Kali Love
Mr. Strunz
English IV
May 22, 2014
Brave New World: The Ultimate Utopia
A dytopian novel, Brave New World, was written by Aldous Huxley in 1931. Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, England on July, 26 1894. Huxley was one of four children born to Julia Arnold and Leonard Huxley, who was also a writer. Huxley graduated from Balliol College in Oxford with a degree in English literature. On September 10, 1899 Leonard married his wife Maria who blessed him with his only son, Matthew. In 1932 Brave New World was published by Chatto and Windus in London. In 1937 Huxley and his family moved to Hollywood. Maria died in 1955 from breast cancer. In 1956 Huxley remarried Laura Archera, who was also an author. Huxley died in Hollywood on November 22, 1963 from laryngeal cancer.
There are two protagonists in this book. Bernard Marx and Johns the Savage. In the beginning of the novel Bernard makes his first appearance. In the World State, the citizens are expected to act childish but Bernard is not like most of the citizens, he wasn't to act like an adult. Bernard is an Alpha, which means that he was chosen to be a a leader in the World State. The typical Alpha is tall and intelligent, but Bernard is unlike most of them because he's short. Bernard is a sleep teacher in the World State. It said that Bernard inherited his "Un-Alpha" like characteristics because his surrogate had alcohol. Bernard lacks courage and creativity which is another aspect that sets him apart from most of the Alpha's because they are supposed to be the leaders. Bernard has differing views from most people in this utopia. In the World State, sex and sports are important but Bernard does not think either of them are of high importance.
John is introduced...
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... attracted to her and she tries to have sex with him again. John is disgusted that she continually tries to sleep with him. While Lenina is there John receives a phone call this his mother is in the hospital. Linda later dies and John takes it very hard. Crying and upset, John becomes irrational. John hated the soma, and blamed his mothers death on it. Because he was so upset with his mothers death, John decides that the soma is poison and throws it all away. After hearing about Linda's death, Bernard and Helmholtz rush to the hospital to meet with him. Helmholtz is Bernard's best friend. Arriving at the hospital they are introduced to a large mob of Deltas (a lower rank in the World State) who are going after John for throwing away the soma. Eventually the police of the World State come to break up the riot, taking Bernard, John, and Helmholtz into custody.
The outcome of what happened to Bernard forced him to see that mistakes were one reason a Utopian Society could not exist. The Character Bernard Marx is an example of human imperfection, not because he was referred to as deformed, but because the person who created him messed up. Individuals were decanted according to specification. Any deviation was evidently the result of some mistake, a mistake made by a human. These technological developments weren’t advanced enough to create such a perfect society. Bernard was an example of this undesired reality. He was deemed an outcast due to his imperfection. Being an outcast, however, allowed him to see the world differently. He was able to realize how everything was being manipulated and he was able to discern that it was wrong.
John's eyes fluttered open and he cautiously surveyed his surroundings. Where was he taken? Who knocked him unconscious and carried him from his solitude at the lighthouse? He did not have to wait long for his answer, when he saw his friend standing over him, shaking him to awareness.
Bernard Marx was alienated in the Brave New World because of his general appearance. As an Alpha Plus, Bernard was unusually short and ugly. Suggested by Fanny, Bernard's condition resulted from an error when he was still in a bottle, the workers "thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood surrogate." Bernard did not fit in the structured order of the Brave New World and was therefore shunned by others. The error resulted in Bernard developing outside the barriers of his caste level. His ugliness and short stature led Bernard to become a perpetual outsider, alienated by society. As an outsider, Bernard was cynical of the order and structure of the Brave New World. He eschewed Electric Golf, and other social amusements in favor of loneliness and solidarity activities, such as, thinking. Bernard attempted to find a way "to be happy in some other way," in his own way, not the established way.
In Aldous Huxley's novel, "Brave New World" he introduces a character named, Bernard Marx an alpha part of the upper higher class who does not quite fit in. Bernard is cursed by the surrounding rumors of something going wrong during his conditioning that he becomes bitter and isolates himself from those around him in the World State. Huxley's character experiences both alienation and enrichment to being exiled from a society that heavily relies on technology and forms of entertainment with little to no morals.
Bernard Marx is a character that represents those that are different from the norm, a character still relevant in today’s culture. He is an archetype of those that are looked down upon as different. He signifies those that look and/or think uniquely. Bernard is the outcast who longs to belong.
Bernard Marx was the alienated character that seemed to do the “right thing” and reveal what was wrong with the dystopian society. He was what the reader wanted everyone else to be, before the pressure of conformity forced him to become harsh, vicious like the rest of the society. Bernard was the outsider who wanted to be
Have you ever thought what a world without children would be? Well, from comparing both “Brave New World” and “Children of Men,” it is found that a world without children is a dystopia. In other words, it is a complete disaster and everything in the world is not how it is today. By comparing the Brave New World society and the society in the film “Children of Men,” we can establish that in both dystopias there are no children, which impacts the relationship between man and woman. War, drugs, castes are common in both dystopias, as people tend to cope drugs to get away from the reality of war caused by people of different “castes.”
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.
John is overwhelmed by all the people that he sees that are all the same. He tries to fit in by focusing all his heart and energy into Lenina. However when he realizes that she has fully succumbed to the ways of the brave new world and she is truly lost, he realizes that he can’t start a life there with her. Shortly after that John’s mother, Linda, died from soma. All the soma intake caused her lungs to give out.
Bernard Marx is an intriguing character in the book Brave New World. At the beginning of the book, he is a very main character, but as the book goes on he is put more and more into the background of the story. The reason for this can be explained by the way his character changes as the book progresses. Aldous Huxley makes an interesting point by showing how a person can be changed by obtaining something he desires. It makes the readers wonder whether success would change them in the same way or if they would be able to maintain their character.
In this world where people can acquire anything they need or want, we have to wonder, “Is the government controlling us?” Both the governments in A Brave New World and in the United States of America offer birth control pills and have abortion clinics that are available for everyone, thus making birth control pills and abortion operations very easy to acquire. Although both governments offer birth control pills and abortion clinics, A Brave New World’s government requires everyone to take the pills and immediately get an abortion when pregnant. This in turn shows us that A Brave New World’s government is controlling the population and the development of children. China is one of the few countries that currently have control of the development of children. In controlling the development of its children, China is also controlling the population levels. In any country, controlling the amount of children a single family can have can dramatically decrease the population levels. Just by having birth control pills and abortion clinics there for anybody to take advantage of shows that the involvement of either government is already too high.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World illustrates a colorful, fantastic universe of sex and emotion, programming and fascism that has a powerful draw in a happy handicap. This reality pause button is called “Soma”. “Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology.” ( Huxley 54 ).
Bernard Marx an Alpha plus specialist in sleep teaching is an example of a character that changes in the brave new word. He changes from a character that symbolized individuality to a character that just wanted to desperately belong to the society. At the beginning of the novel he seemed to be very different from the society, he acts like a rebel trying to battle against the order of things. He seemed to be an “individual” in the first few chapters. For example On his first date with Lenina with lenina he says ” I’d rather be myself. ‘Myself and nasty .Not somebody else, however jolly”(77). He wanted to be something else different from the rest of the society. However we see that his root concern is to be socially acceptable and not really about becoming an individual. In chapter 6 Bernard shows signs of undergoing a change in his character. When the Director summoned Bernard to his office for being unorthodox, Bernard goes on to brag to his friend Helmholtz Watson on his victory over the director when he says” I simply told him to go to the bottomless past and marched out of the room and that was that “(85). We get the sense that Bernard’s victory wasn’t so much about personal integrity as it was social acceptance. Finally, his character undergoes a c...
Ever since I was created, I have been mining here at Sector C-88 for coal. Sector C-88 is a monumental quarry with up to ten-thousand workers in a 10-kilometer by 15-kilometer area. Surrounding the massive quarry is an extensive network of processing and extracting factories and centers. Beyond that is, well, I don’t know. It’s just called the Beyond here, and it’s said to have something called “society”, but there’s probably nothing interesting like coal or anything. I looked up at the polluted beige sky and observed the curious shapes from the factory smokes. What could be above the smog? Infinite emptiness? I wondered. Suddenly, a familiar voice broke my course of thoughts.
Aldous Huxley was born in 1894, and died in 1963, the same day JFK was assassinated. He first went to Eton, and then to Oxford. He was a brilliant man, and became a successful writer of short stories in the twenties and thirties. The first novels he wrote were comments on the young generation, with no goal whatsoever, that lived after WW I. Before he became a writer; he worked as a journalist and a critic of drama. Other books of his include "Antic Hay", "Time Must Have a Stop" and "Island". Next to novels, essays and short stories he also wrote poems, biographies, plays, political books, and even a record of his experiments with drugs.