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Student 6 Mrs. Verenkoff English 2H Block, Period 5 13 September 2010 A Shift in Values: Analysis of Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley QUOTATION: The Savage explains to Mustapha Mond, the Controller, his desire to live with real emotions and inconveniences instead of existing within the boundaries of the World State, which create feelings of comfort and superficial happiness for its citizens: “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want real sin… I’m claiming the right to be unhappy” (240).
ANALYSIS: Within the deeply satirical novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley examines society’s preference for living lives of comfort, convenience, and stability rather than facing challenges and truly experiencing life. Throughout the story, the totalitarian government of Huxley’s brave new world encourages and nourishes people’s fear of hardships, pain, volatility, and unfulfilled desire in order to gain their submission to “Community, Identity, [and] Stability,” the State’s motto. The World State also conditions its subjects to accept their social classes and careers without complaint or question; it then teaches them to fulfill all of their desires instantly and to take soma, a drug that obscures reality and creates pleasant hallucinations, whenever they encounter difficult situations. Consequently, the citizens devote their lives to maintaining ease, stability, and illusionary happiness since “universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning [and] truth and beauty [cannot]” (228). In the brave new world, truth and beauty represent reality, freedom, independence, art, love, and all other possible sources of unsteadiness and free will, which could cause danger, disorder, and sadness, and violate the directives of the State’s motto. Hence, the World State easily preserves stability because people “get what they want, and never want what they [cannot] get” (220). Unfortunately, this stability results in the loss of “God,” “poetry,” “danger,” “freedom,” genuine emotion, and determination to advance and progress. The Savage recognizes this loss and claims “the right to be unhappy” (240) because he wants to live a full life of truth and beauty outside of the restrictions of the World State, even if it deprives him of an immediate contentment. Huxley’s message in Brave New World also applies in the world today. The worship of ease and convenience often overpowers the importance of working to accomplish goals and to overcome obstacles. For example, people depend on online book summaries such as Cliff Notes instead of trying to read and understand books, rely on drugs and alcohol to suppress negative emotions as opposed to identifying and resolving their problems, and allow others such as peers and business superiors to limit them and make them feel inadequate. In this way, individuals do not strive to progress and accomplish as much as they can. Instead, they submit to their fear of impediments and risk-taking, similar to the citizens of the World State. Overall, much of society now admires “the easy way out” far more than determination, passion, and life experiences, thus leaving truth and beauty to be easily forgotten.
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