districts is equal either. Some districts are more privileged than the others, such as Districts 1 and 2. These are seen as the more fortunate and because of this, are able to train their tributes to compete better in the games, which gives them an advantage.
They also receive more gifts to help them do better in the games, while people from the lower districts, such as District 12, are not helped as much. Another theme that is prominent in both novels is the government control on civilians. In the Hunger Games, they force people to put their lives on the line for the sake of entertaining the people of the capitol. In Brave New World, the government modifies the people according to what they believe is best for society to function at its best.
In comparison of the novels, they both see the actions of the government as wrong and there is a better way to run society. Both novels take action by performing acts of rebellion that would anger the people in power. Katniss hunts illegally outside her district, and also forces the government to break tradition and have two victors of the hunger games. In Brave New World, Bernard refuses soma and states ‘It might be possible to be an adult all the time,’ and this is an insult to the government, also later in the novel brings John back into the directors life as a means of trying to exile him.
Some of today’s books give a bit of foresight into the future with unbelievable clearness. Brave New World is one of these books that do just that. In the novel, Huxley describes a world addicted to being young and attractive, sensuality, and drugs/foreign substances. In the early 1920s, during the Prohibition, this freewheeling conception of sexuality and society veers into the outrageous.
Yet, today’s society holds up the sexy youth as the pinnacle of our civilization. They pay these people a lot of money and time to look good for social media. Instead of looking good for themselves, they are looking good for others. Body image and self-consciousness plague the young and upcoming populations. They take pills, try dangerous diets to numb themselves to the world around them. None of this is far fetched or different from Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World.
The Hunger Games most likely does not predict the future of our country, but it reveals very interesting fears of television. I can’t see a formerly democratic government going totalitarian and placing children against each other in an arena. These children are not seen as a sacred part of society like they are in today’s society. Today’s parents would’ve fought for their children instead of standing by idly, even at the risk of their own safety. It may seem optimistic, but it’s hard to see any government based on a Hunger Games-esque contest ever surviving, even beginning in the first case. One of the most personally interesting and intriguing parts of the Hunger Games is the interpretation of their form of “Reality TV.”
In this novel, Collins builds a society where everyone on television creates his or her own “brand.” Television obstructs every bit of one’s perspective of others. Both the government and the those opposing use television in a propaganda war. In a strange way, television becomes its own character later in the Hunger Games series. Personally, the “reality television” perspective gives the most interesting content for the Hunger Games. Until there is a book that does it better, The Hunger Games has a shot at lasting fame.
In Brave New World, they have the saying, “community, identity and stability.” This is definately the motto that would work for the way the Capitol is controlling the country of Panem in the Hunger Games too. The President attempts to coerce the population of Districts, that they are all necessary in order for the nation to prosper when in fact they really aren’t.. Each District serves its purpose with the jobs that it does. The only problem is that the Capitol is the only one who receives all the goods from each District. Each District is limited to the things that they create. The fishing district for example, only eats seafood and can only produce things that their land gives them.
This is how those would remain in contact with the “identity” motto they hold. They are all different. This depends on where the talents they had as well as the place they were from and this is specific to the District they belong to. This is how they are known, as depressing as it sounds. The “stability” issue is also very apparent. This is seen because the isolation of Districts, is how the Capitol and President Snow thrives. They get the riches, while everything is under their grip. The Capitol and Snow also have the tradition to keep the 12 Districts in line, under a constant reminder that they can all be eliminated under the will of the Capitol at anytime.. I’m so glad our world is semi-normal, because if we had the Hunger Games, there would be no hope for us. The two books are mostly different with The Hunger Games of mostly war and Brave New World ended with, for the biggest part, peace until the very end.
