...Everyone dreams with the ridiculous idea of having a perfect world without problems, without suffer, without greed, and even with immortality, but what if we found what we were looking for, would it still be perfect. Many talented writers attempted to illustrate the opposite idea that people had about a perfect world because it would create sense into a broken society that just needed a little healing. Before it could be too late, Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World with dense dystopian characteristics that certainly painted some sort of dark image in the minds of readers about the type of world that they would face in a distant future. Dystopian novels essentially illustrate a futuristic world that seems perfect in the eyes of others, but...
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...Throughout Huxley’s novel, A Brave New World, the dystopian government’s control of the World State and the people within it is a recurring theme. The government has full control over people’s thoughts, reproduction, and love. In essence, the only part of humans they do not have control of is their movements. At the very beginning of the book, the reader learns that in the World State Hatching and Conditioning Centre, Delta babies were being taught to dislike flowers and books. “He waved his hand again, and the Head Nurse pressed a second lever. The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone. There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance. Their little bodies twitched...
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...‘The twentieth century has seen a rise in the appearance of a distinctive literary sub-genre, the dystopian or anti-utopian novel with dehumanisation as its dominant theme.” To what extent do ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ depict a dehumanised society? Both Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ certainly deny humanness to the characters in their novels. Kelman defines humanness as having two key attributes, identity and community. Dehumanisation occurs when these are removed from society. It is true that individuality is denied to citizens and although the community remains, it is subverted in order to fit the government ideal. It can therefore be said that dehumanisation occurs as people are denied and identity and the true meaning of community which is the perception that a person is part of an interconnected community of individuals. Dystopian literature serves to critique the current social and political conditions by looking at potential conditions. Both novels were written when the fear of growing totalitarian governments was present. The novels are a prediction of what may happen to society if this power grows worldwide. In 1946, Orwell wrote "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it." Around the time Huxley wrote ‘Brave New World’ there had been huge discoveries made in science and technology, Huxley took these and created a dystopia...
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...Analysing Dystopia in a “Brave New World” The concept of Dystopia in literature is a form of exploring various interpretations of a different world. Specifically, a dystopian text explores a domain in which a society and way of life may seem ideal (Utopia), yet within the text it is later revealed that the society remain mentally unprepared and incapable of sustaining order in their world. Most dystopian texts illustrate a world which has been resulted in the consequence of humanity and this is one of the main reasons it is regularly visited. It is a genre in which the dystopian texts frequently challenge the views and values of their current audiences. This is because they are judged and critiqued on their depiction of scenes and events that breach sensitive moral and ethical issues. What makes the genre so fascinating both to read and write is to remind ourselves of the capabilities of humanity and just how much we can impact a hypothetical world. It is also a way in which we can ponder the extremes we as a society can reach and reflect the possibilities of the very future of the human race. Another reason why the concept intrigues us is because dystopian texts are subconsciously thought to be renditions of hell. With Utopia being the impression of heaven or an ideal world, Dystopia corresponds as the opposite. These ideas are explored in Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian piece “Brave New World” [1932]. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley is considered a dystopian text due to its conception...
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...Zhang 1 ! Brave New World －the Nightmare of Dystopian Society The society in Brave New World is full of peace and harmony seemingly, but the inside of that is a dystopian society which is full of maladies that cannot be controlled. The inundation of human science and technology improves people’s living standard, but essentially, it covers up the weak and empty human’s mental world. The novel Brave New World was written in 1931 by the famous English novelist, Aldous Leonard Huxley. It describes a futuristic society that in 632 A.F in London, people are controlled by the World State, a new world which has a slogan “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY”. The marriage is forbidden, and babies are produced in an embryo factory. At the same time, the society is formed by five castes. Different levels people have their own different jobs. In the novel Brave New World, the World State reflects a dystopian society because it embraces an exploitative caste system, is morally bankrupt, and the citizens lack freedom and human dignity. The first reason why the World State reflects a dystopian society is because it embraces an exploitative caste system. In the new world, it has an extremely severe class system, which people are divided into five different castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. All of them are responsible to a different part of jobs in the state, like brain workers, labors, creators, and leaders. The Alpha embryos will become the leaders and thinkers, but the Epsilon embryos...
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...Futuristic Paradise? Or Innovative Hell? Novels written about the future have a utopian or dystopian feel about them, depending on the reader’s perspective. A technologically advanced society has both its pros and cons. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley shows how a futuristic society has both positives and negatives. The novel has a dystopian undertone to its “Civilized” society, where the citizens become ignorant followers of the stable State. In Brave New World, the Bokanovsky Process takes away the citizens chance to look differently from everyone else. “The Bokanovsky Process of producing thousands of genetically identical people provides each caste with its own identity.” (McGrath). The society is built for uniform men and women...
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...Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Brave New world is a dystopian novel written in England in 1931 and published in 1932 during the Modernism literary period. The setting of the novel is in London and New Mexico ruled under an imagined future one-world government called the World State. The World State of Brave New World is a totalitarian dystopia that uses technology to, deceive its citizens into loving their slavery. Dystopia is a society, in this case the World State, that is an imaginary society organized to create ideal conditions for human beings, eliminating hatred, pain, neglect, and all of the other evils of the world. Huxley wrote Brave New World as a dystopian novel due to the rise of technology and science in the 1930s, focusing on the totalitarianism evils (meaning centralized or dictatorial). Huxley imagined a future of a totalitarian state where there is no such thing as freedom of anything and happiness was forced through manipulation, called conditioning in the novel. When Huxley wrote Brave New World, it was just a little over a decade since World War I. During this time, totalitarian states were popping up in the Soviet Union and Fascist parties were gaining power in Europe. Also, there were advancements in science, technology, and the relationship between the two as the world became more industrialized. Aldous Huxley was born in Surrey, England, on July 26, 1894, to a well-known family of scientists, writers, and teachers deeply rooted in England’s literary...
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...the dystopian future described by Huxley in “Brave New World,” and not the world described in Orwell’s “1984.” He does an excellent job proving facts and disturbing anecdotes, but he lacks showing the audience an opposing viewpoint. Despite this he is able to clearly show is agreement, by proving emotion supported by fact. Postman is able to connect with his audience through his credentials. The student feels that Postman shows a dangerous path that American Culture may be on, and is able to provide a warning to those who listen to his speech. Analysis of Neal Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” “What is dangerous about television is not it’s junk. Every culture can absorb a fair amount of junk, and, in any case, we do not judge a culture by its junk but by how it conducts its serious public business. What is happening in America is that television is transforming all serious public business into junk.” (Postman, 1984, p. 2) In his speech, "Amusing Ourselves to Death," Neil Postman, Columbia University graduate, and one time chair of the Department of Culture and Communication, made the point that American culture is headed for a culture like that described in Adlus Huxley's "Brave New World," and not the culture described in George Orwell's, "1984." He described the world imagined in 1984 as a place where there were no books, and where the people are prisoners to the government that controls them. In contrast, Mr. Postman describes the culture in "Brave New World...
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...“Community. Stability. Identity.” These three words are the foundation of the dystopian world created by author Aldous Huxley in his novel Brave New World. In this novel, Huxley creates a society known as the World State in which individuals are created and designed to play a specific role in society. Much of the way the society is built reflects the philosophy of Karl Marx. Huxley creates this new world to ironically mirror the ideas of Marxism in how it can ensure social stability. Or can it? Brave New World was written in 1932 during a time with no economic stability or security and after the Industrial Revolution where most of the workforce consisted of cheap labor within factories. It was a time where wealth was distributed only to those...
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...In Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, a dystopian society clouds the minds of its inhabitants. In fact, the entire novel is bustling with characters who are eager to follow the rules of the society because they are forever afraid of the repercussions they would encounter if they do not. This eagerness has gone to the extreme to the point where the individuals are following rules out of lack of knowledge of the truly moral options that are not provided. In dystopian societies like the one in this novel, the detrimental effects of escapism can be widely discussed to show the impact the rules have on the people and eventually the impact the people have on the rules. Once one looks deeper into the complex hierarchy and mechanisms of such a...
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...A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a dystopian novel of the early 1930s, gives a new definition to a functioning society. Throughout this novel, characters are not allowed to have an individual thought process, as they thought it could be dangerous to society. As you read, Bernard is the only character born in the "New World" that does not fit within societal norms, no matter what he tries to do. In the book, you can see that Bernard is not the only socially outcast person, as John the Savage, Linda's son, is too. Literary perspectives such as social class, gender, and feminist that are main supplements to this story. This dystopian society is separate from the outside lands or known as "savage lands." The "new world" is based on conditioning...
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...Scientism and Technocracy in Brave New World Introduction Brave New World is well recognized as a dystopian novel, in which Aldous Huxley satirically criticized scientism and technocracy. In this new world, science and technology was paramount. It dominated all aspects of human life. Humans were mass produced in laboratory and factories; human moral value were moulded by sleeping teaching; human emotions were controlled by soma. The overuse of science and technology reduced humans to one-dimensional man without individuality and the ability of critical thinking. Human beings were used as tools for political and economic purposes. The thesis is to study scientism and technocracy, the "improper application of science to human life", from two aspects: the interference with human physical life and the elimination of human spiritual life. Scientism and Technocracy Scientism, according to Zhu Wang, is "an excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and technology to solve all human problems including spiritual crisis" (194). It is "the authority of natural sciences, dominating all aspects of human life and rejecting religion, philosophy, art, and literature" (194). In Brave New World, Huxley depicted a dystopian society to condemn the excessive use of science and technology which eliminated human individuality and civilization. He pointed out in his Complete Essays Vol.6 that science was "the reduction of multiplicity to unity….the theoretical reduction...
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...There are obvious characteristics that each dystopian work shares on some level. To begin with, some manner of propaganda is used to control the inhabitants of the given society. Information, independent thought, and most importantly, an individual’s personal freedom is severely restricted- the population must conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are wicked concepts. There is usually a figurehead or a comparable concept that is worshipped by the populace. Citizens are perceived, whether they truly are or not, to be under constant surveillance by the authorities. There is also a strong sense of nationalism and citizens have a fear of the outside world and those that are outside their bubble. The society is generally stratified socially, economically, and politically causing a majority of inhabitants to live in a dehumanized state. For almost everyone except the protagonist, the society is a perfect utopian world. The melting away of this illusion is the journey a dystopian novel usually takes the reader. I can see these echoes of similarity between We and the many other great works of dystopian science-fiction such as Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and, for this discussion, Orwell‘s novel 1984. Both stories depict a post-apocalyptic world that has come into existence after a nuclear war has realigned the all of the previous geographic, political and social boundaries of the “old world”. Both stories are told by a government bureaucrat of sorts...
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...Would people be able to achieve a perfect society or should government be the one who controls everyone’s happiness? In Brave New World, Huxley proposes that a perfect society can be achieved through control, however, readers come to the understanding that the characters in the book have no individuality and cannot obtain a perfect society through the government’s control. The use of soma, a government supplied drug, is a factor that adds to creating virtual peace and happiness for the characters in the book. The government trying to control everyone to think the same through the use of eugenic science and soma, is what creates a utopian society and adds to no one being individual in the book Brave New World. Discrimination on Individuality...
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...Both Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell's 1984 predict similar totalitarian government styles for the near future of mankind. These novels portray excessive control and oppression from the government to their people. The protagonists from these novels, John the Savage (John) and Winston Smith, are outcasts from the totalitarian society. Their contributions to these books offer incredible insight to the horrors and seemingly helpless rebellion against an oppressive world state. John is Huxley’s protagonist who enters the story a little later than in normal stories in Brave New World. John was born in a exiled reserve outside of the mainstream world state. He grew up fully acknowledging that he is an outcast and shows that he wants to embrace...
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