Individuality In Brave New World

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, human beings have been engineered and conditioned to have detailed traits and castes in society; however, the birthing methods of the world state seem virtually full proof, some characters in the novel deviate from this standard. Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson both alpha plus males; share a dislike for the world state. Bernard abhors it because of his physical defect, Helmholtz because of his psychological surplus.

The Brave New World that Huxley created in his book is one of dramatically stratified social classes, Alpha through Epsilon, designed and conditioned from even before birth to fit into their predestined role in the society. Especially for the upper classes, everything is engineered towards comfort and consumption, to the point where people can even escape uncomfortable emotions by taking a drug known as

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.

People are often told to be themselves as a way of embracing their uniqueness. This seems to not be true since conformity and lack of individualism is a big issue with society. The issue of what led Christopher McCandless, main character from Into the Wild by John Krakauer, to go on a search to find himself. In the author’s note of the novel, Krakauer introduces the term ‘schools of thought’. In the case of this book, there are two; one being that some people said it was a suicide mission and the other being that others disagreed saying he was ambitious. The story demonstrates one man’s attempt to define a lifestyle and find meaning in his life that came from something outside materialistic and civilized contemporary

Imagine it!" (Huxley 222). It is unfathomable in the World State to imagine people within the same caste who are individualized, some Alphas being given simple labor and factory work is obscure. Although there is some individuality present in the hereditary characteristics of people in the Brave New World, individuality within Castes is sacrificed in order to achieve peace and

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.

Huxley uses the value of identity to emphasize the importance of social hierarchy, “An Alpha-decanted, Alpha-conditioned man would go mad if he had to do Epsilon Semi-Moron work-go mad, or start smashing things up” (222). He discusses the significance of socioeconomic satisfaction and how necessary conditioning an embryo to a certain social class is. Huxley also stresses the importance of diversity in social status’, “‘We believe in happiness and stability. A society of Alphas couldn't fail to be unstable and

Is social stability worth the price of giving up individuality and freedom? Is giving up the sense of life worth it? No. In “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, everyone is oppressed, controlled, and fixed without even knowing the full extent of what they do to them, but at the same time, they are happy. People are forced to be happy and have a future set, even when just a simple cell, their futures are set.

Brave New World consistently questions whether technology requires a sacrifice of human individuality. The value of society is certainly preached more than individuality and while technological advances are convenient, if they require humans to forfeit individuality and our own interpretations of life then there really isn’t much to live for. This certainly sparks questions as to whether the truth is more important than the civilian’s true happiness: truth and happiness cannot co-exist in a society like this because then humans would make their own logical decisions and stability would therefore be diminished. This is shown comparatively to the reservations of New Mexico where John “the savage” comes from and the World state’s living conditions.

Adolf Hitler once said, “The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category.” The World State is the concrete setting in the dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, where the focal point of the environment is solely based on community, identity, and stability. The government is rigidly enforced with how the society is structured and ordered, solidly attempting to have an ultimate dominance over everything. Individuals who differ from the status quo are immorally isolated from society because of their individuality. Alienation in Brave New World is essentially evoked in the characters physically, intellectually, and morally.

Paul Gilmore III Mrs. Addington/ Ms.Pekatos 10LA Honors 1 15 May 2013 Social Stratification in Brave New World In the novel Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley the civilized world lives in a world where people are grouped in social classes from birth. The idea of social stratification has been prevalent in many societies to date in the real world. Social stratification is the grouping of people in a community by race, job, or wealth and in many of these societies one cannot change the class they are born in to.

In the past weeks or so I have noticed a spike of people losing hope for the world, this mentality (and its influence) is not new but recent events in my life have amplified my attention to this problem and made me want to annihilate it.The first time I analyzed this problem and all its contributing factors I thought of how stupid can people be to think that the world is not capable of developing peace through change with so much potential in hands, hypocritical and lazy can a person get, and is this mentality actually affecting people and society.As time passed I encountered experiences which answered these questions and made me regret my accusations,I realized that people feel like this wretched mentality is the only way to live and that we have to stop

With detailed reference to the novel, how do you view this in relation to individual freedom?

The Brave New World creates a community that has no reason to ever doubt the purpose of any of the caste or people in power, “...Each of these events are designed to evoke a sense of loyalty towards the caste to which the citizen belongs and to the greater society”(Huxley 33). By eliminating the curiosity of each individual's purpose within their life, the people in power succeeded in creating their uneventful Brave New World. The loyal community is built by the scientific production of the babies, as the babies have no parents, so all they have is each other. This also comes with the nurses drilling in their heads who they should and should not like : “... and the Delta Children wear khaki. Oh, no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad I’m a Beta” (Huxley 27). By forcing all caste to think they are better than the other, they remove jealousy and enforce a strong, loyal bond to be a part of each caste. However, the Director did not only build loyalty within the caste, but loyalty to the government. This allows a functional community to be present within Brave New World, creating the foundation for the society to prosper. The way the citizens within the society view each other, also affects how

1) An individualist is considered to be someone with personality and character, someone who is not easily intimidated by social pressure or customs, someone with a personal opinion and a singular view of the world. Because modern society finds it important that people think independently, decide autonomously and take personal initiatives, the concept of individualism has acquired a positive connotation. However, individualism is also linked with the tendency to withdraw from social life and turn in towards oneself.