In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the World Controller, Mustapha Mond, employs many techniques that work to provide for the happiness and stability of his society, including sedation, censorship, social engineering, and indoctrination. Whether or not this society is one we should strive for is often a point of contention, however, it is my belief that the world state presents a utopian civilization that comes at the expense of aspects of the human condition that are no longer important or necessary. In this paper, I will not only enumerate and explain the measures by which the society is maintained, but I will also present the most common and logically sound objection towards the society, ultimately showing how it can be refuted. The most easily identifiable method of controlling the society is through the drug soma. This substance is rationed off to the population, and the effects are described by Mustapha as “Christianity without the tears,” and identified as alcohol without the side effects by Linda. In other words, this drug is pure happiness, and serves as a transient vacation for the user, as well as a distraction from any minor inconvenience that happens to plague them. This sedation of the user is conditioned to be the first response when relief is desired, and ensures the passivity of the population by instilling raw bliss in its consumers. Analyzing Mustapha’s comparison of soma to
Christianity elucidates its effect on the society, as religion is often seen as
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses tone to develop characters in the novel while simultaneously showing that every character is cast out at some point in their lives. This utopian future setting is developed throughout the whole first half of the novel.The entire culture is different, children are genetically bred and conditioned in so called Hatcheries. “ “Stability,” said the controller, “Stability. No civilization without social stability. No social stability without individual stability” (page 42) Each person supports a specific role in society, and if they break that role they are exiled. Readers get the chance to meet a few characters who question why they were even decanted or in John's case, Born.
1.Contact with members of the lower castes always reminded him painfully of this physical inadequacy
While reading chapters 1-3 of Brave New World, I was shocked, angered, and fascinated by the aspects of the world created by Huxley. I was shocked that the children are taught nothing of the past. In chapter 3, Mustapha Mond says “History is bunk.” He is implying that history is nonsense and that the society flourishes when living in the present rather than bothering to learn the past. I was irritated by the fact that the lower classes are given less oxygen as an embryo to purposefully make them underdeveloped and weak. In particular, the phrase “Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par” made me realize the cruelty underlying in the World State(Huxley 6). Despite these negative feelings, I have to admit that the society fascinates me. The class system is strictly separated by colors, occupations, and intelligence, science has advanced to the point that children are all taught and created in a factory
Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut." -Mustapha Mond (234). Instead of relying on fear to control the people and letting them choose from their own perspective, the government controls them through happiness; a fake happiness which is put into their heads as they grow up. In the novel, according to the World State, happiness is combined with stability. The basic goal of the brave new world is, supreme: the "happiness" of all, even if the consequences lead to the loss of freedom and free will. We can see how important it is for the state to improve happiness upon the people when Mustapha Mond says: "The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma." (220). The government's goal is to control people but it uses a very inhumane way. People aren't experiencing what life is really about because the state wants to keep people away form questioning. The essay Brave New World Society's Moral Decline found in www.123helpme.com, talks about Huxley's beliefs and predictions of the future when he was writing the novel. Some of these, he believed were
"'God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness.'" So says Mustapha Mond, the World Controller for Western Europe in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. In doing so, he highlights a major theme in this story of a Utopian society. Although the people in this modernized world enjoy no disease, effects of old age, war, poverty, social unrest, or any other infirmities or discomforts, Huxley asks 'is the price they pay really worth the benefits?' This novel shows that when you must give up religion, high art, true science, and other foundations of modern life in place of a sort of unending happiness, it is not worth the sacrifice.
Drugs, promiscuous sex, birth control, and total happiness are the core values of the World State in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In today’s society things like drug use and reckless sex are often seen as taboo, but in World State, these activities are glorified and even considered normal. Aldous Huxley attempts to address to readers the harsh realities and cruel ways of our society in an exaggerated form. His purpose in doing so is to open the eyes of society to what the world might come to if things like technology and humanity get out of hand. In the World State, the motto that people are conditioned to live by is “Community, Identity, and Stability”, all three of which are ironically twisted to encourage members of the 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
Imagine a society in which its citizens have forfeited all personal liberties for government protection and stability; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, explores a civilization in which this hypothetical has become reality. The inevitable trade-off of citizens’ freedoms for government protection traditionally follows periods of war and terror. The voluntary degradation of the citizens’ rights begins with small, benign steps to full, totalitarian control. Major methods for government control and censorship are political, religious, economic, and moral avenues. Huxley’s Brave New World provides a prophetic glimpse of government censorship and control through technology; the citizens of the World State mimic those of the real world by trading
While in some extreme situations it can be useful to gain some semblance of unity and organization, totalitarian societies damage one 's individuality and feeling of self-worth; defining people without ever allowing them to make their own decisions. This can potentially cause one to feel ousted or distress. Totalitarianism creates no outlet for personal growth, and as seen in Brave New World. Totalitarian societies strip people of their basic human right, free will. Totalitarian governments impair the success of individuals, ultimately failing society.
The concept of power underpins the motivation for control over a mass population and its maintenance to ensure political stability, often through exploitation. Huxley shows the manifestation of power in his seemingly utopian civilization through the use of science and technology as the world controller, Mustapha Mond, justifies a society devoid of illness and loneliness by sacrificing the human condition. The underlying slogan of “community, identity stability” is epitomised by the characterisation of Lenina Crowne who is essentially one of the many exploited “cells in the social body”. The World State’s power is exemplified through her characterisation as she symbolises citizens who are filled with ‘words without reason’, otherwise known as ‘hypnopaedia’, which forces them to embrace their exploitation. The sense of isolation evoked through the pathetic character, Linda, whose self-demeaning dialogue “what are you to answer if you’re a Beta and have always worked in the Fertilising Room” demonstrates the results of political control restricting free, independent thought. In addition, the conditioning received at Hatcheries and Conditioning centres propagates the stability in Huxley’s idyllic world, that ‘[chose] between happiness and what people used to call high art”(ch16), by superficially fulfilling their needs to avoid questioning their personal freedom. Furthermore, the provision of artificial gratification such as the narcotic ‘soma’, or “Christianity without
At first glance, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World feels quite odd and out of place. Reading a story about a “perfect society” where people do not feel or think for themselves does not make for much lighthearted conversation. However, after taking a closer look, deeper meaning begins to seep through this tale. Through Bernard's initial views on his society's leniency towards casual sex, society's use of the drug soma, and Mustapha Mond's explanation as to why God becomes obsolete in a perfect society, this utopian-set story serves as a warning to modern society of what may come to fruition in the future.
Brave New World – Practice Essay In the novel, how have science and technology made the world better? Worse? Compare to modern society.
Citizens take their soma daily as well as whenever a time arises when someone is feeling down or angry, soma is taken to put them on a “holiday”. When content with soma, there is no need for anyone to search for further truth and satisfaction. Mustapha Mond, one of the world controllers, states to John, “[…] there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts” (Huxley 237-238). This is where the reader sees the truth is being hidden once again in lieu of happiness. Citizens of the World State never need to worry about getting overwhelmed with the facts of life, even if what they think of as facts are no where near the reality of life. Soma is always there to sweep them into a
In conclusion, it is safe to say that Huxley 's utopia went about achieving its status in the wrong way. Mankind has lost its free will to the controlling powers of a system. This system cannot be called government, as it is more akin in characteristics to slavery. Man no longer has freewill and order is kept not through respect and intellect, but via degeneration and conduct. The former sections of this essay present strategies and techniques used to maintain order in a society of individuals. Finally, it may be argued that the Brave New World protects society by locking them in a cage of ignorance; however, this is at the cost of freedom, and this is unacceptable. Mankind needs be free in order to progress as has been explained. Protection is all well and good but not at the cost of
Aldous Huxley wrote, in his novel Brave New World, of a society whose quixotic ambitions created a skeletal civilization that functioned in the absence of freedom. Now, almost a century later, the issues of that fictional society are significantly more relevant to contemporary society as we see the crusade for social stability trample over the notion of individual freedoms modern political discourse and conduct.