Category: Brave New World

Essay on Conflicts in ‘Brave New World’

The question is would you ever hide the truth from a friend, relative, or relationship? Would you sacrifice your happiness for the truth? Or would you sacrifice the truth for happiness? If you had the option to create a world based on lies for the benefit of peace and happiness, would you? Aldous Huxley created a world of his own, that highlights the constant battle between truth and happiness, titled Brave New World. He emphasizes his opinion that one cannot achieve both truth and happiness at the same time without being tainted. Georgia Hannifey further highlights this conflict about today’s society and how Brave New World is a clear representation of where our society is heading.

Brave New World, published in 1932, is an unsettlingly sterile and meticulous society based on the future that revolves around the idea of totalitarianism. Brave New World expresses conflict strongly through Huxley’s sophisticated and controversial depiction of his vision of the forthcoming world. With the constant relation to hypnopaedia in the novel, readers begin to adopt an opinion around the methods of this new society. In the novel citizens are taught principles such as; sex is a recreation, drugs (soma) are good, and imbibing in these are both necessary and for the greater good. However, as the book unfurls, these principles become more contradicting. The savage in the novel explains that “one believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them” (Page 207). If people were forced to believe that their actions are primarily their own and within reason, then are they not being deprived of the truth? The leaders of the Brave New World society withhold information from every being they control to keep peace and stability in the civilization.

Many people in today’s society are unaware of events and incidents that occur due to the disconnectedness of the world. Governments today, similar to the leaders in Brave New World, are one of the causes of this disconnection. With these critical people, it is often viewed in society that their roles give them the right to suppress information from the general populace. However, after many years, files have been discovered that have withheld topics such as John Major’s visit to Oman and Saudi Arabia in 1993, immigration rules, and weapon sales to Middle East countries. This information that was withheld resulted in the lack of truth from instances such as terrorism, national threats, and government corruption. By doing this the government is also depriving the world of knowledge to keep us happy. And if so, are we not living in this totalitarian world that Aldous Huxley wrote about? However, what if this conflict of truth versus happiness was reversed? If it were rather happiness versus truth? One of the savages defiantly states, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy,’ (Page) therefore stating he wants to know the truth. Therefore, it is asked again would you wish to live in ignorance for the luxury of happiness, or would you face the unforgiving realities that may confront you?

In the book, humans are engineered to be accustomed to how they live. The book highlights this through not being able to do certain things because they are engineered to think some of them are wrong, similar to how we believe certain things like lies, murder, and hate are wrong in today’s society. Mustapha Mond says, “We are not our own any more than what we possess is our own. We did not make ourselves; we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We are not our masters.” This quote shows the struggle of living in a world under the rule of a government that lies to its citizens. The book’s relevance in today’s society is shown through the constant lack of choice in our actions. In contemporary society, we are held back from doing things because of how we are brought up, all different countries around the world have different beliefs and systems that they follow, similar to the book. A study by the Urban Child Institute shows how the way a child is brought up, and where they live, can affect long-term development. “The home environment can even affect a child’s brain development. … children who grow up poor are more likely than other children to drop out of high school. Therefore, the book has a clear resemblance to the world we live in, consequently showing its relevance and how it is beneficial for people to indulge in.

Humans are often faced with choosing between being sincere or mendacious. If and when you are faced with this option, which would you choose? If you had the option to create a new “ideal” world controlled by lies, would you? Or would you continue with the world we live in? One of war and honesty? Where you are free to live with an opinion and entirely within the truth? Aldous Huxley reveals the truth within his novel surrounding truth and happiness. He states that “that is the secret of happiness and virtue, liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.” This battle between truth and happiness that is prominently displayed in Brave New World clearly expresses the relevance that this novel presents in today’s culture. Therefore, the question arises once again, would you sacrifice your happiness for the truth? Or would you sacrifice the truth for happiness?

Essay on Ford in ‘Brave New World’

Aldous Huxley uses perversion in his book Brave New World to successfully admonish present society about its growing interest in technology and stability. The setting takes place in a futuristic society, The World State, that worships Henry Ford because of the assembly line. Mustapha Mond is the controller who executes all rules and regulations for the people. He creates a society that functions around a state motto: Community, Identity, and Stability. These prime goals motivate how people spend their everyday lives. Community is accomplished because of the “everyone belongs to everyone” principle. Identity is shown through the five caste system. Stability extends from conditioning and an excessive amount of restrictions. These principles create the perfect Utopia, but they are the reason for problems evolving throughout the novel.

Mustapha Mond uses the community as a component of the motto to occupy and discipline the citizens. The community itself in the World State is portrayed ironically. Each individual is conditioned to believe they are happy about all aspects of the World State. Distractions and entertainment leave the people with full contentment. For example, sporting events are meant to bring a community of similar people together. Instead, the World State uses sports as a way to keep the economy running. Additionally, sex is shown to play an important role in the community. Monogamous relationships are forbidden and love is never correlated with intimacy. Money and sex are the focuses of their lives where “Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do without anyone” (Huxley 91). This quote from Lenina (female protagonist) demonstrates the high priority the community holds over everyone. Social castes descend from Alphas, the smartest and most beautiful people, to the Epsilons, society’s laborers and consumers. And relationships are defined as how many people can sleep together in one week. However, conditioning causes every person to feel like they are part of a much larger, ideal economic and social operation. This helps Huxley prove his argument that the concern for foolproof systems leads to no emotional socialization and priorities for becoming rich.

Identity is used as a component of the motto to create an easily influenced race and to teach everyone to conform. Society is divided into five castes from highest to lowest: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Alphas and Betas are more complex because they do not undergo the Bokanovsky Process. This process produces thousands of genetically identical twins, and it only applies to Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Each caste has its own identity like jobs, clothing, intelligence, attractiveness, etc. But there is no individuality among each person. Twins are the basis of society’s population, which contradicts the reason for identity but makes it easier to be influenced. For example, the same surnames are used more than once, “…the two thousand million inhabitants of the plant had only ten thousand names between them, the coincidence was not particularly surprising” (Huxley 58). If individuals have identical genes and are raised in the same environment, then there’s nothing to distinguish one from another. In the nurseries, children are subjected to hypnopaedia, or sleep-conditioning, as well as electric shock when they touch certain things. They are taught to find the idea of individual parents repulsive; they learn to hate books and nature and only desire to engage in consumerism. Each caste is conditioned the same way so they recite the same platitudes and beliefs in adulthood. Identity among the people does not exist, and they are taught to not question it. This helps prove how technology in the future will be abused to create a perfect society. Individuality will no longer exist and identity will be easily influenced.

Mustapha Mond uses stability as a component of the motto to eradicate history and use drugs as a form of control. The immense cost of stability is the contradiction itself. Mond deprived the people of religion, history, art, literature, emotions, and personal development. The only religion allowed in the World State is praising Henry Ford through a Solidarity Service. Any form of history was hidden because the people would simply not understand it. Literature was a large expense because, with reading, people would start to think deeply about their situations and start revolutions. Emotions are deliberately taken away in hindsight through Soma. Whenever something that seems the least bit problematic arises, Soma is taken to ease any feelings other than happiness. This eliminates any problem-solving and rids of overall satisfaction from overcoming difficulties. The detriment of stability is defined as “You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art’ (Huxley 226). In this line, Mustapha Mond responds to John Savage’s protests that Shakespeare’s literature is better than anything that results from society’s emotional engineering. Mond agrees that John has a point, but he claims that in this society, happiness is the greatest good, and great literature can only come from turmoil and unhappiness. To achieve the greatest amount of happiness possible, civilized society has sacrificed art. This maintains Huxley’s argument that stability creates uneasy sacrifices. Stability is designing the pathway to an unstable, unhealthy society for the future.

Advancement in new technology is consistently made for the sole purpose of stabilizing all of society. Huxley performed that statement by creating a place where the purposes of society became its destruction. Community needs connections, feelings, and entertainment other than consumerism. Identity belongs to each person, not groups of them who all look alike. Individuality is progressed through differences, and that does not occur in a place where everyone is conditioned to do the same thing. Lastly, stability needs emotions, determination, and history/literature. Presently, society is on the path to destruction because priorities are not set straight. Technology needs to be used as an assistant in good progression instead of the elimination of humanity.

Essay on Consumerism in ‘Brave New World’

The document under study is an excerpt from Brave New World, a book penned by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. It is a portentous novel that foresees the future. My essay will fall into two parts. I will first focus on the themes present in the excerpt. I will then show how technology illustrates these themes.

First of all, one of the main themes of Brave New World is personal identity. In this world, individuals have lost their identity. Thus, the lower class is cloned by the ‘bokanovsky process.’ ‘One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress.’ So, on the one hand, people are genetically identical, but on the other hand, they are also trained to accomplish the same tasks, and they have the same colors of clothes, and the same feelings. Thus, personal identity has disappeared because ‘everyone belongs to everyone’. This quote demonstrates that they are taught to be against individualism. In this state, each one acts like the others. Moreover, they are expected to do the same activities and games. However, Bernard seems to be different from the rest of the characters. First, he has a physical appearance different from the other alphas. It does not seem well integrated in this state. This could be a way that Huxley employs to prove that, show that personal identity is very important in society. Another major theme in Brave New World is consumerism. Indeed, goods are never repaired, and they are always replaced by new goods, as it is written ‘ending is better than mending’. Consumption and production keep society stable. The more stitches, the less riches; the more stitches – Thus, the more a person restores, the less she will have to buy, thus reducing the inflow of money into the socio-economic system. It keeps people busy and focused only on what they need to do. However, this does not lead individuals to think for themselves. They do exactly what is expected of them: they produce and consume. Since their childhood, they are taught to consume. Henry Ford was a famous designer of Ford cars. Therefore, Fordism is a method of large-scale production, especially the production of the Ford T. Huxley was inspired by this method of overproduction in Brave New World. However, it is not cars but humans that are produced in this state. Huxley warns us of the dangers of over-consumption. Moreover, religion has been substituted by consumerism. This ensures the happiness of everyone. ‘Every man, woman, and child [is] obliged to consume so much per year’ only in the interest of the industry. In this way, by keeping the people busy, the state monitors and influences people’s thinking. According to me, another main theme of this extract is totalitarianism, control of the society. This state monitors everything that individuals make and condones no opposition. Thus, people no longer have freedom. We can compare Brave New World with 1984 by George Orwell. Thus, 1984 describes a totalitarian society where the government watches the people through fear, hatred, and lack of hope… And, there are posters everywhere that say ‘Big Brother is watching you’. However, in this excerpt from Brave New World, the people seem to be monitored by happiness, and they are provided the drug ‘soma’. As the Director says ‘That is the secret of happiness and virtue-liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.’ Another important theme is the loss of morality. Therefore, the religion that helps to instill moral values in human beings has been eradicated in this world. Bernard seems to be distinct from the rest of the community. Moreover, he does not seem to be integrated into society, so we can note the theme of being alone

Then, technology is very prominent in Brave New World. So technology is used at a very high level. Thus, in this state, technological advances have transformed society, it no longer has freedom, technology also allows the creation of humans who later will be controlled and prevented from thinking. It is a technology that teaches humans morality but not at any time, when they are asleep: ‘The D.H.C. halted and, bending over one of the little beds, listened attentively.’ Thus, the government provides citizens with only the information it wants. This is proof that technology controls people’s minds. Moreover, in this world, everything is created around technology, but it hurts people. Thus, individuals are manufactured and their actions are regulated. Moreover, technology substitutes for personal emotion. So the nurse would push a button, and everyone would start crying. Besides, they even play, and entertain themselves with technology such as ‘Electromagnetic golf’. In addition, people are formed, elevated in ‘test tubes’ instead of being formed in their mother’s body. This highlights how crucial technology is. Since their formation, they have been controlled. Technology is a perfect example of the themes mentioned above.

Essay on Fordism in ‘Brave New World’

This book happens in the year 632 After Ford, in this general public a large portion of human advancement is a piece of one network called the World State. Innovation is so good in class it can deliver collect lines made out of people. These are then mentally programmed to esteem just what the Government requests, consistent bliss, utilization, and blow-outs. Soma, a medication, is frequently used and encouraged to be taken to consistently be satisfied. Some high-class psychologist named Bernard Marx started imagining that, not at all like the remainder of the populace, he is a person who is interested in what the world from the outside resembles. Bernard brings his adoration intrigue, Lenina, requesting that she go with him to the savage reservation where the last survivors from an old society exist. She is suspicious of Bernard as he is one of the rare sorts of people who don’t take the medication Soma. At the point when Bernard and Lenina land at the booking they meet Linda and her child John who are ‘savages’. Even though savages John is accomplished as he has understood Shakespeare. Bernard persuades John to come to England with them, and in the process, John experiences passionate feelings for Lanina. When endeavoring to pass on his emotions Lanina can’t comprehend his sentiments, rather stripping to have intercourse. John loses control and the pimp slaps her and tempests out of his condo to see his withering mother. In the clinic, Linda passes on after being calmed with Soma and John loses it, considering the medication a peril to the individual’s freedom. Bernard and John are taken to Mustapha Mond, head chief of the network. Because he tends to make him diverse, Bernard is banished and sent to an island to live with other people who are off like him. John is kept for Mustapha to perceive how he grows, anyway, John disconnected himself tired of the framework. In the wake of discovering solace in his isolation, John whips himself to recuse himself, this calls the consideration of the individuals as they appear at his home to watch the ‘appear’. A group shapes outside his home, with Lenina included, John gets sporadic and whips her. The group takes the medication soma and has a blowout and even John joins. In the wake of awakening from this medication-prompted daze, John feels like after all there is nothing he can do to free himself and end his life.

In Brave New World convictions are denied in selection for what is Fordism. Things like religion, history, workmanship, and feelings are torn from human involvement with the snapshot of their creation. Carl Marx said Religion is the narcotic of the majority, anyway in this book Soma is the religion for individuals. Offering satisfaction, encouragement, and consolation, similar to religion. Indeed, even Mustapha calls it Christianity without tears. In a spot like the World state adage is network, character, and strength. Individuals like Fernand and John are dangerous to the government because their feelings aren’t under wraps. Here and there the tragic future depicted by Huxley might be contrasted with those of Ray Bradbury; both are viewed as improper by the creators since they don’t esteem opportunity. Huxley may locate the world especially alarming because the characters are disallowed from free reasoning, yet don’t have the tendency or resources to think openly. The issue is that people experience difficulty defeating our apparent distinction and joining into an agreement which may expect us to forfeit parts of our opportunity to turn into an all the more dominant species. I accept that Huxley’s reality accomplishes a degree of association which numerous administrations have attempted to make.