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Literary work essay of brave new world
Dystopian literature characteristics
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Through a reader-response criticism of Brave New World, we are revealed the theme of dystopia. Huxley reveals the theme using John’s character by his use of Shakespeare and the cultural differences between their societies. The theme of dystopia warns the readers of the effects of the immense use of science on a society. John is the son of Linda and the Director, who was raised on the Reservations. He frequently quotes Shakespeare from plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and The Tempest. He himself can be compared to Hamlet because of his obsession with his mother’s sex-life and resents her mother’s lover Pope. The most significant quote in the novel is said by John, “O brave new world that has such people in it. Let’s start at once.” (Huxley 139). Not only is this quote an allusion to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but it serves as the title of the novel. It is ironic that John says this because he saw the “savage” in the eyes of the new world. This frequently occurs in society, when you bring someone from a foreign country their way of speaking is seen as “odd” and “weird” because it is different from your own. However, John quoting Shakespeare shows the society Lenina and Bertrand live in to be dystopian because their society does not value knowledge and try to …show more content…
This is one of the main cultural differences between them, Lenina grew up in a society that is very sexually liberal. While for John, he saw his mom be beaten for sleeping with men thus he has been conditioned to view anything sexual as something negative. So, John represses his desires for Lenina because that is the culture he grew up in, “The bird was too dangerous. His hand dropped back. How beautiful she was! How beautiful!” (Huxley 155). This repression builds up inside of John overtime and is later let out in the last chapter as we can see him resorting to behaviour that is familiar to his culture (whipping
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.
The adult John comes to civilized society as an experiment by Marx and Mond to see how a "savage" would adapt to civilization. Frankly, he does not adapt very well. He is appalled by the lifestyle and ideas of civilized people, and gets himself into a lot of trouble by denouncing civilization. He loves Lenina very much, but gets very upset at her when she wants to have sex with him. He physically attacks her, and from that point on does not want to have anything to do with her. When his mother dies, he interferes with the "death conditioning" of children by being sad. Finally, his frustrations with the civilized world become too much for him and he decides to take action. He tries to be a sort of a Messiah to a group of Deltas, trying to free them from the effect of soma. He tells them only the truth, but it is not the truth that the Deltas have been conditioned to believe, so to them it is a violent lie and they begin to cause a riot. When the riot is subdued, John is apprehended and taken to have a talk with Mustapha Mond.
Through hypnoaedic teachings, reservation contrasts to the “Civilized” world, and John’s critique of the society, the reader sees Huxley’s point of view of the importance of an individual. With hypnoaedic teachings, Huxley creates the society and the values. Inside the reservation, Huxley contrasts the society of the reservation to that of Lenina’s society. Finally Huxley’s main evaluation and critique of lack of identity is seen in John’s character. John’s horrid descriptions in his point of view on society demonstrate to the reader the importance of an individual. Since there were absolutely no conscious men or women throughout society, ideas of ignoring death, God, and beauty creates a world where men and women sacrifice true happiness (Where pain and hard work are involved for a greater happiness) for a “smooth running society.” The picture of the society to the reader is horrifying and quite terrifying. Overall, within our society, the importance of the individual is not a problem. People, even teenagers, are encouraged to show who they are inside. One can truly see the idea of the importance on individual through the new openness to different sexualities. Overall, within the book, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, Huxley demonstrates the need for conscious individuals through a horrifying
In his novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley illustrates ways in which government and advanced science control society. Through actual visualization of this Utopian society, the reader is able to see how this state affects Huxley’s characters. Throughout the book, the author deals with many different aspects of control. Whether it is of his subjects’ feelings and emotions or of the society’s restraint of population growth, Huxley depicts government’s and science’s role in the brave new world of tomorrow.
The book opens on the factory floor of the reproduction plant. What do they make here? Humans. Here in this muti-level factories people are made, not just the bodies but the minds too. In this “Brave New World” Aldous Huxley created babies are decanted not born. The cast system is no longer a frame of mind it is the devilment, mass cloning and use of chemicals to mutate or under develop embryos was used to create classes of people that could be called less human. As you travel up in this factory you see the training that children are put through so they will never question their place in society. Infants made for the lower classes are electrocuted when they move towards books or flowers because “You couldn’t have the lower cast wasting the communities time over books,” (Find and finish quote) Then moving up there are hallways full of dormitories and there peacefully sleeping are children of every age and cast and in the back ground is the soft murmur of a voice repeating every lesson of society. Never be unhappy simply use soma “A gram in better than a dam.” Cast discrimination “I’m so glad I not a gama.” Economic use “More stiches, less riches.”(55) And social behaviors like promiscuity and birth control. The ‘controllers’ of this world made the people that made up the world.
Although Bernard likes Lenina, he hates the fact that she can’t think for herself. Lenina and Bernard decide to go to the savage reservation in New Mexico. It's here where Bernard meets other people like him: John “The Savage” and Linda. Linda was a former of The World State and also Bernard’s boss’s “Girlfriend,” but got stranded during a trip to the reservation. Although frowned upon at the World State, Linda gave natural birth to John. This is why John is able to think freely. John lacked the uniform development that every other child in the world goes through. Seeing these two, Bernard returns them to the World State.
The meaning of happiness is a vague concept. Mankind has always tried to achieve this state of well-being even though there isn’t a clear definition. Brave New World tells the story of a society where there is nothing but happiness, just like a utopia, but it is considered a dystopian setting by the modern society. In modern society, there is a simple road that most people follow to achieve happiness: earning enough money for education, getting a university degree, a prestigious and high-paying job, and a stable marriage. To some, the road is mostly about a circle of finding ways to earn and spend money. It seems like a bleak lifestyle when looked at from a different perspective. From a modern perspective the world of BNW is the dystopian one. To understand why BNW is considered dystopian and how different (or not) it is from the modern life; the methods of creating happiness in BNW and modern life should be analyzed, and the values of the modern society and the values of the society of BNW should be compared.
Even the love of his life, Lenina, was going around town sleeping with everyone she sets her eyes on. John’s moral beliefs and
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.
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 ).
In Aldous Huxley’s novel, “Brave New World,” published in 1932, two idiosyncratic, female characters, Lenina and Linda, are revealed. Both personalities, presented in a Freudian relationship (Linda being John’s mother and Lenina being his soon to be lover), depict one another in different stages of life and divulge ‘a character foil’. Lenina and Linda are both ‘Betas,’ who hold a strong relationship with the men in their lives, especially John. It can be stated that John may partially feel attracted towards Lenina, because she is a miniature version of Linda, in her youth. They both support the term of ‘conditioning,’ yet also question it in their own circumstances. Nonetheless, they both are still sexually overactive and criticized for such immoral decisions. Linda espouses it from her heart, while Lenina supports the process partially due to peer pressure and society’s expectations. Both female characters visit the Reservation with Alpha – Plus males, and both find a common feeling of revulsion towards it. Linda and Lenina are similar in many ways, yet they hold their diverse views on the different aspects of life.
His ruin evokes a sense of pity and fear in the reader. A feeling of pity in regards to him not fulfilling his purpose and quest to change his society, and fear in relating his story to our present society and the loss of hope. The reader is moved to feel sympathy for him, because he starts from a humble beginning but fails to find success, peace or happiness. He degenerates from a noble character to a violent one. For example, while working on his garden, he starts to think about Lenina and in order to get her out of his mind, he masochistically runs into some thorn bushes. This escalates to him whipping and inflicting pain on himself. He turns to violence as an outlet for his emotions, in contrast to him at the early parts of the novel. Although, his downfall is somewhat his fault as a result of free choice, his misfortune is not wholly deserved, because his character provides the main theme of the story. The choices he makes brings about his suffering, however he becomes enlightened, he learns about himself and his society. He gains increased self- knowledge and awareness. Likewise, as seen in Shakespeare 's character, Othello, who kills himself after coming to a realization of his downfall and folly, John does the same thing when he realizes (anagnorisis) he cannot change the World State. His death is anti-climatic and is an unexpected ending to the novel, nonetheless it proves that suffering is an essential part of human experience and without it people become less human. It also represents the conflict between the price for happiness and morality. His death in the lighthouse symbolizes the loss of hope. Upon discovery after hanging himself, it is described that John’s body spun with no specific direction, like “two unhurried compass needles, [it] turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east” (BNW.18). Similar to the
He shows an example of how humans are shaped by those around them. John is relatable to people today because of the way that he differs from every other citizen living in the World State. He has flaws which are fundamentally similar to those of people today. Regardless, he is similar to people living under the World State by being heavily affected by his surroundings, contrary to the image of him as a champion of freedom. In a similar way, humans today are like John, because they are affected by their surroundings in a way that makes their choice simply a consequence of how they interpret their world. Ultimately, by presenting different points-of-view through the flawed characters and the state of society in Brave New World, Aldous Huxley shows the importance of perspective when analysing complex situations, such as questions of free will and
Huxley 's Brave New World is an arrogant vision of a future that is cold and discouraging. The science fiction novel is dystopian in tone and in subject matter. Paradox and irony are the dominant themes used within the novel to suggest the negative impact of excessive scientific and technological progress on man and his relationship with the natural world, very similar to today 's society. It links to the title which was created from the Shakespearean play called The Tempest using the famous quote ‘O’ Brave New World’ but instead of referring to an island paradise, it now describes a nightmare of a place full of mockery for being equal and overbearing control among one another.
Can a utopian society ever exist? The answer to that question is a blunt no. Everyone’s different expectations create a world with many diversities. The society in Brave New World is considered dystopian because the people are living under the assumption that their world is perfect. They have a major drug addiction and uncontrolled sexual intercourse, plus a whole lot of other social issues. While our current society may not be perfect, it would be far better off than the society pictured in the novel. Therefore, the society in Brave New World is different from the current society in the United States of America.