Brave New World - Themes & Invited Reading?? [Archive]

Lexxi00

11-21-2007, 01:02 PM

I don't know if this will help, but i just wrote a paper on the book, it's only a rough draft but maybe it will help.

Brave New World
Alex Larsen

In his science fiction novel Brave New World Aldous Huxley relates unto the reader a society that is seemingly perfect in every way. Everyone is happy, everything exists in orderly perfection, people exist in perfect harmony, violence has been eradicated, and when there are feelings of hostility one can take soma and the rash feeling are forgotten. But within this "utopic" world there is truly an evident flaw, a flaw fueled by an utter lack of empathy, compassion, a demand for fulfillment oneself through soma use, much like the religious zeal that society today turns to in hopes of enlightenment. It is this lack of human characteristics that helps Huxley portray the reality of the impossibility of a perfect world. This is shown in this book through the characterization and known information of Huxley’s life-span.
People refuse to go more than a few hours without gratifying themselves with drugs to erase any emotional or physical pain. It would seem as if this world was exceedingly excellent. This reflect today's modern wold, where addictive substances are abused at the cost of the very thing that people hope to achieve by their use, happiness. Although they do give a euphoric sense of self gratification it eventually fades and the only thing that is left is destruction. This destruction is shown by the predictable happiness of the characters like Lenina, John, and Bernard, after they find themselves in need of a “soma holiday” that leads them inevitably back to their pervious states of negative emotions and lack of the eternal gratification that only humanity can bring. “Stupefied by soma and exhausted by a long drawn frenzy of sensuality... He lay for a moment, blinking... then suddenly remembered- everything.” - Brave New World
John upon finding himself laying on the ground, sleeping off the effects of soma, and after a night of promiscuity, realizes what he has done and becomes aware that this “Brave New World’ is not something that he can inhabit. This is not the first time that he has become aware of this. The first time it is displayed is when he loses his composure and becomes violent at the Hospital for the Dying. In this scene, John the Savage, takes the soma from the line of many waiting to receive it and throws it all out the window of the building while encountering a mass mob of furious individuals at the prospect that they may not be given their soma. Onto himself this act of open defiance and ironical circumstances shows not only the first violent action we see from John, but also the extremely evident attempt of John’s to stand up to the power that soma has on other people. Until now he has been content to wage his war against soma. We are introduced earlier to John’s disapproval of the drug for himself, but his actions in the hospital make known his downcast view of the drug for all of Brave New World’s society to see and makes it clear that he wishes to end the use for everyone, not just himself. This occurs directly after his mom, Linda, dies in the hospital while on excessive someone doses. She goes out of the world unknowing , unpinned, and un thoughtful. As Linda is dying, she doesn’t think of memories, doesn’t think of hardships or accomplishments of her life, lacks to be concerned for the way she’s lived all based on the fact that she’s ‘happy’ and on soma. He feels that soma is the reason that this world is so impersonal. This is further illustrated in the scene where john is on his knees weeping by his mother bed side, the nurse in the room is worried about the children's mental stability at seeing this and remarks to her self that death is not THAT big of a deal. “The nurse stood irresolute... (the scandalous exhibition!) and now (poor children!)” (Huxley 206)
The characters of the Brave New World are entirely accustomed to a life which ignores the possibility of any values except those of pleasure and material well being. They live in great physical comfort which is paid for in terms of personal and spiritual dryness. People don’t connect, sympathize, or have relations on a deep basis. In a world where there is no love and there is no romance and there is no emotion, the result is a sad one. The protagonist John realizes this fact over and over in the book. One instance occurs when John is running around the “hospital for the dying” he asked a nurse a perfectly normal question, “Is there any hope?” The nurse response with a surprising lack of euphemisism, similar to that of the name of the hospital, “No of course there isn’t.” This world is perfectly adept at stopping new life from being created shown by the over abundance of contraceptives, they have no discourse for death however, even speeding it up by over use of soma justified by the experiences that Linda has received on soma holiday. “ But aren’t you shortening her life by giving her so much?” “In one sense, yes,” Dr. Shaw admitted. “But in another we’re actually lengthening it.”... “Soma may make you lose a few years in time... But think of the enormous, immeasurable duration ti can give you out of time”
In a hospital these thoughts would not only be looked upon as horrendous, misappropriation of scorn, but also as a crime. Rather, the world of Aldous Huxley's making death as something that is an activity that young people should witness in order to further conditioning creates an immense lack of natural human characteristics, such as grief. To the controllers grief is something to fear, fear brings resentment and incurs civil unrest. Although this may be hyperbolic, the concept is sound and true. Social stability comes from utter contentment in the world that one must live in. This disturbs John greatly because he directly witnesses how soma is still effecting other people. John wages a war on the citizens who are clueless and addicted in an attempt to reveal to them the truth of the world and the understanding that they can stand up for their right to be unhappy in order to have an identity and be thoughtful. Johns disapproval of soma does not stop there. He continues to resent the people that use soma as a life staple, however, to the contented citizens it is religion. To John, soma is sin, the epitome of worthless contentment and a waste of true spirituality. “Every soma-holiday is a bit of what our ancestors used to call eternity.” (Huxley 154)
When a few select protagonists realize that their lives without passions are in need and missing the essentials their options are few. Bernard Marx has always been slightly ‘off’ and outcast. However, he has his whole life been aware that there should be more. Bernard, unlike his fellow “utopians” in often angry, he also expresses odd characteristics like hypocrisy and cowards, both very rear. His conditioning seem incomplete of flawed, he does not enjoy communal sports, solidarity services, or promiscuous sex. It is also apparent that he gets little or no joy out of soma. Similar to Lenin's conflicts he does not like the sleep teaching, “everyone belongs to everyone else.” He’s known that his feelings are sincere and he should be connecting more with many more emotions. Despite social norms to take soma at all times, Bernard usually rejects the use of soma and denies it when being offered or told to "cheer up and take soma." His triumphant return to civilization with John the savage is short lived. He is fired from his job for his not conformist action and he is banished to an island.
Lenina, as the female protagonist of this novel comes to the realization that soma does not allow her the happiness that she once gained from it, although she continues to use it for the duration that we know her. Lenina. She is a beautiful and openly sexually liberal. Just like the rest of the world she takes soma when ever she experiences unwelcome feeling, she is perfectly conditioned and happy all the time, but over and over it becomes apparent shown through her feeling and actions. When she goes on a date with bernard to the Indian reservation and subsequently brings back a savage with them Lenina experiences many conflicts which makes evident her internal conflicts. She show evidence of being unhappy with the promiscuity, she has become aware of the missing contentment that being with only one man can bring. “But he’s the one I want.” “As though there weren't millions of other men in the world.” “But I don’t want them”.... “Don’t think of him” “ I can’t help it.” “Take soma then” This conversation between Fanny and Lenina show Lenina uncharacteristic discontentedness. Her mind id filled with anxiety, something that seems very rear here, and a a longing to be with John and only him. This idea is socially unacceptable on two levels, political due to the governments opposition to unity between two individuals which is viewed as antisocial, and it is unacceptable to the general community because that idea conflicts with their conditioning telling them that sex is a open activity to be shared.
The main and most round protagonist John is the complete opposite of the citizens of Brave New World. He has not been conditioned as have all the other people that he meets. Also he has not been subjected to the drug soma as greatly nor has he seen the ramped promiscuity that is a staple in the society. Johns conflict with this world is started with his extrication from the indian reservation that he ha been residing in and continues till his death. John grew up in the Indian reservation having no mother, she left with a lover years before shortly after his natural birth. The Indian reservation has been created to show people in what horror you must live in order to cling onto the old world values, like marriage, natural birth and religion. John is excessively moral even more so than would be typical today. Premarital sex is not shunned in the reservation as it is not shunned today, and there is no world for it in the world of Lenina. After John falls romantically in love with Lenina he continues to stem her sexual advances with avid defiance to the New World teaching and to his own feeling. His disillusioned after his mothers death and less connected to society. His argument with Mustafa Mond on the competing merits of primitivism versus the World State revels much about the motives behind the soma distribution along with the eradication of religion. After his spontaneous revolt he abandoned himself to a lighthouse, whips himself in remorse for his sins, and cultivates his garden. But he is followed by reporters and hordes of intrusive Brave New Worlders. Guilt-ridden, the Savage finally hangs himself after - we are given to believe - he has taken the soma he that so despises and participated in orgiastic debauchery.
Brave New World’s society is addicted to being content with life. Contrary to being addicted to the types of chemical bliss that people can experience today, usually ending in a hang over, lessened mental capability or stability, or even death, but rather a perfect bliss induced by soma with no side effects and the approval of complete social expectancy. “... the possibility of lying in bed and taking holiday after holiday, without ever having to come back to a headache or a fit of vomiting ... feeling as you always felt after peyotl... Soma played none of these unpleasant tricks.” (Huxley 203)
Since the dawn of theological thought, eternity has been attached to religion, as though it were a lure, an attempt to compensate for the tithe and time that it’s practice calls for. Thus the price of the soma-eternity was a piece of Linda’s life. The history of the world as it progresses after Huxley’s time adds to the understanding of the flaw’s inherent in a seemingly “perfect” world. When Brave New World was written, hundreds of new drugs were being discovered. Some of which were legal and used for the betterment of peoples health, and some of which were abused. In 1932 more than 5 million people were addicted to one sort of amphetamine or another. In this time period a constant search for a drug with few or no consequences was underway. Drugs such as heroin and opium were believed to have little or no side effects, and thus had doctors all over the country prescribing them as treatments for everyday ailments. With further testing, however, these drugs were found to have detrimental side effects. On the other hand, medical drugs like penicillin had been invented. None of these medical prescriptions could match the perfection that the drug so popular in Aldous Huxley's world, Soma, held. A society that is created around a drug is an oxymoron in today's society, but soma does not represent a drug, rather it could be said that it represents religion in today's society. Aldous Huxley wrote “ Soma, was the people's religion. Like religion, the drug had power to console and compensate, it called up visions of another, better world, it offered hope, strengthened faith and promoted charity.”(Huxley Brave New World Revisited 27)
When the twelve individuals meet in West Minster Abby, we find them in acts that bear many religious connotations. In the opening scene the president of the gathering stands up and makes the sign of the T, there are sounds of harmony and drums followed by another T demonstrated by the president which begins the service. In the center of the table is placed “dedicated” soma tablets and the loving cup filled with soma ice-cream. These are passed from person to person with each saying “I drink to my annihilation” which eventually leads to an orgy. This, along with the many hymns that were sung, can be interpreted as the twelve disciples sitting around a table in a sanctimonious way; the Lord’s last supper. A priest standing up and making the trinity on his chest, a representative piece of unleavened bread on the table accompanied by a glass of wine, and a spoken dedication of the food served leads to the transfiguration in Catholic tradition. This transfiguration, when occurring in Catholicism brought about an introduction of a higher being, leading to unanimity for those who attended church as did this ritual in this scene in Aldous Huxley's book. Soma has become what religion stands for in today's society although sadly soma is more widely relied on in Brave New World’s society than religion is today.
In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World there lies an atmosphere of a world with no inconveniences, a world where even the most trivial irritation is suppressed with a gram or two of soma. People live in perfect harmony and in supposed happiness. In this fictional reality soma has become societies religion, comforting and compensating. By following a few of the characters in the novel one can see that their lives, although seemingly perfect, has many flaw. It is the future imperfect setting combined with the historical time period that the book was written that creates these flaws and conflicts.