Dystopia in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
It's hard to imagine yet somehow so extremely close to us is the
possibility of a world of ideal perfection where there is no room or
acceptance of individuality. Yet, as we strive towards the growth of
technology and improvement of our daily living we come closer to closing
the gap between the freedom of emotions, self understanding, and of speech
and the devastation of a dystopia. A utopia, or perfect world, gone awry
is displayed in Aldous Huxley's provocative novel Brave New World.
Dystopia is drawn on "political and emotional events, anchoring its vision
of a nightmarish future in contemporary fears of totalitarian ideology and
uncontrolled advances in technology and science" (Baker 22). It is the
situation that costs a piece of an unhealthy environment for human beings,
is the theme of the novel. The dystopian setting is brought about by
technology and by higher authorities. As technology increases, the use for
human beings in the work force decreases leaving an overwhelming amount of
depression among humans. Therefore, a way to continue the production of
technological findings is by bringing up humans from day one to accept
their unhappiness as normal. By "breeding" human beings to accept the fact
that they are born to do a specific group. Higher authorities know the
illimination of humans' emotions is useful to stabilize what they think to
be a utopian society. Huxley portrays a "perfect dystopia" where
scientists "breed people to order" in a specific class (Baker 2). The
purpose of this paper is to shows that Aldous Huxley clearly introduces a
river of cases and incidences, which adds to the dystopia in his science
fiction novel Brave New World.
Aldous Huxley was born on July 26, 1894 in England into a family of
novelists and scientists. Leonard Huxley, Aldous's father, was an essayist
and an editor who also was a respected, leading biologist in the time of
Darwinism. Both his brother and half-brother worked in the science field.
Huxley received an extensive training in both medicine and in the arts and
sciences. Huxley was described by V.S. Pritchett as "that rare being-the
prodigy, the educable young man, the peremial asker of unusual questions"
(Introduction to Aldous Huxley 1).
Huxley wrote a series of novels and essays as his career progressed.
Two of his best known novels are Brave New World and Island. These two
novels depict a world of dystopia. In Brave New World it's author "shifts
his mildly satiric observations of a limited group of people to a broader
and more ironic satire of a utopian society" (Introduction to Aldous Huxley
Arnold Friend takes advantage of Connie’s teenage innocence for something of a much more sinister purpose. Connie thought she had it all figured out until Arnold Friend came into her life and up her driveway on one summer, Sunday afternoon and made her realize how big and scary the world can be. Arnold embodies everything that Connie has dreamed about in a boy, but is in the most malevolent form of Connie’s dream boy. She always wanted to get away from her family because she has always felt as if she didn’t belong and Arnold can make this possible just in the most predatory way. She always thought sex would be sweet (and consensual) and that she would be in charge of how it progressed, Arnold strips her of the authority she’s held in any other encounter with a boy. The moral of the story is always be careful what you wish
The human condition which is spoken about in Alcoholics Anonymous is the dichotomy of the life of the alcoholic. These alcoholics are not easy to categorize; they are not always a Dr Jekyll by day and Mr Hyde by night. Bill, who explains his life story in the first chapter, explains how he studied economics, business and law to join speculators on Wall Street. Up until this point, drinking had interfered in his life, but was not a continuous plague. Yet, over the course of time he becomes an alcoholic for a variety of reasons, like many individuals described throughout the book. The alcoholics described are not portrayed as unintelligent, unsuccessful or insignificant. They are men who have high positions, who are by turns "brilliant, fast-thinking, imaginative and likeable" (139). The conclusion of a prima facie inspection of these individuals would not include over indulgence of alcohol. But under the alcoholic influence these attributes worthy of note slowly atrophy and...
We are born into this world with the realization that life is hard and that life is like a box of chocolates and it is hard to take it at face value. The majority of our time is spent trying to answer an endless stream of questions only to find the answers to be a complex path of even more questions. This film tells the story of Harold, a twenty year old lost in life and haunted by answerless questions. Harold is infatuated with death until he meets a good role model in Maude, an eighty year old woman that is obsessed with life and its avails. However, Maude does not answer all of Harold’s questions but she leads him to realize that there is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel if you pursue it to utmost extremes by being whatever you want to be. Nevertheless, they are a highly unlikely match but they obviously help each other in many ways in the film.
A Utopian society is a society in which everything is perfect, everyone is happy with who they are and their lifestyles. The society in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is set up by the world controllers to be a utopian society. However, the society itself is the opposite of a utopian society: dystopian society. Even though everything seems to be perfect for everyone, the hidden truth reveals a different reality, lifestyle. The society of Brave new world is a dystopian society as exhibited by the shortage of freedom, reality and identity.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World portrays a society in which science has clearly taken over. This was an idea of what the future could hold for humankind. Is it true that Huxley’s prediction may be correct? Although there are many examples of Huxley’s theories in our society, there is reason to believe that his predictions will not hold true for the future of society.
I have never experienced what it would be like to be a part of an AA meeting. The only time I have had seen or heard someone mention meetings for alcoholics has been TV shows and movies, which would portray these meeting as a circle of strangers just deliberating stories of their life and how this disease has changed them forever. Therefore, I had no idea what to expect. I felt intimidated and had a sense of nervousness, so I decided I would not go alone and brought a friend. My expectation upon entering this meeting was to see beat up people with bad hygiene and a homeless appearance. As a matter of fact, the expectations I had upon walking towards this place was that I was going to get hit on and even get kidnapped. As crazy as it sounds, all these thoughts came through my mind particularly because of the type of environment I expected it to be. For the most part, I was wrong. I was actually surprised at what I witnessed and I came to realize that I was over-reacting. Upon arrival, there were people spread out; some talking together and some sitting alone. The room was nothing like I imagined. It wasn't an auditorium or a gym like they showed on TV. This place which I had imagined to be a dreadful enclosed surface with maniacal individuals turned out to be a small room with sofas and tables to make guests feel welcomed, with regular looking men and women appearing to be middle-aged. I thought "There has to be something wrong, I can’t be convinced that all these people who seem normal to me have an addiction problem with alcoholism". My friend and I took a seat by the door just in case we wanted to make a quick exit.
I attended an AA meeting at a local church, located in the church basement. When I arrived, I noticed there were only 6 people in attendance. As I sat down, I looked around and could tell that the after affects of alcohol made some of the members look older and some looked tired. I observed the interaction between the members and I noticed that most of the members shook hands or even hugged when they greeted each other. They carried on conversations, mainly asking questions about how they were doing. I noticed that the seats were positioned in a circle with one seat in the middle. I learned that the person leading the group meeting was referred to as the meeting chairperson (Sherry) and her seat was located in the middle of the circle.
Abortion is the killing of the defenseless unborn. Throughout its history this practice has been recognized as a human right for women. Two movements that have emerged from this controversial topic are Pro-Life and Pro-choice. Pro-choice declares that the choice is up to the mother while Pro-life states that the unborn has the right to live. But by examining the history of abortion, court cases it is clear that the killing an unborn is morally wrong and unfair for some.
Pro-Life supporters extenuate the unethical practices in removing a child from the womb, assert the act of aborting as murder and that it violates religious beliefs. On the other hand, Pro-Choice supporters rebuke these claims with the right of an individual, the promotion of a group called Planned Parenthood and the possibility of the unfair upbringing a child will have growing up in conditions his mother could not improve. Although abortion conflicts with certain morals and values, abortion should be legal to promote the education of family planning and sex through Planned Parenthood, to protect the rights women have and to save a child from a rough
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley deftly creates a society that is indeed quite stable. Although they are being mentally manipulated, the members of this world are content with their lives, and the presence of serious conflict is minimal, if not nonexistent. For the most part, the members of this society have complete respect and trust in their superiors, and those who don’t are dealt with in a peaceful manner as to keep both society and the heretic happy. Maintained by cultural values, mental conditioning, and segregation, the idea of social stability as demonstrated in Brave New World is, in my opinion, both insightful and intriguing.
...substance abuse must continue, and it is imperative that more teens are educated about different substances and their effects on physical, mental appearances. More educational classes are now needed because of the risk of losing an entire generation to the streets and world of drugs and alcohol. The slow but sure takeover of drugs and alcohol is a problem than can be obtained if proper precautions are put into place. If we, as America’s team, act now to stop to the spread of meth, alcohol, and other fast increasing substances, there will be hope for America’s future.
In D.A.R.E., the drug education program children are taught up until they enter high school, they always tell you to “Just Say No”, but I bet they have no clue what goes through the mind of naive teenagers who see all of their peers having a “great time” while they try to be the good kid and refuse.
Even though the novel, Brave New World was written quite some time ago, Huxley still makes points that are relevant today. By using satire, he warns us on issues such as science, technology and religion. We should slow down our uses of science and technology, especially when using them for abusive purposes. We also need to be careful about letting the government get too involved in aspects of our everyday lives. If we start letting simple freedoms go, we could lose some major ones.
There were quite a few changes made from Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World to turn it into a “made for TV” movie. The first major change most people noticed was Bernard Marx’s attitude. In the book he was very shy and timid toward the opposite sex, he was also very cynical about their utopian lifestyle. In the movie Bernard was a regular Casanova. He had no shyness towards anyone. A second major deviation the movie made form the book was when Bernard exposed the existing director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Bernard himself was moved up to this position. In the book the author doesn’t even mention who takes over the position. The biggest change between the two was Lenina, Bernard’s girlfriend becomes pregnant and has the baby. The screenwriters must have made this up because the author doesn’t even mention it. The differences between the book and the movie both helped it and hurt it.
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, portrays a future society where people are no longer individuals but are controlled by the World State. The World State dominates the people by creating citizens that are content with who they are. Brave New World describes how the science of biology and psychology are manipulated so that the government can develop technologies to change the way humans think and act. The World State designs humans from conception for this society. Once the humans are within the society the state ensures all people remain happy. They program these humans to have needs and desires that will sustain a lucrative economy while not thinking of themselves as an individual. Huxley describes the Worlds State’s intent to control their society through medical intervention, happiness, and consumerism which has similarities to modern society.