In Brave New World, John the Savage frequently alludes to Shakespearean works and values that have become lost in Huxley’s dystopia. This is first evidenced soon after John is introduced, and after Bernard has offered to take him to the Other Place, the World State. In his surprise and glee, John asks Bernard, “Do you remember what Miranda says?” (Huxley 141). The direct reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest is wasted upon Bernard as he questions, puzzled, “Who’s Miranda?”, but the Savage continues eagerly in direct quotation, “O brave new world that has such people in it. Let’s start at once” (Huxley 141).
By taking away any sort of effort and hardship, humans are being numbed, dumbed down and destructive. Huxley, in his novel Brave New World, sets up an entire society that relying on mass production, mass consumption, and instant gratification. This immediacy and efficiencies creates a world of mindless drone humans skating through life
Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, brings forth countless themes that leave his readers occupied with the thought of a foreseeable utopian future. However, a topic well worth noticing is that of Huxley’s own envisions with his novel, showing how the evolvement of science and technology has affected the individual person. In the foreword to his novel, Huxley states, “The theme of Brave New World is not the advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it affects individuals”. The novel Brave New World incorporates a great deal of themes and concepts within it, however, the most prevailing theme in BNW is science as it affects individuals. In BNW we see how science has truly managed to replace the traditional family
This conditioning creates the complete reliance on the state, and allows the state to control how a person perceives the world and themselves, their social role in life, and ultimately any sense of a higher being. Not only does conditioning eliminate the concept of individual identity, but it also distorts the person’s view of the natural world. The state is driven by science and technology, but it is also the conditioned hate against nature that defines life in the World State. In the text, nature and consumerism are consistently expressed in conflict with one another. The state tries to regulate certain recreational aspects of life to the economy’s benefit, rather than the individual’s preferences and likability, because “‘A love of nature keeps no factories busy’” (24).
Huxley creates a society that seems to be a utopia to its citizens but is clearly dystopic to readers who understand the tyrannical government of World State. The purpose of Brave New World is to satirize Huxley’s society and the future if society continues it unethical behavior. Huxley hopes to make readers apprehensive of the consequences of a technologically-based society- a contemptible
Huxley’s a Brave New World depicts the various ideas of freedom. When introducing the World State, Huxley portrays it as a utopia. To the World State, freedom is having the power to condition and to be conditioned. It is a place where mass production “keeps the wheels steadily turning” (228) and where truth and beauty have no place. In contrast to this, when Huxley introduces John he reveals a completely different portrayal of freedom.
In Aldous Huxley’s dystopia of Brave New World, he clarifies how the government and advances in technology can easily control a society. The World State is a prime example of how societal advancements can be misused for the sake of control and pacification of individuals. Control is a main theme in Brave New World since it capitalizes on the idea of falsified happiness. Mollification strengthens Huxley’s satirical views on the needs for social order and stability. In the first line of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, we are taught the three pillars on which the novels world is allegedly built upon, “Community, Identity, Stability" (Huxley 7).
“People believe in God because they've been conditioned to” (Huxley 235). Brave New World, a novel by English author Aldous Huxley, showcases a revolution in religious beliefs as part of a new civilized world known as the World State. The new World State emphasizes promiscuity and detachment of feelings in order to create a fraudulent feeling of happiness among citizens in order to increase submissiveness. Having this false sense of happiness, citizens are ignorant of the oppression they face believing to be completely free to do as they please even if they know that they have been conditioned to believe in the propaganda. Propaganda has played a major role in converting citizens from traditional religions, such as Christianity, to worshipping historical figures such as Henry Ford and Sigmund Freud.
In modern Western civilization, based on Aldous Huxley’s personal views, he implied warnings about the future of modern society throughout Brave New World. Huxley implied the dangers of technology, a big government, degrading humanity and its implication; therefore, modern citizens should be consequently thinking those dangers and how it still applies to modern civilization. If Huxley observed the daily life of modern students in western civilization, he would point out how life in Brave New World is similar to life today through technology, consumption, and how we see each other. Consumerism makes the community and economy stable, which is the goal of the society in Brave New World. In the novel, the buying and selling of goods and services are important to them in their consumer economy.
Aldous Huxley, a dystopian prophetic vision Aldous Huxley explores in some of his novels the dystopian narrative, and even though Brave New World (1932) is his most acclaimed work, he wrote others like Island (1962), situated in an utopian society , and Ape and Essence (1948), a similar dystopia to the one we find in Brave New World (1932). Although Brave New World (1932) vividly depicts a world in which humans have become less-than humans by means of biotechnological and socioscientific techniques, Island (1962) sketches an idyllic community in which scientific knowledge is carefully employed for the enhancement of the quality of human lives . Brave New World (1932) is set in a future world in the year 632 After Ford and people are no longer born or raised the way we know: they are conceived by cloning and then develop in bottles in a place called the Hatchery. Here they are conditioned; we could see this conditioning as a process of brainwashing designed to prepare every individual for the tasks he or she is meant to fulfill in this society, also called the World State. This society is divided into castes, from Epsilon to Deltas, Gammas, Betas and Alphas.