Conformity and Individuality’s Conflict in Brave New World “To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.” This quote, by Theodore H. White, shows the struggle between the desire to conform to society or to be one’s own individual. In Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, the theme of power’s tendency to change one’s willingness to conform to society is shown. This is presented through the thoughts and actions of Bernard Marx, Linda, and John. The first way is the changes in the thoughts and actions of Bernard Marx. In the beginning Bernard sees himself as a being separate from society as he is of small stature and an Alpha Plus. …show more content…
John has always considered himself to be an outcast of society since the beginning when he was born, as most of the Savages within the Savage Reservation immediately excluded him and his mother, Linda due their light skin, light hair, and their other-worldly habits. On one occasion, John is supposed to go through an initiation ceremony with the other boys of the village when he was pulled out of the line, struck, and told “Not for the son of the she-dog,”. This is when John begins to feel the pain of being alone because he has been “driven out” (Huxley 136). When Bernard and Lenina visit the Reservation, John finds a companion in Bernard as Bernard sees himself as an outcast to society as well and John agrees to return to the World State with them. John finds himself in a confusing position as he is welcomed as new member because he is the only naturally birthed person that the people have ever seen and is even given the nickname of “The Savage” (158). But John struggles with his inner beliefs about sex. John is disgusted by the society’s impertinence with the details of sex and sexual relationships. After seeing a feely with Lenina, John tells her “I don’t think you ought to see things like that,” (169) and hastily drops her off at home and leaves. John also struggles with the easy-going, stress free aspect of the World State in which citizens are given soma to deal with their problems. After the drug leads to his mother’s death, John feels remorse and tries to convince the residents to throw their soma away but soon becomes angry at their ignorance and has an “intense overpowering hatred of these less than human monsters,” (212). Outraged at the unawareness of problems in the society after a discourse between himself and Mustapha Mond, John leaves London to find his own unhappiness within the forest. Admirers invade his privacy including Lenina who tries to visit him, but is attacked by a power-hungry John
Bernard Marx’s dislike for the oppressive World State is solely superficial. His outrage stems from his own personal sense of injustice- although he is an Alpha, he is an outsider. Emotionally, Bernard is an enigma to others. Physically, Bernard is thin and small; a complete juxtaposition to the other Alphas. These physical and emotional defects are the root of his feelings of separation to society, and his value of individualism and non-conformity. This point is exemplified on page 56, which explains ‘The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and
Adolf Hitler once said, “The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time…until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.” The motif of governmental control manipulates the individuals in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Society within Brave New World is conditioned to follow specific guidelines and to possess the same beliefs. The bureaucracy dominates the population of the New World socially, mentally, and physically. The motif of executive authority and domination assists in establishing characters, mood and atmosphere, and the additional theme of using technology to manipulate characters.
In the novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Huxley includes allusion, ethos, and pathos to mock the wrongdoings of the people which causes physical and mental destruction in the society as a whole. The things that happened in the 1930’s plays a big contribution to the things that go on in the novel. The real world can never be looked at as a perfect place because that isn't possible. In this novel, Huxley informs us on how real life situations look in his eyes in a nonfictional world filled with immoral humans with infantile minds and a sexual based religion.
In the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley creates a scenario where the government has control over the people and their ideas. Throughout the novel, we are shown the different methods and techniques the leaders utilize to control the lives of the people. After reading the story, we can point out similarities of government control from our world and the book. Huxley has a message for us about government power and what it could do to us.
Bernard, Lenina, and Linda all have unique characteristics that set them apart from the regular citizens of the World State Society. However, all three of them have unknowingly fallen into the conformities of the state’s maladaptive rules, preferably choosing to emanate the state’s values that do not fit their own characteristics. The World State’s guidelines and regulations pull all the citizens of the World State, including Bernard, Lenina, and Linda, into one lifestyle of living through a domino effect of conformity: the more people that conform, the more harder it is to resist the urge to conform with them. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New
Aldous Huxley’s repeated phrase and title “Brave New World” represents the climax of an unprincipled society in which technological advances changes the lives of many.
In Brave New World Aldous Huxley, creates a dystopian society which is scientifically advance in order to make life orderly, easy, and free of trouble. This society is controlled by a World State who is not question. In this world life is manufactured and everyone is created with a purpose, never having the choice of free will. Huxley use of irony and tone bewilders readers by creating a world with puritanical social norms, which lacks love, privacy and were a false sense of happiness is instituted, making life meaningless and controlled.
In Aldous Huxley’s novel a Brave New World, published in 1931, there are several attacks on society. Throughout this essay it will be seen what these problems were and if they were fixed. If the problems were fixed, it must be determined when they were. The primary focus is to answer whether we have changed for the better, women’s role in society and the social classes. In the end it will be obvious that a perfect society is impossible but we have made improvement.
Often individuals choose to conform to society, rather than pursue personal desires because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than create a new one. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, this conflict is explored. Huxley starts the story by introducing Bernard Marx, the protagonist of the story, who is unhappy with himself, because of the way he interacts with other members of society. As the story progresses, the author suggests that, like soma, individuals can be kept content with giving them small pleasure over short periods of time. Thus, it is suggested in the book that if individuals would conform to their society’s norms, their lives would become much
In the Sci-fi futuristic novel “Brave New World”, published in 1932, Aldous Huxley introduces the idea of the utopian society, achieved through technological advancement in biology and chemistry, such as cloning and the use of controlled substances. In his novel, the government succeeds in attaining stability using extreme forms of control, such as sleep teaching, known as conditioning, antidepressant drugs – soma and a strict social caste system. This paper will analyze the relevance of control of society versus individual freedom and happiness to our society through examining how Huxley uses character development and conflict. In the “Brave New World”, Control of society is used to enforce
Having been a somewhat of an outsider in his life, physically and mentally, Aldous Huxley used what others thought as his oddities to create complex works. His large stature and creative individuality is expressed in the characters of his novel, Brave New World. In crafting such characters as Lenina, John, Linda, Bernard, and Helmholtz, not to mention the entire world he created in the text itself, Huxley incorporated some of his humanities into those of his characters. Contrastly, he removed the same humanities from the society as a whole to seem perfect. This, the essence and value of being human, is the great meaning of Brave New World. The presence and lack of human nature in the novel exemplifies the words of literary theorist Edward Said: “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Huxley’s characters reflect the “rift” in their jarred reaction to new environments and lifestyles, as well as the remnant of individuality various characters maintain in a brave new world.
As man has progressed through the ages, there has been, essentially, one purpose. That purpose is to arrive at a utopian society, where everyone is happy, disease is nonexistent, and strife, anger, or sadness is unheard of. Only happiness exists. But when confronted with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, we come to realize that this is not, in fact, what the human soul really craves. In fact, Utopian societies are much worse than those of today. In a utopian society, the individual, who among others composes the society, is lost in the melting pot of semblance and world of uninterest. The theme of Huxley's Brave New World is community, identity, and stability. Each of these three themes represents what a Brave New World society needs
Several conflicting frames of mind have played defining roles in shaping humanity throughout the twentieth century. Philosophical optimism of a bright future held by humanity in general was taken advantage of by the promise of a better life through sacrifice of individuality to the state. In the books Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 clear opposition to these subtle entrapments was voiced in similarly convincing ways. They first all established, to varying degrees of balance, the atmosphere and seductiveness of the “utopia” and the fear of the consequences of acting in the non-prescribed way through character development. A single character is alienated because of their inability to conform – often in protest to the forced
The formative years of the 1900’s, suffered from communism, fascism, and capitalism. The author of the Brave New World, Mr. Aldous Huxley lived in a social order in which he had been exposed to all three of these systems. In the society of the Brave New World, which is set 600 years into the future, individuality is not condoned and the special motto “Community, Identity, Stability” frames the structure of the Totalitarian Government.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley depicts a future that seems happy and stable on the surface, but when you dig deeper you realize that it is not so bright at all. People almost autonomously fall in line to do what they have been taught to do through constant conditioning and hypnopædia. Neil Postman’s argument that Huxley’s book is becoming more relevant than George Orwell’s 1984 is partly true. Huxley’s vision of the future is not only partly true, but it is only the beginning of what is to come.