Brave New World
It seems clear that most people in the World State are happy and contented. There are no longer problems such as disease, war, poverty, or unemployment in this society. Why then, do Bernard Helmholtz and
John criticise the quality of their lives? What is wrong with World
State Society?
600 hundred years into the future has advanced the new World State technologically, and perhaps also in the way of life for its citizens.
Some might even go so far as to say it is an improvement. At least, in the physical aspects of their lifestyle. Happiness and contentment seemingly prevail.
What price though, has had to be paid for that happiness and contentment? Nothing comes for free after all. The question is - was that price too high?
Bernard Marx - an Alpha plus male, is ostracised because of his inferior looks and his thoughts and ideas about the promiscuous sexual practices considered not only healthy but also mandatory. He does not belong. One does not find fault with one's world unless one's world finds fault with one. Bernard had reason to find fault with the World State because he was ostracised, and therefore, unhappy. When he later had fame and popularity because of John, he forgot all that he had previously found so inadequate about his life.
"Success went fizzily to Bernard's head, and in the process completely reconciled him (as any good intoxicant should do) to a world, which, up till then, he had found very unsatisfactory. In so far as it recognised him as important, the order of things was good." P.141
Helmholtz's dilemma is different to Bernard's. His sense of not belonging in Brave New World is because he feels that he is capable of achieving more than he will ever be permitted to. The World State is a
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...happiness, but an element of it, and society had denied them happiness.
" 'But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin.'
" In fact,' said Mustapha Mond, 'Your claiming the right to be unhappy.' 'All right, then,' said the Savage defiantly, 'I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.' " P.219.
The only reason that there seems to be something wrong with the World
State was the fact that it did not adhere to our own society's morals.
Yet it is each society's beliefs that define right, and Brave New
World is in every sense just like society of today. One is judged based on the discretion of one's society. How then, can one deem the
World State as wrong, when it is merely following the standards that its society has set?
In this world, perhaps there is no such thing as right or wrong, only human whim.
I chose to read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley because I heard it was a great story and an easy read. After reading the first page I was attached because it was very detailed and seemed like it had a cool plot. Although it did confuse me at some parts, I would still say this book was a good read. While reading this I thought about my family and how important they are to me. Another theme that really caught my attention was how technology is really changing this world. The last thing that really captured me was genetically modifying organisms and humans while advancing in science and technology. Although I came across parts throughout
Allusions to the Brave New World 1. What is the difference between Ford Henry Ford (1863-1947) revolutionized the automobile industry with the assembly line method of production, which proved very successful for 15 million Model Ts were sold. Humans were similarly produced in the Brave New World where the embryos passed along a conveyor belt while a worker or machine would have a specific task dealing with the specimen. Again, this assembly line method proved very successful. 2.
The dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, displays a controlled society where people have a designated position. Everyone is made in a test tube and placed in different caste: Alpha, Beta, Gama, Delta, or Epsilon. The upper castes are intelligent and have managerial jobs, whereas the lower castes do the manual labor. The citizens within this society are conditioned to believe, hate, love, or do certain things that their caste requires. For instance, the Alphas are set to believe that they have the best jobs, whereas the Epsilons believe that their jobs are better because they don’t have work as hard as the other castes. The science and technology within Brave New World is what makes this society possible. The science and technology being invented today have the potential of our real world society ending up much like the society in Brave New World. Starting with the study of genetically modified bacteria leading up to genetically modified humans. And then eventually having children conceived in test tubes. All the studies and experiments being done today are the stepping stones to a controlled society much like Brave New World.
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.
They have invented the perfect work force, one that's happy at whatever they're doing and incapable of asserting individual will because of their low intelligence and preoccupation with their work. Mond admits that all the work that the lower castes do could be done in simpler and more efficient ways but that would be a change (an enemy of society) and lead to more free time and thus more chance for individuals to think of their position in life, just as Bernard has done, and become unhappy with it. As Mond says," We don't want change. " Every change is a menace to stability"(224-5).
In Brave New World, the author Aldous Huxley predicts a future, like no other, where truth is trumped by happiness. The people in the World State are ignorant of the truth. They mistake the truth as happiness. This ignorance leads them to believe that a tablet called soma is used “to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient” (Huxley 213). Through drugs and conditioning, the government has kept the World State uninformed of the truth. Being controlled by the government, people in the World State do not know society is built upon lies. Throughout this novel, John, Bernard, and Helmholtz, go through this Dystopia lifestyle being a savage, a misfit and too intellectual for the society they are born or decanted into. Is this fictional novel too far away from the life style that could become in a society like today?
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.”
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, while fictitiously showing the future possible advances of science and technology, is actually warning people of what science could become. In the Foreword of Brave New World, Huxley states: “The theme of Brave New World is not the advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals” (xi). He is not suggesting that this is how science should advance, but that science will advance the way that people allow it to. The novel is not supposed to depict a “utopian” society by any means, but it is supposed to disturb the reader and warn him not to fall into this social decay. Huxley uses satire to exploit both communism and American capitalism created by Ford.
Today there are strong debates and questions about the extraordinary breakthroughs in science such as cloning, in communications through the Internet with its never ending pool of knowledge, and the increasing level of immersion in entertainment. People facing the 21st century are trying to determine whether these new realities of life will enhance it and bring life as they know it to a great unprecedented level, or if these new products will contribute and perhaps even cause the destruction of society and life. To many cloning, censoring, and total immersion entertainment are new, but to those who have read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the topics are reminiscent of the horror that is found in Huxley's fictional utopian world where the dehumanizing of man is achieved in the interests of "Community, Identity, Stability," the world state's motto.
An analysis of satire in Brave New World. While reading Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, readers experience a world unlike any other. A world where being promiscuous and the use of drugs are not only legal but considered a "must" for a fully functional member of society. This world isn't a world full of democracy or the democratic process, it's a world where a virulent caste system dominates.
Alduos Huxley, in his science fiction novel Brave New World written in 1932, presents a horrifying view of a possible future in which comfort and happiness replace hard work and incentive as society's priorities. Mustapha Mond and John the Savage are the symbolic characters in the book with clashing views. Taking place in a London of the future, the people of Utopia mindlessly enjoy having no individuality. In Brave New World, Huxley's distortion of religion, human relationships and psychological training are very effective and contrast sharply with the literary realism found in the Savage Reservation. Huxley uses Brave New World to send out a message to the general public warning our society not to be so bent on the happiness and comfort that comes with scientific advancements.
1.) The Savage Reservation is similar to the Utopia world in several ways. They both have drugs that are designed to calm people down. Soma, used in the Utopia and mescal used in the Reservation. They both also have a separation within their own society. The Utopia has social castes and the reservation has separation between the men and women, the men having more power. The two worlds also both have ceremonies. The Utopia has the orgy porgy ceremony in which everyone gathers around and has an orgy, hence the name. The Savage Reservation has traditional dancing ceremonies like the many traditional Indian tribes have today. The two cultures have many similar ideas, just expressed a little differently.
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 ).
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.