Where is the world heading? – dystopia in literature

The plot of the novel is set in the not-too-distant future in the Republic of Gilead, a state established in what is now the USA. Created by a racist-nationalist religious terrorist organisation – „Sons of Jacobs” – it is an ideological response to pervasive ecological disaster, infertility and societal collapse. The imprisonment and killing of the president and the dissolution of Congress led to the collapse of the legitimate government and the suspension of the constitution. The new government quickly took on the characteristics of a religiously-oriented military dictatorship and began to transform society according to new principles, based primarily on the Old Testament. The rulers of Gilead, literally reading the words of the Bible, breed multitudes of fertile women to be sires, the titular 'Handmaids’. A Handmaid is given to a deserving companion who is unable to have offspring in his marriage. During an elaborate sexual ritual, the Handmaid is impregnated by the man, resting in the arms of his wife.

The protagonist of the novel is an unnamed young woman, captured during an attempted escape to Canada, during which she is separated from her husband Luke and their daughter is sent to a place unknown to them. The protagonist is sent to a camp for Handmaids and, after training, ends up in the home of the Commander and his wife Serena Joy. There she meets Nick, the Commander’s young chauffeur, through whom she has the chance to regain her lost freedom.

The story is set in a hypothetical future in the year 1984, when most of the world is always at war. Oceania is led by Big Brother, a dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality manufactured by the Party’s Thought Police. The Party suppresses individuality and independent thought through incessant propaganda, historical revisionism, and government surveillance carried out by the Ministry of Truth.

The main character of the story told by George Orwell is the civil servant Winston Smith. The protagonist is an employee of one of the ministries, the Ministry of Truth, which deals with propaganda and adapting written reality to suit the current needs of the party and government. Winston’s job is to lie about history, altering books and articles to suit the current political line. Despite years of training and brainwashing, Winston sees the falsity of his job and all the government’s actions. He begins to write a diary and seeks contact with people who are secretly organising opposition to the policies of the powerful. He receives banned books from them and reasserts the need to organise a revolt against the government. In the meantime, he becomes embroiled in an affair with an employee of his ministry – Julia.

In the year 2541, the citizens of the World State are created through artificial insemination and cloning. From infancy, they are subjected to comprehensive psychological and biological conditioning – so that as adults they become part of a caste community of automatons devoid of higher feelings.

Brave New World follows a few characters as they live their lives in the seemingly utopian World State metropolis of London. The Hatchery assigns Bernard Marx, a selfish and depressed psychiatrist, to a mission to the New Mexico Reservation, home to „savages.” He is accompanied by Lenina Crowne, an attractive fetuses technician. They meet Linda, a former resident of the World State who had left behind, and her son John on the Reservation. John was the product of a scandalous „viviparous” conception in the World State. He acts as a spokesperson for the disputes between the technocracy of the World State and the Reservation, which still adheres to traditional values, when Bernard and Lenina bring the two back to London.