Totalitarian Government In Brave New World By Aldous Huxley

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The people in a society are often a product of the presiding government’s policy. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, many of the citizens are artificially made and act like robots. However, in a reservation next to the new world, there exists a boy named John who was born and raised like a human. John is excited to go the new world because he believes that life will be better there. When John enters the new world, he sees many abnormalities that go against his beliefs, and the citizens call him a savage because he is not one of them. By juxtaposing John, the so-called savage, against the “refined” society, Huxley demonstrates the extreme extent of humankind 's atypical actions under the subjugation of a totalitarian government.
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Everyone in the new world takes soma when they experience something displeasing. The government uses it to gain total control over its citizens because they become mindless tools under the influence of the drug. Furthermore, the citizens form an addiction to this pill because it is free and provides them happiness. In his critique of the book, Richard Beckham asserts “Individuals are to protect themselves from normal pain frequent through doses of this widely available and socially acceptable narcotic.” Their behavior can be called atypical or abnormal, at least from John the Savage’s view, because they never directly control their own lives. John, however, realizes the harmfulness of these pills and proceeds to throw them out the window after they accelerate his mother’s death. However, his actions start a riot in the room because he is essentially throwing out “happiness.” Unlike the deltas, John realizes that true happiness is not possible without the experience of sadness. John never loses his name as The Savage throughout the book because of such actions. Everything he does is beastly to the citizens, even though Huxley makes it clear that it is the other way around; it is John who thinks they are beastly. Their actions, though, are primarily the result of an authoritative government’s need for …show more content…

The assembly-line-born children are conditioned to not care about death when it happens. John starts to cry when his mother dies, and the nurse proceeds to get mad at him because his crying might give them “the most disastrous ideas about the subject” of death (Huxley 120). In the society, it is important that they remain indifferent to death because their individual lives are not seen as important. It is more important that they act together as a group instead of worrying about their own individual issues. In fact death is so meaningless that the children can eat chocolate éclairs while watching someone die. John disrupts this thought process because he tries to have individual memories about his mother. He wants to remember how important his mother was, a thought contrary to the citizens’ beliefs. Despite his attempts to remember, it is impossible because his mother has become part of the society. She was on soma the entire time she was dying, and John is unsuccessfully able to form a connection with her. Infuriated, John pushes one of the children to the floor and demands to be left alone. The need for solitude is an indication of individuality, an abnormality in this society, but normal in the present world. After this, John attempts to start a revolt; however, the government is so completely in control that they use group identity along with soma to put down the rebellion. The government fears individuals

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