hey guys,
It would be nice if we could get that extra credit assignment... the one were we take a picture with all all of us eating together. Anybody have any suggestions on when and where we could this if yall want too?

Bernard

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World finding a character that fits under the title of “hero” is a hard thing to do with so many characters doing different things that show signs of being “hero”. But I believe Bernard Marx shows the exact opposite of what Huxley was trying to show as a “hero” in Brave New World by him being a hypocritical character in the use of “heard poisoning” and his reaction to being banished from the London society.

Being a “hero” is a hard thing to pin down especially in BNW because you have to infer with that Huxley would call a hero and if you look at the article he wrote, “Propaganda Under a Dictatorship”, you can see that Huxley places a lot of value in standing out as an individual and keeping independence even in groups. In the article “Propaganda Under a Dictatorship” Huxley refers to Hitler using “Herd Poisoning” as a drug that lets the users “escape from responsibility, intelligence and morality into a kind of frantic, animal mindlessness” (3). Originally Bernard runs away from this and doesn’t want anything to do with being poisoned and using soma, which is one of the reasons he goes away to the “savage” reservation of Lenina but what makes him a hypocritical character is his willingness to always come back to London and the herd poisoned civilization.

 Early in the novel Bernard describes his hate for the people in the society due to his different feelings about soma and he wished people would just take the beauty that the world has to offer and takes Lenina away to the “savage” reservation where he learns that he has been banished to Iceland and becomes upset about this fact. If Bernard can escape from the London civilization and feel free from it what’s the difference between willing leaving the civilization and being banished if he just wants to get away?  This happens again later in the novel when he, John, and Helmholtz are banished for the things they did in the hospital and being seen as non-conformists. Bernard is banished again to an island and instantly begins pleading to stay and has to be dragged to the island. I think Bernard is such a difficult character because he complains and wants to be a non-conformist to the society but also relies on the society to keep him alive. It seems like Bernard wants to pick and choose what he wants from a society and complains when he doesn't get what he wants. Take for example when the Arch-Community –Songster comes to talk with John and John will not leave his room. Bernard instantly begins to complain to John and everybody else around him because this is a time Bernard could finally move up in life but now that he can’t get what he wants he just complains and talks about living free again. It’s difficult to take Bernard seriously and really high lights how much of a “hero” John and Helmholtz are in being mostly free from the herd and thinking on their own. Bernard doesn't stick with one side of his argument and seems to care more about living in the civilization than he actually says making him more into the herd and not much of a “hero” at all.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Row, 1946. Print.

Huxley, Aldous. “Propaganda Under a Dictatorship.” The Way of Wisdom. Ed. William Brugger, Darrell Hammond, M. Kip Hartvisgen, Anne Papworth and Rhonda Seamons. Rexburg, Idaho: Brigham Young University-Idaho, 2010. 1-5. Print.

Brave New World: Utopia?

Phase 2 Prompt 3

                The society in Huxley’s Brave New World is a utopia in the sense that it was a perfect and ideal civilization, because everybody was content with the role they contributed to the benefit of the community.   Many examples throughout the text highlight this content or satisfaction that each member of this society had, whether they were an Alpha Plus or an Epsilon.  It can be seen as a utopia because everybody had a job and got what they wanted, making them happy.  It was a stable world where nothing was questioned and nothing was out of the ordinary.

                The conversation the world controller, Mustapha Mond, had with Savage really displays how this world could be viewed as a utopia.  Mustapha explains to the Savage, otherwise known as John, how society is in a better place than before due to the fact that everybody is happy now. Mustapha tells John, “The world’s stable now.  People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get” (Huxley 220).  This stability helped the people feel safe.  They didn’t have any desires they could not fulfill. Most of the troubles that real life society has today are due to humans desiring things they cannot have; things such as other’s possessions or wealth.  Some of the lower-class people may envy the upper-class as they feel they have better lives going for them.  Such feelings did not exist in Huxley’s Brave New World because each class of the society was conditioned to enjoy the work of that class and nothing else.  For example, the Epsilons although they were the lower caste of society, they were perfectly happy with their menial work.  Mustapha Mond describes to John, “Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, for the good reason that for him they aren’t sacrifices…His conditioning has laid down rails along which he’s got to run” (Huxley 222).  Epsilons were conditioned to do Epsilon work, while Alphas were conditioned to do Alpha work.  When everyone is content with their position there is no fighting or chaos.  On the contrary, if an Alpha was given an Epsilon job then some problems would occur. Their society had an “optimum population… is modeled on the iceberg-eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above” (Huxley 223).

                Another reason why this society could be conveyed as utopian is there were no strong feelings such as passion for a loved one or extreme hatred for another person.  There were no such things as parents, children, husband, and wives. Thus, there were no such things as a love triangle or war.  In terms of sexuality, kids and adults alike were allowed to do what they wanted without any restraints. “Many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren’t any temptations to resist” (Huxley 237).  Without any temptations, humans did not have to go through that self-struggle of controlling their bodies from doing things against their conscience.  If anything did go wrong, there was soma which seems to make the characters in the novel get away from reality.  It also had a calming effect and because of this there was no tension.  These reasons could make any person believe that Huxley’s world was actually a utopia instead of a dystopia.

               

Works Cited

 



Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998. Print. 

 

Brave New World's "Utopian" society

 Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley is about a futuristic society where humans are created not born and the concept of Henry Fords assembly line is the basis of society. People are created in a caste system and a drug called Soma suppresses emotions and not conforming makes you an outcast in society and you are sent away. Brave New World is widely considered a dystopian novel by many.  Brave New World does not fit the characteristics of a dystopian world, but is more closely aligned with a utopian future.

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a desirable perfection.  The very definition of Utopia describes Huxley’s society in Brave New World. The future in this novel everyone is happy with their work, no one gets old and everyone looks perfect thanks to genetic engineering. It’s a society where no one is lonely and the government supplies you with the drug soma to make you feel better. One of the biggest things people in our society worry about today is getting old and not fitting the “perfect image” that television or magazines broadcast to us. If you ask anyone if they would want to live in a society where you will never get old, and never have to worry about what you eat again, I guarantee you that 99% of the population would be all for it.

There are a few characters in the novel that are not completely happy with how society is run. Bernard Max and Helmholtz Watson both reject the perfectness of society, but instead of killing them to end the problem Mustapha Mond the Resident World Controller of Western Europe exiles them to islands where people who also rejected society live and they can live out the rest of their days as they please and speak against the government and no harm will come to them. Mustapha Mond even lets them decide which island they want to go too."I should like a thoroughly bad climate"(229) This society wants you to be happy no matter if you completely disagree with them. If this was a dystopian future they would of killed the non conformers an been done with it. As seen in The Hunger Games and many other dystopian novels.  

There are many people in this world who are unhappy with their current jobs; the people in Brave New World are created in a caste system where you are either an Alpha, Beta, Gamma Delta or Epsilon. Each class is created in a different way and conditioned to love their class and hate the others. They’re assigned jobs that they were created for and are conditioned to be happy with it and hate every other job. In doing this, the government makes sure everyone is happy with his or her place in society.

One of my favorite books when I was a kid was The Giver by Lois Lowry I immediately became interested in dystopian type novels and movies. I’ve seen numerous dystopian films and not one shows a future where everyone is happy like in Brave New World. Most of them involve a lack in technology, a Wild West type environment and widespread famine. Does any one these sound like Brave New World? No, in Hunger games you have the Capital, which I consider the most like the society of Brave New World but that’s just the one city, all the other districts are forced to watch 12-18 year old kids kill each other for entertainment. And if you go against the capital you are disposed of.  The film Looper takes place in a near future. The United States has suffered economic collapse, causing severe social decay and growth in organized crime. This is what I picture a dystopian future to look like, not like the one described in Brave New World.