Imagine a life of luxury and happiness. Sounds like a dream . . . but what if it was reality. Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World explains how society turns into a dystopian future. He shows a world where humans are developed and controlled in means of stability. Aldous Huxley was raised in a family well-known for their intellectual and scientific achievements (Magill 952
-956). Therefore, he became a genius and even a prodigy for being brilliant and creative (Napierkowski and Stanley 32-34). He grew up to be a famous author, making science fiction and futuristic novels. After learning about Aldous Huxley and examining the influences around him, there are three prominent similarities between his life and the book. Hallucinogenic drugs, tragic world events, and new technology are just a few relationships included in Brave New World.
Traveling and learning about different religions played a major part in Huxley's life and novels (Napierkowski and Stanley 32-34). The most influential religions to his life were Hinduism and Buddhism. These two religions taught him the connection between the mind, body and soul. Inspired by these teachings, Huxley wanted to see if he could get a closer sense of self and be more introspective, so to enhance the world experience he took hallucinogenic drugs (Rollyson 468-470). Another type of drug called soma was used in the novel Brave New World as a mood-stabilizer. In Hindu sacrificial ceremonies, a similar hallucinogenic drink inspired the name “soma” (Hochman 65). This fact relates to ceremonies in the novel where soma is passed around a table while phrases are spoken about Ford in a scripture like manner.
Ford is a real person, but he is also a character in the book. Aldous Huxley wrote the nov...
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...s exciting world, but soon finds out that it is an abomination. Aldous Huxley took events, experiments, and life experiences to write a novel about human creation and a dystopia. Brave New World is a scientific idea of the future that many feel could or already came true.
Works Cited
"Aldous Huxley." Novels for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Deborah A. Stanley. Vol 6. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 32-34. Print.
“Historical Content.” Novels for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Deborah A. Stanley. Vol 6. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 62-64. Print.
Hochman, Jhan. “Critism.” Novels for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Deborah A. Stanley. Vol 6. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 64-67. Print.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. Print.
Rollyson, Carl E. Notable British Novelists. Vol 2. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2001. 468-470. Print.
Brave New World is an unsettling, loveless and even sinister place. This is because Huxley endows his "ideal" society with features calculated to alienate his audience. Typically, reading Brave New World elicits the very same disturbing feelings in the reader which the society it depicts has notionally vanquished - not a sense of joyful anticipation. Huxley's novel presents a startling view of the future which on the surface appears almost comical. His intent, however, is not humor. Huxley's message is dark and depressing. His idea that in centuries to come, a one-world government will rise to power, stripping people's freedom, is not a new idea. What makes Huxley's interpretation different is the fact that his fictional society not only lives in a totalitarian government, but takes an embracive approach like mindless robots. For example, Soma, not nuclear bombs, is the weapon of choice for the World Controllers in Brave New World. The world leaders have realized that fear and intimidation have only limited power; these tactics simply build up resentment in the minds of the oppressed. Subconscious persuasion and mind-altering drugs, on the other hand, appear to have no side effects.
Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World illustrates a utopian society; however, the utopia that Brave New World attempts to create is predominantly governed by technological progress. Throughout the novel, Aldous Huxley shows that an obsession with technological progress creates a flawed and dystopic society.
Very few people could fit in a whole different society without a challenge. Dystopias or anti-utopias, which use a whole different type of society in their themes, are characterized by a range of features such as harsh rules of moral and irritating patterns of behaviour. A theme of a dystopia, which is usually frightening, could be anything from a social stratification to the extreme technological advances. Dystopias voice criticism about the current trends, social norms or politics, and they often includes an oppressive societal control. Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 and Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel A Brave New World are the
In his novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley illustrates ways in which government and advanced science control society. Through actual visualization of this Utopian society, the reader is able to see how this state affects Huxley’s characters. Throughout the book, the author deals with many different aspects of control. Whether it is of his subjects’ feelings and emotions or of the society’s restraint of population growth, Huxley depicts government’s and science’s role in the brave new world of tomorrow.
“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision,” professes Howard Roark, attempting to validate his expression of identity while prosecuting himself during the trial of the Cortlandt Homes (Rand 678). The futuristic society within Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel, Brave New World, introduces a paucity in the freedom of the individuals, through a lack in the way the society is allowed to think, to the submission of the actions of the individuals, to the conformity in the overall daily lives. Born in Surrey, England in 1894, Huxley was born into a society in which technological advancements were held in high praise and with full excitement. Striving to one day become
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is written with the idea of a totalitarian society that has complete social stability. Huxley demonstrates how a stable world deprives a person of their individuality, something that was also lost in Anthem by Ayn Rand. Brave New World exemplifies the great sacrifice needed to achieve such a stable world. This novel envisions a world where the government has complete control over people in its mission for social stability and conformity. The outcome of this is that the government has created a society with no love, freedom, creativity, and the human desire for happiness.
Throughout the novel Brave New World the author Aldous Huxley shows the readers a dystopian society where Ford is worshiped as a God, people only live sixty years, where there is a drug exists without the unwanted side effects, and movies where you can feel what is happening. This is what the author thinks the future of the world would be. However, despite the author's attempt to predict the future the novel and the real world contrast because the concepts in the novel like love and marriage and life and death drastically contrast with how they are dealt with today.
The world changes so rapidly, so how could anyone predict the future? People have different beliefs of how the world will be in the next few generations, but a main concern is whether the society will improve or downgrade. Huxley is a renowned author, but after Brave New World, he can be perceived as a theorist. Aldous Huxley suggests that happiness is slowly becoming an emotion that relies on superficial experiences as it is in Brave New World.
Upon reading Brave New World we think that it’s about a totally unrealistic world, but that’s not the case anymore. Our society is proving that it is more like the Brave New World by our advancements in technology, desire to stay youthful, and increasing drug use. All these factors are bringing our world closer and closer to the one that Huxley had predicted 80+ years ago; a world that we should be scared of instead of being alike it.
Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1932, with no real way to tell the future and how society would be today. The novel is based around a dystopia, a society that is the opposite of an utopia which is a “perfect” society according to the definition. Today’s society is far from perfect by definition. Huxley’s dystopia was supposed to mimic an almost impossible future, but with how things have changed in the past 90 years that future might not be so far away.
In 1931 Aldous Huxley published Brave New World, giving a look into a dystopian society of the future. The book is written in a modernist literary view, and is a dramatized version of the issues surrounding the world during the early 20th century. Throughout the book, literary theories and schools of criticism such as Marxist Criticism and Gender Studies can be seen in Huxley’s representation of the main characters of the story and their interactions; he shows the disparity of society when they loose their ability to feel or have emotion, and uses the inter-workings of the World State to show class differences and the consumerist society that has formed due to the importance put on economic prosperity.
Huxley effectively uses distortion in Brave New World in his depiction of Soma as a replacement for religion. Soma is a rationed narcotic that is emphasized by the government to help the people escape from their problems. The people of Utopia have become dependent on the drug to keep them in a constant state of pleasure. In their "perfect" society there is no escape from happiness. The primary example of the degrading effects of Soma is Linda. Brought back from the Savage Reservation after being left behind pregnant, Linda faced many moral and ethical dilemmas she chose to avoid. Her addiction to Soma, which is looked upon as a good thing by everyone except John, brings about the terrible end to her life in which she was in a state of constant delusion. Soma, as Mustapha Mond puts it, is "Christianity without tears" (244). Soma, in effect, is the key to social stability in Utopia. Soma prevents uprisings, saves revolutions and suppresses emotions. Although Huxley's distortion of religion is powerful, there are other strong arguments in the book.
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.
"Brave New World by Aldous Huxley : Barron's Notes." Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:
We are not in the Brave New World, although some features of our society do resemble the World State. I feel that this dystopia is not possible anywhere in the foreseeable future, for the mere fact that no one would voluntarily allow themselves to be completely controlled by the government. We put so much value in things like our relationships, nature, and religion that it would be a long time before anyone would give up these parts of life. I feel that Huxley created the World State so that our society would see similarities between Brave New World and our own world. As long as there are similarities we have a hard time totally disregarding the dystopia that Huxley created. It keeps us on our toes, so that we will watch out for the government and keep our minds open for the future.