Brave New World Post Two

-How critical is soma to the survival of the one state?
-What does Bernard want from Lenina?
-What impact will John have on the World State?

Soma is the basis for everything in the society, and without it the "perfect" society will cease to function. Soma relieves people of the thoughts that Bernard loves to entertain. It relieves unhappiness and with it, the risk of discontent rising among the populace towards their superiors. It also gives the added benefit of making the government necessary to the people for their drug supply. Without it, the people feel miserable and their psychological addiction is not satisfied.

Bernard, despite his claims otherwise, seems to want Lenina in the way his society dictates to him. Despite attempting to engage in a forbidden romantic relationship, to me it appears that Bernard wants what the rest of society has, and most prevalent among that is his choice in sexual partners. From what's been stated about her by former partners, Lenina seems to be the standard, incredible even by Alpha standards, despite being a Beta.

John will cause more of an upheaval than Bernard realizes. While his mothers claims will be water cooler gossip for a short period of time, the savage will be a source of fascination and disgust among every person living under the World State. It will vault Bernard into the position of a circus master and perhaps only serve to alienate him more, being the guardian of a "freak."

Brave New World Post One

In Brave New World, equality and conformity have been achieved through a trained contentment and genetic manipulation. With people having hundreds of other exactly like them, individuality and thus conflict are completely erased. I would say that Brave New World does in fact create a sort of utopia, because decisions are made by your own free will. The problem is that "your own free will" has been influenced and manipulated from birth to guarantee that you choose what the government wants. The process of hypnopædia controls the mind for the remainder of the person's life and thus eliminates free will at birth.

1984 Post Three

That Big Brother wins is undebatable. Without Winston to fight, Big Brother is left unhindered in it's/his absolute control. To me, Oceania is undefeatable except by the most extreme of means - a population-wide realization of the dictatorship they live under. Without such an occurrence, the society is stable and controlling enough to last for millenia. After the book ends, I imagine Winston to be subject to the same fate as all who came before. He will one day disappear, killed someway by his government. He is too dangerous, even in his "neutralized" state, for the government to not do so. Winston knows more than almost anyone in the nation about the nature of his government. His job and his experiences in the Ministry of Love make him privy to the horrendous and compromising practices of the One State. In the interests of totalitarianism, Winston would have to die.