One of the most difficult things about this book are the ideas presented to us. It is so hard to comprehend the world that Huxley has made up because we are so unaccostumed to it. I mean, i'm pretty sure none of us have ever been conceived by a machine nor do we find it odd that we have parents who generally love and support us. In fact, in the book, the characters even find it disturbing or disgusting. They regard the terms "mother" and "father" as we regard swear words nowadays.
Also, promiscuity is a wonderful thing to the people in this book because "Everybody belongs to everybody." Today, this is frowned upon and seen as highly inappropriate. But the people in Huxley's world find it normal because they have been taught to act this way.
This novel shows a world that is completely reliant on corporations and manufacturing. Instead of believing in a god, they put all their faith and worship into Ford. The world Huxley has created is obsessed with material possessions and status. The characters are openly prejudiced towards one another. Like, the Alphas are better than the Betas so that means the Alphas must be treated better since they are of higher society. However, there is discrimination within the specified groups as well. The society tries to make the people who are in the same class equal to one another but not even this works. No matter how hard they try, somebody is always going to be better than somebody else. Take Bernard for example. He is an alpha but he feels inadequate, as though he does not belong in this group. This just shows that even in a society where people attempt to be equal, the people are not truly equal.
since birth. Intimacy is not a good thing in this world because the more attached you are to a person, the less concerned you become with your job which means the manufacturing business will suffer. And that means the population will fall because not are just like products that are made in a factory and then sent to different parts of the world where they are needed. In Brave New World, people are made for a purpose. They are content to be brain-washed and placate themselves with drugs. These things are completley normal.
Katrina -
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't catch the part about promiscuity being a good thing in the book. I find that really disgusting and inappropriate. It's weird how they are raised to believe one thing, while our society is totally different. Just like how they have ranks in their society based by Alpha, Beta, and the other three. This is totally discriminative and unfair. I think that Bernard notices this, because he is an Alpha; yet he looks and acts nothing like one. He isn't as smart as the other Alphas, and doesn't have the "attractiveness" of the other Alphas (he qualifies as a Beta by his appearance). It will be interesting to find out what happens later in the book about this.
I also find the birth process really strange, and how they think "Mother" and "Father" are bad words. This society and world is just so different than ours that it's hard to take seriously. It's interesting, but it's so opposite from our society that makes it so weird to me.
Well, I enjoyed reading your blog again! It definitely enlightened me on a few things I didn't catch in the first four chapters when I read it, so thanks for clearing some stuff up for me :)