Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

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indirect way it [is] rubbed into every Party member from childhood onwards” (Orwell, 2008, p. 62). Under the regulation of ‘Newspeak’, children in Oceania do not learn language associated with intimacy and feelings as the Party has completely removed these from people’s vocabulary. Without the language to express love and intimacy, the Party is hoping such feelings will eventually cease to exist. In Brave New World , the World Controllers help to ensure the total devotion of citizens by removing marriage as an institution. Marriage is forbidden because it leads to monogamy and emotional intimacy which threatens loyalty to the state. The influence the government has on people’s attitude to marriage is evident in the differing responses to it by John, who is raised on a reservation beyond the control of the state, and Bernard, who has been raised by the state. Towards the middle of the novel, John falls in love with Lenina, another individual who has been raised by the state. Prior to making advances towards her, he seeks to clarify the relationship between her and Bernard. John asks Bernard if he is married to Lenina and Bernard “couldn’t help laughing” upon hearing the words “married” (Huxley, 2014, p. 120). The effectiveness of the World State’s indoctrination process is revealed through Bernard’s response. Love and emotion is a foreign concept to the citizenry of this totalitarian state. As the novel progresses, John becomes increasing infatuated with Lenina and confesses his affection for her. She is overjoyed by it, but when he mentions marriage, she is “genuinely shocked” and thinks it is “a horrible idea” (Huxley, 2014, p. 168). Everyone in World State society is programmed to have sex with anyone they meet without emotional commitment. Contrastingly, John the Savage, who is raised in the Indian Reservation, believes wholeheartedly in the institution of marriage and remaining pure for his future wife. His version of marriage is based on the values of Elizabethan England which he acquires through reading Shakespeare. When Lenina makes sexual advances towards John, he is terrified by her