Huxley’s Brave New World and Lowry’s The Giver explore the idea that conformity and sameness replace diversity and individuality by means of scientific experiments done to the genes. So the ideology of eliminating individuality and uniqueness is one of the requirements of the continuity of the dystopian functional society. Chris Ferns sees that in the dystopian society “people are types rather than distinct individuals” (Ferns 113). Booker and Thomas also see that “people are even referred to as numbers rather than people. These numbers have lost all true individuality; they are merely interchangeable parts in the giant machine of the State” (Bookers and Thomas 67). This elimination of individuality prevents individual choice and keeps people away from participating actively in society.
In Brave New World, the community is given priority above the individual; and although this priority may seem like a sort of devotion, the way in which Huxley illustrates it strips a person of any form of individuality. William Matter sees that in Huxley’s Brave New World, “individuality must be repressed because it invites a malleable social structure” (Matter 95). This elimination of individuality causes no depth of feeling, no creativity and no intellectual excitement. What makes a person an individual is to have a sense of himself as being separate, distinct, and unique. This sense of self includes both the joys and sorrows of one’s life.
Like Brave New World, The Giver’s community is
Aldous Huxley has a humanistic, deep and enlightened view of how society should be, and of what constitutes true happiness. In his novel, Brave New World, he shows his ideas in a very obscure manner. Huxley presents his ideas in a satirical fashion. This sarcastic style of writing helped Huxley show his views in a very captivating and insightful manner. The entire novel describes a dystopia in which intimate relationships, the ability to choose one's destiny, and the importance of family are strictly opposed. In Huxley's mind, however, these three principles are highly regarded as necessary for a meaningful and fulfilling existence.
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 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.
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.
Huxley has presented in Brave New World a world where stability and order are more important than individual identity and highlights group conformity due to the pressure of fitting in. In the society, they are forced to suppress their unique and individual feelings and emotions and take soma to solve their problems. This suppressing of emotions and soma consumption controls the societies happiness and prevents them from experiencing true ‘human’ emotions. The quote “when the individual feels, the community reels,” highlights the dehumanising nature of the society and that it creates the pressure of conforming to this phrase as the community’s order is at stake. In addition, Brave New World teaches conformity through conditioning.
Perception has its way of fitting people 's circumstances to fit their complex, and in its’ entirety that 's what this dystopian novel is about. Human emotion is replaced with universal thinking and the corruption of one 's sense of self to the point where civilization has a “hive mind”complex. “Community,Identity,Stability” (5) are the words engraved into the society Huxley portrays as the United
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided by 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs using many characters throughout the novel.
This novel suggests that there is more to life than just happiness; Brave New World insinuates that readers should seek freedom, knowledge and love in life. Huxley implies that without these fulfilling emotions and feelings, readers will be subject to a dreary and repetitive life.
In recent years society as a whole have developed a great deal of technological advancements in order to improve everyday life. In Brave New World Aldous Huxley describes a utopian society where technology and science are both used in order to sustain the World State’s motto of Community, Identity, Stability. In an attempt to stabilize the community Each person is raised in test tubes rather than a mother’s womb, and the government controls every stage of their development, from their embryo to maturity. They divide the humans into classes physically and mentally with alpha being the most superior then beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon being the least. Although some say that the technology used in the book is there to help improve the lives
One of the main themes of Brave New World is conformity: fitting in with society, doing what you’re supposed to do, thinking what you’re supposed to think. When faced with these rigid community standards, John, the “savage”, decides to exile himself to an old lighthouse where he can live alone and be who he wants to be. John’s exile is both fulfilling and painful, as he experiences free thought in solitude. This is a perfect example of Huxley’s view of what is required of mankind to avoid a dystopian society.
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
“Community, Identity, Stability.” -- The motto that shapes and defines the entire civilized world. Civilians like Lenina believe that the motto has given them their individual freedom. “I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody's happy nowadays.” (Page 79) Ironically, Huxley was trying to convey the exact opposite message. The motto really speaks of a heavy price paid -- freedom in exchange for collective happiness. Freedom to feel, freedom of identity, and the freedom to know and create. It is too heavy a price, perhaps, because freedom is never dear at any
Before reading the book I felt that it was the norm to distinguish yourself as a person, not knowing that these freedoms we have are what gives you a life of fulfillment. These people in Huxley’s perfect utopia do not know any different, they have no freedoms to have individuality, so how do they even know they can be happy if they cannot be different? They are also not thought of as important, they are all thought of to be the same which makes me wonder how they know what true happiness could even feel like. The society is refused any right or opportunity to plan out their own lives or to have a role in society other than what was created specifically for them. I see this as an issue in human growth as it does not leave much room for a person to learn who they truly are.
If given the choice to live a life of either freedom or oppression, most would choose freedom. However, in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New world freedom is an option none of his characters possess. Due to the global depression in the 1920s and 1930s, Aldous Huxley warns of individuality and self-perseverance in Brave New World.
What one may think of as being a Utopia could be a dystopia to another. Lowis Lowry’s 1993 novel “The Giver” may seem like a remake of the 1932 “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley given their similar plot lines, but these two novels also have their differences. Jonas and Bernard, the protagonists of the novels, both have an intelligence that wants to know more, that wants to know what is outside of this Utopian place they live in. Both Lowry and Huxley have very different family situations. Lastly, both these societies live in their own definitions of Utopia, but the roots of their government have a resemblance to Plato’s Republic.