It is an odd thing to think about, how closely related a utopian society and a dystopian society really are. Numerous aspects determine if there is dystopia present, and these can change depending on the point of view. A dystopia to one person could be an utter utopia to another, it all depends on the individual's perspective. Brave New World is an excellent example of how dystopia/utopia can be viewed.
The society in the novel Brave New World is viewed primarily as a dystopia, this is because of the lack of individuality, identity and emotion. The individuals in Brave New World are engineered humans predestined for a specific career and lifestyle. They are brainwashed by the World State through Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning, giving every person
In Brave New World “as technology increases, the use for human beings in the work force decreases leaving an overwhelming amount of depression among humans” (123HelpMe, 1). Therefore the world state developed a structure for the society to keep people busy, Including the caste system and the predestination of careers and the conditioning that forces them to believe they are happy doing what they are doing. In Brave New World's society this is necessary so people do not try and oppose the state and the structure. One of the main ways the World State controls the citizens and their emotions is with a drug called “Soma”. This drug is an antidepressant with no side effects, it is the perfect thing to help keep everyone happy and keep the community stable. The people that live under control of the state must take this drug so they continue believing they are happy, and so they continue to comply with the World States born) so they can be properly engineered and conditioned to fit their designated role in society. As the Director says, “the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny” (Huxley, 12).This is the whole idea of the Brave New World society, being conditioned to like what you are doing so the people will stay happy and in turn keep the community stable. After all, the Brave New World motto is “Community, Identity, Stability.” (Huxley, 1)
Although there are people like Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson and John the Savage who are not fond of how things are run by the World State, most of the people living in this society see it as a utopia. The people are given a certain job that they are conditioned to like, and if they are feeling depressed all they have to do is take a Soma and they will feel better. This supports the idea that a society can be viewed as a dystopia and a utopia simultaneously, it just depends on which character you are getting information from and what that individual's perspective
From the beginning of the novel technology has been a focal point. Brave New World is first set at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. This center is where all the humans are being produced and conditioned. Conditioning a method used to influence ones mind with a variety of different values and morals, predestines these new beings into five different classes Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. As written in Huxley’s Brave New World “All conditioning aims at that making people like their unescapable social destiny.” (16) This quote signifies that each group is designed by the World State to hav...
In a perfect society, humans do not need to resort to drugs to keep society in balance. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, society is based on keeping everyone happy- and if for some reason someone becomes unhappy then there is always soma- the “perfect” drug. Humans are conditioned from the very start to be happy while performing their specific tasks. “We also predestine and condition. We decant out babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries.” (Page 13) Brave New World’s society is built on keeping everyone happy and keeping everyone working in balance with civilization. However, without soma, Brave New World’s society wouldn’t function properly. The soma helps to keep the society moving, always working to keep production moving, just like Ford’s assembly line. However, is there something wrong with depending on a drug to keep a society working?
In the 1932 satirical novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes an emotionless, mechanized world of the future, set mostly in London, in which individuality is eliminated, creativity is stifled, and such institutions as marriage, family, and church are unpleasant artifacts of a world long gone. In this society, people are mass-produced; human eggs are artificially engineered by technicians. Happiness is achieved through physical gratification and peace is safeguarded by the conditioning of youth and by dispensing soma, a tranquilizer. Bernard Marx is the main character and his unorthodox viewpoints and physical difference from the rest of his caste makes him as an outsider. Bernard and Lenina, his present "girlfriend", receive permission to visit a Savage Reservation in New Mexico. They return to "civilization" with a savage, John. There he struggles to understand this so-called utopia and is eventually driven to suicide while Bernard is exiled to an island for his unconventional beliefs.
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.
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.
The time of Brave New World is in the future on the planet earth and it is, a pessimistic accounting of the shape a scientifically planned community would take, of its sterility and human emptiness. Ten controllers of the world states determine all aspects of society. Children are born in state hatcheries where according to what social class they will be, they are given or denied certain elements that are critical to proper development. The citizens are happy and content with their simple lives as it is shown in the novel when it is stated, "We don't want to change. Every change is a menace to stability," therein lies the problem.
Antidepressants are a prescription drug now used by people of all ages. They have become a part of society, therefore, taking antidepressants is not frowned upon. Antidepressants are used to make people feel “happier” and not to feel sadness. This is shown in the dystopian society in the book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley in 1932. In that society the people use soma, a well-known drug, to make them feel no pain and are conditioned to think soma fixes everything. Helmholtz and Bernard two main characters, do not take it because they want to be able to see the world for what it is. They also do not want soma to change how they feel; they want to appreciate nature. In addition Lenina and Henry love taking soma because then they cannot feel any pain, they are just happy all the time. In our society, people think that antidepressants will make them feel no pain and that these medications will fix all of their problems. Antidepressants have a negative impact on society today as well as in the book Brave New World.
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.
What exactly is a dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could be becoming a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason. Dystopian worlds are often seen as fictitious, though this may not be the case in the future.
Kaplan, Brian, “Antidepressants and Our ‘Brave New World’.” Dr Brian Kaplan RSS. 24 Jan. 2012. Web. http://drkaplan.co.uk/2012/01/homeopathy/antidepressants-evidence-and-our-%E2%80%98brave-new-world%E2%80%99
But the reason why it feels like during the Holocaust and even now there are dystopian societies is because different people have different ideas on what it means for the world to be a good place. Some might believe that a less egalitarian, more structured and hierarchal society is better than its more equal counterpart because it promotes order. Their opposition would believe that in theory that works, but we forget about the key idea of power and how that can lead to things like mass oppression and widening inequality in different sectors of life. It can be argued that in a utopian society, everyone would believe the same thing and agree with each other so that there would be no conflict, and a dystopian society would be one where there are people that disagree with each other which leads to conflict, but some would consider that as dull and makes me wonder if this would cause growth in society or even allow room for personal growth. In the utopian society, for new ideas to emerge, there would need to be a disruption in the current way of thinking, rendering that society dysfunctional. There would be no challenge of ideas in this "perfect" society. A lot of dystopian books depict this. The society begins to become dystopian when someone disrupts the status quo and question authority and the one responsible must be taken care of so that the
Imagine living in a society where there is no sense of independence, individual thought or freedom. A society where the government uses disturbing methods that dehumanize people in order to force conformity upon them. Taking away any sense of emotion, It would be very undesirable to live in a society with such oppression. Such society is portrayed in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. The World State uses social restrictions to create permanent artificial personalities for people within the society. The World State also uses controlled groupings of people to brainwash them further to be thoughtless people with no sense of individualism. Lastly, the World State uses drugs to create artificial happiness for people, leaving no room for intense emotion which causes people to revolt against the World State. Within the novel Brave New World, it is seen that the World State eliminates individuality through social restrictions, government controlled groupings and the abuse of drugs to maintain control of the population.
Much like Oceania, Utopia stives off the unity of it’s people. To them, a commonwealth is key to a functioning society. Whereas one might argue that Utopia is filled with satisfied and content people, we as readers can’t actually know that. All information that the reader receives is from Hythloday, an outsider who grew up in a vastly different culture. With this in mind, if you re-evaluate Utopia from a different perspective, certain elements start to resemble Dystopian
In 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote a thrilling dystopia titled Brave New World. Centered on a man struggling in a world where emotions have been forsaken for peace and stability of the entire community, the novel has a shock factor that is quite electric. Though it was popular in the 1950’s with college students because of its portrayal of sex, the true merit of Huxley’s work can be found in its predictions for the future. The practices in the novel are alarming similar to many aspects of today’s society. The approval of drug use to induce happiness, the constant effort to make life better through technology and the everlasting trust in the government are all characteristics shared by our society and that found in Brave New World.
Imagine a society where every citizen was content with their lives. This society is stable, equal, crimeless, and perfect. However, could you imagine the price that’s being paid for this so called perfect society or some might call it a utopia. What might seem as a perfect environment is actually quite the opposite, rather a dystopia. “Fifty States of Fear” by Peter Ludlow, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley , and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, in these three stories they all depict a dystopian environment with features such as sacrifice for the good of everyone. A dystopian society offers the perfect society with order where everything functions properly usually at the cost of the individuality of the citizens. As depicted in the stories