Aldous Huxley’s compelling futuristic novel, Brave New World, takes place in an elaborately constructed society whose citizens have their intellect highly conditioned from birth to be entirely “jolly” [as stated in the text] throughout life merely through superficial fulfillment that the government is able to provide. However, the perpetually gleeful yet blind citizens are stripped of their dignity, compassion, values and morals-ultimately losing their human emotions without the realization that they’ve lost such an important aspect in life. When problems arise, the drug soma is a quick ‘solution’ to the distress it brings. An outcast to the new society, Bernard Marx struggles through his life, seeking to understand why his peer’s, …show more content…
The novel states how the Savage weeps uncontrollably at the realization his mother has passed, and the nurse in the presence of this is absolutely disgusted and appalled by the slight scene he was causing. She remarked that he was indecent for doing such a thing as crying over someone. This text substantiates that when the mother of the Savage passes, his intuitive reaction is unreservedly repulsive to the strictly-conditioned nurse, as he shows solicitude for another being. The nurse in Brave New World silently comments, “this disgusting outcry-as though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that! It might give them [children going through conditioning process] the most disastrous ideas about the subject, might upset them into reacting the entirely wrong way.”According to Huxley’s expressive text, conditioned citizens are so indefinitely invested in the hollow happiness the government supply’s, they lose appreciation, respect, sympathy, attachment and compassion for others. Thus, due to the ultimately reconstructed mindset of society, human lives no longer have purpose or significance, and because the constantly happy society is causing this, it is definite that life isn’t supposed to be incessantly
Huxley, in his novel Brave New World, sets up an entire society that relying on mass production, mass consumption, and instant gratification. This immediacy and efficiencies creates a world of mindless drone humans skating through life
In Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World” the world has fallen into an authoritarian order, of which control is kept through constant distraction and suppression of information. Though through this remains communities of “savages” who reject the new world order and have continued more traditional human life in reservations. It is in one of the these reservations the Aldous Huxley introduces the character John, a foil to the society he is introduced to. This exile from the land and the ideologies of the home John once knew to the “brave new world” allows John to both learn about himself and gives him the ability to see the corruption within the world state. John is introduced in the novel as the protagonist, Bernard Marx, and his female companion,
Average World State citizens suffer from overstimulation created by hedonism or consumer-based products because of the World State’s promotion and subsequent addiction to sensory overload. Additionally, the effects are present even in environments that contain no overstimulating qualities, such as Lenina’s situation where she desperately covets consumption and stimulation from a radio in a non-stimulating environment. Hence, Huxley warns readers about the addiction to overstimulation caused by consumerism, that even without stimulation and alone in their own emotions or thoughts people continue to crave materialistic products. When Lenina decides who to date, she recalls her time at the North Pole away from the overstimulation around material products at the World State, recalling: “The trouble
This idea of the machine controlling every aspect of people's lives and pushing them away from other people is similar to the government's influence over addiction and pleasure in Brave New World and is further explored in Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle, wherein Debord argues that the modern world is characterized by the creation of artificial desires (like Soma) and the promotion of consumerism which is again similar to the World State. This leads to a society where people are unable to find meaning and purpose in their lives. As Debord writes, "The spectacle is the sun that never sets over the empire of modern passivity" that the government's control over addiction and pleasure creates a society of passivity (Debord, 17). In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the government's use of addiction and pleasure as a means of control has significant social implications, leading to a society where individuality is suppressed, human
Marxism is the idea of social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. Social processes are the way individuals and groups interact, adjust and reject and start relationships based on behavior which is modified through social interactions. Overall marxism analyzes how societies progress and how and society ceases to progress, or regress because of their local or regional economy , or global economy. In this case, Marxism’s theory applies to the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, where a society where mass satisfaction is the instrument utilized by places of power known as the Alphas in order to control the oppressed by keeping the Epsilons numb, at the cost of their opportunity to choose their own way of life. Marx thinks that an individual had a specific job to do in order to contribute to their community and that is the only way to do so; There is no escaping your contribution either.
Brave New World.print), is a quote that allows yet another carefree, ignorant attitude of the society to remain, encouraging everyone to have as much fun as possible without the mention of consequences; rules of the World State are strict, and they take away the excitement in people’s lives, but the strict rules leads to another source of fun-soma. Soma is a hallucinogen described as the ideal drug with the benefits of calming, surrealistic and a ten hour high with no side effects(Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World.print). The people of the World State have been encouraged and conditioned to love it. “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts...”(Huxley, Aldous.
In Aldous Huxley’s book, Brave New World, soma is an important part of the story and is mentioned a lot due to its importance and frequency in the plot. It also has relevance to current day society with the use of drugs for similar reasons. In Brave New World, drugs aren't just pretty common, they're distributed and encouraged by the government. The drug here is soma, a hallucinogen described as "the perfect drug," with all the benefits like calming, surrealistic, ten-hour long highs and none of those drawbacks like brain damage. The citizens of the "World State" have been conditioned to love the drug, and they use it to escape any moments of dissatisfaction.
Truth and happiness are two things people desire, and in the novel, an impressive view of this dystopia’s two issues is described. In this society, people are created through cloning. The “World State” controls every aspect of the citizens lives to eliminate unhappiness. Happiness and truth are contradictory and incompatible, and this is another theme that is discussed in “Brave New World” (Huxley 131). In the world regulated by the government, its citizens have lost their freedom; instead, they are presented with pleasure and happiness in exchange.
With community and identity, stability is supposed to be achieved, but the novel makes you question if stability is an actual thing that can happen in society. In Brave New World, many things are done to ensure stability, three of them being the tyranny of happiness, drugging the population, and the mass production of children. With these three factors, it is eerie how close Aldous Huxley came to predicting the impact of these in the future of society. First of all, the world state is obsessed with making people “happy”. They want everyone in society to be happy to ensure social stability.
In Aldous Huxley’s dystopia of Brave New World, he clarifies how the government and advances in technology can easily control a society. The World State is a prime example of how societal advancements can be misused for the sake of control and pacification of individuals. Control is a main theme in Brave New World since it capitalizes on the idea of falsified happiness. Mollification strengthens Huxley’s satirical views on the needs for social order and stability. In the first line of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, we are taught the three pillars on which the novels world is allegedly built upon, “Community, Identity, Stability" (Huxley 7).
The exponential population growth of the human species has created mass debate for centuries. There is a great speculation that involves the sustainability of the human species, along with other species, into the distant future. Over the years, as the numbers steadily rise the governments of several countries have made attempts to limit the exponential growth of the human race. Some scientists believe that the world will inevitably make the novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, a living reality. This is concerning because if the government dictates how the population increases, it will also dictate all other actions as well, stripping society of its individuality.
The utopian society in the Brave New World can be compared and contrasted between our contemporary society using individualism, community and the human experience. The fictional novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932, is about a utopian society where people focus stability and community over individuality and freedom, but an outsider is introduced to intervene with the operation of the utopian state. In the contemporary world, people need to show individuality in their communities in order to survive, and to be human, one must show emotion, which is the opposite in the Brave New World. Individualism is very important in the contemporary world, but in the utopian state, individuals are conditioned to be the same as everyone else. They do not know how to be themselves.
Throughout the novel, hypnopaedia and the use of soma are shown to be the main components to the society’s lack of individual identity. Soma, a drug sponsored by the government, is used by the citizens of the World State in order to suppress any emotions which make them feel somewhat uncomfortable. The use of soma leads to a society which lacks any understanding of real emotion, an important piece to the formation of an identity. While soma by itself is destructive, the effects of hypnopaedia are comparable to a “...liquid sealing wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally the rock is one scarlet blob” (Huxley 28). Hypnopaedia is a process which is used throughout childhood to result in adults that have the exact views the World Controllers want the citizens of particular castes to have.
When Huxley wrote the novel Brave New World he envisioned a world 600 years in the future. Although many of the things that Huxley writes about is very farfetched, other things are relatable, in fact some of them have already occurred. For example Huxley states that in the future we will have the ability to create children in test tube, modern day science has enabled us to come very close to that very same prediction. “The complete mechanisms were inspected by eighteen identical curly auburn girls in Gamma green, packed in crates by thirty four short legged, left-handed male Delta Minuses, and loaded into the waiting trucks and lorries by sixty three blue-eyed, flaxen and freckled Epsilon Semi Morons” (p.160). This is an example from the book about how they create the children.
In the novel, “Brave New World,” written by Aldous Huxley, the World State upholds a unique set of values to establish a perfect and stable society. Along with the motto “Community, Identity, Stability,” the government uses various techniques to manipulate every individual’s mind. Some are obvious, such as genetic engineering, social conditioning, mind-altering drugs, and several types of entertainment. The primary goal of this artificial world is to maintain happiness in order to prevent conflict and dissatisfaction. To certain criteria, sacrifices that the World State requires of its citizens aren’t a price worth paying to sustain social stability since citizens’ freedom and individuality are abandoned.