How unfortunate it was that the brilliant Bernard Marx of Brave New World, a man isolated by the emotions which are numb to the rest of society, is driven off the edge of sanity in an attempt to share these emotions.The tortured, misunderstood Alpha-plus man that wanted more out of life then to indulge in sexual ecstasies regulated by this “utopian” society was denied this throughout his life. At first, he was a subtle man, but then became a man that was pervaded by extreme jealousy and ego.
In this article, the author puts up an argument on the current nature of multiculturalism and what multiculturalists imagine the future will be like. He starts by talking about a future whereby several restaurants in the biggest cities across the world serve all the cuisines of the world, Thai on Monday, Italian on Tuesday, Szechuan on Wednesday and many others without any problem. Basically, his main point is that according to multiculturalists this kind of development would be a great way to embrace multiculturalism worldwide. He compares this multiculturalist vision of the society to Marx's view of life under communism, whereby society wouldn't be divided into competing classes. According to Marx's communist belief, “no individual should be limited to one exclusive sphere of activity.” They have the liberty to do whatever they want at any time. For instance, hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, graze
Aldous Huxley depicts a world in which there seems to be huge advancements in technology. In it includes new ways of teaching, and easier ways of reproduction. The “Bokanovsky Process,” as they call it, can make a total of ninety six viable fetuses from a single egg. Women no longer cook, clean, nor take care of children, but does that indicate that they are equivalent to men? Everything appears to be much more straightforward and equal, but it is nowhere near the truth. This “Utopian” society seems to still struggle with gender equality. Huxley demonstrates several instances throughout the novel in which women are portrayed as sexual objects, and even deemed as the bad ones.
An important thing for those observing Huxley’s work to keep in mind is the intentions of the World State. The idea of a utopia, ideally without pain or conflict, can be quite tempting and it can be noted that the intentions may be far from what results from the wishful thinking of idealism. In this book, the readers visualize what sacrificial decline of principles might entail. Do the ends justify the means?
Marxism is the idea of social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. Social processes are the way individuals and groups interact, adjust and reject and start relationships based on behavior which is modified through social interactions. Overall marxism analyzes how societies progress and how and society ceases to progress, or regress because of their local or regional economy , or global economy.In this case, Marxism’s theory applies to the novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, where a society where mass satisfaction is the instrument utilized by places of power known as the Alphas in order to control the oppressed by keeping the Epsilons numb, at the cost of their opportunity to choose their own way of life.
In Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World” the world has fallen into an authoritarian order, of which control is kept through constant distraction and suppression of information. Though through this remains communities of “savages” who reject the new world order and have continued more traditional human life in reservations. It is in one of the these reservations the Aldous Huxley introduces the character John, a foil to the society he is introduced to. This exile from the land and the ideologies of the home John once knew to the “brave new world” allows John to both learn about himself and gives him the ability to see the corruption within the world state.
Dialectical Materialism, created through though the works of Karl Marx, is “meant to provide both a general world view and a specific method for the investigation of scientific problems” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). Under this structure, “everything is material” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia) and changes take place through the struggle of the classes. Brave New World follows the idea of the worshipping of materials and difference in classes. However, their change in this system is the struggle of classes. In Brave New World, the leaders brainwashed each class into accepting their status and knowing that they have a purpose. Their approach perfected Dialectical Materialism. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia explains that Dialectical Materialism believes in uniformity in order to achieve the final goal of development. This is the same as Brave New World. Under this system, individualism is shamed because it revolts against the progress of the group. This is what is destructive about Brave New World; the lack of variety in the people. In Brave New World, they shun individuality because they do not trust the nature of humans and they believe that with individuality, society will become undeveloped just like the Spanish Reservation. So here’s their plan to control it: Make people materialistic. Give people everything they need and make them feel in shambles when they
In Chapter Six, Bernard represents the point of view that individuals do not need to use soma and be conditioned in order to be themselves or happy. He feels that he doesn't need to be apart of the social body to be content. When talking to Lenina while looking at the ocean, Bernard says, “It makes me feel as though...as though I were more me...Not just a cell in the social body” (Huxley, 90). From this quote one can infer that Bernard does not like the idea of being forced to become somebody that he is not, just to satisfy society's needs. He does not want to use soma because is it makes him feel like somebody else. When Lenina offers him soma, he says, “I’d rather be myself. Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly” (Huxley, 89).
In the Brave New World, a book written by Aldous Huxley,, he writes about a utopian future where humans are genetically created and pharmaceutically anthesized. Huxley introduces three ideals which become the world's state motto. The motto that is driven into their dystopian society is “Community, Identity and Stability.” These are qualities that are set to structure the Brave New World. Yet, happen to contradict themselves throughout the story. Some of the characteristics of the Brave New World include citizens being conditioned to their social groups, they are conditioned to fear the outside world, are deprived of human qualities, are under constant surveillance and in this case, the figurehead worshiped in the Brave New World is Henry Ford.
Brave New World, a novel written by Aldous Huxley explores an utopian future where embryos are chemically engineered to fit in a certain class and soma suppresses negative feelings providing its captor with spurts of energy. The people living in this “new world” are born into different castes such as alphas, betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons. The alphas are the highest ranking people in the world state while the epsilons are the lowest ranking members and do all the jobs no one wants to do. This book is relevant today in the society in which we live. From relationships to technology, to economy many of the ideas and struggles in this novel have very much translated into our society today.
The utopian society in the Brave New World can be compared and contrasted between our contemporary society using individualism, community and the human experience. The fictional novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932, is about a utopian society where people focus stability and community over individuality and freedom, but an outsider is introduced to intervene with the operation of the utopian state. In the contemporary world, people need to show individuality in their communities in order to survive, and to be human, one must show emotion, which is the opposite in the Brave New World.
While, on the whole, the World State facilitates the carefree and cheery lives of its members, there is one major outlier, that being Bernard Marx, yet upon acquiring John, a savage, he envelops himself in fleeting false success. Throughout the earlier half of the novel, he merely mopes about and complains, “I’d rather be myself… Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly” (Huxley 74). He carries a clear disdain for what, he views, is the artificial joviality that all members of the World State possess. Wanting to remain “nasty”, he constantly refuses the amenities that his peers receive readily, such as the hallucinatory drug “soma”. Nonetheless, upon befriending John, a savage who becomes objectified as a source of entertainment,
I’m beginning to enjoy the book more and enjoy the concept of a new society. Character development is becoming a large factor in the novel and playing a pivotal role in the plot. Of course, the reader is again trained to like John because of his uniqueness. He is an essential character in the plot in progressing Bernard as a character. I’m learning more and more about this strange society and understanding instead of questioning.
Karl Marx had the idea that the proletariat class are alienated and being repressed. These ideas are themes that continue throughout the book series, in particular the last book, The Deathly
It would take volumes to describe how important Karl Marx’s work is in sociology. His work is important in the 21st century because his concepts and ideas are the only genuine seeds for a better society. I see Marx as a voice for the voiceless, the weak, and the vulnerable in all societies across the globe.