The Method of Totalitarianism in Different Ways - Research Paper Example

 The classic novels “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell both encompass startling views of totalitarianism in the worlds that develop within each book’s pages. While each book creates different realities within their plots, the underlying tone of the dangers of totalitarianism connects the novels together through the link of demonstrating how overbearing governments can destroy society. The following paragraphs will discuss how the totalitarianism influences in each text relate to one another.

Although the texts utilize the method of totalitarianism in different ways, the themes of these books are intertwined due to the fact that they both include controlling governments. In “Brave New World,” the machine of totalitarianism gives a state control of technology and medical intervention to essentially remove all individual choice from society. This mantra is seen in vaccine worker Lenina Crowne’s statement, “When the individual feels, the community reels” (Huxley 94). By using technology and medical practices to control society, this text hints at the prospective reality the world could face if state or government control became too involved and crossed into the medical realm.

Comparatively, in Animal Farm, the text demonstrates how the animals understand that man is an entity that needs to be overthrown. This sentiment is seen in chapter one, “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work. He gives back to them the bare minimum that will keep them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself” (Orwell 7).

With this notion, the reason that the texts are connected are so because the first text represents the danger of state control and the second text represents the understanding to overthrow it. Another example of totalitarianism within the texts is seen through mantras. Each text contains mantras about the controlling view within the plot to connect part of the writing style of the works together. In Brave New World, the phrase “Community, identity, stability” represents the mantra that the government attempts to force onto citizens to diminish individuality (Huxley 1).

This mantra coincides with the underlying sentiment of Animal Farm as seen in chapter one, “All men are enemies. All animals are comrades” (Orwell, 1) Both texts introduce their readers to mantras of domination as focal points within the story. Along with the alternating types of totalitarianism and the mantras they produce, the final comparison between the two literary works lies in the notion of fear of change. In Brave New World, the fear of change causes the controlling forces to attempt to create a utopia-type of society where science is monitored to prevent unintended discovery.

The problem of this way of thinking is that it prohibiting science in search for truth destroys the process of discovery altogether. World Controller Mustapha Mond highlights this notion in his statement, “We can’t allow science to undo it’s own good work,” (Huxley 227). In Animal Farm, breaking free from the fear of change is the catalyst to gain control from the humans who are running the world around them. Once the animals had gained control of their world, the fear of losing it weighed heavy on their minds as seen in Chapter 9; “Besides in those days they were slaves and now they were free, and that made all the difference.” (94). Through both of these texts, it is clear that the fear of change represented within each work binds each book’s view of totalitarianism together.