Dystopia or Utopia: Perspective in Brave New World

747 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of technology on society

It is an odd thing to think about, how closely related a utopian society and a dystopian society really are. Numerous aspects determine if there is dystopia present, and these can change depending on the point of view. A dystopia to one person could be an utter utopia to another, it all depends on the individual's perspective. Brave New World is an excellent example of how dystopia/utopia can be viewed.

The society in the novel Brave New World is viewed primarily as a dystopia, this is because of the lack of individuality, identity and emotion. The individuals in Brave New World are engineered humans predestined for a specific career and lifestyle. They are brainwashed by the World State through Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning, giving every person
In Brave New World “as technology increases, the use for human beings in the work force decreases leaving an overwhelming amount of depression among humans” (123HelpMe, 1). Therefore the world state developed a structure for the society to keep people busy, Including the caste system and the predestination of careers and the conditioning that forces them to believe they are happy doing what they are doing. In Brave New World's society this is necessary so people do not try and oppose the state and the structure. One of the main ways the World State controls the citizens and their emotions is with a drug called “Soma”. This drug is an antidepressant with no side effects, it is the perfect thing to help keep everyone happy and keep the community stable. The people that live under control of the state must take this drug so they continue believing they are happy, and so they continue to comply with the World States born) so they can be properly engineered and conditioned to fit their designated role in society. As the Director says, “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, 12).This is the whole idea of the Brave New World society, being conditioned to like what you are doing so the people will stay happy and in turn keep the community stable. After all, the Brave New World motto is “Community, Identity, Stability.” (Huxley, 1)

Although there are people like Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson and John the Savage who are not fond of how things are run by the World State, most of the people living in this society see it as a utopia. The people are given a certain job that they are conditioned to like, and if they are feeling depressed all they have to do is take a Soma and they will feel better. This supports the idea that a society can be viewed as a dystopia and a utopia simultaneously, it just depends on which character you are getting information from and what that individual's perspective

Show More
Related

  • The Social And Political Attitudes Of Brave New World

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    Brave New World is an unsettling, loveless and even sinister place. This is because Huxley endows his "ideal" society with features calculated to alienate his audience. Typically, reading Brave New World elicits the very same disturbing feelings in the reader which the society it depicts has notionally vanquished - not a sense of joyful anticipation. Huxley's novel presents a startling view of the future which on the surface appears almost comical. His intent, however, is not humor. Huxley's message is dark and depressing. His idea that in centuries to come, a one-world government will rise to power, stripping people's freedom, is not a new idea. What makes Huxley's interpretation different is the fact that his fictional society not only lives in a totalitarian government, but takes an embracive approach like mindless robots. For example, Soma, not nuclear bombs, is the weapon of choice for the World Controllers in Brave New World. The world leaders have realized that fear and intimidation have only limited power; these tactics simply build up resentment in the minds of the oppressed. Subconscious persuasion and mind-altering drugs, on the other hand, appear to have no side effects.

    Read More

  • World State In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Soma is the gateway to pure happiness. "you do look glum! What you need is a gramme of soma." (Huxley). In a way Soma is like nicotine or marijuana. It puts you into a trance or high like state of mind. It gives the user an exit from reality, a way to escape everyday life. Because of this the citizens have become codependent on soma; without it they feel in complete. “Again twelve stanzas. By this time the soma had begun to work. Eyes shone, cheeks were flushed, the inner light of universal benevolence broke out on every face in happy, friendly smiles. Even Bernard felt himself a little melted” (Huxley). By having entire nation dependent on a single drug it becomes simple to control the people. Codependency affects people both mentally and physically. Going through withdrawals is one of the worst experiences out there; especially if you have been on the drug for long periods of time. The World State made its natation dependent on soma and sense it’s the only disruptor, it made its citizens dependent on the World

    Read More

  • Brave New World by Aldoux Huxley

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Science and Technology have a strong influence on the daily lives of the citizens of the world. The first influence is through the use of drugs and in particular, soma. Soma is a drug that is used in the world by everyone to create false happiness. When John, Bernard and Helmholtz meet Mustafa Mond, the leader of the world state, Mond explains the beneficial effects of simply consuming one drug on a daily basis. “Now, you swallow two or three half-gram tablets, and there you are.

    Read More

  • Isolation in Brave New World

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... In the Brave New World, society aims to preserve the homologous nature of living. With strict rules, crowd mentality and community actives, the Brave New World attempts to get rid of the individual. Hypnopedia messages such as "When the individual feels, the community reels," and "Everybody belongs to everyone else," the Brave New World attempts to diminish the value of individuality and seeks instead to promote the idea of society first.

    Read More

  • Dystopian America

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    What exactly is a dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could be becoming a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason. Dystopian worlds are often seen as fictitious, though this may not be the case in the future.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Dystopian Society in Brave New World and Modern Society

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. In BNW, there are many methods that are used to induce happiness. One of them is classical conditioning.

    Read More

  • Overuse of Antidepressants Today and How Aldous Huxley Predicted It

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    Antidepressants are a prescription drug now used by people of all ages. They have become a part of society, therefore, taking antidepressants is not frowned upon. Antidepressants are used to make people feel “happier” and not to feel sadness. This is shown in the dystopian society in the book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley in 1932. In that society the people use soma, a well-known drug, to make them feel no pain and are conditioned to think soma fixes everything. Helmholtz and Bernard two main characters, do not take it because they want to be able to see the world for what it is. They also do not want soma to change how they feel; they want to appreciate nature. In addition Lenina and Henry love taking soma because then they cannot feel any pain, they are just happy all the time. In our society, people think that antidepressants will make them feel no pain and that these medications will fix all of their problems. Antidepressants have a negative impact on society today as well as in the book Brave New World.

    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

  • The Role of Government and Technology in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the beginning of the novel technology has been a focal point. Brave New World is first set at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. This center is where all the humans are being produced and conditioned. Conditioning a method used to influence ones mind with a variety of different values and morals, predestines these new beings into five different classes Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. As written in Huxley’s Brave New World “All conditioning aims at that making people like their unescapable social destiny.” (16) This quote signifies that each group is designed by the World State to hav...

    Read More

  • Brave new world essay

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).

    Read More

  • Societal Drug Use in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a perfect society, humans do not need to resort to drugs to keep society in balance. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, society is based on keeping everyone happy- and if for some reason someone becomes unhappy then there is always soma- the “perfect” drug. Humans are conditioned from the very start to be happy while performing their specific tasks. “We also predestine and condition. We decant out babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries.” (Page 13) Brave New World’s society is built on keeping everyone happy and keeping everyone working in balance with civilization. However, without soma, Brave New World’s society wouldn’t function properly. The soma helps to keep the society moving, always working to keep production moving, just like Ford’s assembly line. However, is there something wrong with depending on a drug to keep a society working?

    Read More

  • Utopia Vs. Dystopia

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    Utopia Vs. Dystopia Each person has their own vision of utopia. Utopia is an ideal state, a paradise, a land of enchantment. It has been a central part of the history of ideas in Western Civilization. Philosophers and writers continue to imagine and conceive plans for an ideal state, even today.

    Read More

  • The Use of Technology to Control Society in Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, portrays a future society where people are no longer individuals but are controlled by the World State. The World State dominates the people by creating citizens that are content with who they are. Brave New World describes how the science of biology and psychology are manipulated so that the government can develop technologies to change the way humans think and act. The World State designs humans from conception to this society. Once the humans are within the society, the state ensures all people remain happy.

    Read More

  • Utopia Vs Herland

    1841 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Utopia Reader defines the word utopia as “a nonexistent society described in detail and normally located in time and space.” (p.1) I would best define utopia as a fictional dream- paradise land where everything is peaceful, perfect and all runs smoothly. There is no crime disease, or pain. People are happy, kind and fair and have each other’s best

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Utopia A Dystopia

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Brave New World, the government has managed to create a perfect society where all of it’s citizens are always happy and everything works perfectly with each other, in other words stable. It’s evident that these benefits to society would be worth paying the small price the citizens of the story did. Quotes from Huxley sufficiently prove this, for example when Huxley stated “They 're well off; they 're safe; they 're never ill; they 're not afraid of death; they 're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they 're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they 've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they 're so conditioned that they practically can 't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there 's soma. " (220). There are no problems that can come up now and even if there are any they already have the solution for it. No citizen is discontent with their lives, and everything is smooth now because of their small sacrifices. This shows the reader the clear benefit society gains from all the sacrifices made by the citizens, the people are stable as well as happy, and these leads to the society being stable and prosperous. Conditioning in the story might be viewed as a horrible process that forces the people to sacrifices however, what are they sacrificing? They go through conditioning as babies and

    Read More

More about Dystopia or Utopia: Perspective in Brave New World

Open Document