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America today consists of the rich and poor. Capitalism gives a person the opportunity to fulfill whatever profession he can
achieve. A boy does not have to be a farmer just because his father was one.
The society in Brave New World takes social division to a whole new level. From the moment a baby is decanted its destiny
cannot be changed.
Five levels make up the caste system. Alphas are the gray-wearing intellectuals. Betas wear purple and are less intelligent
than the Alphas. They tend to do mechanical work. Third are the Gammas, who usually work controlling machines and may work
as butlers. Gammas wear green. Deltas are next in the system. Deltas wear khaki and have no individuality; they are mass-produced
using Bokanovsky's Process. Finally are the Epsilons. Also mass-produced, they wear black and perform the most tedious of
jobs.
The main characters in Brave New World are as follows:
1.The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (Alpha)
The Director's name is Thomas, or "Tomakin". He is menacing and threatens to exile Bernard to Iceland. His
physical features include a long chin, big, rather prominent teeth, and floridly curved lips. When he is exposed as John's
father, he is humiliated.
2. Henry Foster (Alpha)
Henry Foster is a fair-haired ruddy young man. He has a vivacious blue eye, and takes evident pleasure in quoting figures.
He talks about Lenina as if she were a piece of meat, infuriating Bernard.
3. Lenina Crowne (Beta-Minus)
Lenina Crowne is an uncommonly pretty Vaccination-worker at the Hatchery. She has lupus and purple eyes and nice coral
teeth. She is disgusted by the life at the reservation.
4. Mustapha Mond (Alpha-Plus)
Mustapha Mond decides to become the resident controller of Western Europe instead of expulsion. He owns a collection
of forbidden literature that he keeps in a large safe. Mond believes since there is no loss in the World State, God is not
necessary.
5. Bernard Marx (Alpha-Plus)
Bernard Marx feels isolated from the other Alphas because he is short of stature. Because of his height, he sometimes
has trouble making the lower castes obey him. Bernard does not like to talk casually about sex in public like the others.
He wants to have individuality.
6. Helmholtz Watson (Alpha-Plus)
Helmholtz Watson is attractive and bright. He is a Lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering, but he wants to use
his abilities for something more meaningful. He laughs when Romeo and Juliet is read to him, because his social conditioning
accustomed him to misinterpret the couple's love.
7. The Warden (Alpha)
The Warden is the talkative chief administrator for the New Mexico Savage Reservation.
8. John the Savage
John is handsome and blond. He was not born in the World-State, but in an Indian reservation called Malpais. He is ostracized
as a child mostly because of his mother's World-State way of life. His mother taught him how to read and his prized possession
is his book of the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
9. Linda (Beta-Minus)
Linda is John's mother. On a trip to Mexico, she became pregnant and got lost from Tomakin. Unable to return to the
World-State, she makes her new home in the Indian reservation. She misses the utopian nation and is ostracized by the others
when she returns.
1984
Like people today and the characters in Brave New World, the characters in 1984 are put into different classes.
Classes in Oceania do not go by hard work or success. People are placed by their approval of the government, or the Party.
The Inner Party is head of the government and controls everything. The Outer Party does not know what goes on in the luxurious
life of an inner party member, but does work in the different ministries, altering things so the government is always right.
They have the least freedoms and are always being watched by the Outer Party. Lastly, the Proles are the best off because
they are still human with their lives and emotions, allowing them more freedoms; the Party can not control them.
The main characters in 1984 are as follows:
1. Winston Smith
Winston works as an Outer Party member but hates the Party. He is 39 years old and works in the Ministry of Truth. Hating
the totalitarian government, he commits many crimes like writing in a diary, and having a love affair while assuming the Though
Police will come after him at any time. Winston is curious, intellectual and rebellious.
2. Julia
Julia is Winston's lover who works in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Julia is optimistic and enjoys
her life as much as possible because she sneaks around and has sex. She also rebels the Party but not as strongly as Winston.
3. O'Brien
O'Brien is a powerful member of the Inner Party, who in Winston's mind is the head of the Brotherhood, a rebellion group.
In reality, he traps Winston and abuses him in the name of the Party. Winston thinks O'Brien was once a rebel but he was taken
and brainwashed.
4. Big Brother
Big Brother is the alleged ruler of Oceania. Everywhere there is a sign saying "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU."
He is very important but the readers never actually see him and do not know if he exists.
4. Mr.Charrington
Mr. Charrington runs a secondhand store and is an old man. He lends Winston his thoughts of the past and a room above
the store without a telescreen. He betrayed Winston because he was really a member of the Thought Police.
5. Parson
Parson is a neighbor of Winston who works in the Ministry of Truth. Parson is fat and intolerable. His children are part
of the Junior Spies and turn him in.
6. Goldstein
The Party describes Goldstein as the leader of the Brotherhood therefore making him the most dangerous man of Oceania.
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