Margaret Atwood?s Handmaid?s Tale and Aldous Huxley?s Brave New World. both portray a dystopian society in the utmost terminal. A Dystopian society is a signifier of totalitarian absolutism as its paradigm. a society that puts its whole population continuously on test. a society. that is. in disfranchising and enslaving full categories of its ain citizens. a society that. by lauding and warranting force by jurisprudence. quarries upon itself. A Dystopian society is what we today would name dysfunctional.
( Ebsco-Points of View ) . In this type of society. the government uses propaganda to derive control over the society. Similarly. in The Brave New World and The Handmaid?s Tale. the taking political governments use propaganda in the signifier of cultural mentions. altered linguistic communication and through the rule of utilitarianism. in order to derive control over the people.
Change of linguistic communication is one of the chief signifiers of propaganda in The Handmaids Tale and The Brave New World. Language is a powerful signifier of rebellion. which can interrupt through the strongest influences. By extinguishing or changing words that can take to rebellion. the government can guarantee stableness and power over the province. In The Handmaid?s Tale. the political government forbids servants from reading. composing or discoursing with other amahs. By making so. they isolate the servants within the walls of Gilead. They create a barrier between thoughts and possible actions. When Offred foremost walks into the commander?s room. she is amazed by what she sees. ?But all around the walls there are bookcases. They?re filled with books. Books and books and books. right out in apparent position. no locks. no boxes. No admiration we can?t come in here. It?s an oasis of the forbidden? ( Atwood 172 ) .
By oasis of the forbidden. Offred agencies. a topographic point preserved from the Torahs of Gilead. Offred?s reaction is sudden due to the rigorous Torahs of that society that are engraved through the agencies of force. By prohibiting reading or authorship. the government is indirectly forestalling the formation of thoughts taking to rebellion. Similarly. in The Brave New World. the taking government eliminates normally used phrases that can trip inquiries associating to the unreal method of their creative activity. This is done through sleep negotiations that occur on a regular basis between certain ages. One of the major changes of words in The Brave New World is the word ?Ford? altered from God. Henry Ford was the Godhead of the automated assembly line. a major discovery in mass production.
In our society. mass production is used for consumer goods. The faiths in our society are based on the belief that God created this existence and the people. However. in The Brave New World. due to Ford?s engineering being used for mass bring forthing worlds. he is considered the Godhead of that society and therefore the God. This can be observed when Bernard Marx walks in late at the Sunday dark rite. ?Thank Ford! He was non the last? ( Huxley 79 ) . When Bernard Marx said ?Thank Ford? . in our society. it would be more like ?Thank God? . However. due to Henry Ford being their Godhead. the thought of God has been wiped out of their heads. This was done intentionally to avoid citizens from oppugning the cogency of their creative activity.
Another method the governments use propaganda is through the rule of Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the moral worth of an action determined by its part to overall public-service corporation. i. e. its part to happiness or pleasure as summoned among all individuals ( Wikipedia-Utilitarianism pars. 1-2 ) . In The Handmaid?s Tale. the government uses the principal of utilitarianism in order to warrant the usage of Handmaids as the generative variety meats of Gilead. When Handmaids are brought to Gilead. they are sent to the Red Center. where they are brainwashed towards being subservient to work forces and concerned with bearing kids. These grounds are justified through the agencies of societal properties. They are told that their insurgent nature will gain them regard and safety. which will lend to the greater good of Gilead. ?Blessed are the meek? ( Atwood 125 ) is what Aunt Lydia tries to scratch at the Red Center. It merely signifies over submissiveness as the way to esteem and security in the society.
Similarly. in The Brave New World. the rule of utilitarianism is the footing for mass cloning worlds. In the novel. the accountant justifies cloning as a manner of extinguishing emotions. desires. and human relationships from society. Harmonizing to him. which means harmonizing to the government. emotions and relationships are waste of clip and life on Earth. When the accountant is speaking to the pupils at the mill circuit. he describes the Pre-Ford yearss where ?Mother. monogamousness and love affair existed. High spurts the fountain ; fierce and foamy the wild jet. The impulse has but a individual mercantile establishment. My love. my babe. No admiration these hapless pre-moderns were huffy and wicked and suffering. Their universe didn?t let them to take things easy. didn?t let them to be sane. virtuous. happy? ( Huxley 41 ) . Harmonizing to the government. the maps for worlds should be defined in a society. and clip should non be wasted on emotions with household and friends. Harmonizing to the government. by extinguishing normal human behaviour and replacing it with unreal behaviour entirely for the intent of making a society where worlds are turned into machines for production and ingestion. everyone will be happy. The actions are consequence oriented. and everyone is brainwashed with the same slogan repeatedly. i. e. everyone belongs to everyone else. that?s why everybody?s happy presents.
Religion is another major reoccurring method of propaganda in both novels. Religion is the organic structure of individuals adhering to a peculiar set of beliefs and patterns ( ?Religion?-Oxford Dictionary ) . In The Handmaid?s Tale. faith plays a major function in brainwashing the Handmaids. Gilead has a authorities where there is no separation between province and faith. or in other words. a theocracy. The official linguistic communication in Gilead consists of spiritual nomenclature and scriptural mentions. The caste system is based on scriptural footings. Servants are referred to as ?Marthas? . the constabulary officers are called ?Guardians of faith? . soldiers are called ?Angels? and Commanders are known as ?Commanders of the faithful? . The shop names are derived from scriptural footings. The bakeshop and piscary shop is called ?Loaves and Fishes? . the meat shop is called ?All Flesh? and the dairy shop is called ?Milk and Honey? . Since these words are used everyday. it is a method of brainwashing the Handmaids into believing that Gilead is moving on the authorization of the Bible ( Quotations- Atwood ) .
In The Brave New World. faith is used as propaganda in a alone manner. In the universe province. everyone is required to take doses of Soma. which is an intoxicating and a hallucinogenic drink. used as an offering to Henry Ford. The controller?s justification to the usage of Soma is ; ?In the yesteryear you could merely carry through things by doing a great attempt and after old ages of difficult moral preparation. Now. you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets. and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can transport at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christian religion without tears?that?s what soma is? ( Huxley 234 ) . The accountant describes Soma as a tool that allows everyone to be ?morally aware? . In this instance. Soma is a symbol of sacrament similar to offering to god. which represents the usage of faith to command society. It is a symbol of satisfaction to command society. because an drunk individual is non in the right head. and it is a manner the government clouds over the truth.
Margaret Atwood and Aldous Huxley portray a totalitarian province where propaganda is the chief beginning of control over the society. The citizens in Gilead and the World State are brainwashed in to believing the ends of their several society. Religion is the emotional signifier of propaganda used in the novels because faith is a connexion between a individual and their beliefs. When these beliefs are incorporated into a regime?s ultimatum. the individual is wrongfully deceived into believing that faith plays a function in the ends of that government. Language is besides an of import signifier of propaganda used in both novels. because it is difficult to brainwash people when they are cognizant of the consequences. It is easier to convey messages in an altered signifier of linguistic communication. where merely the conveyor knows what is being said. Last but non least. the rule of Utilitarianism is an of import signifier of propaganda because people will non deferentially agree with a regime?s sudden coup d’etat unless their justification is result orientated and for the public assistance of the society.
Bibliography:
Atwood. Margaret. The Handmaid?s Tale. Canada. 1985Fox. Justin. “Dystopian Society” Totalitarian State 8 Nov. 1999: 40- . ABI/INFORM Global. Ebsco Host: Points of View. Glenforest Secondary School Library. Mississauga. ON. 15 Nov. 1999.
Huxley. Aldous. The Brave New World. New York. 1932Religion. ” Def. 1b. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd erectile dysfunction. 1989
