What is the inherent nature of human beings? Do they enjoy seeking the truth? Or do they prefer hearing sheltered, blanketed lies? Again and again, the individuals who preach their heretical beliefs are ostracized and ultimately silenced, as seen with Winston Smith in 1984 and John the Savage in Brave New World. Humans are, to a great extent, limited by their perceptions and experiences. Just as a blind man will never fully comprehend the concept of color, the Epsilons will never understand the way “savages” live, and humans, due to their inherent nature, will never live in harmony like the inhabitants of Malacandra. Corrupted by the phenomena surrounding them since they were born, humans will habitually put their selfish needs and happiness first. To be a fully-functional human is to be a complex, questioning entity, with a thirst for survival and truth, and to have a unique upbringing that shapes character. Therefore, humans, as previously defined, will never achieve a utopian world. Rather, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell, and Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis all demonstrate that humans will never achieve perfection due to their nature and thus are doomed to a dystopian future.
To be human means to question values. After John is exposed to Bernard’s world in Brave New World, he ponders what being human entails. Inhabitants of the Ford-based world sacrifice high art, poetry, and faith in exchange for happiness and instant gratification. Their world is perfect in a way; there are no diseases, suffering, or individuality. However, are the creatures in the World State still considered humans? Physically, they are. Mentally and spiritually, they are better considered mindless machines, slaves to the establishment. The poignant crux of Brave New World lies in the highly-revealing conversation between John and World Controller Mustapha Mond near the end of the novel. They debate the role of religion, love, literature, and struggle in the World State. While John fights Mond on values and nobility, Mond calmly fires back surprisingly logical counterarguments for anything John says. For instance, Mond justifies that his civilization has no need of nobility or heroism because there are no wars or political inefficiency. In a civilization like the World State, people are perpetually healthy and young, and they are free to take soma to mask their troubles. With respect to religion, people tend to look to God during times of suffering, and as there is no true suffering this society, God is no longer needed. Despite all this, John the Savage ardently states that he would take the “’right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind’” over the comfort, convenience, and lack of autonomy in the World State.
Huxley’s Brave New World is frighteningly accurate in the way it portrays human nature and foreshadows the future. In today’s fast-paced world, an abundance of people have neither the patience nor the courage John speaks of. The current society shares striking resemblances to the World State. Television, technology, social media, Amazon 2-hour shipping, and drugs mimic the use of soma to evoke euphoria and soothe disturbing thoughts. A human’s nature is to strive for happiness and satisfaction. However, one’s goal should not be to strive for happiness. Happiness is not necessarily a good thing, as seen from the underlying cruelty and lack of hope and autonomy established in the World State. There, it is almost impossible for an individual to dent the socially stable society of Mustapha Mond, debatably a positive and a negative. It remains a matter of perspective. Mind-numbed Deltas living in the World State would perceive their world differently from humans in an arguably free society. Everyone has different “conditioning” and values, part of what makes a human human.
In addition to varying perspectives and values, humans all have the same primal instinct of self-preservation. Even through the starvation and shocking, Winston Smith from 1984 desires to survive. He pledges to never betray Julia, but when he is placed head-to-head with his worst fear, the rats that are about to eat him alive, his survival instinct kicks in, causing him to capitulate. Winston yells, “’Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!’” This situation also illustrates that humans tend to question or scoff at others in unfortunate situations. Nevertheless, a human’s behavior is as circumstantial as it is dispositional. Anyone would cave if he or she is experiencing Winston’s or Julia’s predicament. Furthermore, in Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom’s drowsy, celestial mood shatters as the full consequences of the journey and the possibility of death loom before him. His survival instinct, the “wild, animal thirst for life, mixed with homesick longing for the free airs and the sights and smells of earth… awakes in him.” It is the same longing for survival and gratification that causes people to be egocentric. No one wants to do the lowly, drudge work necessary for a utopian society. The World State in Brave New World only functions because the members of the lower castes are physically conditioned and deprived of oxygen to enjoy their driveling work. A society full of Alphas would be unstable and miserable; the Cyprus experiment full of Alphas ends up with rebellions and chaos. Alphas, capable of freethinking and the most similar caste to modern-day humans, “’would go mad if he had to do Epsilon Semi-Moron work- go mad, or start smashing things up… Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices; they’re the least line of resistance.’”
In yet another example, the Malacandran world, a true utopia, successfully subsists in harmony because the different alien species cooperate, doing what they are best at and contributing to society. For instance, although they all speak individual languages, they learn the language of the Hrossa because the Hrossa have “’more words and better.’” The sorns inquire Ransom about his world, astounded by the wars, prostitution, and slavery. Malacandran residents all obey Oyarsa, and they compare humans to someone who is trying to lift himself by his own hair. Since there is only one type of hnau, or sentient being, on planet Earth, the sorns think “this must have far-reaching effects in the narrowing of sympathies and even of thought.” It is accurate that humans are exceedingly narrow-minded and unwilling to compromise, as seen in Weston’s conversation with Oyarsa. Weston desires to push mankind forward, yet he is willing to kill Ransom, a fellow human being, to do it. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planetreiterates that humans are bent by nature, driven by greed and power.
On the subject of power, Orwell’s 1984 illuminates the control of state power. Through limiting the modes of thought with Newspeak and censoring communication, humans are reduced to robotic, “duckspeaking” entities frightened of unorthodoxy. In fact, the parents’ own children are transformed into spies, trained to betray them at any hint of dissent. By monitoring documents in the Ministry of Truth, the Party serves as the exclusive arbiter of fiction and reality. Applicable to today’s society, the media often skews the truth and leaves important but lackluster events out of the mainstream… Unless they dig into further research, followers of the mainstream media are left with a flawed sense of what is actually going on in the world.
Likewise, censorship also remains an issue in history textbooks. One AP United States History proposal orders that teaching materials should “’promote citizenship, patriotism … and respect for authority.’” Just as the totalitarian regime in 1984eradicates subversive thoughts and materials that threaten its ideals, several schools have textbooks that leave out the negative aspects of American history, promoting patriotism. Some exclude factors that contribute to vital parts of the American identity, such as manifest destiny, the extermination of Native American tribes, the Ku Klux Klan, the Vietnam War, and even the Civil War. Analogous to how certain parameters blind the 1984 society, students will be left with a faulty impression of American history. A curriculum that promotes nationalism and universal respect for authority conceals essential truths, including the fact that anyone has the capacity to spark change. Abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and the end of segregation all stem from people protesting, rallying, and taking action against unjust practices. Freethinking individuals from 1984 are oppressed and eventually disappear in the night. Pressures of conformity and doublethink in Big Brother’s society are paramount. In that dystopian society, Orwell demonstrates that an individual’s defiant actions- like Winston’s writing in a diary and secret meetings with Julia- cannot ignite change, and the ones who can revolt, the proletariats, are too dense to do so. As it sees fit, the Party fabricates and destroys the truth. Even self-evident truths like two plus two equals four can be altered. Considered on the same level as animals by the Party, the proletariats are most similar to humans today because they are largely left alone by the Party. The general populace in 1984 may consist of humans, but the nature of humans in the society is directly molded by the Party. They are better off living free like the proletariats before the Party took control.
Proved by the fearful citizens of Oceania in 1984 and the dismal World State in Brave New World, humans will never be able to create a truly utopian society due to their nature. Malacandra from Out of the Silent Planet is in peace because each alien species do what is best for society and obey Oyarsa. However, humans cannot cooperate like that; they are corrupted by evil and self-indulgence, leading to wars and misunderstandings. They are always climbing an ever-lengthening ladder, up the hierarchy in terms of social ability, occupation, and financial state. Few are willing to earn minimum wage and work the base jobs, such as cleaning the streets and factory work, that are fundamental to a smoothly functioning society. In essence, human nature is bent, and unless it is somehow altered, like the conditioning in Brave New World or thought control and crimestop in 1984, humans in today’s world will never be able to create a true utopia.
