Freedom and Individuality in Brave New World
Stories are popular when they enable audiences to escape from reality for a bit. Fiction is unique because it can tell a story while also making appoint. In Aldous Huxley's novel, Brave New World, we have an entertaining story as well as social commentary. The novel's significance lies in its ability to explore several complex, social issues stemming from a thoroughly conditioned society. Huxley uses realistic characters, such as the Savage, to caution us of the dangers of a becoming a society that acquiesces control to the government, becoming a victim of advanced technology and counterfeit happiness. In this kind of society, freedom is a myth and citizens are happy only because their minds are numb. This type of society may sound far-fetched but the reality is that it could emerge in the very society we live in today through a powerful government infiltrating all aspects of life slowly and under the guise of helping the people. The government makes freedom and its ally, individuality, appear wrong and encourage citizens to avoid thinking of them. Concepts like God and subjects of religion and poetry are rarely ever discussed so the people think they foreign and unimportant. These issues are real because the totalitarian government wants to remove all of the things that make humans human. Huxley's social criticisms become alarmingly uncomfortable as we witness the growth of our own government.
Individuality is one thing under attack in Brave New World. The most amazing thing is that the government has the people thinking they must trade something like individuality for protection and happiness. One way to do is by creating a caste system that separates people. Peopple begin to think differently about themselves and others when they feel different from them. In Brave New World, Alphas and Betas divide the society. Fitting in is extremely important because it gives individuals a sense of belonging. When people feel as though they fit in and are a part of some group, they are less likely to make trouble for themselves or the group. This system works well until someone decides they do not want to fit in. One individual that does not fit into this caste system is the Savage, who becomes an example of a character whose inner yearning to be free is alive and well. Bernard is another character who possesses the same longings. These men have a gut instinct that something is not right within their society and they speak out about it as much as they can. Their stories might have tragic conclusion but their messages ring strong and true.
The Savage becomes a major point of interest in Brave New World because of how he chooses to deal with the hand life deals to him. He symbolizes the characteristics of every free man and he represents humanity at its core. He is well-educated, he knows Shakespeare and he can communicate his thoughts and emotions coherently. Knowing Shakespeare gives the Savage an advantage that the others do not have because his worldview is broader than average. All of these things make him seem weird but also interesting at the same time. Shakespeare allows him to see things from a point-of-view that most would not consider. He understands suffering and chaos because he is able to see it from hamlet's point-of-view. He knows what society can be taught to tolerate when it constantly bombarded with the same things. He sees how people put up with difficult situations rather than attempt to get rid of them or find an alternative. He knows that success is difficult but it is worth the time it takes to reach. From Hamlet he knows life can be tough but that is no reason to give up. He tells the Controller, "Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them . . . But you don't do either" (Huxley 183). In this scene, we see how the Savage understands there is more to life than a string of simple days with no struggles. Life has its proverbial ups and downs and while the downs can be unsettling, it is the constant variety that keeps life moving and becoming stale. The Savage says the world needs "something with tears for a change" (183). Here he realizes that people do not feel enough emotion. They are like robots sometimes that only want to feel good. In addition, he realizes, "Nothing...
Brave New World Largely, the World State is able to control society through technology in this fiction, set in the year 2540, or for 632 years after the creation of the first Model T. car by American industrialist Henry Ford. This is the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre, a savage reservation in New Mexico, a Utopia, where no family life has existed for more than six centuries. Human life is
There will always be savages, and the attraction of savagery. Huxley wrote Brave New World as a warning. Today, in the age of test-tube pregnancy, genetic manipulation, powerful drugs and the mass media, it appears that his warning has gone unheeded and that America is on the road to the scientific utopia he describes. Certainly the world of the savages has been left behind, and for good reason. Modern Americans
Brave New World: Oh Wonder! That Has Such Similar People (to us) in it! Aldous Huxley is often cited as an architect of a society that is eerily prescient of our own future. "In a number of specifics Huxley's prophecies are tellingly accurate," writes literary critic Kirkpatrick Sale, such as "the ubiquity of sports, television in hotel and hospital rooms, a general ignorance of history," and "psychology and chemistry as important change
He also says that he wants to be more on his own, "not so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body" (90). Later, he tells her that he wants to "know what passion is... I want to feel something strongly" (94). The only way that Lenina can respond is by telling him that when the "individual feels, the community reels" (94). His feelings
Whatever happened you vanished, and neither you nor your actions were ever heard of again" (Orwell, 1949, p.168). Capitalism Principles of mass production are very clear in the novels. Huxley for instance, applied the idea of mass production in human reproduction, since the people has abandoned the natural method of reproduction. Mass production as the conventional feature of capitalism and Huxley's novel reinforces such. He talked about the requirement of the
George Orwell's last novel, 1984, was released in 1949. The world was still reeling from the effects of World War II and the Soviet Union was emerging as the next great threat to world security. That same year, the Western world watched as the Soviet Union exploded the first atomic bomb, sparking forty years of the Cold War. Supporters of capitalism and democracy quickly hailed the book as a warning
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