Brave New World Essay Draft 1

Loneliness is among the most potent of human conditions.  From it stems sadness, bitterness, and all manner of melancholy temperaments.  However, it can also bring enlightenment.  This is the case of John, "the Savage", from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  As an outsider in every culture he encounters, John has a unique perspective of the world he lives in.  This position allows for a brutally honest assessment of societies' customs.  It is only though the eyes of an exile that the world's madness is fully revealed.

Brave New World Notes (Ch. 8)

• Memories of Linda trying to assimilate to the new culture, John trying to understand the unfairness of the world
• Huxley directly connects alcohol to soma
• Linda's treatment of John is a contradiction
• Part BNW, part "savage"
• Nature vs. nurture?
• Her instinct is to care for John, but her hypnopaedic-twisted mind hates him for what he "made" her
• Linda's stories build up what the BNW is like
• John calls his mother by her first name
• Linda does not want to be called "mother" because she has come to think of it as an insult, or at least an embarrassing phrase
• "A man can smile and smile and be a villain."
• Huxley links the scene back to the theme that happiness is not everything
• "If one's different, one's bound to be lonely."
• thematic isolation an conformity
• John shows a propensity for self-punishment, not unlike Berard's enjoyment of persecution
• "O brave new world," he repeated. "O brave new world that has such people in it. Let's start at once."

Brave New World Notes (Ch. 7)

• Lenina complaining about the reservation isn't just normal aversion to nature, it's the hypnopaedic conditioning at work
• "I wish we could have brought the plane"
• Emphasis on consumerism, like with their equipment dependent sports
• "Yes, and civilization is sterilization"
• Bernard obviously does not mean this in a positive sense
• Bernard goes out of his way to make controversial statements
• Lenina finds the "remorseless persistence of the drums" appealing, why?
• Drum beats provide structure and order through repetition, much like the BNW
• The ritual Bernard and Lenina witness is traumatic even by today's standards
• Represents the polar opposite of life in the BNW
• deliberate self-punishment, rather than forced self-indulgence
• Linda is an interesting character
• Even after all those years, she still retains habits from the BNW
• Testament to the power of conditioning?  Or is it natural to cling to the beliefs one had when growing up?

Brave New World Active Reading Notes (Ch. 4 part II, Ch. 5)

Chapter 4 Part II

• Simile: "He was like a man pursued..."
• Aphorism: "Those who meant well behaved the same way as those who meant badly."
• Direct Characterization:  "He stood eight centimeters short of the standard Alpha height."
• Foil: Hemholtz Watson to Bernard (in a way, although they are also very similar)
• Foreshadowing: "I feel I could do something much more important.  Yes, and more intense, more violent."
• Indirect Characterization:  "But at the same time he felt rather ashamed for his friend.  He wished Bernard would show a little more pride."

Chapter 5

• Repetition: "...and then, under the influence of those endless repetitions, the gradual soothing of her mind, the soothing, the smoothing, the stealthy creeping of sleep."
• Juxtaposition:  "'Do you know what that switchback was?  It was some human being finally and definitely disappearing.  Going up in a squirt of hot gas...Everybody's happy now."
• Refrain:  the song by "Calvin Stopes and his Sixteen Sexophonists"
• Mood:  "Eyes shone, cheeks were flushed, the inner light of the universal benevolence broke out on every face in happy, friendly smiles."
• Note the slightly truncated phrases and emphasis on sensation rather than thought
• Irony:  "She looked at Bernard with an expression of rapture, but of apture in which there was no trace of agitation or excitement-for to be excited is still to be unsatisfied."
• Motif: the number 12

Brave New World II (Chapters 2-3)

Following the structure of society laid down in the first chapter is a description of the children's indoctrination.  Coupled in stark contrast with "erotic play", it makes for two shocking chapters.  As with the setup of genetic engineering, Huxley's goal here is to create a seemingly ludicrous scenario (in this case, one that most readers would presumably find disgusting) that seems completely fabricated.  Then, he seeks to reveal over the course of the rest of the novel that these abominations are not so far-fetched after all.

This is also mirrored in the dialog, which jumps between characters in different conversations.  The jumps become increasingly rapid until eventually it is just flashed snippets of each line.  The dual conversation reveals an anomaly in the system -- Bernard.  As one group talks about the virtues of everybody belonging to each other, Bernard is painted very clearly as an outsider in another.  A few important things can be gleaned from this.  For one, the society is not "perfect".  There are, for whatever reasons, people that do not quite fit in.  Subsequently this also introduces conflict for the first time.  In a way, this marks the beginning of the plot.

Brave New World I

I was excited to learn that we would be studying Brave New World.  Because I had enjoyed 1984, I was looking forward to reading the book before this year even started (in fact, it was my first literature analysis).

The first chapter does a very good job of setting up the general mood of the story, even if it does seem a bit confusing at first.  It is instantly evident that Huxley writes of an ambiguously future society (zeitgeist!).  Besides this there is some early characterization of the population's general attitude.  Most importantly, the students are portrayed more or less blindly copying down the information told to them. The adults take a distinctly mechanistic approach to life.  Everything is reduced to the numbers of a highly refined scientific process.  The brief glimpse of the caste system is perhaps the most important introduction of the chapter.  Knowing how the story develops (I'll admit, I didn't fully reread the chapter, I just skimmed) is interesting.  Compared to the rest of the story, the first chapter is pretty impersonal.  Most likely this is just because Huxley is establishing the setting.

Literature Analysis: Brave New World Characterization

1.  There are examples of direct and indirect characterization for both the protagonists in Brave New World.  Bernard is initially directly characterized as being of unimpressive stature and a little bizarre when it came to social norms.  This is indirectly backed up later in the story as Bernard becomes irrationally angry at the fact that he is of similar height to those of lower castes.  A majority of Bernard's characterization comes from the reactions of others.  For example, among Bernard's colleagues there is a reoccurring rumor that alcohol was added to Bernard's vial while decanting, accounting for his diminutive size.  This rumor indirectly characterizes both his physical figure and his interactions (or lack of) with his peers.  John, the Savage, is described directly at first, mostly due to the fact that he stands out from the other Native Americans in his "village".  Later, more is learned about his character during his interactions with Lenina and his own reactions to what Lenina considers normal.

Literature Analysis: Brave New World

1.      Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is a dystopian novel.  It details a world in the future where the government (centered in London) has complete control over the willing population, allowing the creation of a “perfect” society.  People are no longer born; they are cloned.  During the decanting process, a variety of chemicals and procedures are applied to the developing clone vials that influence the social role they are “predestined” to have in society.  From most the least intelligent, clones can be Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, or Epsilons, with a plus or minus further indicating intelligence gradation.  Each of these social classes have different jobs to do, and are conditioned to enjoy it.  The key aspect of the dystopia in Brave New World is that the inhabitants are not oppressed.  They very willingly abide by what they perceive as the social norm.  The core of the plot surrounds Bernard, an Alpha plus who, due to some defect in decanting, has the physique and looks of a lower class.  Eventually, he befriends John, the Savage, while visiting the “savages” (lands deemed useless for development, and so given to Native Americans).  Bringing the Savage back to London, he sparks a craze.  Over time, John’s upbringing in a more traditional family environment as well as Shakespearean education make him disgusted with the abject hedonism of this “brave new world” (used sarcastically).  By the end of the novel, John leaves civilization, living as an ascetic in an abandoned lighthouse.  However, his isolation only serves to pique the public’s interest, and he once again becomes the subject of mass-marketed entertainment.  Sickened after a moment of personal failure, John hangs himself.

Literary Analysis Choice: Brave New World

For the first literary analysis, I've chosen to reader Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.  Interestingly, I had this book in mind since my first blog post, before I knew we would be selecting from AP readings.  1984 was my favorite book read for school, and the dystopian ties between them are obvious.  I really enjoy  dystopian settings.  There is an inherent tension in them that seems to be unique to the genre.  It's not quite the same as horror (although Room 101 was rather horrifying), and it's not "ordinary" science fiction.  The frightening parts of a dystopia are what lies beneath the surface--whispered inferences and veiled threats.  The structure of creating a precariously ordered environment, then usurping it in a single character's rebellion (all while building towards a theme of humanity, normality, and individualism) makes for a compelling story.  I'm hoping for a similar experience in Brave New World.  If not, I'll at least have a broader sampling of the genre.