Comparison of literary elements of Brave New World and Childhood’s End
Ever wonder what is awaiting the human race in the future? Aldous Huxley once said, “There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception” (“Aldous Huxley”). And the doors of perception are exactly what the readers will walk through while reading these two intricate and imaginative novels. Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End, and Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, definitely express their extremely insightful projection of mankind’s future that has stirred much controversy among readers. Although these books were written by different authors, they have a great deal of similar concepts that provide an idea of what the future holds.
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The people from Childhood’s End have a stabilized economy, to the point where there is no more poverty, and machines replace workers for more efficiency, “Production had become largely automatic: the robot factories poured forth consumer goods in such unending streams that all ordinary necessities of life were virtually free. Men worked for the sake of the luxuries they desired: or they did not work at all,” (Clarke 64). As a result of that, people have more time and money for leisure, knowledge, and thinking. Also, there is a difference in the amount of emotional and social freedom. For example, in Brave New World,“ ‘Fortunate Boys!’ said the controller. ‘No pains have been spared to make your lives emotionally easyto preserve you, so far as that is possible, from having emotions at all!’,” this contrasts the way of life in Childhood’s End because these people have been conditioned to have no emotions, no strong bonds and relationships, no romance or monogamy, no family life or religion all manipulated without choice with the process of sleeplearning called Hypnopaedia (Huxley 45). For example, “‘Sleep teaching was actually prohibited in England. There was something called Liberalism. Parliament, if you know what that was, passed a law against it. The records survive. Speeches about liberty of the subject. Liberty to be inefficient and miserable.
As analyzed by social critic Neil Postman, Huxley's vision of the future, portrayed in the novel Brave New World, holds far more relevance to present day society than that of Orwell's classic 1984. Huxley's vision was simple: it was a vision of a trivial society, drowned in a sea of pleasure and ignorant of knowledge and pain, slightly resembling the world of today. In society today, knowledge is no longer appreciated as it has been in past cultures, in turn causing a deficiency in intelligence and will to learn. Also, as envisioned by Huxley, mind altering substances are becoming of greater availability
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.
The human mind consistently wonders what if, and soon finds itself looking into the future for different possibilities in life. In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, the reader finds Huxley exploring a nuance in humanity, creating a dystopia, where science becomes the new focus and humans are mass produced in test tubes. Huxley creates a world which contrasts to some aspects of what the world is today. In this dystopia, the values of people are in the technologies which are developed to speed the process of developing babies. Through Huxley’s effective use of syntax and diction, his use of literary techniques, the structure, and playing of theme, Huxley creates an image of a society that worships technology
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.
If there is one person who has left his impact on this century, it’s a man named Robert Moses. Moses had a vision of what New York City should look like and how it should function, and through determination and ingenuity he transformed our culture. Moses was at the time the only public official who not only had grand ideas, but also figured out ways to pay for them. He did this by establishing a series of public authorities, which allowed him to make decisions as if he was the CEO of a private company. Transforming New York into the urban landscape that we see today, if New York seems like a pretty great company. Transforming New York into the urban landscape that we see today is in itself a great achievement, but does that make Moses a great
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, like most satires, addresses several issues within society. Huxley accomplishes this by using satirical tools such as parody, irony, allusion. He does this in order to address issues such as human impulses, drugs, and religion. These issues contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole by pointing out the disadvantages of having too much control within society.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orewell’s 1984 were both composed surrounding times of war in the twentieth century. The authors were alarmed by what they saw in society and began to write novels depicting the severe outcomes and possiblities of civilizaton if it continued down its path. Although the two books are very different, they both address many of the same issues and principles.
In today’s society the kids are getting older faster. They are doing drugs, and drinking alcohol. They are having sex at a young age instead of being moral. The kids aren’t caring about people as much as they used to. When people die the kids aren’t caring. In the Brave New World kids are the same exact way.
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.
If a respectable mother is exclusive of her sexuality, gender non-conforming lesbian mothers already exist as illegitimate parents. The heterosexual matrix instils the notion that gender non-conformity marks sexuality – more specifically, non-heterosexuality. Female bodies stand antithetical to masculinity (Moody 2011). The subtleties of Stef and Nic’s masculinity mark their lesbianism in contrast to Lena and Jules femme because without the slight masculinity, Lena and Jules’ “lesbianism disappears, or, more accurately, never appears in the first place” (Martin 1996). This is perhaps why the characters all lean toward femininity. While the productions allow room for lesbianism, it is what Roseanne Kennedy refers to as an “absent presence” (Suk Gersen 2009, 513).
In many cases when you read a novel you may find comparisons between the "fictional" society and your realistic one. The author may consciously or unconsciously create similarities between these two worlds. The novelist can foresee the future and write according to this vision. In Brave New World, Adlous Huxley envisions the future of our society and the dangerous direction it is headed in.
The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment explicitly protects the right to speak: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”. (Cornell, 1st) This right to speak freely is fundamentally linked to the right to be informed, as indicated by the Supreme Court ruling that individuals are guaranteed the right to acquire information under the Free Speech Clause. (22, Miller v. California; 23, Lamont v. Postmaster General) Therefore, from the free speech [jurisprudence/rulings] of the Supreme Court of the United States, the right to obtain sex education may, in fact, pertain to public schools. [On the one hand], [the free speech right] to acquire sex information extends to the curricular decisions made by public schools. This right requires that public schools consider students interest in receiving sex
According to Alan Richardson, childhood gained a central position through Romantic Literature, due to its artistic and reinvigorating movement during the eighteenth century. The supreme faculty of mind is reason by stressing strong emotions and imagination, which is the key reason to the shaping of creative power. Childhood acquired a sense of spirituality attached to its phenomenon; it became increasingly valued by adults, since children represented hope and progress within society. Childhood therefore became the supreme symbol of celebrating the cult of nature, the purity of the mind
A person’s life can be summed up within a sentence, their childhood just a word. Time has the interesting ability of warping. At the same time, it has the ability to take away sentiment from any event.