Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

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portrayals of marriage to comment on the horror of societies where individuals and relationships are intentionally dehumanized.

The governments in both Brave New World and 1984 recognize the threat of primal sexual urges to societal stability and they seek to channel these powerful urges in ways that will not undermine their respective regimes. In Brave New World , the sexual drive is controlled and channelled by deliberately encouraging promiscuity. The government uses several practices to achieve this goal. The first practice the government in Brave New World uses is the compulsory weekly Solidarity Services. During the services, a dozen men and women meet, sing songs like “orgy-porgy” (Huxley, 2014, p. 73) and have sex. The ritual mimics religious ceremonies but the goal here is not to foster spiritually but, rather, the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure. Ritualized orgies therefore replace the need for individual religious expression which can be a danger to totalitarian governments seeking the absolute loyalty of its citizens. Another practice adapted by the World Controllers to influence primal urges is the “sex-hormone chewing-gum” (Huxley, 2014, p. 208). This gum keeps the citizenry in a heightened state of sexual desire so they continue to have sex. As the government is artificially stimulating the sex drive of the citizens, citizens eventually lose their ability to decide for themselves when and with whom they will have sex. Citizens are forced to think and act in a way the government wishes them to think and act. The government also promotes sexual promiscuity through encouraging its citizens to attend movies that are named the “feelies” (Huxley, 2014, p. 208). The name is ironic because they have very little to do with actual human feelings. Everyone in the Brave New World society is encouraged to go to these ‘feelies’ and their purpose is to act as a “distraction” (Huxley, 2014, p. 199) as these movies foster primal sexual urges and encourage promiscuity. John describes the content of these films as “horrible…base..[and] ignoble” (Huxley, 2014, p. 147). However, to typical World State citizens such as Lenina, these