preview

Politics In Brave New World

Decent Essays

Political decisions influenced by parallel, opposing or widely-held views have the power to impact upon an individual’s life and the broader society. Through their representation of the complexities of politics and its profound impact on the people, both Aldous Huxley and director George Clooney elucidate the prevalent political ideologies of their times. Huxley’s 1932 prose fiction Brave New World describes the fears and anxieties that were common in the 1920s – 1930s due to the Great Wars. Conversely, Clooney’s 2011 film Ides of March portrays the underhanded politics in the contemporary context and its impact on the societal perspectives. Both composers employ the features of their mediums in order to manipulate and shape meaning of the …show more content…

These ideas are conveyed through satire, language choices and the creation of a futuristic setting. Capitalism is seen as the supreme entity in the World State as it influences almost all decisions made, in order to increase consumerism and boost the corporate world. The repetition of “Our Ford” throughout the novel as a corrupt inversion of “Our Lord”, a religious allusion, describes the deteriorated “religious” values of the World State due to capitalism gaining supremacy in this dystopia. The satirical description of Henry Ford’s mass production line of cars in the animal imagery used by Huxley in his seemingly scientific and methodical jargon, “Rams wrapped in thermogene beget no lamb” emphasises Huxley’s view on the hopelessness of capitalism. The corrupt biblical allusion in “what man has put together, nature is powerless to put asunder” through the juxtaposition and inversion connotes a sense of dualism portraying the corruptive influence of humanity in the pursuance of “capitalist glory”. Through the use of satirical language features and neologisms, Huxley represents the political ideology of capitalism and the extreme ideology of the World …show more content…

Protagonist Stephen, who ironically proclaims “I’ll say or do anything if I believe in it... I have to believe in the cause...” while using high modality later doesn’t hesitate before intending to reveal a scandalous secret about his intern Molly. The juxtaposing mise-en-scene in these two scenes, light and airy contrasting with dark and shadowed, emphasises the degradation in Stephen’s morals through the use of pathetic fallacy. The repetition of “too” while undermining the minor population of America as being “too young... too bad...” further accentuates how political acts result in the breakdown of morals and the use of underhandedness as a means to a goal. The use of derogatory words, such as “bastard” throughout the movie elucidates this loss of values. Thus, Clooney represents the impact of political decisions on a person’s morals and the societal impact of the degradation of ethics due to the underhandedness of politics in the contemporary

Get Access