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Literary Criticism In Brave New World By Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Decent Essays

Literary criticism is a metaphorical shadow that is always present, but only revealed when shining a light upon it. By applying a psychoanalytic lense, readers are able to depict the rational factor behind the evil of the utopian society and the destruction of the humans mind in the characters in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”.
In Brave New World Sigmund Freud aimed his theory towards the unconscious human mind “containing of three parts: the id, ego, and superego” (Kacir). This represents what is going on internally in the character and even what may motivate them. During the conditioning process the children that are deltas (lowest class) are put in a room with colorful flowers and books. The child's natural response is to go play with the objects but when the children take action they receive a shock. This may be a reflection of Freud’s past when the Nazis burned a collection of his books because he was from a jewish family (“History - Sigmund Freud.”). Also, the characters in Brave New World depend on a drug called soma, which mitigates the brain and keeps anxiety and unnecessary emotions from arising (Kwon). The child is able to avoid strong emotions by not having a mother child relationship which allows the child to be more passionate about things such as their work which is belief why the society stays “stable”. Huxley is changing the id of the children's mind which will affect them as who they are as adults. The genetic lottery in Brave New World places humans in their classes and their minds are conditioned to what they are “suppose to think”. This process does not allow new knowledge and is leaving spaces in the mind. The natural responses that humans have, has been destroyed throughout brave new world. The conditioning process begins before the child is even born. While the child is still in the development stage they are limited to oxygen. This dilutes the brain and does not allow it to fully mature which deteriorate the ego. Although, something that not is apart of the conditioning process is sex. Since Brave New World still needs a women to make their utopian society the controller encourage sex. Sex is also something a

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