Topic > Representation of social stratification in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984

Throughout history, the creation of castes and social class hierarchies has created hostile divisions in populations, resulting in tension and discrimination. From the Indian caste system to the class discrimination present in the United States today, it is clear that social stratification almost always takes a bad turn and leads to oppression that can be based on hard or soft power. Authors George Orwell and Aldous Huxley create worlds in which there is obvious differentiation between certain groups of the overall population, which causes the protagonists to rebel or feel dissatisfied with the lack of individuality and privacy in their lives. As the stories progress, it is clear that although the class systems in each book are different, they are both tools that governments use to control citizens in Oceania and the World State. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Brave New World, we are introduced to the complex caste system consisting of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. These are the classifications of humans in this work and are assigned when the government artificially conceives each fetus. Alphas are at the top of the social hierarchy, while Epsilons are at the bottom. Each social class is assigned a specific color so that others can easily differentiate themselves and are conditioned to believe that while each class is necessary, each class after beta is inferior. For this reason, the government is able to control every citizen of the World State by assigning each class a specific job. Alphas are created to be intellectually superior to others and because of this they are tasked with running the factories that create more humans. Betas are similar, but have jobs that require less critical thinking. As one moves down the list of classes, the jobs assigned to them become less intellectually demanding and there is more discrimination against them. When betas are conditioned at a young age, the government broadcasts recordings stating: “Alpha children wear gray. They work much harder than us, because they are terribly intelligent. I'm actually terribly happy to be a Beta, because I don't work that hard. And then we are much better than Gamma and Delta. Gammas are stupid. They all dress in green and the Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with the Delta kids. And the Epsilons are even worse. They are too stupid…” (Huxley 20) The World State points out that these forced classes and prejudices are put in place to promote their motto of “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY”. However, it is clear that the government has degraded every class, regardless of what privileges others appear to have on a superficial level. On the other hand, 1984 describes a social stratification composed of the Inner Party, the Outer Party and the proles. The Inner Party is the smallest of the three classes and members receive many small privileges such as wine and the ability to turn off television screens for about thirty minutes. Even if they receive these privileges, they are not exempt from the strict rules in place to ensure the dehumanization of citizens in Oceania. Throughout the novel, the protagonist, Winston Smith, realizes that even though the proletarians are at the bottom of the social hierarchy, they have the greatest freedom of the three classes. It is clear to Winston and the reader that the ideals of the English Socialist Party (Ingsoc) are appallingly corrupt, but the mentality created by the class structure makes Smith a minority in his thoughts. When Winston gets his hands on a book=3826472)