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Brave New World Loss Of Individuality Analysis

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How much would civilization and humanity change, if we created a society centered around stability? The futuristic novel Brave New World, published by Aldous Huxley, depicts a totalitarian government, which is a “political regime based on subordination… and strict control of all aspects of the life and productive capacity of the nation.” This government succeeds in securing stability with the use of biotechnological and socio-scientific techniques. The World State has achieved “Community, Identity, Stability” (21) and prosperity at the loss of individuality and humanity. In Huxley’s Brave New World, the reigning totalitarian government gets rid of individualism through artificial births, physiological training, and censorship of religion …show more content…

Atkinson speaks on conditioning when he states, “… children are formed to think along the lines of the state’s ‘suggestions,’ or what the state believes and finds to be important.” At the Hatchery, children go through hypnopaedia. Hypnopaedia, or sleep teaching, is the repetition of a particular phrase until it is embedded in their minds. An example of this is the phrase, “everyone belongs to everyone else” (40). We learn this phrase is repeated one hundred times, three times a week for four years (52). The children are conditioned other ways, however. Young brave new worlders are traumatized with shock therapy to condition them against liking flowers and books. When they are older, the children visit hospitals to be death-conditioned; they learn death is natural and pleasant, not something to cry over. None of these processes can beat what soma does though. Soma is a drug that is supposed to make you forget the struggles of real life and to alleviate stress and pain. Rather, it provides an inauthentic sense of happiness which makes people comfortable with the lack of freedom they have. Soma is a substitute for religious feelings and is named “Christianity without tears,” (217) by Mr. Mond. Citizens are basically mentally powerless, making it impossible to protest stability. Not only are the citizens mentally limited, but they

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