Comparing the Philosophies of Brave New World and Anthem

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The Philosophies Brave New World and Anthem

The books Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and Anthem by Ayn Rand are both valuable twentieth-century contributions to literature. Both books explore the presence of natural law in man and propose a warning for what could happen when man's sense of right and wrong is taken from him. In this essay, I hope to show how these seemingly unrelated novels both expound upon a single, very profound, idea.

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...

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...has taken them to an unintended extreme.

These books are both valuable to the study of natural law, human psychology, government, and many other fields. They very much enforce the theory C. S. Lewis proposed in his book, Abolition of Man, in which he states that without the Tao as a standard, men will inevitable create their own standard, which in Brave New World and Anthem happens to be the good of society.

Works Cited:

Corliss, Richard, "Who's Feeling No Pain?" in Time Magazine, April 28, 2001. Available http://www.time/magazine/printout/0,8816,102079,00.html.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1998.

McMichael, Charles T., "Aldous Huxley's 'Island': The Final Vision," in Studies in the Literary Imagination. Vol. 1, No. 2, April, 1968.

Rand, Ayn Anthem New York: Signet 1961.

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