A fundamental theme of the Brave New World is to achieve perfection through deceitful control. Technology, conditioning/predestining, and manufactured happiness are tools of control to achieve what the leaders believed to be perfect. The Director proves my point in describing the Fertilization Process, “the operation undergone voluntarily for the good of Society…” (5). Perfection in their minds is manageable conformity without opposition. Ford’s control over the society is especially insidious because the people don’t know they’re being controlled so they’re not going to fight. It’s become normalized. The actions of the leaders and Ford propose a question, “Will this end in overall perfection in our society?” The almighty Ford decided to turn a world just like ours into one he views as a utopia. Since Ford’s methods are meant to be deceptive and efficient, they are often torturous. Even before the babies were hatched, technology was already being used to control for a better future.
Technology: In the hatchery technology was used for things like the Bokanovsky Process (eggs budding process) and the Podsnaps Process (speeding up hatching) (6 and 8). There was also electric-powered systems in the Bottling room (9). Another process that well defines control in a somewhat torturous way was done with technology also, there was a machine that gave different embryos different amounts of oxygen according to what class they were destined for. The less oxygen would go to the Epsilons and Deltas who were meant to be the dumbest. They were also put to near death when being dosed with alcohol as a part of the Bokanovsky Process. All of those machines and processes control how the babies turn out. After the Hatchery the babies go into the Con...
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...igh (54). Another source of happiness would be sex-hormone chewing-gum, which emulates the pleasure one has while having sex in the Brave New World. The feelies; also creates a feeling of happiness using all your senses. Those three main keys to happiness are man-made to control the feelings of the citizens.
Technology, conditioning and manufactured happiness are tools for control which is the foundation of the Brave New World. The Director says “It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted” (148). The Director explains the motivation for controlling the people and everyone seems to be okay with his deceitfulness. In the book, John lashes out because he is against the consume of soma, he tries to convince the citizens that without the fake happiness they will face reality and break out of being controlled.
Works Cited
Brave New World
Brave New World is a novel set hundreds of years into our own future. On Earth, the Nine Years War tore the planet apart in the year A.F 178. Eerily, anthrax bombs dropped from the sky killed scores of people, what we in the post 9/11 world fear the most. When the dust settled, mankind banded together to create a new world called the “World State.” Their motto is “Community, Identity, Stability,” and it is all too much present as you will see. This future is a severely different place. To stabilize the populace, mankind has cloned each other by the thousands. Babies are conditioned by a caste system, and everyone grows up to do a specific job. Cold and sterile science replaces religion, individuality, and risk. Everyone is encouraged to pleasure themselves (through promiscuity, recreation and drugs... soma,) but not to have a bad day. This is reminiscent of the “Roaring 20’s” and the “free love” movement of the 1960’s. In this future, to be monogamous, bond, or soul-search would single you out as a loner. Here, “everyone belongs to everyone else.”
One aspect of control that is touched upon from the beginning of the novel until the end is the control of the population birth and growth. As a way to maintain the society’s motto of “Community, Identity and Stability,” the number of inhabitants is managed through the artificiality of the brave new world’s use of technology. In the first chapter of the novel, the reader is introduced to the process of creating humans in this Utopia. The advancement of science made it possible for the building of an artificial arrangement with the reproductive glands and equipment needed for fertilizing and hatching the resulting eggs. The fact that machines do what is done by human reproductive systems shows how science has dominated over man in this world.
In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the world goes too far to achieve harmony. Scientists create humans by harvesting eggs from ovaries: “So we allow as many as thirty per cent of the female embryos to develop normally. The others get a dose of male sex-hormone every twenty-four metres for the rest of the course. Result: they're decanted as freemartins—structurally quite normal … but sterile. Guaranteed sterile” (Huxley 11). To create a society without war, disease, famine, abuse, and etc. the people turn to creating beings with the same ideas and beliefs. The process described in Brave New World robs the citizens of their humanity in two ways; by denying the ability to have children and by erasing individuality. The ability to reproduce is an essential characteristic of the human species because unique emotions, such as love and protective instincts develop. The ability to feel compassion and deeper emotions defines humans and without it they become animals. Next, individuality is important because it allows humans to think for themselves and for society to advance. Individuality is in part wiped out because of a lack of a family structure and conditioning. By losing their individuality the people move away from being humans to becoming like robots. Without different mindsets there are no new ideas and therefore advancement is impossible. Another way the world goes too far is by conditioning away dignity. A character in the book, Lenina, is not ashamed of throwing herself at John: “She put her hand to her neck and gave a long vertical pull; her white sailor’s blouse was ripped to the hem” (Huxley 197). Dignity is an essential characteristic of humanity because it embodies who we are and prevents us from lowering our morals to the degree in the novel. Lenina’s lack of dignity is shown by her casual view of sex and lack of shame for her nakedness. Her conditioning has caused her
Before examining how utopias rob individuals of their identities, it is important to note the large cultural differences between the present in Brave New World and the modern-day present to show how utopias cannot function even in a highly technologically advanced future. A common phrased used by most of the characters in the novel is, “Oh, Ford!” (Huxley 21) as opposed to “Oh, God!” in modern-day language. This shows how the Brave New World society views Henry Ford, one of the fathers of modern technology, as its deistic figure. The manner in which Henry Ford is viewed is similar to the way ‘God’ is viewed in the present day, as the omniscient, omnipotent figure. Likewise, the futuristic society is one driven largely by the consumption of drugs, spe...
The novel, Brave New World, takes place in the future, 632 A. F. (After Ford), where biological engineering reaches new heights. Babies are no longer born viviparously, they are now decanted in bottles passed through a 2136 metre assembly line. Pre-natal conditioning of embryos is an effective way of limiting human behaviour. Chemical additives can be used to control the population not only in Huxley's future society, but also in the real world today. This method of control can easily be exercised within a government-controlled society to limit population growth and to control the flaws in future citizens. In today's world, there are chemical drugs, which can help a pregnant mother conceive more easily or undergo an abortion. In the new world, since there is no need...
In most countries in our world, society has experienced technological advances to the point of being able to accomplish what Huxley envisioned. In contrast to Huxley’s vision, the moral standards of most nations allow all humans to enjoy basic human rights that embrace family, personal relationships, and individualism. Today’s society is able to comprehend how with the technological advances Huxley’s world could be a reality, but with the privilege of a democratic society, civilization would not allow the medical intervention for reproduction, the conditioning for happiness and consumerism. Work Cited "Brave New World by Aldous Huxley : Barron's Notes" Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Barron's Notes. N.p., n.d. Web.
...terature or life and does not have a deeply satisfying sense of family and love. Brave New World suggests that the readers should seek freedom, knowledge, and love in their lives by producing humans in test tubes and simultaneously rendering family, marriage and love obsolete , removing religion and all prior knowledge of art and history humans would lose their nature and become like robots; emotionless and without freedom or independent thought. The pursuit of happiness is a long, treacherous road that is superficial and misguided. Individuals should seek meaning in life and happiness may or may not follow. Having meaning in life is much more satisfying and meaning cannot be achieved without the freedom to seek the answers to many controversial questions, without the knowledge of what it means to be human or without another individual to share this experience with.
“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley is one of his most famous novels. The author created a complex novel by developing a story focusing on a Utopian and Dystopian society. The novel was written 83 years ago and people are still amazed by the content of the book. “Brave New world” takes the reader into a world of fantasy and fiction. In “Brave New World” Huxley describes a very different society. In this futuristic society, the interaction between people changed. People could enjoy their sex lives without having to be attached to a single person. In the book, there is a phrase that express that “everyone belongs to everyone”. In the novel, technology and modernization advance on a grand scale. This means that babies were no longer being born
Happiness is a trait that has definitely lost its true meaning due to superficial, materialistic extravagances. Society today has created an image of what happiness entails, and now there are many different ways to try to achieve that image. However, the question then becomes: is happiness, as a result of things like sex, drugs, consumption, real happiness? Is it better to feel fake happiness than to experience the drudgeries that come with living a sober life? In the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the whole society is built off of a precedent of fake happiness. The people take drugs to cover up their true feelings and individuality. Citizens are supposed to feel content with their lives and the society around them. In both the brave
The World State also uses controlled groupings of people to brainwash them further into 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. Social restriction robs individuals of their creative personalities by preventing freedom of thought, behavior, and expression; but is vital to the World State for maintaining complete control over the society. Social restriction’s purpose is to enforce obedience, conformity and compliance out of people.
For example, the babies are born in the Fertilizing Room where the scientists follow the Bokanovsky Process in order to produce offspring. The novel starts by the Director explaining how the modern fertilizing process is done when he says, “a brief description of the modern fertilizing process; spoke first, of course, of its surgical introduction- “the operation undergone voluntarily for the good of Society…how the eggs which it contained were inspected for abnormalities counted and transferred to a porous receptacle…” The government of Brave Ne... ... middle of paper ... ... New York Times, 23 Feb. 2014.
In Brave New World, stability is ensured through each individual’s conformity to the state’s values. Conformity begins in the hatchery where babies are modified and mass produced. In the
Throughout these initial chapters in Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World, The World State is shown using science to manipulate society. This serves the World State’s best interests under a guise that it is being used to create a society without the humanity that could make their lives savage. This is unknowingly expertly summed up by Bernard in a repetition of a common phrase “Civilization is sterilization” ( Huxley 64). Sterilization is a reference to a controlled area that is devoid of any unwanted life. This is very similar to the lack of human emotion experienced by the subjects of Brave New World. This is through the creation of subjects as a machine process, the lack of love as a sought after emotion, and the use of scientific
For years, authors and philosophers have satirized the “perfect” society to incite change. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a so-called utopian society in which everyone is happy. This society is a “controlled environment where technology has essentially [expunged] suffering” (“Brave New World”). A member of this society never needs to be inconvenienced by emotion, “And if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (Huxley 220). Citizens spend their lives sleeping with as many people as they please, taking soma to dull any unpleasant thoughts that arise, and happily working in the jobs they were conditioned to want. They are genetically altered and conditioned to be averse to socially destructive things, like nature and families. They are trained to enjoy things that are socially beneficial: “'That is 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 16). Citizens operate more like machinery, and less like humans. Humanity is defined as “the quality of being human” (“Humanity”). To some, humanity refers to the aspects that define a human: love, compassion and emotions. Huxley satirizes humanity by dehumanizing the citizens in the Brave New World society.
Contrary to belief, genuine happiness is very rarely found at the bottom of a shopping basket or on the leather seats of a brand new car. Often we hear the cliché saying “Money can’t buy happiness” but this is in fact true. Whilst the elation and delight brought from finally owning a wanted item is extraordinary, you must remind yourself that your happiness should not become dependant upon your ownership of this item. Being happy is not something you can purchase from a shop or car dealership, it is the way you take on life. Unfortunately, happiness does not have its own aisle at shops and never will.