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Karl Marx Brave New World Analysis

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Power vs. Powerless Aldous Huxley connects his book, Brave New World, to Karl Marx’s principles. Karl Marx is a German philosopher that the class differences in society. He studied most specifically class differences, economic differences, cultural differences. Marx states that “The separate individuals form a class only insofar as they have to carry on a common battle against another class; otherwise they are on hostile terms with each other as competitors.”(Karl Marx) Marx believes that class conflict and difference is inevitable. However, in Brave New World, the class are separated to Alphas, Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilons. In this society, each class is conditioned differently. They are socially conditioned to be a functional society, where …show more content…

Epsilons are the working class. They usually work as a sewage worker, liftmen, and semi-morons. Epsilons have accepted that they need to work hard because they have to. Alphas are the ones who are in control. They are the intellectuals of the society. They have more power than everybody else. Alphas have gained this power by their jobs and clothing. However, those who are part of this society don’t know that. The Epsilons are conditioned to work harder than everybody else. However, for them, it is normal. Alphas help the Epsilons to convince the Gammas and Epsilons to accept their status. Brave New World exemplifies the attempt to control society by diminishing class struggle.
Huxley makes class differences clear; however, everybody in the society has to conditioned to feel that he/she is fine-that Epsilons need to work harder than the Alphas. In this state, nobody can feel jealousy of those in the higher classes. Epsilons do not need to feel wrath or jealousy over those in the higher levels. They believe that their level in the class strata is fair, due to social conditioning. Since birth, …show more content…

In Brave New World, Huxley shows how the society is being controlled when he writes, “‘...We condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufacture articles of transport. Hence these electric shocks”(Huxley 129). Everybody is being conditioned. They are being controlled. They have been controlled to the point that they can’t think for themselves. The Director makes sure that everyone that is lower than him need to conditioned the same. The society needs to be proud of the position in the society. Their position has to be fair. Everybody has a part in the society. Their part has been chosen since birth. And for those who try to think differently, they will be sent to Bernard Marx, who is a Alpha plus psychologist. Bernard will correct their mind by performing sleep therapy. Henry Ford wants everybody’s thoughts to be the same. To connect this idea to Marxism, social control limits their ideas. Their ideas can be a problem. If everybody starts thinking, they can create bad ideas, such as creating as revolting against the government. That is why the government has limited their thoughts, since birth.With everybody thinking the same, it will make everybody happy and create a stable environment. Hence, Huxley creates the society’s motto, “Community, Identity, Stability”(Huxley 1). They need

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Brave New World, a novel written by Aldous Huxley explores an utopian future where embryos are chemically engineered to fit in a certain class and soma suppresses negative feelings providing its captor with spurts of energy. The people living in this “new world” are born into different castes such as alphas, betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons. The alphas are the highest ranking people in the world state while the epsilons are the lowest ranking members and do all the jobs no one wants to do. This book is relevant today in the society in which we live. From relationships to technology, to economy many of the ideas and struggles in this novel have very much translated into our society today.

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In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the author utilizes distortion to bring forth the distaste the main character, Bernard, has of the dystopian society he lives in, and therefore address problems in the real world. Distortion is the exaggeration or misinterpretation of reality. Following the thoughts of Bernard lead to the exposure of the story’s distortion, because Bernard’s views match those of modern-day, 21st century ideals, while the people around him are trained in dystopian ideals. Huxley’s fictional London alters each individual's way of life through hypnopaedia and scientifically controlling human development.

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In Huxley’s book, there is a society called the World State, that is controlled with their different types of technology for example feelies, a theatre that broadcasts smells. “‘ If young people need distraction,

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Societal dysfunction, such as economic depression, provokes compelling fantasies, leaving individuals curious about “what ifs” and the possibility of astonishing alternate realities. Furthermore, fluctuations in social dynamics, like a sharp increase in the rise of unemployment and the establishment of friction amongst divided classes, create the ideal environment for new ideas and daring literature. Consequently, Aldous Huxley embodied the aforementioned passion for dysfunction during a time when society was exceedingly turbulent; these conditions lead to his creation of the novel Brave New World in 1931. Huxley 's work was a premonition for the future in relation to a powerful central government and complacent individuals.

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Bernard states this problem to Lenina when he proclaims. “How can I?’ he repeated meditatively. ‘No, the real problem is: How is it that I can’t?’ ” (Huxley, 91). Bernard has very little control over what he wants to do.

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Bernard Marx. Bernard is an exile from the beginning of the book. He is rumored to have had, “alcohol in his blood-surrogate,” (p. 46) which causes him to be small, ugly, and “stunted.” He is one of the highest members in this “civilized” caste system, an Alpha Plus. This means he’s one of the smartest and most evolved members of society.

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The utilize of technology in Brave New World highlights the theme of control because of the way Huxley presents the advanced technology. The residents of the World State are dependent upon artificially stimulated happiness or entertainment, and this “addicting mass culture” prompts the government’s desired impact for stability; as much as the World State agrees with science and advancement, the more they bastardize it because of its impacts of the soul and mind. Science can prompt humanity’s primordial need for individuality, and Mustapha Mond, the State Controller, believes individuality prompts instability. According to the World State, stability is the “primal and ultimate need” (Huxley 43). The World State utilizes what is useful from science but does not agree with science itself; it uses what it can to promote the stability it craves.

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Each in their respective order, they are all assigned a place in their society. Each being brainwashed to think that a sense of individualism isn’t nearly possible. Because of the technology wielded by the World State's leaders, each caste is pre-determined and humans are grown in a manner appropriate to their status; the lower the caste, the dumber and uglier the individual. When they are grown, the Alphas and Betas are groomed to think that interacting with the lesser groups would be diminish their social status. Class is yet another mechanism for stability and control on the part of the government.

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Huxley's ideas that our society is numbed by things that we love and that everyone is almost happy to be somewhat oppressed is almost too real. It is pretty easy to see and make connections after evaluating our society that we live in. I agree with Neil Postmans assertions claiming that Brave New World is most relevant to our society. One of Postman’s claims that i related to is “people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” this is expressed in the book by the simple quote “community, identity, stability”(1).

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Fortunately our society is a world of free thought, progressivism, and freedom. With that being said, Aldous Huxley’s fears of conditioning and conformity do not root back into the lack of individuality in our civilization that he foresaw. Huxley feared that our society would be filled with brain-washed and thoughtless beings who could never think for themselves. Today that is not the case. However, Huxley had a good reason to fear as his dystopian novel Brave New World, showed off depictions of what could happen if the world was as conditioned in a way that was written.

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Societal norms are a big issue in the story of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The story takes place in London, a society that is controlled by Mustapha Mond, a World Controller. Two characters, Bernard and Lenina, live in London where everything is conditioned and perfect. The main character, John the Savage, lives in a society that is the complete opposite.

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In the novel, the World State’s motto is “Community, Identity, and Stability” (Huxley 1). Nevertheless, in a dystopian society there is always a character that opposes the unethical government. In this case, it is Bernard Marx, a high class individual, yet out of the ordinary. He had his

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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.

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