- Critique the author
Why does Huxley create a new world? I think it is very weird how he created a new world. I have no idea what was going through his mind when he did this. Why would he do this? Would you if you had the chance take soma or would you just live with your problems? If I was given this opportunity I would live with the problems because the only way to succeed is to learn from your mistakes. Is that the message he is trying to get across? Is he trying to say that we should be lucky with the world we live in? I think that the way he wrote this book pretty bad and confusing. There are a ton of scientific words that he uses to describe what is going on. It is pretty hard for a regular person to grab ahold of this material. Did his past influence the way he wrote the book?
19 comments:
When I researched the author of Brave New World, I learned that he was a once a biologist along with an essay writer and a poet. Learning this I can now better understand his detailed scenes of science fiction and the multiple scenes of work in the labs. If you look at the title “BRAVE NEW WORLD” you can already see his intentions for society in the future. I believe that he is trying to steer the world in a positive way where everyone could be successful. Aldous Huxley published the book in 1932. In the start of the 1930s I can remember one of the major problems going on in the world was the Depression. Knowing that people were struggling and probably not the happiest people I feel that he was influenced to write a novel that could give people an insight about what could become of the world in future years. Therefore, I believe that one of his intentions for writing the book was to ultimately try to create a Utopian society in which everyone felt socially accepted and happy. If I had the chance to take soma in order to escape pain, I think I would certainly do it. Would you? Only sometimes I would use to escape really painful problems but I wouldn’t want to become dependent on it like some of the characters in the book but if I didn’t know of any other way to get away from my problems I can see why it was abused. A quote in the book that explains the character's constant use of soma is stated by The World Controller (Mustapha Mond) in Ch.16 pg.220... He says "The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get...And if anything should go wrong, there's soma... But that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art."
True, I agree with your comment about BNW characters as being for the most part happy and having a sense of ignorance about their TRUE happiness. Are you saying the characters cannot be happy because the 2 ideals of consumption and utopia weren't possible? ... Going back to what Steven asked on his intentions for writing the book, ("Why does Huxley create a new world"?) I think it's mainly to prepare people for what was to become of society in future years. Technology is Huxley's idea to bring about change. Do you agree that Huxley's themes were his visions for the future?
Hey Kristen thanks for commenting. I dont agree with you though. I can see how you would think that Huxley was trying to show what the future would be like with all the cloning and perfect drugs they have. I think that we already have the technology to do all of that except the perfect drugs. He chooses to show us a possible new and brave world that we could of had. We could of easily been raised to believe that the society in BNW was normal. He is just giving us a different example of what life could possibly be.
Bring up the soma is a good topic... do you take the soma and ride yourself of the worlds worries or do you live with it? To really give the right response you really have to take in the world huxley put together. In his world no one is remembered after they die. They purpose in life is told to them and they enjoy every second of it. In our world everything is way more chaotic. Some people know there purpose in life right off the bat, others never find out what they want to do. Why does this relate to soma though? well I think soma holds back their people of the dystopia's ability to really experience life in its entirety. To truly know what it means to be happy because you have know what it truly means to be sad. The people of the dystopia never know this feeling because they are always happy or they just take soma.
kinda like if you could take a helicopter to the top of everest (IF YOU COULD). and a lot of people did it and said how beautiful it was at the top of the world and talked about how the mountains looked, but if you asked one of the people what actually climbed everest their response would be much more personal and full of depth. They have put the work in to see the mountains beauty. They had conquered it and in return they get to really see it for all its worth.
Steven, I agree with you that we do already have the technology, but I don’t agree with you that soma is perfect. I also agree with what Paul says about soma. Soma is another way for people to get rid of their anger, fear, or disgust from something which shows that you can't ever have a utopia because people will show their emotions. If emotions get out of hand like when John and Helmholtz had that fight with the security guards in the hospital, then the utopia is no more because your showing society that it has hate and anger. To me, I see soma as a way to escape civilization, but it almost controls lives because how much it’s used. It seems that no one is happy and they have to take it all the time. I also agree with Steven if we were raised in that society we could have become brain washed civilians, but BNW also shows nothing can be perfect no matter how stable they make civilization. That’s why they use soma all the time. It’s a temporary stabilizer for society.
Zack in no way is the society in BNW. It has many flaws. Soma does alot in my mind it does the most a drug could possibly do without taking over control of your body, thoughts, and so on. Soma already cures cancer and when your having a bad day. What else could it do? I think that soma is a perfect drug.
yeah Steven i agree with you. The society in BNW isn't perfect at all, as you read in the book the director was able to breed with someone outside the reservation and actually have a child with which rocked how the society was thinking at that time and really scarred there whole mindset of the world. Soma was almost the perfect drug especially for people like John and Bernard who were always on the run from officials of the reservation because they were demoted to being enemies of the state. Thus, they had to have a device that would enable them to get away from all the hatred that was literally hovering over them. Making the best drug in those scenarios.
Yein i totally agree with you on this one. Actually, my research paper is based on how people are conditioned to believe certain things that the government or media tells them. Like in bnw, they think that this was how the Earth was even before they got there and that this is the natural way of life. Of course this is outrageous and in the book most of the citizens living in the reservation are blind to see what is really happening in the world and can't see that their way of life isn't proper.With soma, i think i would use it to escape for a little while. Although i do agree with you on the fact that Huxley wrote the novel with intentions to give people a glance into the far future, but i also believe his concept of the type world he wrote for the novel was very far fetched. It's a weird and interesting concept to ponder on, but I'm not going to believe that this is what lies ahead of us for the future.
Zach, i agree with you that our society does have the tech to put something like that together but obivously there's no reason for it. We're fine the way we are. But however, i disagree with you on the fact that soma isn't perfect, i think it is, or at least could be if you use it the right way i suppose. In that society, if you came home from a hard day at work or had a bad argument with someone, you would want to utilize a device that would relieve you of such stress and sudden anguish. I think i would totally utilize something like that even now, especially with the way school is right now and applying to college and still maintaing solid grades so that your favorite college doesn't send you a letter saying oh we can't accept you now because you got a D in history. I would rave over something like that that would take me away for a little while and not have to take on the burdens of everyday life all the time.
Steven and Zach I do agree with you guys that I like soma because it makes you happy all the time and it does cure cancer which is a no brainer, but I feel it takes away one of the most important aspects of life, emotion. I feel that you are not living if you do not feel all your emotions. Sur happiness is the greatest emotion to feel, but you need to express others as well. Taking away emotion from you is like taking many of your characteristics away from yourself, and part of your identity because the way you express your emotion to the world tells everyone who you are. That is why I agree with John when he is having the discussion with Mustapha Mond about how everything needs to be stable by just keeping everything happy. I feel you need to feel anger, sadness, and fear because that is what makes us human. To me, that is what I thought John was saying when he said the quote "I am demanding the right to be unhappy.” Soma takes all that away from you and I don’t want that to happen to me. In this life all you live in is a false sense of happiness.
I believe that his intentions for society in BNW is to create and find a true sense of happiness. Some who use the soma, for example, use it to gain that sense of happiness while in reality it actually is their false sense of it. I think he is preparing for the insight of what can come up upon us in the future years. He is trying to help us so that we still will be able to thrive and be successful in the future society
Life isnt meant to be easy....
What Zach just said I agree with him that soma takes away the most important part of like which is , emotion. Like I said earlier, if you have soma to replace every bad occurance, there wouldnt be any point of trying to overcome the challenges of life.If we didnt go through all aspects of life, weather it be good or bad, you would not learn from your mistakes, or learn to forgive and forget people. Characters in BNW will never know if they experience true happiness because everything thay ever know is false and not real.
Kristen i agree with you! if we had something in our world to make everything better it would make life boring. They would be no reason to be alive. We need to have imperfects in our life. If we had a perfect drug it would ruin the importance of our life and i believe that our nation would advance a lot slower. Although it would be nice having a perfect drug it would be stupid to use for anything more except for medical reasons like if some one is dieing or someone is truely crazy.
Why is Huxley’s Brave New World considered a literary classic, and is required reading for most high school senior English classes? Huxley is known for his acute and far ranging intelligence. His highly pessimistic view of science and politics that he presents in Brave New World implies a strong distrust for both. This view is in sharp contrast with the optimistic view of science and politics that is portrayed by his contemporary H. G. Wells. However, fiction is just that. To the extent the reader sees a semblance of reality in either Huxley’s or Well’s fiction, much of this is projected by the reader not presented by the writer. Certainly, Brave New World has an element of satire. However, there is not much reality between Huxley’s view of the world and the real world that existed in 1932.
This soceity does have many flaws, but i think the progress is going in the right direction. Even though it sounds a little odd, Soma i believe could be the perfect "drug". It already is contributing to the cure for cancer while helping get rid of all the hatred and sadness that looms in the society. Bernard and John used it frequently when they had to run from the authorities on the reservations and used it in a more natural way rather than abusing it.
Kristen I agree with you completely actually. Getting that so called "false" sense of happiness through drugs like Soma could prevent characters in this society from accepting and completing the challenges that you would gain personal knowledge from. Being independent in naturally will help to cure ones hazy moods that would be much healthier for the mind. Emotion definately has everything to do with this because it contributes so much to decision making in this society and needs to be established by everyone.
I agree with Steven. If we used a drug that made everything better all the time life would be boring. Soma is a nice drug for some medical reasons like it cures cancer, but it should only be used for medical reasons. If we had a drug that could fix any problems everyone no one would have any emotion. Emotion is a huge part of life that you cannot take away. Weather it be happy or sad emotions, emotions are what builds a persons character and thats very important.
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