Literary Irony In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

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Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is a dystopian novel and was published in 1929. The novel contains everything from sex, drugs, alcohol and even a fine unfair distinction between social classes. It is easy to see how a novel like this would be challenged on countless occasions. This can lead us to see how it truly deserves some literary merit. Aldous challenged us on all fronts with this book. It’s as if he had a known what would happen in the future and tried to publish us readers a sort of warning. There is a portrayal of a society that is obsessed with happiness, similarly to the way we in our modern day western society are obsessed with freedom. Brave New World tries to achieve its motto of “community, identity and stability” by portraying a futuristic society with similar views on morality to that of today’s perspective of 'the natural order' of society in certain parts of the world.
There are tons of literary devices and qualities used in “Brave New World”. The three main ones that stand out are irony, dystopia and satire. Irony is literary device mainly used in the novel; there are many example of it in the novel. One of the seven world controllers, Mustapha Mond reads Shakespeare and even the bible. "And I've got plenty more," Mustapha Mond continued, resuming his seat. "A whole collection of pornographic old books. God in the safe and Ford on the shelves." He pointed with a laugh to his avowed library–to the shelves of books, the rack full of reading-machine bobbins and sound-track rolls. (Aldous 157) This irony in this is that these books are banned in the New World. Another point that comes across as ironic is that they want a controlled environment where everything is kept nice, neat and line but they encourage infant...

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...tely deserve some literary merit. A story without controversy will never ignite a reader’s interest.

In conclusion, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World definitely deserves literature merit. This book stirs conflicts in the reader from the get go. A society bent on eternal happiness, with the use of drugs, hypo therapy and many more devious plans, there is bound to be some controversy. There are plenty of reasons why this book has been challenged, but that is what ultimately makes it so good. This book is filled with many literary devices, satire, irony and dystopia to name a few. It is full of insight for the reader who can think outside the box and really understand what Aldous was trying to convey with this novel. Brave New World is one of those books you just have to pick up for yourself to read and understand what truly makes it deserving of true literature merit.

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