brave new world

Alternativer Bildtext:

used for their intended purpose. The main characters of the novel are Bernhard Marx, Lenina Crowne, John ("the savage") and his parents Linda and Thomas (DHC), Helmholtz Watson and Mustapha Mond. Individuality and intellectual progress is no longer part of reality and emotions are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are no lasting relationships and needs are satisfied with the help of the drug soma. The new world States motto is "community, identity, stability". I chose Brave New World because it is a classic of dystopian literature. Further I think the book addresses many different dystopian issues and especially for its time, Huxley's vision of the future world is downright impressive and inspired many of the science fiction works that followed. 3. ANALYSIS OF A KEY SCENE The climax of the novel occurs when John, deranged by grief, tries to initiate a riot in the hospital in Chapter 15 right after his mother died. (cf p. 180-186) For John the death of his mother was one of the most overwhelming and moving moments. Even though their relationship was challenging in the past she was the one he lived with growing up and who taught him everything he knows and admires for example reading and poetry. On his way out of the hospital he comes across a group of khaki-wearing Delta workers who are waiting in line for their daily soma ration. (cf p. 180f) There is a repetition of a term he is reminded of from Miranda's words from Shakespeare's The Tempest "O brave new world!" (p.181, 1.5, 1.23f, 1.27, 1.30) which, when leaving the Reservation to get to know the world state his mother had told him about, meant the promising beautiful world. This emphasizes the importance of this sentence. Right in this scene those worlds change their meaning for him and turn into an appeal. A declaration of the possibility that, maybe, this nightmare can be transformed into something "fine and noble."(p. 181, 11.27ff). John realizes the parallels between Linda and the delta workers who both have been gotten into slavery by consuming soma constantly (cf. p. 182, 11.5f). He interrupts the distribution of the drug to give a speech about freedom and tells them soma is poison for their bodies and their souls (cf p. 182, 1.19, 1.22) He promises them the end of slavery and freedom whether they want to or not. (cf. p. 184, ll.6f) The soma distributor immediately calls Bernard and Helmholtz who both quickly arrive at the hospital. By throwing the happiness drug soma out the window John symbolizes his struggle against happiness as the ultimate goal and solution for everything of the world state. (cf p.184, II.8ff) In this scene, Bernard becomes entirely unsympathetic for his lack of morality and not having the courage to help his friends. He does not get involved but stands around, saying, "Ford help him!," while Helmholtz on the other hand counters with, "Ford helps those who help themselves" (p.184, II.15f). Helmholtz makes his way through the crowd to John of help him fight of the Delta workers who started moving towards John after he threw the soma rations out the window. (cf p.184, 1.16ff) John's attempt to liberate the masses obviously fail because all of them have been conditioned their whole life to be dependent on soma and love it. They never learned how to critically develop a own opinion causing them not to understand John's offer of freedom. All of the three man are arrested by the police who rush in and end the riot with the use of soma vapour, a anaesthic. These events occurring in the key scene set the scene for everything that follows. Mustapha Mond exiles Bernard and Helmholtz, then discusses religion, literature and art with John. This debate between the Theo, representing the two different worlds the modern humanity's dilemma consisting of the old vs. the new, science vs. emotion, individual freedom vs. social stability and materialism vs. spiritualism is emphasized. This shows that the two opposing forces will never be able to compromise and co-exist in peace. John, not being allowed to follow Bernard and Helmholtz into exile and having to acknowledge that he, as an individual, cannot exist within World State society because he is forced either to be a stereotyped representative of "the savage" or to succumb to the warped morals of the World State, goes to a remote lighthouse. There he punishes himself, and the intervention of outsiders and the appearance of Lenina ultimately lead to the protagonist committing suicide. The dystopia ends in tragedy and John, as a symbol of the old world order where emotions and individualism were still important, has not been able to adjust to the brave new world. 1.1. CHARACTER NETWORK BERNARD MARX > Alpha who struggles to connect to the World State due to his beliefs > character development: isolated and insecure before finding John, popular and more connected to the World State's values after finding him > continues to criticise the World State afterwards LENINA CROWNE > Beta who works at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre > resists one of the World State's norms by dating one man for several months (e.g. Bernard, Henry, John) = FANNY > Lenina's best friend > represents the conventional values of her caste and the society in general > advices Lenina to date more men Alpha caste = Beta caste 09 friends lovers / like each other * = ex-lovers 3 = have an argument / conflict HENRY FOSTER > perfectly conventional Alpha male and one of Lenina's lovers HELMHOLTZ WATSON > Alpha, who lectures at the College of Emotional Engineering > criticises the World State in a philosophical way - shallow culture > described as strong, intelligent, and handsome JOHN "THE SAVAGE" > main protagonist and outsider > Son of the director and Linda > grew up outside of the World State on the New Mexico Savage Reservation > his worldview is based on his knowledge of Shakespeare's plays debate (3) exiles them ($) son mother MUSTAPHA MOND > one of the ten world controllers > was a scientist and was given the choice of being exiled or becoming a World Controller > just like John, Mond reads Shakespeare and owns his works <father, son THOMAS, DHC > administrates the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre > father of John > threatens to exile Bernard 09 > Beta who was left behind at the Reservation by the Director > mother of John > addicted to Soma 1.2 CHARACTERIZATION Bernard Marx is an Alpha-Plus but he is smaller than the other Alphas and is therefore considered an outsider of his caste. Bernard is often busy thinking about problems in society and questioning the Brave New World. But further into the novel it becomes clear that the rejection by society causes him to question the system because with gaining and then again loosing popularity his rebellious actions change. John "the Savage" does not live in the Brave New World but was raised by his mother Linda on a reservation. He is the son of the D.C.H. He is considered an outsider and is very enthusiastic about reading, especially Shakespeare, whose works are forbidden. At the beginning he is desperate to get into Brave New World, but ultimately finds it terrible and tries to start revolt because his old-fashioned concepts of morality conflict with the civilized world. His story ends when he commits suicide in the last chapter of the novel. Mustapha Mond is one of the ten world Controllers in charge of Western Europe. He belongs to the Alpha Plus caste and his knowledge as well as intelligence put him above the system. He believes in the system and the concept of stability but still discusses the philosophical principles controversial with John. Lenina Crowne is part of the beta class and works in the incubator. She is an almost perfect resident of the Brave New World & supports the principles of the state, especially open sexuality. Lenina is attracted to both Bernard and John but their relationships fails because of their monogamous views on love, Lenina is incapable of understanding. The last protagonist is the emotional engineer Helmholtz Watson. Helmholtz is also an Alpha Plus and is considered as an ideal specimen due to his intellect and looks. But all that doesn't count for him at all, he prefers to stand up for others, especially for the weaker ones like John or Bernard. As the book progresses, he also discovers an interest in poetry and reading and wants to find deeper meaning in life. Lenina Crowne Who: Sexy, shallow, all the guys want her What: Denied sex by John, is she in love? Helmholtz Watson Who: What: Hot tortured-artist Alpha, brave Bernard Marx Who: Alpha-Plus psychologist, short, smart, rebel Overcomes conditioning to write about weather What: Hero turned moron, ends up fake Mustapha Mond Who: What: World Controller, former physicist John the Savage Who: White son of Director, raised on Reservation Puts his strong, deep voice to work What: Represents noble savage, tragic hero 5. READING LOG Chapter 1 States motto: community, identity, stability; Londoner hatchery and conditioning Centre; mass production of humans through fertilized & manipulated eggs → five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and epsilons Chapter 2 Conditioning & hypnopaedia are used to form and educate children, stability through the need of consumption and being taught to like the caste system, living conditions of the 20th century are satirized, books are forbidden Chapter 3 Children are forced to play sexual games, Controller Mustapha one out of the ten world controllers explains how the destruction of humanity led to the change of society & the formation of the new world state, Bernard critically views the controversial satisfaction of all desires, system is not perfect → philosophical issues within the novel: role of consumption, the interplay between sexuality and emotions, the role of history, and the redefinition of religion Chapter 4 Part 1: Lenina and Bernard make plans to visit the savage Reservation Part 2: Bernard and Helmholtz are dissatisfied with the system, Bernard feels insecure and not as a part of society because of his physical defects (size), Helmholtz is too perfect for and feels like an outsider but also wants something more fulfilling Chapter 5 Part 1: Henry and Lenina are having a evening out and taking soma, are pleased with society, even after death people are useful for society by being burned and used as fertilizer Part 2: Bernard takes soma and talks about his insecurities (his size & not fitting into the Alpha caste) Chapter Part 1: Lenina and Bernard attend a wrestling match, they have different ideas of what happiness is Part 2: Bernhard gets the permission to visit the Reservation, the Director mentions that he took a trip there with a woman twenty years before but he realizes that he has been revealing too much of his personal life and criticizes Bernhard for his antisocial behavior and threatens to exile him Part 3: Lenina and Bernhard travel to the Reservation, Bernard calls Helmholtz who has bad news: he tells Bernard that the Director decided to exile him to Iceland what persuades him to take soma Chapter 7 At the Reservation, Lenina forgot her so a and has to watch a community celebration →is horrified, the handsome John introduces himself to Lenina and Bernard, he explains that his mother Linda came from the "Other Place", during a visit to the Reservation and a accident she was rescued by some Indians who found her and brought her to the village; Bernard realizes that "Tomakin" John's father is actually the D.H.C, John introduces Lenina and Bernard to his mother, Lindas outward appearance disgusts Lenina, Linda explains that John was born because something went wrong with her contraceptives but she could not get an abortion and felt too ashamed to go back to the World State with a baby, started a new life in the Indian village, she still followed her conditioning and slept with any man which caused trouble, John feels attracted to Lenina because of her beauty Chapter 8 John talks to Bernard about his childhood, John is able to read as well as write and admires Shakespeare, Hamlet inspired John to trie to kill Linda's lover Popé, John was excluded from the Indian's rituals which caused loneliness/self-punishment and encountering the concept of death, Bernard plans to take John back to London to embarrass the Director by exposing him as John's father, John naively accepts using the words: "brave new world" 5. READING LOG Chapter 9 Bernard gets Mustapha Monds permission to take John and Linda to the World State, Lenina takes enough soma to fall into a drugged sleep in her cabin where John finds her still passed out on the bed, he admires her while quoting passages from Romeo and Juliet, Bernard's helicopter approaches and John runs away Chapter 10 the D.H.C. plans to dismiss Bernard as a public example, he explains that Bernard's unorthodox behavior threatens stability, Bernard arrives and the Director tell him that he is being transferred to Iceland but Bernard presents Linda and John, Linda tells the Director he made her a mother and John falls at the Director's feet and calls him "my father!", the workers break out into laughter as the Director rushes from the room Chapter 11 the Director resigns in disgrace and Bernard is able to keep his job, John "the Savage" becomes an instant society hit, Linda takes soma continually and falls into a half-awake, half-asleep state of intoxication, Bernard experiences unprecedented popularity as John's appointed guardian & shamelessly uses it, John refuses to take soma and visits his mother Linda often, Lenina likes John but cannot tell if he likes her so she takes him to a feely but John hates the movie, he is overwhelmed by the physical desire towards Lenina and refuses to have sex with her, he locks himself in his room and reads; Lenina returns to her room and takes soma Chapter 12 John refuses to attend to the party Bernard arranged for important people what leads to Bernard's social downfall, Lenina is still thinking about John and her strong feelings for him while he identifies them as Romeo and Juliet, through their interest in poetry John and Helmholtz become friends, Bernard is jealous of their friendship and takes soma to cope with his feelings Chapter 13 Lenina and John are attracted to each other and confess their feelings, John talks about marriage which is not really an option for Lenina, John rejects her and threatens to kill her which causes her to escape Chapter 14 John goes to the Park Lane Hospital to be with his mother Linda who is dying, Delta children stay among the beds to learn to view death as useful death-conditioning annoys John and makes it impossible for him to speak with his mother, Linda wakes from a soma dream, Linda dies and John leaves the hospital furiously Chapter 15 John sees Deltas in the hospital vestibule lining up for their soma ration and tells them to stop taking the drug because it is a poison meant to enslave them and asks them to choose freedom, Bernard and Helmholtz are called and rush to the hospital together, the Deltas do not understand John what causes him to throws the soma out of the window and root against the Deltas, Helmholtz and Bernhard arrive and Helmholtz defends John therefore becomes involved in the riot while Bernard just stands there, the arriving police sprays soma vapor and a powerful anaesthetic and the three men are arrested 5. READING LOG Chapter 16 They are submitted to the judgment of Mustapha Mond and they discuss the reasons for social control, Mond quotes Shakespeare what surprises John and tells him that such literature is banned because they are based on experiences and passions that do not exist in the World State, Mond explains to John that the World State has to have citizens who will be happy performing the functions that they have been assigned & even technology has to be kept under controls for a happy and stable society, also science cannot exist in the World State because the search for "truth" conflicts with happiness and had to be suppressed to create the happy and stable society, Mond banishes Bernard and Helmholtz to the Falkland Islands what causes Bernard to panic, but Helmholtz accepts the new life, far away from the pressures of conformity; Mond says that exile is actually a reward because the islands are full of individuals who did not fit in the World State community Chapter 17 Mond and John discuss the brave new world, religion and religious experience & the absence of God, Mond states that people believe what they have been conditioned to believe but John protests that the people of the World State would not be degraded if they believed in God, Mond says that no one in the World State is degraded and they simply live by a different set of values than John and that the World State civilization does not require anyone to bear unpleasant things because soma will solve anything negative that occurs, Mond argues that John's wishes for poetry, danger, freedom, goodness, and sin will lead to unhappiness and John agrees but does not relinquish his wishes Chapter 18 Bernard and Helmholtz prepare to leave for the Falklands and say their goodbyes to John, John asks Mond if he can go with them to the islands, but Mond refuses, John makes plans to retreat to a place of his own, far from society in an abandoned lighthouse in the wilderness outside London and he performs rituals of self-punishment to purge himself of the contamination of civilization and to exorcise the guilt he feels for Linda's death and his thoughts about physical interactions with Lenina, a worker sees and films John whipping himself which leads to reporters coming to interview him, John reacts to them with increasing violence and angrily demands they may respect his solitude, crowds start to intrude on his privacy, Lenina arrives in a helicopter and approaches him but John attacks her with a whip, the crowd mimes his gestures, dances, and sings a hymn, a riot breaks out & turns into an orgy, John awakens the next day and realizes what has happened while remembering everything with horror, he kills himself, visitors who have read about the "orgy of atonement" in the papers discover that he has hanged himself 6. STRUCTURE OF THE NOVEL life in the World state 7 Part 1: chapter 1-9 John visits the World State 13 15 Climax Part 2: chapter 10-18 18 disaster of John's death 7. DYSTOPIA The opposite of a utopia, an ideal world, is a dystopia. Typical of dystopian literature are themes such as extreme social and economic class division, mass poverty, and the loss of individuality. Dystopian literature is significant because it presents different possible visions of humanity's future, considering various themes such as technological progress or political tensions. Reading about a controlling technology or an oppressive government both criticizes current existential threats and serves as a warning of what could possibly happen to society. The goal is to make readers think about current social and political issues or even inspire them to act. 8. DYSTOPIAN ASPECTS IN THE NOVEL Controlling technology - total control of society by the misuse of science and censoring science - genetic engineering to produce humans - misuse of psychological conditioning - soma is a drug which helps the state to keep the people happy all the time -> mindless consumption and mindless diversions - strict control of reproduction - people are controlled down to their very impulses, emotions, and thoughts, science tends to imprison humanity more than liberate us - conditioned to love the drug, and they use it to escape any momentary bouts of dissatisfaction, the citizens are essentially enslaved by the drug Oppressive government - there is no democracy but a totalitarian regime of 10 world controllers government may encourage drug use, it only does so as a means of further controlling the population - people who question the system break the stability and are exiled / sent to lonely islands Loss of individuality - the destruction of the family - the oppression of individual differences because of the determination into the caste system and conditioning - neither individuality or free thinking nor families, love, emotions and relationships → threatens the World State's stability and the happiness of their inhabitants, has a loss of humanity as consequence - monogamy regarded as immoral, the cheapening of sexual pleasure - People are kept away from nature - One is forced to be happy through soma and conditioning Social and economic class divide Caste system: alpha, beta, delta, gamma, epsilon lower classes discriminated classes/embryos resulted from bottles → every caste needs another amount of intelligence → different dose of oxygen = different classes bc they are depending from the intelligence