Oppression In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

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In Aldous Huxley’s satirical work, Brave New World, it is clear that what Huxley fears is that people will come to love their oppression. In many ways, people do find that their oppression can be a safe zone, but that comes with consequences. On the other hand, in George Orwell’s 1984, Orwell feared that people will be overcome by an oppressor. These two assumptions are opposite of one another, however, they are both rational and have clear reasoning behind it. Both Huxley and Orwell have compelling arguments for how they see oppression taking over, however they both hit two completely different kinds of people and therefore I cannot agree nor disagree with Huxley’s fear of people coming to love their oppression. An assertion made by Neil …show more content…
That is the biggest issue with Huxley’s idea, not everyone is going to love their oppression. I believe this is due to a lack of individuality. More people are likely to rebel if they are given more freedom, and in a way, more freedom is what Huxley fears. Another one of Neil Postman’s assertions was that “what Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one”. I found this to be true, however, there are so many curious minds out there, that the lack of individuality would intrigue the more creative population. When John in Brave New World “behaved like an outsider”(35), he was distinguished as different but people were so interested in him. It is natural to be curious and to have different, individualized thoughts, but the society would rather they be as one and focus more on loving their oppression. In Brave New World, people got sent to an island when they so much as questioned society or strayed from the conditioned, assembly line-like society. This must mean that there is a significant amount of people that are skeptical their oppression. It was said that “Every one belongs to everyone else, after all”(149). This puts people in an isolated position where if their actions do not benefit the community, then it should not be done. The problem with this is that people are naturally selfish, which conflicts with the idea of everyone basing their actions on the betterment of society. Orwell’s idea was that an oppressor would be what overcomes people. People would most likely stray from society when they have the freedom because they are assumed to love their oppression; however, less people are likely to stray if they have someone watching over them like Big Brother in
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