Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley was written at a tine in history when war had ravaged much of the nation, Depression was blanketing society, and people’s wills were being put to the test. Science had become an overwhelming force for better or for worse. People had witnessed science saving and preventing millions of lives with vaccinations and such, but on the contrary, had also witnessed it kill with horrifying “factory-like” efficiency in WW I (the age of machine guns and chemical warfare). Brave New World is not intended to be a happy book, it is more Huxley’s way of describing what he believes is coming to us. He is basically saying, “This is our future”. Huxley’s writings are known for dealing with conflicts between the interest of the individual and the interests of society. Brave New World addresses this conflict in a fictional future (approximately 500 years into the future) in which free will and individuality have been sacrificed to achieve complete social stability.

Throughout the book, many difficult questions about the nature of moral choices are raised. The plot is concentrated on the various abuses of power made possible by science. I believe that Huxley was not lashing out against science, but more offering a warning, the new world is not evil because of science, but because power hungry individuals have misused it maliciously. The theme of Brave New World is “not the advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals” (Brave New World, page XI). The devastating affects through the misuse of science, philosophy and control are portrayed through this book.

Criticizing the way in which scientific discoveries ca...

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...ore then a physical condition, and this is what we saw in a Brave New World. We saw a society sickened by the abuse of power. Because of the ignorance that was manifested into the creation of each person, they could not individually recognize the evils in society. Universal happiness may keep the wheels of society turning, but truth, beauty, passion, and free will and mind are a high price to pay. Happiness is never as grand as the emotions evolved in a good fight, struggle or overthrow of things you feel strongly about (temptation, misfortune, passion or doubt). Although the citizens had all the comforts happiness and pleasures that science can provide, they remained prisoners in a gilded-like cage. Their bodies become machines property without free minds and free spirits. In a Brave New World, the World State had killed a societies spirit to tame the flesh.

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