Brave New World Final
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.
These two societies also have many different customs, ways, and styles of living. The Brave New World is clean, sanitary, and organized. Where as in the reservation there’s garbage every where, its dusty, and full of dogs and flies, the complete opposite. In the Utopia people aren’t born anymore, they are grown. Another difference between the two worlds is in the Reservation people are still born the “old fashion way.'; In the Brave New World everyone is young and pretty their whole lives thanks to chemicals and conditioning. It’s the complete opposite in the savage reservation. As seen by the old man, it’s shown that people in the Reservation age normally, loose their teeth, and get wrinkles. The reservation represents more of an old, more class time period whereas the Utopia is perhaps not to distant future gone wrong. In both societies, both of them still are imperfect but in completely different ways.
2.) When Linda was on the reservation she didn’t seem to cope with it very well. She got fat, became an alcoholic, and was just a big mess. She hated how dirty the reservation was and how there was no easily accessible hot water so she could clean things. She hated the beastly clothes she had to wear instead of her old darling clothes. Linda also didn’t like the fact that she has to mend her clothes instead of just throwing them away when they got worn and then simply just buying new clothes. She missed the soma because only mescal is available to her now, gives her a hangover which she disliked. She hated how she got pregnant with John because she was taken away from everything she loved.
In all aspects a utopian society is a society that is place to achieve perfection, and that is the society that both the “Uglies”, by Scott Westfield and “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, was striving for. In both of these stories, the government had control over the people’s choices, freedoms, and their natural abilities. Yet both government strive for a perfect society, the methods they use to achieve this goal were different from each other.
Before launching into the implications of these two novels, I believe a summary of the general human experience in each of the two societies is necessary. Brave New World illustrates a society in which science has been elevated to a god-like position. In this novel, human thoughts and actions are controlled by conditioning, which in turn is controlled by a select few members of the dominant caste. Depending on the caste they are bred for, individuals in Brave New World are developed differently. All humans are created in a laboratory and higher caste individuals are allowed to develop relatively free from any mutation. Lower caste citizens, however, are created in mass quantity and are conditioned even as fetuses to enjoy hard labor. After being born, a process referred to in the novel as decanting, children are raised in group homes. From infancy through adolescence, children are conditioned into their society's worldview: "Everyone belongs to everyone else." They are carefully conditioned to accept and reject things based on the society's best interests. While citizens in this world believe they have complete freedom, they are in reality unable to behave in any way other than how they have been conditioned. They date, but monogamy is out of the question. To grow...
The authors therefor saw the ‘utopian’ societies to be a trap for weak minded publics, and that once in place, such systems would be able to perpetuate indefinitely due to the efficiency at which they protect and propagate themselves. Through fear, diversion and sedation the utopia can maintain a strong grip on the people it encompasses before anyone realizes the sacrifices made. The popularity of these books does rule out the possibility of such a society coming into existence in the future, however. The state of people is not about to change, and their ignorance will continue regardless of the harshness of the wake up calls issued.
In both instances, the lines between the “inside” and the “outside” are clearly drawn and redrawn. The two methodologies are in actuality the flipsides of one another: in clearly defining the accepted national identity and contrasting with it the danger and instability outside this narrow conception, the state is legitimized in doing violence on a massive scale to either eliminate the constructed outside threat or to further the imperialistic project so that these lines remain intact and unquestioned. In Utopia, the state imposes a culture of normalization to formulate a national identity that both defines and binds its citizens. The fifty-four towns of the country are virtually identical to the “same language, laws, customs, and institutions” (More 70). Even the appearances of individuals resemble each other with no distinction in dress.
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.
Sameness helps create a utopia because the people will act the same and this helps to not cause conflict in the community. It will help make the citizens appreciate the community more and think it is a perfect place. Therefore, the Hutterites society is a utopia because the citizens practice sameness. Secondly, the Hutterites are a utopia because they have equality among all of their citizens. Girls are not forced to stay home and work the house like they may have to in other communities.
One of the reasons, the so called Utopia fails to exist time and again when attempts are taken solely on the ground of equity is that, even the most idyllic society is somewhat built on the foundation of pain, sacrifice of the weak for the benefits of strong. From the analysis of Omelas and the contemporary North American societies it is clear that there is no Utopia.
A “utopia is that which is in contradiction with reality,” said the famous French novelist Albert Camus in his collection of essays, Between Hell and Reason. History shows us that seemingly exemplary ideals in practice have led to the collapse of societies. Just examine the two most prominent attempts at a utopia: Hitler’s attempt to socialize all of Europe and create the “perfect” Aryan race coupled with Karl Marx’s beliefs to instate communism into society. The final result was the destruction of their perspective visionary worlds. There was one major facet that prevented these two from creating their paradigms: utopias take away individual freedom and identity and therefore society cannot exist. Aldous Huxley’s science fiction novel Brave New World examines the large disconnect between the future and present day societies, showing how several aspects of this dystopian world lead to the downfall of the individual identity, most prominently exemplified by the death of John Savage.
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.
A Utopia is an imaginary place where human ideals are established; an idea of a place that is free from all of the human complications such as pain and suffering. Utopia writing has been around for thousands of years and can be found in almost all different cultures. Opposite of a Utopia, is a Dystopia, a fictional world where everything is unpleasant or dismal. Although the social pressures in which these utopias and dystopias were created from different pressures, all of these stories share the common theme of escapism and “what ifs?” The purpose of this paper will be to compare and contrast the novel Utopia, written by Thomas more with the dystopian novel Brave New world, written by Adlouls Huxley. I will also share my opinions about these
This serene society greatly contradicts the one we live in. Our society is furnished with hatred and warfare, yet in return, we are given freedom and the privilege of having distinctive characters. Given the nature of human beings, our society is more idealistic to live in. Utopia is an imaginary state, which consists of people who believe they are more capable of living in a group than alone. In such a community, the welfare of the group is the primary interest compared to the comfort of individuals.
however, differ considerably. The goal of Utopia is to illustrate the maintenance of an “ideal”
Before reading Utopia, it is essential that the reader understand that like Jonathan Swift’s, A Modest Proposal, Utopia is satirical. More creates a frame narrative in which Raphael Hythloday, the novel’s main character, recollects his observations of Utopia during his five-year stay. Hythloday spares no detail in his descriptions of Utopia, as he discusses everything from their military practices, foreign relations, religion, philosophy, and marriage customs. Interestingly enough, everything Hythloday discusses in Book II seems to be a direct response to of all of t...
Thomas More’s Utopia and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World , are novels about societies that differ from our own. Though the two authors have chosen different approaches to create an alternate society, both books have similarities which represent the visions of men who were moved to great indignation by the societies in which they lived. Both novels have transcended contemporary problems in society , they both have a structured, work based civilization and both have separated themselves from the ways of past society. It is important when reading these novels to focus on the differences as well as the similarities. The two novels differ in their views of love, religion, and the way to eliminate social classes. These differences seem to suggest that if we do not come closer to More’s goal in Utopia, we will end up in a society much like that of Huxley’s Brave New World.
...e of reality, seizes the pleasures in their lives and portrays a loss of freedom. Both their perfect worlds were full of lies and instead of shielding its inhabitants from evil they gave individuals no rights of their own. What appeared in the beginning as a perfect utopian society was actually an imperfect dystopian environment.