Author: Aldous Huxley
Summary
Brave New World takes place in London, where the generations of man are artificially created in hatcheries and bred to become who they are destined to be through a caste system that works much like the educational grading system. Through following Henry Ford's "assembly line" lifestyle, the character, Bernard tries to break away from his society. He meets John at a "savage" reservation with his mother. John is brought back to the World State to cope with his ancestry, but cannot change who he is and adapt to his new environment, making him immoral in the eyes of his peers and Mustapha Mond, their district leader. He falls in love with Lenina but cannot express it the way he wants to. John eventually freaks out, which causes disruption to the society's happiness, which then forces Mustapha Mond to exile Bernard along with his friend, Helmholtz, and John exiles himself some distance from the World State. People visited the "Savage," Lenina visited him later, they had an orgy, John lost himself to the society and killed himself the moment he realized it.
THEME:-The major theme of all dystopian novels is the imperfection that arises from perfection. On the surface, societies of a dystopian novel functions perfectly, but there is everything wrong in the eyes of a free thinker. Society will crumble through systematic routine. It is unnatural to suppress free thought or action. With perfection comes a human life that isn't worth living. Huxley through this novel warned us preaching through characters and the theme to not sacrifice your individuality in pursuit of social acceptance, because once you lose your individual imperfections you lose the basis of humanity.
TONE:
- Huxley's tone is very scientific and hypothetical throughout. A very factual and straight-forward science fictional author, Huxley gave the mechanical World State a type of truthful reality that almost broke the fourth wall while reading his work.
Literary Techniques
Symbolism of zippers: It represents the easy accessibility of anything a human can indulge in, most specifically sex. But world state citizens regularly rely on drugs and sex to get through their days.
Allusion: There are many allusions from Shakespeare's Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo Juliet. John the Savage frequently quotes all of these works, and including the Bible, when he is under great emotional states of mind.
Allusion/play on names: Almost all of Huxley's characters have significance attached to the names of each person in the novel. Ex.) Lenina Crowne ----> Vladimir Lenin (Russian Revolution leader) / Bernard Marx ----> Karl Marx (Russian Revolution leader) / Benito Hoover ----> Benito Mussolini & Herbert Hoover
Onomatopoeia: "buzz buzz" pg 147. "zip" The buzzing refers to the bee hive and it helps the reader understand the dynamics behind The World State. Citizens are like little worker bees."Zip" see above.
Parallelism: "They swarmed between the beds, clambered over, crawled under, peeped into the television boxes, made faces at the patients."
Metaphor: Mustapha Mond's pipe metaphor about human pleasures
Pun: the "World State" can be read as the "World's State" of being
Motif: Ford serves as a motif to remind the reader of where the World State's vision comes from. It works hand in hand with the allusion but plays along in religious context such as "Year of our Ford" instead of "Year of our Lord."
Symbolism: Soma symbolizes artificial happiness
Pun: the "World State" can be read as the "World's State" of being
Motif: Ford serves as a motif to remind the reader of where the World State's vision comes from. It works hand in hand with the allusion but plays along in religious context such as "Year of our Ford" instead of "Year of our Lord."
Symbolism: Soma symbolizes artificial happiness
Direct Characterization for Bernard: "The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects." Here Huxley comes right out and says the characteristics of Bernard
Direct Characterization of Helmholtz "...Helmholtz Watson had also become aware of his difference from the people who surrounded him." Again, similar to Bernard, Helmholtz is stated as an outsider.
Indirect Characterization of John the Savage: When he chooses to reject Lenina from having sex shows that he is the complete opposite from the world state citizens. He feeling that having sex before marriage is wrong, and even the idea of marraige is foreign to the World State.
Indirect Characterization of Henry: When he flies extremely close to the ocean, it shows that he secretly is also against the World State ideals. It is very hard to be different because everyone else is socially conditioned to think the same way and you are punished if you think any differently.
Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
"Anywhere. I don't care. So long as I can be alone,"
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, i want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin,"
In these two examples we see a shift in the syntax of John the Savage's speech. Instead of speaking in eloquent sentences, his speech becomes short and almost exasperated. It conveys a quickened pace and it almost seems as if he is out of breath. I think it reflects that there is so much running though his mind that all of his senses are overloading and it is all too difficult to process. He misses his old joys in life, such as reading and his freedom, but now the only way to escape is ending his own life.
Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
For this question, I will choose to analyze John the Savage. He is a dynamic character that transforms to his demise by the end of the novel. One characteristic remains constant, his quality of being an outsider.
After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
I felt that I read a book that peeked into what the future holds for our world. Looking at Bernard and John the Savage, I feel that they are two characters that are written in a way that enables the reader to feel as if they are actual people. They are the two characters that most resemble humans today, since all other World State Citizens are so "cookie cutter perfect." John deduces meaning from the works of literature he studies religiously and is able to apply it to his life experiences. Whereas other characters such as Lenina and the DHC are just carbon copies of all other previous humans that were produced on a conveyor belt.
Direct Characterization of Helmholtz "...Helmholtz Watson had also become aware of his difference from the people who surrounded him." Again, similar to Bernard, Helmholtz is stated as an outsider.
Indirect Characterization of John the Savage: When he chooses to reject Lenina from having sex shows that he is the complete opposite from the world state citizens. He feeling that having sex before marriage is wrong, and even the idea of marraige is foreign to the World State.
Indirect Characterization of Henry: When he flies extremely close to the ocean, it shows that he secretly is also against the World State ideals. It is very hard to be different because everyone else is socially conditioned to think the same way and you are punished if you think any differently.
Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
"Anywhere. I don't care. So long as I can be alone,"
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, i want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin,"
In these two examples we see a shift in the syntax of John the Savage's speech. Instead of speaking in eloquent sentences, his speech becomes short and almost exasperated. It conveys a quickened pace and it almost seems as if he is out of breath. I think it reflects that there is so much running though his mind that all of his senses are overloading and it is all too difficult to process. He misses his old joys in life, such as reading and his freedom, but now the only way to escape is ending his own life.
Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
For this question, I will choose to analyze John the Savage. He is a dynamic character that transforms to his demise by the end of the novel. One characteristic remains constant, his quality of being an outsider.
After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
I felt that I read a book that peeked into what the future holds for our world. Looking at Bernard and John the Savage, I feel that they are two characters that are written in a way that enables the reader to feel as if they are actual people. They are the two characters that most resemble humans today, since all other World State Citizens are so "cookie cutter perfect." John deduces meaning from the works of literature he studies religiously and is able to apply it to his life experiences. Whereas other characters such as Lenina and the DHC are just carbon copies of all other previous humans that were produced on a conveyor belt.
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