Exploring Themes in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

ESSAYS

A: Discuss the symbolism of Shakespeare in Brave New World

Shakespeare is what helps John understand the worlds that he experiences. He can understand cultural and social difference between the two world.

B: Discuss to what extent we have moved toward Huxley's futuristic vision of Brave New World

In our real world today, people are still brainwashed with catchy phrases that stick their consumeristic lifestyles into their ways of living. In Brave New World, "Ending is better than mending" is one of the phrases that's repeated the most. It pushes and encourages people to buy new products. In a real-life situation, let's say someone buys a shirt for $5, but the thread holding the hem of the shirt breaks soon after being purchased. That person is most likely going to just buy another shirt instead of getting out the tools to sew it back up.

In Brave New World, wanting privacy is considered weird, and it's normal to share everything about your life with everyone. In many ways, I believe it can be argued that with the increase in mobile technology, people have become more anti-social. I believe, however, that because of that argument, many people have begun to embrace the idea that being alone on your phone is a lot weirder than going out and talking and being social.

Also, the use of soma as an immediate antidepressant can be related to the increasing legalization of marijuana in our country.

C: Prepare an argument supporting Mustapha Mond

Society is filled with peace. People never suffer through old age nor unfulfilled desires. Just like Mustapha says, you have to stick to one set of postulates; otherwise, calling people "degraded" would be reasonable. From our perspective, the people living in Brave New World are in mental slavery. But really, people are raised with "inherent" qualities that are basically just undermined by however the society is structured. And once you come to understand this, then the rest is easy. Everybody is happy, soma keeps them relaxed, and they are feeling a sense of satisfaction that to us may seem false but to them seems just as real as our own forms of satisfaction.

D: Prepare an argument supporting John

Brave New World isn't a utopia. It's gotten rid of everything that's difficult, by "abolishing the slings and arrows," which restricts the potential for people to ever have stronger feelings and experiences. A perfect example of this is love, something that doesn't exist in Brave New World. It's because of how hard it is to achieve that makes it nonexistent in Brave New World. Love entails many problems and changes that need to be faced, including breaking up with or being broken up with by someone. Love is constantly searching for a relationship that works, and it 100% of the time involves struggles that need to be dealt with before it can be achieved. Basically, it's things like this that make lives worth living, and the people in Brave New World aren't even given the chance to think about their purpose and other bigger ideas like that.