, Research Paper
Brave New World After reading the novel Brave New World by Aldus Huxley it is easily realized that it is not like any other classic story. It predicts a future overpowered by technology and where the people have no religion. The plot of the story made me think if this 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 harder than to lose myself. The first think that made me dislike the ideas is this book was the fact that the government overpowered the world, causing the loss of freedom. Never having to worry about a job is something most people would appreciate, but at the same time it is not worth losing all freedoms. Freedom is more important to happiness than having needs automatically satisfied. I also feel that religion plays an important role in people’s lives. It represents our principles and values. Religion guides us, gives us something to believe in and a set of rules to live by. Mustapha Mond when referring to the Holy Bible says that “they’re old; they’re about God hundreds of years ago. Not about God Now” (Huxley 237). Mustapha Mond is saying that with the evolution of time the need for religion has disappeared and has been replaced by the worship of another God who is Ford. It is stated that they basically live a fulfilled life, according to a strict set of rules and then they die. But is that really a fulfilled life? Also thanks to their conditioning they do not fear death but accept it as a way of life. That alone is a task that our world still has not been able to accomplish, but if the loss of a life means nothing, wouldn t that reflect that the life itself meant nothing? In this civilization, the people are isolated from one another, divided into five different classes. In every society there will be invisible classes of people, but to have them so defined is a crime. 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. This seems that it would take away all motivation and dreams, and sometimes our dreams are all we have. It seems unfair that even before you are born, your future is already written out for you. The mental inferiority of the lower classes is very important for the survival of the utopian society. They know that is the people got to smart they would realize how much they were missing out on. The people in the society are also
deprived of their history, culture and background. According to our views, these things are unquestionably important and we would go as far to say that we could not live without them. Education is not needed in the Utopian Society. Education to us leads to knowledge and for us knowledge is power and power runs the world. However for them there is no need for education because they do not need power. Power will not get them any farther in life then what is already written out for them. I also feel that I would miss my family , relationships and most of all, love. The people in Utopia were brought up in conditioning centers and feel that parents and family are primitive. In our world, parents pass on to their children their own values and principles. What they may become as a result of their upbringing could be anything and have a clean slate. Monogamy is discouraged by the utopian society and considered improper ” Four months of Henry Foster, without having another man — why, he’d be furious! if he knew…” (Huxley 40). This restrains peoples from getting too emotionally involved and putting their loved one’s needs before the society’s. In the utopian society, everyone belongs to everyone else. I feel that this also takes away from life because a person can not be complete until they expieriance love. In the utopian society, “you’re so conditioned that you can not help doing what you ought to do” (Huxley 244). Thanks to their conditioning, nobody even considers fighting. And if ever anyone gets angry or depressed, there is always soma. To me the soma seems to represent drugs in our own society. A substance that people turn too in order to maintain there feelings. There are many examples that led me to feel the way I do about this novel. One is Bernard Marx who is an alpha-plus and therefore should be living the “good life”. But even though his mental status is that of an Alpha-plus, his physical appearance is similar to that of an Epsilon. ” They say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the bottle—thought he was a Gamma and put alcohol into his blood-surrogate” (Huxley 46 ). He quickly becomes an outcast and does not get along with the opposite sex. This shows that even in this society there are imperfections and racism. Helmholtz Watson also does not like the utopian civilization. The problem with him is they let they him get too smart. That led him to want a better life, a dream he felt was unobtainable in Utopia. This makes me think that if the smartest guy didn t like it he was the only one who thought enough to realize. In conclusion one can clearly see that human beings can not adapt to anything, and if they could they would not be happy doing so. It was best said by Mustapha Mond at one point. “The key to happiness is enjoying who you are and what you do”. (Huxley) How can you do that is your life is controlled?