Stereotypes In Brave New World

As our world becomes seemingly smaller and a cultural melting pot due to immigration, the issues surrounding introduction of a less dominant culture into a more dominant culture is an ongoing issue. Stereotypes and judgement plague these individuals, and make adjusting to a new society incredibly difficult. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s critically acclaimed speech The Danger of a Single Story explores the social climate in which African immigrants in the United States live in. It tackles the problems with the danger of presenting a single truth of one group of people, through the perpetuation of stereotypes and judgement. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley a future in which everyone is identical, and genetically engineered is dealt with. It details

with how outsiders are treated in a so-called utopian society when they deviate from the norm. Both Brave New World and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s speech, The Danger of a Single Story provide insight on the struggles of being an outsider when adjusting to a new culture.

This is identified through the judgement that is passed upon minorities, remaining resilient in the face of adversity, and the importance of literature providing liberation to minority cultures, which makes their reader/audience more aware, and understanding of cultural differences.

In the two texts, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and The Danger of A Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, it is explained that preconceived notions of one's identity from a singular trait lead to lasting judgement from the majority culture. As explored in Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World, the entrance of a savage, a cultural outsider, results in great ordeal. This is singularly due to the nature of the cultural outsiders appearance. “Bloated, sagging, and among those firm youthful bodies, those undistorted faces, a strange and terrifying monster of middle- agedness” (Huxley ##). Immediately, and solely due to their first judgement, the outsider is alienated and set apart from everyone else in the society, and more importantly, is assumed to not be apart of a civilized culture. These judgements create difficulty in fitting in for the minority individual, despite coming

from a society of the same species. Similarly in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s speech, The Danger of A Single Story, Adichie is set apart as an immigrant upon her arrival in the United States because of a sole characteristic, just like the Savage in Huxley’s Brave New World. However, in this instance, instead of age, it is because of the colour of her skin. Adichie’s peers unconsciously decided that because of her identity as an “African”, she was entirely different. In University, her “American roommate was shocked by (her). She asked where (she) had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when (she) said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. She asked if she could listed to what she called "tribal music". She assumed that (she) did not know how to use a stove.” (Adichie 2009). Blaming the colour of her skin, the majority culture assumed that she couldn’t speak English. They made a uneducated first, and lasting judgement that she did not belong in the dominant culture. Ultimately, in both instances of the literature being evaluated, the majority culture fails to realize that the outsider in question regardless of physicality, is simply a human. Both pieces of literature suggest that humans are predisposed to the passing of judgement on those who are different. This inherent predisposition is what can be held responsible for the overall theme of seemingly unsolvable dissonance between societies with different cultures.

However, in order to survive the judgement that is passed, the individuals at the center must be resilient.

In a cultural context, resilience is seen as the ability to not give into the judgement of others, and continue to live truthfully, and representing the values and beliefs of their culture despite opposition. In Brave New World, resilience is demonstrated through the cultural newcomer, John’s, ability to ignore the cultural norms of the society. “The Savage,” wrote Bernard, “refuses to take soma, and seems much distressed because of the woman Linda, his (mother), remains permanently on holiday. It is worthy of note that, in spite of his (mother’s) senility and the extreme repulsiveness of her appearance, the Savage frequently goes to see her and appears to be much attached to her (Huxley ##). Due to the traumatic nature of the situation, John, the Savage, could have easily taken part in the drug induced happiness and ignored his mother, something that the society would have encouraged. Instead, he continued to do what he felt was right based on his cultural beliefs, with resilience and strength. Similarly in The Danger of A Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is forced to show resilience from the constant belittling of those to her culture in her novel work. “The professor told me that my characters were too much like him, an educated and middle-class man. My characters drove cars. They were not starving. Therefore they were not authentically African” (Adichie

2009). The words of this individual insinuate that there is a certain criteria that makes someone part of “civilized society” However, when the author stayed resilient to the blatant ignorance of the majority culture, a difference was made of the lives of the people in Lagos. These people felt inspired by the story of people who shared the same culture. The people in the books were characters that the people of Lagos could relate to. “Here was a woman, part of the ordinary masses of Nigerians, who were not supposed to be readers. She had not only read the book, but she had taken ownership of it and felt justified in telling me what to write in the sequel (IBID). In both texts show that resilience comes from not conforming to a certain list of traits that would be assumed of one culture. For example, Brave New World, not taking soma, and being emotionally attached to a mother makes you a savage, and in The Danger of a Single Story, being uneducated, lower class, and hungry makes you “African”. In contrast however, Huxley’s novel argues that individual fulfillment is found from being resilient to the norms of one culture, Adichie’s argues that resilience comes from enlightening a group of disenfranchised people.

Ultimately, the resolution to cultural misunderstanding can be found in both texts through literature. In the two pieces, literature provided an understanding for the opposing culture. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, provides the narrative that Helmholtz, a member of the “civilized society”, after reading the works of Shakespeare finally understands something that the majority culture worked so hard against: the ability to feel and understand emotion. “I feel,” he said, after a silence, as though I were just beginning to have something to write about. As though I were beginning to be able to use that power (Huxley, ##). Reading Othello, as well as Romeo and Juliet, helped Helmholtz understand what was causing the tension between the two cultures entirely. Helmholtz now understood love, sadness, anger, and real happiness. However, in The Danger of a Single Story, there is a slight difference. Rather than literature providing understanding for the majority culture towards the minority cultures views and beliefs, it does the opposite. The texts shows that due to the fact that literature surrounding the majority culture is so readily available, there are no misconceptions about the society. Misconceptions only occur because there are no educational resources surrounding the minority culture. “And now, this is not because I am a better person than that student, but, because of America's cultural and economic power, I had many stories of America. I had read Tyler and Updike and Steinbeck and Gaitskill. I did not have a single story of America.” (Adichie 2009) Ultimately, both texts prove the importance that literature has on providing liberation for minority cultures in order to break barriers and the cycle of misunderstanding.