Community Identity Stability

32 Pages·2012·1.64 MB·English

Community
Identity
Stability
Aldous
Huxley’s
Brave New
World
• 1894-1963
Aldous Huxley
• Family had many
notable members,
including great uncle,
poet Matthew Arnold
• Plagued with vision
problems throughout
his life
• Denied by the British
army, so became a
teacher
• Published Brave New World in
1932 His Writings
• Combined thoughts on the
morality and nature of man with
scientific findings and predictions
• Focused many of his works on the
conflicts between the individual
and society
• Writings became especially
popular during the 1960s
• His works often featured the use
of various drugs, which he
experiments with as well in his
lifetime
• His work The Doors of Perception
was the inspiration for Jim
Morrison to name his band The
Doors.
Brave New World
• Published
–1932
• Genre
–Dystopian
Future
Setting- Time
• 2450 A.D.
– 632 years “After Ford”
• Meaning after the invention of the Model “T”
• This is symbolic of the societal shift in thinking—time is
referenced in terms of a technological breakthrough
versus a religious landmark
• Civilization as we know it has gone through a devastating
war.
• The use of anthrax bombs and poison gases exhausted
both sides, leaving the people that remained a choice
between World Control and devastation.
• After a further so-called nine years’ war, the dictatorship
got control and brought stability
• Stability is maintained by rigid control of the number and
type of people
Setting- Place
• England and a place referred to as the “Savage
Reservation”
– England is known as “the brave new world”
– The “Savage Reservation” is where people still feel
emotions like love and grow old
What’s his point?
• Mustapha Mond, Resident • There are only 10,000
Controller of Western surnames.
Europe, governs a society
• Citizens must not fall in
where all aspects of an
love, marry, or have their
individual's life are
own kids.
determined by the state,
• Brave New World, then, is
beginning with conception
centered around control
and conveyor-belt
reproduction. and manipulation
• A government bureau, the • He instills the fear that a
Predestinators, decides all
future world state may rob
roles in the hierarchy.
us of the right to be
• Children are raised and
unhappy.
conditioned by the state

bureaucracy, not brought up
by natural families.
Historical Context
• Abroad
– Russian Revolution
– Challenges to the British Empire
– Raised the possibility of change on a world scale
• At home
– Expansion of transportation and communication—the cars, telephones, and
radios made affordable through mass production—also
– Brought revolutionary changes to daily life.
• New technology
– Distances grew suddenly shorter and true privacy rarer.
• Industrialized societies
– Welcomed these advances,
– Worried about losing a familiar way of life, and perhaps even themselves, in the
process.
• The nightmare vision of the fast-paced but meaningless routine of
Brave New World reflects this widespread concern about the world of
the 1920s and 1930s.
History
• New questioning of traditional morality
– Especially regarding sex
• Dress, language, and especially fiction expressed a greater
openness for both women and men in their sexual lives
• Change
– Beginning of true individual freedom
– End of civilization itself
• Irony
– Lenina being scolded for her lack of promiscuity
– Sexual rules may change
• Power of convention remains the same
• This novel is more
applicable today than
it was in 1932. This is a
time of: propaganda,
censorship,
conformity, genetic
engineering, social
conditioning, and
mindless
entertainment.
• This was what Huxley
saw in our future. His
book is a warning.