Karl Marx once said, “If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all” (Marx). It may be true that Marxism can bring a more collective good; however, it is also true that many things are unbeneficial for the people living in the society. The novels Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell exemplify these unfavorable tendencies brought on by the Marxist theory. These tendencies include a gap in how the working and ruling classes live and the extensive use of propaganda to promote the status quo.
The Marxist theory originated from Karl Marx in the 1800s and started as a simple examination of social organization …show more content…
The lower, manual working castes in the Brave New World do not have a chance to argue against their placement in society since they are predestined with ways that alter their intelligence (Huxley 15). This is shown during the tour of the Hatchery when the director says, “’The surrogate goes round slower; therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals; therefore gives the embryo less oxygen. Nothing like oxygen-shortage to keep an embryo below par’” (Huxley 14). These oxygen deprived embryos make up the lower castes, such as the Deltas and the Epsilons. They are also injected with harmful chemicals, which cause lower understanding than a human not treated with these factors (Huxley 14). Although the lower castes are unaware or unable to understand what happened to them, people of higher intelligence, such as John, realize the cruelty applied to the working class (Huxley 129). John, a savage who was not conditioned at birth to favor these practices, displays his disagreement with this predestination while he reads a manual explaining the process and announces, “’Beastly, beastly book!’” (Huxley 129). These disadvantages of the working class depict the Marxist idea that the ruling class oppresses the working class with inhumane …show more content…
The propaganda of Oceania includes multiple posters of Big Brother, the eminent ruler of Oceania, with the slogan “Big Brother is watching you” beneath it strung on various objects around London (Orwell 2). Along with the haunting posters the Upper and Outer parties are required to attend the “Two Minutes Hate”, which is a daily ceremony used to direct the citizens’ anger towards the enemy of Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein who is “the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party’s purity,” (Orwell 13). Both of these propaganda types induce fear and frustration into the people of Eurasia and contribute to the Marxist component of ever-present propaganda used to control the emotions of a community. After looking through Marxist lens at Brave New World and 1984, it is evident that many Marxist elements are present, such as the struggles and separation between the working and ruling classes and the extensive use of propaganda to promote the status quo. This is seen through the hatchery and the hypnopaedia in Brave New World and in the proles and the Two Minutes Hate in 1984. These results of Marxist tendencies neither contributed to the collective good, nor were worth the ultimate sacrifices of separation between classes of people and the brain washing from
The Marxist theory originated from Karl Marx in the 1800s and started as a simple examination of social organization …show more content…
The lower, manual working castes in the Brave New World do not have a chance to argue against their placement in society since they are predestined with ways that alter their intelligence (Huxley 15). This is shown during the tour of the Hatchery when the director says, “’The surrogate goes round slower; therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals; therefore gives the embryo less oxygen. Nothing like oxygen-shortage to keep an embryo below par’” (Huxley 14). These oxygen deprived embryos make up the lower castes, such as the Deltas and the Epsilons. They are also injected with harmful chemicals, which cause lower understanding than a human not treated with these factors (Huxley 14). Although the lower castes are unaware or unable to understand what happened to them, people of higher intelligence, such as John, realize the cruelty applied to the working class (Huxley 129). John, a savage who was not conditioned at birth to favor these practices, displays his disagreement with this predestination while he reads a manual explaining the process and announces, “’Beastly, beastly book!’” (Huxley 129). These disadvantages of the working class depict the Marxist idea that the ruling class oppresses the working class with inhumane …show more content…
The propaganda of Oceania includes multiple posters of Big Brother, the eminent ruler of Oceania, with the slogan “Big Brother is watching you” beneath it strung on various objects around London (Orwell 2). Along with the haunting posters the Upper and Outer parties are required to attend the “Two Minutes Hate”, which is a daily ceremony used to direct the citizens’ anger towards the enemy of Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein who is “the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of the Party’s purity,” (Orwell 13). Both of these propaganda types induce fear and frustration into the people of Eurasia and contribute to the Marxist component of ever-present propaganda used to control the emotions of a community. After looking through Marxist lens at Brave New World and 1984, it is evident that many Marxist elements are present, such as the struggles and separation between the working and ruling classes and the extensive use of propaganda to promote the status quo. This is seen through the hatchery and the hypnopaedia in Brave New World and in the proles and the Two Minutes Hate in 1984. These results of Marxist tendencies neither contributed to the collective good, nor were worth the ultimate sacrifices of separation between classes of people and the brain washing from