Are There Any Signs of Hope to the Endings of ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’?

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Are there any signs of hope to the endings of ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’? Dystopian novels conventionally end with tragedy but with some hope for the future of society, for example in ‘The Road’, the boy meets a righteous group of people which suggests that the boy may survive. However, in both ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ there is a distinct lack of hope for recovery or a rebellion that might defeat the state power, this ultimately leaves the reader feeling despondent. The dystopian world in both of these novels has been caused by state, rather than natural disasters, this leaves an underlying message to the dangers of the power that the state has. ‘1984’ ends with Winston, the protagonist, successfully brainwashed and left with no thoughts of his own. This lack of hope is also present in the ending of ‘Brave New World’, where John hangs himself to escape from the dystopian society. Ultimately, the somewhat evil governmental powers in the two novels have overcome the challengers to their beliefs, this makes the reader feel a sense of defeat. Furthermore, both of these books were written before the age of technology and are both predictions of how the world could turn out in the future. The tragic endings to both of these novels, particularly ‘1984’ was controversial in the way that readers thought that it was a real possibility and that a dystopia caused by the state could actually occur. Orwell was trying to portray the dangers of totalitarianism authority and I think he does this effectively by tapping in to the emotions of the reader. ‘Brave New World’ is set 600 years in the future, therefore a lot of the fear built up by Huxley is lost. However, ‘1984’ is set around 40 years into the future which makes the possibility more of a threat, making the reader feel fearful, thus making the horror created by Orwell a more frightening prospect. The endings of both
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