A "Brave New World" comes to an end

As you alll may very well know have been readingthe novel Brave New World. Well, as it stands, it seems that I have conquered the novel. I must say that I honestly adorered the ending of the novel. I was pleased with the ending of the novel for two reasons. First the fact that the novel ended in death for me was excellenct, and secondly I found the Behavior of the citizens towards John to be a sign of hope for the society as a whole.

The fact that the novel ended with death was satisfying. The novel showed that death was the ultimate ending to any reality, and because of this, it hightened the credibility of the the other ideas, that may have been presented in the novel. What I fould most unsettling about the end of the novel was the reason for which John killed himself. John wanted solitude and much to his dismay he could not achieve it and ultimatly it cost him his life. Therefore the question are, what must we as individuals forego in order to be free? and Is death really the price to pay for solitude? However much like Chopins criticism of literature in Happy Endings, much of the attention should not be paid on the ending instead the bulk of the ideas should be taken from the middle of the novel.

The other thing that I liked about the end of the novel was the hope of the civilizations future that could seen through the actions of the. Itizens. In the novel the reader could get a sense thag the citizens were begining to change, that cknfrary to their hours of conditioning their basic human instincts would win out in the end. those mere scenes were a glimmer of hope that the civilization still had a chance to revert back to the old ways of art, love, and care instead of the cruelness of social stability.

Lets talk ethics

Let's talk ethics. What is ethical? And for whom is it to decide if an action or statement is ethical? These are both questions that come to mind when there is much argument about weather something is right or wrong. Because our world is filled with so much diversity it is impossible to state that something is ethical because whats ethical to you is not ethical to me. For instance to Karl Marx, it would be ethical to lay a women off if she is pregnant. The argument by Marx would be that her discharge would be solely in the interest of the baby, and the long hours and hard work could tire the mother out. Her fatigue could possibly negatively affect her health which would be bad for the baby. That's where ethics is a twin-headed dragon though, because someone like Susan B. Anthony would view the same situation as a blatant attack on the economic rights of women. Anthony could argue that it is not at all ethical to lay a mother off because she is pregnant and can ultimately view it as the denigration of women's rights. Therefore are a result of its ambiguity there is no real definition of what is ethical.
            Because of the idea proposed above that it is impossible to deem anything ethical, there is no one to say whether Science is or can be ethical. However For the purpose of education lets try to assume that the possibility to deem an action or statement ethical existed. can science be ethical? Well according to Dyson science can and is only ethical when it serves to ameliorate the conditions and needs of the poor. Dyson believes that when science goes astray from that objective, and focuses more on profits and creating toys for the wealthy then science becomes evil. This idea however insane it is relates a lot to "Brave New World". In the novel the World leaders decided that hypnopedia and conforming humans was the only alternative left to a world crushed with the 9 years war. The controlling powers decided that the only way to improve the conditions of the poor, would ultimately result in the relinquishing of free will. Is that ethical? according to Dyson that is ethical, however in our society we have been pampered from our early days to be politically correct therefore losing free will would not be ethical.
           Dyson in his article made an extremely interesting point. Dyson states that genetic engineering is inevitable. He notes that so long there is an interest for humans to improve themselves by technological means genetic engineering will never be suppressed no matter how unethical it might be viewed. That conclusion is possible what Huxley saw before writing the novel and the solution that he possibly prescribes for us as the human race is to look within ourselves and really think about genetic engineering and the "ethics" that result from it.

Utopia + sci fi = Dystopia

                                        

The society and or the genre of the novel is Dystopian. The Dystopian theme is noticed with  the utopia aspect of the novel where the society heads or the "Controllers" conform the different castes with Hypnopedia to a point where the the ideas that the society heads want to them to take in is automatic. Whats interesting that I noticed about the novel  thought is that contrary to the many scientific and specific precautions that are taken to mold each and every person of a caste there are still people like Bernard and Helmholtz who feel out of place different from the other members of the society. This Dystopian theme is much like the film The Chronicles of Riddick where Vin Diesel playing Riddick is this and individual apart from the other members of the society due his elite senses. Apart from the novel however the people of the movie are not happy all the time and are able to express their ideals. Also unlike the novel in the Chronicles of Riddick there are many different characters or individuals with individual personalities.

   Another interesting Movie that has similar characteristics to the novel "Brave New World" would be I Am Legend. like the novel in I Am Legend Will Smith is seen as an eccentric individual who has the power to change what goes on in his society. Also like the novel and typical of Dystopian genre the problem in the society is mostly caused by advancements in technology and the human beings imaginations gone wrong. Whats different though is that The movie portrays a post-apocalyptic world due to the spread and infestation of a disease that turns people into genetically fit zombies. In the novel the people of the society have rid of human afflictions such as pain and diseases so something of the nature as  in I Am Legend would not occur.

  The last and Final film that I want to look at that draws a lot of similarities to "Brave New World" would have to be Demolition Man. A key difference that I found between the two societies is the feeling towards sex. In the movie, the people of the society regarded sex as backwards to a point where they eliminated the physical act between two partners and replaced it with a sensuous mind device. In the novel though the society is open about sex, in fact there belief is that "Everyone belongs to everyone" therefore the people tend to have sex with multiple partners at a time. They even begin to have sex at ages as low as 7. Another similarity between the two is the way in which the governing bodies monitor the every activity of the people and make it a mission to correct all negative actions or feelings. A particular scene in the movie demolition Man the cameras that watched the people everyday caught the under people use a machine to write graffiti on the walls and almost immediately the graffiti was erased. An example from novel would be the correction of the little boy who didn't want to partake in the sexual play. These two examples show a contradiction in the seemingly perfect nature of the societies and really give the reader clues to how the societies really are.

                                   

Brave New World

       It has been a "Brave New World" indeed. recently our Ap Lit class was asked to begin reading the novel "Brave New World". I must say that when I started reading and as cliché as it may sound, I felt as if I entered a New world. The novel itself is brilliant, however a little unsettling mostly due to the whole ideology of the novels Society. That ideology though is what would provoke a Marxist's curiosity, making him feel compelled to analyze the novel.

     From what I have read so far a marxist would be perticularly keen to the fact that in the novel's society there is a caste system with members of each caste ranging in superiority from Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas, and Epsilons respectivly. The Alphas being the dominat caste live in the life of luxury and are portrayed as beautiful. the Alphas tend to hold the most distincly fufilling jobs as they to an extent are the only class that is educated, and because of this education the Alphas regard the other classes as being lowly or beneth them. what's puzzling however is that the governing bodies of the society put in so much time and care into conforming each caste in a unique way fir instance The epsilons are deprived of oxygen when in the incubators so that they can grow to be small and weak mined but able to work in the factories. Once more an example would be that Te gammas are shocked from infancy to hate books and flowers so that as they grow older they still retain a psycological want or need to spend money. This kind of sentiment would have a marxist wondering for what economic or social gain is there from conforming each of the lower claste in this way?
    The society of "Brave New World" from my point of view is riddled with hypocricy. The society condems christianity and organized religion, seeing them as flaws of a previous society. With that belief however the people of the society have an accentuated enfactuation with Henry Ford to the point where they see him as a diety. They possibly feel this way due to his introduction of the assembly line which the society uses to an incredible degree to mass produce human beings. Also to be noted is, the way the members speak of drugs and narcotics that send users into hallucinated states of euphoria, when infact the drug soma is taken to keep the members happy, a false happiness that sends the usered on "vacations' and renders them incapable of feeling sadness. though the ideology in the novel is corupt and imaginative I feel that there is more to be learned and read, and with that being said I bit you a do.