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Homosexuality In Brave New World

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In the 1920s, Sigmund Freud established what he called the “pleasure principle”- the idea that all human action is based on sexual drive and the principle of humans pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. He elaborated on this pleasure principle later, suggesting that humanity is also governed by a “death drive.” This so-called death drive is Freud’s belief that inside all of us lies a force that is violent, aggressive, and destructive- even sometimes being directed towards one’s self. Through these principles, he suggests that we want to die and destroy as much as we want to live and to love. Thus is his theory on the dual nature of man, making life and death two sides of one coin inside of us. His influence is seen in both 1984 and Brave New World through considerable emphasis on sexuality, the desire to escape pain, and the destructive force of man, although these influences and ideas are displayed on opposite spectrums and in vastly different ways. In Brave New World, sexual intercourse is separate from reproduction. Some females are rendered sterile, and some use elaborate contraceptives, most likely to reinforce the conditioning of reproduction being obscene. Along with the family unit, exclusive partnerships have been abolished, and promiscuity is a unit of merit for ‘proper’ members of society. These …show more content…

Brave New World’s character John attempts to create a world for himself as an escape from the society in which he desperately does not fit into, but his privacy is invaded and a spectacle is made of his life. In Brave New World, of course, the conditioning is done openly and for the acknowledged purpose of fitting different people to their different roles in life. Destruction of others, the death drive to which Freud refers to, is utilized as preservation of

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