Extent True Happiness Can Be Possible With Limited Freedom in Brave New World

1685 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Introduction of a brave new world

Imagine, you were talking to your best friend about how you were feeling that day, and some how the word got to your boss about you are being too emotional outside of work hours, and you are now about to be send to an island with "like-minded" people. The last thing you feel is happy, but you are not allowed to be unhappy, because you grew up without this emotion, so instead you inject pills to better your mood. This is the environment that Aldous Huxley presents in Brave New World, a futuristic society where humans are bred in bottles and have been manipulated to fit a certain criteria, or "conditioned" from the time they are embryos. In this new society, emotions, religion and culture are sacrificed for social stability. People are not allowed any knowledge of the past, and everything is only explained to the most basic of truth. The freedoms we enjoy today are almost completely abolished. Naturally, we associate happiness with the ability to do whatever your want in life, so if we didn’t have this ability, can we still be happy in life? In the novel, it seems to be achievable on the surface, but when you look deeper, it shows that human beings respond to their environment in different ways. The reason that the citizens of this new society seem happy is a relative thing; they have little experience with mental pain. The society they live in is loveless, and they are rather unintelligent.

The citizens in the novel have been conditioned by the state ever since they were embryos. The state has manipulated every single aspect of development of these new babies, therefore, giving them every chance to build a “perfect” society. During the conditioning of these babies, the state got rid of mental pain altogether. These babies have no idea what pain actually is. However, you can ban the knowledge of pain, but you cannot ban the conditions that cause it. In the case of Bernard Marx, this condition came in the form of harassment about his physical appearance; and for Helmholtz Watson, it was finding life and work meaningless. These conditions are uncontrollable by any external force, and no matter how hard the state tries to eliminate the causes of pain, for example, making everyone look the same and fill the lives of these people with materialistic processions, it still does not account for one or two odd individuals.

Show More
Related

  • The Unexpected Downside of Science Explored in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    2109 Words  | 5 Pages

    Imagine not having a family to care for you or you for them. In Huxley's book, giving birth to a baby was simply not done. In Huxley's "new world," babies were produced rather than being born from a mother. These babies were then physically and mentally matured according to their set task in life. They were created according to what position they would hold in life. From the time that they were produced, they were conditioned to like what they were to do and only that. They were taught to like what they had and not want anything else. Because of this conditioning, everyone had a place in society and together, everyone created a happy society.

    Read More

  • Genetic Engineering and Social Conditioning in Huxley's Brave New World

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    This passage means that everyone are created, trained the same and none of them have their own life or own thoughts or emotions which is unfortunates. The utopia is trying to unify everyone. They scold people that are unique individuals and when they come across a different individual, the individual is sent to a psychologist and is mentally fixed. Also, the State wants people to just have fun and play games with people rather than people being mothers and fathers of kids and feel the pain. Marriage is frowned upon while people are encouraged to have erotic fun. The controller of a perfect society wants people to intercourse for their happiness and not for them to build a family. They are satisfied with the happiness they get from the things they use. This could state that the citizens in Brave New World are genuinely happy, this is more a result of ignorance and blindness rather than a truly fulfilling sense of bliss. However, one person in Brave New World tried to consent his individuality in the society and he end up to be a dangerous citizen. The person that object his individuality was Bermard Marx who’s an Alpha plus and does not believe in the promiscuous nature of his society. He feels isolated from the rest of society because he attempts to do dissimilar things from

    Read More

  • Utopian Society in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    Huxley implies that by abrogating dreadfulness and mental torment, the brave new worlders have disposed of the most significant and brilliant encounters that life can offer also. Most remarkably, they have relinquished an abstruse deeper joy which is intimated, not expressed, to be pharmacologically out of reach to the utopians. The magical foundation of this assumption is dark. There are clues, too, that a percentage of the utopians may feel a poorly characterized feeling of disappointment, an irregular sense that their lives are trivial. It is suggested, further, that assuming that we are to discover correct satisfaction and importance in our lives, then we must have the ability to contrast the great parts of existence with the awful parts, to feel both euphoria and despondency. As vindications go, it’s a great one.

    Read More

  • Dystopian Society In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this society, citizens are bred in a factory to be whatever the society needs them to be. ( Huxley 13). This is significant in everyone who has a destiny they cannot escape, a purpose they did not choose to be their own. Without this freedom, nobody can really be truly happy and free. However this society does ensure happiness but in a different way, which is called “ conditioning”. Conditioning in this society is when the people in the world state predestined them to love their job, which is the reason why they were born and to dislike other jobs and purposes that they may have wanted to pursue without conditioning. In this novel, they were doing conditioning on 8 month old babies who were in the delta caste. Some nurses presented books and flowers to them, when they began to crawl towards the books and flowers, the babies received a mild shock which scared them and left them terrified, after so many times completing this process; the children will have instinctive hatred towards books and flowers. Mr.Foster describes how “ all conditioning aims at that; making people like their unescapable social destiny” (16). This portrays that conditioning cannot be escaped, even if they tried. The conditioned are force to enjoy what they were conditioned to enjoy without freedom of choice whether or not they want to, this is just creating false

    Read More

  • Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    How valuable is the protection of individuality? In a society dominated by falsified, scientifically manufactured happiness, individuality proves a rarity. Aldous Huxley’s speculative novel, Brave New World, demonstrates the consequences of this type of impassive society. Bernard, Helmholtz, and John are all unique from their peers, and they think individually as a result. Because of their individuality, the group is ultimately banned from civilization and sent to a remote location. Being segregated because of appearance or mental capacity and not subject to society’s influences stimulates individuality; however, the knowledge and truth correlating with individuality comes at a price, in this case, happiness.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Happiness In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel, the World State values happiness instead of truth. Soma blinds Brave New Worlders from seeing anything that is negative or distasteful. Drugs and alcohol help people escape reality and many people use because the truth is too painful for them to endure. Drugs transport people into a different world, their own world where they are on top because all of their problems have disappeared for the moment. But, without sorrow there is no real happiness. If someone is happy all the time, they wouldn’t even realize that they are experiencing joy, because that is all they are used to. They have never experienced any other type of emotion. Anger, fear and misery make people appreciate happiness because it is desired. In Brave New World, there is no such thing as desire as Mustapha Mond, the controller, explains, “People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can 't get...And if anything should go wrong, there 's soma” (Huxley 220). The government doesn’t understand that desire creates an appreciation for happiness, and when it is finally attained, it is a very strong emotion. When anything is handed to someone, as joy is in Brave New World, the value is drastically decreased. But, when there is anticipation or work is put in, the value will be justifiable. If Americans continue to rely on products for happiness, there will be no

    Read More

  • Brave New World

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    George Santayana once said, “Ideal society is a drama enacted exclusively in the imagination.” In life, there is no such thing as a “complete utopia”, although that is what many people try to achieve. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is an attempt at a utopian society. In this brave new world, mothers and fathers and family are non-existent. Besides being non-existent, when words of that sort are mentioned, ears are covered and faces of disgust are made. In a report to the Controller, Bernard wrote,”…This is partly due, no doubt to the fact that he heard them talked about by the woman Linda, his m-----“(106). Words of the sort cannot even be written. Art, history, and the ability to have emotions are shunned. This utopia is shown as a perfect world in which everyone is happy. If this was true, the people would not need to take soma, an equivalent along the lines of a cross between one of today’s “designer drugs” and Prozac.

    Read More

  • Individuality Vs. Social Stability

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Brave New World Theme Analysis

    1557 Words  | 4 Pages

    "'God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness.'" So says Mustapha Mond, the World Controller for Western Europe in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. In doing so, he highlights a major theme in this story of a Utopian society. Although the people in this modernized world enjoy no disease, effects of old age, war, poverty, social unrest, or any other infirmities or discomforts, Huxley asks 'is the price they pay really worth the benefits?' This novel shows that when you must give up religion, high art, true science, and other foundations of modern life in place of a sort of unending happiness, it is not worth the sacrifice.

    Read More

  • The Pursuit of Happiness in Fahrenheit 451

    2866 Words  | 6 Pages

    Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drastically affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, “as wind in dried grass” (Eliot).

    Read More

  • Humanity in Brave New World

    1345 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Drugs In Brave New World By Aldous Huxley

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many individuals wonder about whether using artificial pathways to happiness, through drugs, yields more positive or negative results for society. People enjoy the fact that they can easily escape from their stress by using these drugs. However, these drugs also can lead to terrible consequences, such as becoming more oblivious to reality or overdosing. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Huxley criticizes society’s reliance on drugs to provide citizens with artificial happiness. By writing about soma, a made-up drug that the government distributes in order to ensure that their citizens remain happy, Huxley implies that the allowance of similar drugs can lead individuals to become dependent on them and fine with their lack of freedom,

    Read More

  • The Role of Technology in Huxley's Brave New World

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is a very scary society because everything is being controlled even before someone is born, in test tube, where they determine which class they are going to fall under, how they are going to look like and beyond. Therefore, the society of Brave New World is being controlled by society from the very start by using technology which affects how the people behave in this inhumane, unrealistic, society. The people in this community act like they do not have any emotions or feelings at all. This is because from the very start, they were structured in such a way that they could not feel if something is sad or if something is happy. The only thing that they are allowed to enjoy is soma.

    Read More

  • Brave New World: A Society of False Happiness

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    From the moment of birth, to the moment of death, humans are flooded with emotions both good and bad. Individuals are continuously seeking fulfillment, some failing to find it while others succeed. Many seek adoration; love, accomplishment and greatness. In literature, authors take the readers on journeys that allow imagination, granting the possibility for the reader to grasp inner desires and decide what is truly important in life. Literature allows readers to dive into a different world where happiness and fulfillment is plentiful and eternal, also described as a utopia, while other pieces of literature direct the reader into a world of dissatisfaction which is a dystopia. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is in 26th century England. With the help of advanced technology and drugs, happiness fills the lives of the people living at that time period. But, the people are missing out on one of the most important feelings of life. That is sorrow or unhappiness. The society in Brave New World is very different from modern-day society; many aspects of life are removed such as family, monogamy, and religion. The citizens of Brave New World live in false happiness with all the necessities of life provided for them but have the lack of an inferred deeper satisfaction. In Brave New World happiness is the lack of unhappiness because the inhabitants can never truly know what happiness is without experiencing true unhappiness. The lifestyle in Brave New World is built on the notion that happiness is the only thing necessary in one’s life. This novel suggest that the reader should seek things besides happiness because the citizens in the World State live bleak and monotonous lives which show the faults in this so-called ‘perfect’ society. In thi...

    Read More

  • True Happiness In Brave New World, By Aldous Huxley

    1524 Words  | 4 Pages

    Happiness is a trait that has definitely lost its true meaning due to superficial, materialistic extravagances. Society today has created an image of what happiness entails, and now there are many different ways to try to achieve that image. However, the question then becomes: is happiness, as a result of things like sex, drugs, consumption, real happiness? Is it better to feel fake happiness than to experience the drudgeries that come with living a sober life? In the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the whole society is built off of a precedent of fake happiness. The people take drugs to cover up their true feelings and individuality. Citizens are supposed to feel content with their lives and the society around them. In both the brave

    Read More

More about Extent True Happiness Can Be Possible With Limited Freedom in Brave New World

Open Document