After reading the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley I realized that this is no ordinary story. It predicts a future overpowered by technology and government and where the people have no true freedom of choice. This book made me think about whether the utopia depicted in the novel would be a perfect place to live or a terrible place to live. It is hard to distinguish where the line is drawn between making life simpler and losing the meaning of life. Although some may look upon this type of life with envy I personally would rather have to work hard and earn my living than to lose the chance to make my own destiny.
The first thing that made me dislike the idea of this utopia was the fact that the government overpowered the world and
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No one is given the chance to move up and make more of themselves. The members of each class are ranked according to their mental capacity and physical appearance which are also predetermined before their birth. This seems that it would take away all individual motivation and dreams. If you think about it sometimes dreams are all we have. It is unfair that even before you are born your future is already written out for you.
Another reason I do not see brave new world as a utopia is the conditioning of the people which has lead them to a lack of individuality and care for each other’s well-being. Due to their conditioning, they do not fear death but accept it as a way of life, they view life as expendable. This goes against the most basic of human instincts. If the loss of a life means nothing, wouldn’t that convey the idea that the life itself meant nothing? The people in the book are also deprived of their history, culture, and background. According to my views, these things are an unquestionably important aspect of life and I would go so far as to say that I could not live without them. If the people of the brave new world were granted these things that signify individuality and freedom such as the ability to create their own culture, it leaves the possibility for revolution which is the very reason they are not given ability to obtain them. The society also
Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut." -Mustapha Mond (234). Instead of relying on fear to control the people and letting them choose from their own perspective, the government controls them through happiness; a fake happiness which is put into their heads as they grow up. In the novel, according to the World State, happiness is combined with stability. The basic goal of the brave new world is, supreme: the "happiness" of all, even if the consequences lead to the loss of freedom and free will. We can see how important it is for the state to improve happiness upon the people when Mustapha Mond says: "The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma." (220). The government's goal is to control people but it uses a very inhumane way. People aren't experiencing what life is really about because the state wants to keep people away form questioning. The essay Brave New World Society's Moral Decline found in www.123helpme.com, talks about Huxley's beliefs and predictions of the future when he was writing the novel. Some of these, he believed were
The world that the narrator imagines is uniquely utopian because it is not static. It is constantly trying to improve itself. Before discussion of how Utopia constantly improves itself, it is interesting to note that this statement implies that this Utopia is not perfect. This is acknowledged near the beginning of the book when the two men meet a traveler who questions the establishment and would rather there be buildings. He says; "[Buildings are] a mere rash. Why should we men play the part of bacteria upon the face of our Mother?"(116). Still this he is not separate from civilization, as he makes, "some considerable way above the minimum wage" (117). This man’s protest of the establishment is the first hint that this new world does not claim to be perfect. In fact, later in the novel, the Voice admits that "There is no perfection, there is no enduring treasure"
Every person has their own personal vision of utopia. My utopia may be filled with libraries and cats, while yours would probably look very different. In Frankenstein, Shelley gives us Victor Frankenstein, a man who envisions a world where he will never feel the pain of losing someone he loves again. He devises a way to cheat
The term utopia is often coined as an ideal or perfect society. In Sir Thomas More “Utopia” such a society is presented. However, today’s reader can see that this ideal or perfect society is filled with many underlying problems that make it not utopic or even dystopic. To exemplify the society More’s mention puts a strain on the freedom and relationship the citizens have with its country in to question. Such an act is detrimental in creating a utopia because if the citizens are not happy with the freedom and rights they are given how can the society itself be presented as a utopia, it is instead like a prison.
In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, a new society is created to secure happiness for all the people living in it. By doing this, they sacrifice truth, choice, family, science, and art. The government provides them with everything they need to be happy in life because they agreed to give up complete control of their lives. If I were given the choice, I would live in the world we live in now rather than the Brave New World. Like John, a “Savage” born outside the world and then brought into it, I think, “Well, I’d rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you were having here” (Huxley 179). Even though there would be times when I am uncomfortable, unhappy, in pain, even though I would have to experience loss and disappointment, at least I would be living a full life full of emotion and some purpose.
In the novel, “Brave New World”, written by Aldous Huxley he introduces a utopian society where everyone is happy and has a blind eye on what the World State makes them believe. Imagine a society where there are imperfections, “Everyone is the same, Nobody is different”, you live a privileged life and are always happy. The cost is never possessing individuality and gambling where only the top classes enjoy such a lifestyle. Social stability guarantees perfection and everything being under control, where everyone is equal.
In this world where people can acquire anything they need or want, we have to wonder, “Is the government controlling us?” Both the governments in A Brave New World and in the United States of America offer birth control pills and have abortion clinics that are available for everyone, thus making birth control pills and abortion operations very easy to acquire. Although both governments offer birth control pills and abortion clinics, A Brave New World’s government requires everyone to take the pills and immediately get an abortion when pregnant. This in turn shows us that A Brave New World’s government is controlling the population and the development of children. China is one of the few countries that currently have control of the
A utopia is what everyone is aiming for, but is that really what they are getting? With the hopes of a perfect society, we the people are rushing for a drastic change in the way things work without giving too much care in which direction things are changing, and that can and will cause definite issues. In the hopes to rush into a perfect world, too many people are treating government like a roulette wheel and hoping for the best, even though all odds are against them. In doing so, they are setting themselves up for a more controlled tomorrow.
When one reflects on the period during which Huxley’s novel was written and the modern world of his time, the comparison to the socialist world cannot be ignored. The whole idea of a utopia is very similar to socialism. The World State society is under the complete control of the government. Pre-destination department chooses what people will learn, what they will do and how they will look. Each caste wears a different color clothes and does different type of labor. None of these decisions are made by people themselves. In our society, even with the socialism, where government decides what products to produce, in what quantities, and how people will live, people still have a choice and opportunity to be different. Stability and individuality in utopia are reached by taking away the individuality from people. In the World State government controls desires and consumption by creating and destroying the demand for certain objects through the psychological training of infants.
In a Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the world state conditions babies to the environment and job they will have by caste. So if you're a Delta, the state conditions you to work in factories and to hate reading and nature. They condition you to like your work and your environment. Huxley gives us a new view of conditioning not by family, school, or friends. But instead by the government. In the story, there is a social predestination room that determines what job you will work in society. Huxley is showing predestination not on a supernatural level but on a political level. But in today's world, we are conditioned through other ways and have more freedom compared to the citizens in the world state.
The society that we see portrayed in Brave New World had the same goal. The objective was to build a nation that is superior to the common people. Brave New World portrays common people as being disgusting savages with no refinement. Just as during the Holocaust the Nazis wanted one greater, more beautiful and more refined society; so in Brave New World we also see them pursuing this goal. We can see that seeds of the society, conceived by Huxley, were sown in the 20th century during the Holocaust.
As man has progressed through the ages, there has been, essentially, one purpose. That purpose is to arrive at a utopian society, where everyone is happy, disease is nonexistent, and strife, anger, or sadness is unheard of. Only happiness exists. But when confronted with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, we come to realize that this is not, in fact, what the human soul really craves. In fact, Utopian societies are much worse than those of today. In a utopian society, the individual, who among others composes the society, is lost in the melting pot of semblance and world of uninterest. The theme of Huxley's Brave New World is community, identity, and stability. Each of these three themes represents what a Brave New World society needs
Utopia- good place, or in other words, no place. Thomas More, in his work Utopia, describes a nation in a parallel universe free from greed, pride, immorality, poverty, and crime; told as a narrative of a well-traveled explorer Hythloday to Moore himself, Hythloday speaks of a nation founded purely upon rationality, efficiency, and perfect morality. Thomas More’s work is no political or social theory, but rather a social critique and a commentary. In an age experiencing political and social struggle across every aspect of Western civilization along with the flooding of ancient and new ideas, Utopia is More’s way of discovering and exploring man’s and society’s natural structures and tendencies, and expressing his discontent towards them- this is shown in the narrative, as the dialogue of Hythloday and More represent his conflicted view between the ideal and the pragmatic. Acknowledging these flaws, More’s work critiques the utopian society from the perspectives of an imperfect man, but also vice versa.
‘One man’s utopia is another man’s dystopia.’ This is a famous quote we must often bear in mind when writing about such topics and it is often fairly accurate. A utopian society, in this essay, will be defined as a “non-existent society that is described in considerable detail…” (Fitting, 1993, 1) and an ideal and visionary society that enjoys perfection in various fields such as politics, law and more as seen in Thomas More’s famous novel, Utopia. A positive utopian society is often impossible due to a variety of reasons, primarily human nature and the inevitable inequality found in these idealized societies. A prime example of how a utopian society is often impossible can be found in Andrew Niccol’s film, Gattaca (1997). The film Gattaca explores a new version of an idealized society, a utopia that revolves heavily around genetic engineering. In Gattaca, an individual’s future is delineated by his or
Throughout the ages, man has come to idealize a word that is most commonly related to ‘heavenly’ or ‘perfect’ without actually picking up the book and realizing for themselves that there is no such thing. A Utopian society could never exist because man is made to want, to desire success. Man is competitive by nature and would never be happy in a society where everyone is equal and there is no chance of advancement. Sir Thomas More dreamt of a land that was much like England but could never surpass time. He opened the eyes of a nation and made its people desire something new. Views were significantly changed and the world would never be the same. Sir Thomas More inspired dramatic changes in religion, community life and even paved