Power Of Words In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

As Aldous Huxley said in his book Brave New World, “words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” Aldous Huxley realizes in Brave New World, a book about psychological manipulation, that although words can be harmless, regular, everyday words, they also have the power to pierce through and stick with people forever. He is saying that words can educate, motivate, and persuade people to act in ways that they normally wouldn’t because they “pierce through” people. Throughout history, words have been used to make people act in unwonted ways. Words have an amazing ability to help people achieve amazing accomplishments, however, they also have the ability to ruin people’s lives.

Hitler, for example, took over and convinced a country to do terrible deeds by using words. He was able to do this by saying certain words and saying them in a way that convinced and motivated people act in ways that they thought before to be morally wrong. We also elect our presidents in the US based off of what words they say and we agree with. The entire country watches our politicians give speeches and talk in debates to decide who they should vote for to the leader of the United States. We rely on what words our politicians say and we allow them to convince us just by the words that they use. Another example of words changing someone’s life is when a coach tells an athlete that he/she isn’t skilled enough to play on their team or at the level they coach at. The words that they use to tell the athlete why they aren’t skilled enough motivates them to work harder everyday. Then, when the athlete finally reaches their goal, they can say that they reached their goal because the words from the coach that motivated them. Thus, we as people give words so much power in the world, whether they impact a single person’s life or even influence an entire country that ends up changing the world