Literature Analysis: Brave New World

 

1. Brave New World is a dystopian novel about a future world where government has almost complete control over the worlds population. In this world, the governments goal is to create the perfect society. People are not born, they are created. Positions are not earned, they're assigned. The government has total control on who someone is and what they will become, there is no independence. Everyone is separated in classes, Alpha being the highest and Epsilon being the lowest. One Alpha, Bernard, does not want to conform to the world he was brought into. Bernard is the black sheep of the Alphas, he's short, self-conscious and rather awkward to be around. He falls for another Alpha, Lenina, and takes her to the reservation to see the savages. While he is there, Bernard befriends a young savage, John, and brings him back to the Brave New World. John is disgusted by the Brave New World and soon leaves it to live in a abandoned lighthouse. The public is drawn to Johns isolation and he becomes a subject of the media. The public soon overwhelms John and convinces him to take part in an orgy ritual. When John realizes what he's done, he is sickened and hangs himself. Thus ending the story.

2. There are various themes in Huxleys novel, Brave New World. One of the themes that stood out the most was that Our world is susceptible to fall if we do not change our ways. Brave New World was very similar to our modern world. The importance of sex, drugs and status in Huxley's novel was very relevant to sex, drugs in status in our world. If you're not taking drugs, you know someone who does, sex is exploited at every corner and almost everyone wants to be well known. Our society is falling into  a conformed world that is controlled by the media. This book may not be history but our world is definitely about to repeat it.

3. Huxley's tone is somewhat difficult to determine. For the most part, it's rather robotic and distant. He doesn't really have a specific tone throughout the novel, aside from humorous at times .

Humorous: "Thank Ford!" , "Orgy Porgy", Students disgusted by the word "mother" .
Distant: "But Epsilons, we don't need human intelligence." 


4. Satire: Most characters are originally disgusted by the idea of savages (as the students were in the beginning of the novel) but when Bernard brings John back to the Brave New World, everyone wants to meet him.

Diction: The dialogue is very sophisticated throughout the novel "The women was a blonde and brachycephalic Alpha-Minus.."

Setting: The opening was " CENTAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE"

Symbolism: "Soma" Is the drug used to control everyone.

Tone: "The light was frozen, dead, a ghost." The authors tone is distant.

Allusion: " A gramme in time saves nine." Basically saying that Birth Control saves you nine months of pregnancy.

Dark Humor: The whole novel is somewhat darkly humorous. The fact that young children were sexually active was disturbing but the class reaction was hilarious.

Repetition: "Drop, drop, drop. To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow."

CHARACTERIZATION

1. Direct:  Tall and rather thin but upright, the Director advanced into the room. He had a long chin and big rather prominent teeth, just covered, when he was not talking, by his full, floridly curved lips. Old, young? Thirty? Fifty? Fifty-five? It was hard to say. And anyhow the question didn't arise; in this year of stability, A. F. 632, it didn't occur to you to ask it.” This is the 

Direct: “Lots of men came to see Linda. The boys began to point their fingers at him. In the strange other words they said that Linda was bad; they called her names he did not understand, but that he knew were bad names.”  Huxley is describing Linda as a whore.


Indirect: "And then he spends most of his time by himself – alone.” There was horror in Fanny's voice."
Indirect:

2. Both Huxley's Syntax and diction remain the same throughout the novel.

3. The main protagonist, John, remains the same throughout. He sticks to his morals and values and does not conform for the Brave new World.

4. In a sense, I feel like I met John. He stuck to his beliefs and didn't crack (well at least while he was sober). Being a church girl, morals and values play a huge role in my life.It's hard to stick to your beliefs when there is so much riding against it. I had mad respect for John. I do feel like his choice to solve his mistake was excessive but on the other hand, it only expressed how much he really values his beliefs. He reminds me of a lot of people I have met in my church, they know what they believe in and they stick to it.