Emotional Disconnect in Alex Proyas’ I, Robot and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

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Often times issues are acknowledged and nothing is done to stop them. In other cases, they are put to an end. In Alex Proyas’ I, Robot and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, although they both demonstrate the theme of emotional disconnect and have a character who does not possess the strong loss of emotions that the other characters do, the characters in Alex Proyas’ film show a deeper understanding regarding the problems that emotional disconnect may cause them, and made an effort to stop what was happening. In I, Robot, all of the robots were created emotionless except for Sonny. Similarly, in Brave New World, Bernard Marx strives to be an individual who understands emotions, rather than live in a world of emotional disconnect. Even though the two plots show many similarities, the result of I, Robot was that the robots were deemed unsafe and were stopped, whereas in Brave New World, the humans that were recognized as individuals were sent away and the system remained the same.
In I, Robot, all robots were programmed to be the same; emotionless and set to follow the 3 laws. Similarly, the humans in Brave New World were created without emotions, and were conditioned to enjoy the jobs they were given. This is proven when Dr. Spooner tells Sonny, “Robots don’t feel fear. They don’t feel anything. They don’t get hungry, they don’t sleep.” Dr. Spooner explains to Sonny that robots are simply an imitation of life, and do not understand, nor feel the emotions of a human being. Also, Dr. Calvin explains to Dr. Spooner that the robots could not possibly break the laws by saying, “No, not these laws, they’re hardwired into every robot.” Dr. Calvin finds it ridiculous that a robot would commit a murder, as it would interfere with their p...

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...rld, although they both demonstrate the theme of emotional disconnect and have a character who does not possess a loss of emotions, the characters in Alex Proyas’ film show a deeper understanding regarding the problems that emotional disconnect may cause them, and made an effort to stop what was happening. The robots of I, Robot and the humans of Brave New World showed emotional disconnect, Sonny and John are both unique and have emotions, and in comparison, the robots were shut down by the government, whereas those who seemed educated enough to realize the flaws of the world state were sent away. Sometimes problems are recognized and yet nothing is done to stop them.

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Chatto & Windus,1932. Print.
I, Robot. Dir. Alex Proyas. Perf. Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, and Bruce Greenwood. 20th Century Fox, 2004. Film.

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