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. The people …show more content…
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
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, truth and happiness are falsely engineered to create a perfect society; the belief of the World Controllers that stability is the the key to a utopian society actually led to the creation of an anti-utopian society in which loose morals and artificial happiness exist. Huxley uses symbolism, metaphors, and imagery to satirize the possibiliy of an artificial society in the future as well as the “brave new world” itself.
Christian Nestell Bovee, a famous epigrammatic New York writer, once said, “No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.” This quote ties in wonderfully with the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the concept of control. In the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley captured the true essences of a perfect dystopia. With people living seamless happy lives, and not knowing they are being controlled. How does one control entire nation? The World State does this by hatching, conditioning, and a synthetic drug called soma.
The novel 1984 is written by George Orwell post war as a depiction of the future. Only three superstates exist: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. The novel takes place in Airstrip One, Oceania, which is the novel’s version of present day London. The superstate Oceania is a totalitarian state and is dictated by an enigmatic figure named Big Brother, who may not even exist. A group called the Inner Party works for Big Brother and everything they do is part of the effort to gain total control over the inhabitants of Oceania. With no liberty, rights, or independent actions, the citizens of Oceania become less human and are instead more like faithful robots of the Party. In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the citizens of Oceania are deprived of individualism as a result of the manipulation the government exerts to gain control over the individuals physically, emotionally and psychologically.
Examining Aldous Huxley’s View on Government Control “Science and technology provide the means for controlling the lives of citizens” (Brave). This quote describes a major and ever-growing problem in the basic, daily lives of society now, and has been since the mid-twentieth century. With technology, medicine, and general knowledge evolving so rapidly, it is hard to find a constant code by which governments can carry out their purpose of regulating societies. In some cases, organization is taken to an extreme level that chokes out creativity and individuality while replacing it with codes and stern punishments (Huxley). On the other end of the spectrum, liberalism can flourish in an atmosphere of prosperity and freedom, but not for very long (Huxley).
“There is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon, returning whence they find themselves on the other side of the crevice, safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction, scampering from feely to feely, from girl to pneumatic girl, from Electromagnetic Golf course to …"
The characters in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World represent certain political and social ideas. Huxley used what he saw in the world in which he lived to form his book. From what he saw, he imagined that life was heading in a direction of a utopian government control. Huxley did not imagine this as a good thing. He uses the characters of Brave New World to express his view of utopia being impossible and detrimental. One such character he uses to represent the idealogy behind this is Bernard Marx.
1984 was first published in 1949 by George Orwell, during which was a crucial time in world history leading up to the Cold War. Orwell, having lived in Spain and Russia communst run countries while growing up, wrote the political novel to warn the Western world of the dangers of a totalitarian government. Although the book can be considered a social commentary on many subjects, I chose the following three to focus on: Power, Media Manipulation and Language.
Winston Smith, the protagonist of Nineteen Eighty-Four and one of the last free men in Oceania wants nothing more than to remember history before Big Brother. Big Brother tries to control the public and how they view the truth with numerous surveillance techniques. Big Brother maximized the control the political ruling class had over the residents of Airstrip One by utilizing the creation of Newspeak, a variety of propaganda, and constant surveillance of citizens by the use of telescreens and the thought police.
The lack of individuality and spirituality not only kept John from expressing himself but led him to his untimely demise. Sexual freedom is a huge part of the new dystopian society. John wasn’t too fond of the idea of a world where everyone belongs to everyone. This type of mindset got his mother, Linda, shunned in the society of the savages. She slept with all the husbands in the society which led to John not being able to fit in.
Just as the World State is conditioned to believe in classism and their superiority or inferiority to one another based on the class they are raised with, natural causes condition John to grow comfortable in his loneliness, needing no one but himself. Even Linda’s support is oftentimes unnecessary, as her tendency to reject and isolate him as a form of punishment for leaving her exiled from the rest of society left John able to look out for himself whether she was beside him or not. Bernard attempts to warn John that London may not be much better a place for him, saying, “...anyhow, hadn’t you better wait till you actually see the new world?” (Huxley 139). After the Director’s downfall and Bernard’s rise in popularity with John at his side, John begins to truly see how the World State has developed and is disgusted by what he sees. He snaps in Chapter 15, causing a
Dystopia in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World It's hard to imagine yet somehow so extremely close to us is the possibility of a world of ideal perfection where there is no room or acceptance of individuality. Yet, as we strive towards the growth of technology and improvement of our daily living we come closer to closing the gap between the freedom of emotions, self understanding, and of speech and the devastation of a dystopia. A utopia, or perfect world, gone awry is displayed in Aldous Huxley's provocative novel Brave New World. Dystopia is drawn on "political and emotional events, anchoring its vision of a nightmarish future in contemporary fears of totalitarian ideology and uncontrolled advances in technology and science" (Baker 22).
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley deftly creates a society that is indeed quite stable. Although they are being mentally manipulated, the members of this world are content with their lives, and the presence of serious conflict is minimal, if not nonexistent. For the most part, the members of this society have complete respect and trust in their superiors, and those who don’t are dealt with in a peaceful manner as to keep both society and the heretic happy. Maintained by cultural values, mental conditioning, and segregation, the idea of social stability as demonstrated in Brave New World is, in my opinion, both insightful and intriguing.
For years, authors and philosophers have satirized the “perfect” society to incite change. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a so-called utopian society in which everyone is happy. This society is a “controlled environment where technology has essentially [expunged] suffering” (“Brave New World”). A member of this society never needs to be inconvenienced by emotion, “And if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (Huxley 220). Citizens spend their lives sleeping with as many people as they please, taking soma to dull any unpleasant thoughts that arise, and happily working in the jobs they were conditioned to want. They are genetically altered and conditioned to be averse to socially destructive things, like nature and families. They are trained to enjoy things that are socially beneficial: “'That is 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 16). Citizens operate more like machinery, and less like humans. Humanity is defined as “the quality of being human” (“Humanity”). To some, humanity refers to the aspects that define a human: love, compassion and emotions. Huxley satirizes humanity by dehumanizing the citizens in the Brave New World society.
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 World State’s intent to control their society through medical intervention, happiness, and consumerism, which has similarities to modern society. Designing life from conception is an intriguing concept. Brave New World’s World State is in control of the reproduction of people by intervening medically. The Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is the factory that produces human beings.
Conspiracy theories are brought about when people believe that there is something being covered up that could influence their lives or the lives of the human race. However, most people don’t believe in a ‘conspiracy theory’ because in our culture, we believe in the freedom of information. We are aware of what is happening around us and, although we very indirectly control what is happening, we do have the intelligence and freedom to react to the event. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the World State doesn’t allow this freedom of information and suppresses anything that would make humans more aware of their pre-determined lives. Huxley portrays soma, alcohol in blood surrogates, and the suppression of old texts in an ironic tone to support the theme of the deterioration of human awareness in Brave New World.