Reading Response #4

The Argument

The greatest focus, or main focus of the novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is the argument. The argument of liberty and happiness, freedom and structure, individuals and the collective. This argument, this difference in ideals is the setting, theme and characters of this novel, it encompass everything in essence it is the book. The Brave new world in this story, is a world that perfectly exemplifies the argument of the collective, of structure, "Community, identity and stability"(8). The whole of that based on the collective good, happiness for everyone, but John argues that they are not free, that they have no emotion save happiness and they may as well be dead if that is all they feel. John believes in high art, in plays and literature, and a world without these to him is a barren world, how could one be happy without art, however, why would people need such things, and how could they understand them, without the emotions of tragedies how could they understand Shakespeare, why would they want to?

Both sides have a plethora of arguments to make, all of them with good reasoning behind them, but the real argument is for the reader. The reader is put into a position here where suddenly the world is, for the first time, challenged outright, and neither side has a clear view of everything, only the reader. When arguments are made its for the reader not the characters, each and every argument draws from and ties in with a part of the story, parts that the characters in the argument never saw, or could understand even. So then what can you do, about this argument, an augment that is really, quite abstract in their world, and neither conclusion will bring about any change, so what then, is its point?

I feel that the argument is there for the reader, as any good book is, and make no mistake the argument is the whole book. This book is for the reader to form an opinion, I think, on a crisis the author believes is very real and very possible, and so we are shown what might be and asked "well, what if...?" and how do we respond? The simple answer is, in a regular book like this we wouldn't, we would think about, be fascinated sure, maybe even horrified but we wouldn't choose. The Brave new worlds conclusion however really does make one want to pick a side, need to pick a side, so clearly does it show how bad the end reached through indecision is. That is "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, a book, a question, and a prediction, I think, but more then that still although I cant pin what else down.

Reading Response #3

"Those who feel themselves despised do well to look despising. The smile on Bernard Marx's face was contemptuous." Brave New World 39 Aldous Huxley.

An interesting quote from this book that in a way betrays the archetypes of novels, in this story the villains are the heroes, or it would be more correct to say that the heroes of the story are the villains of the world. The world in the brave new world is very different from the one we live in, this world values "stability" more so than freedom, and "everyone belongs to everyone else" (102) there is a kind of collective whole which society today lacks, and despite how absolutely horrible its immediate reception is to the reader, the 6 year old's doing "erotic play", one can easily find and believe in its positives, and that I feel is one of Brave New Worlds greatest strengths as a novel. That the world is so real, that the world makes so much sense that could be our world in 700 years, 200 years hell 50 years and that world seems so realistic so very possible. So what makes the setting so flawlessly realistic I wonder, how does Huxley capture humanity so well?

Huxley seems to have an uncanny understanding of people, not people as an individual but people as as group, how he came across this, i don't know but its there and it allows for an incredibly insightful book. That in turn lets the novel ask some very deep questions, like the ones in this world, what is better happiness or liberty. The question isn't so much one of the story as that is left until much later then what I am inferring, but one for the reader, what's better. From the beginning of the book the question is prevalent in everything, when the story starts in the Hatchery and Conditioning centre the reader is shown horror upon horror of the new world and yet it still manages to seem not to awful, in fact some of it seems pretty good.

From the beginning of the story, in the hatchery and conditioning centre, the brave new world is there, right from the beginning does the setting scream hey, this is different and the reader will see it. The brave new world is introduced to the reader via a school classroom trip, that at first seems quite normal, but slowly the world unfurls and the reader comes to realize how outside the norm even that class of children is (they are a class of twins, all the same), and the reader is allowed to see a very impressive portrayal of humanity, and what we might, might be heading towards, and that is so terribly real that I think the setting of this book is just fantastic.

Reading Response #2

Conflicts

A Brave new World by Aldous Huxley has many conflicts, indeed it is a book about conflicts of man vs nature, man vs man, and man vs the world that is in this novel.

Man vs Nature; Man vs nature is not such a prevalent theme in this story, as the time in which it takes places is 700 years or so in the future and its a world in which nature has been forced back, away from civilization. That being said nature still plays a great role in this story, it is the ultimatum, the greatest punishment one can incur in the society is to be banished to an island and face nature alone. Now the nature of people is another conflict, that perhaps falls in this group, much of this book is a conflict as will be covered in a later response but it entails that he whole of the book is a conflict between the nature of man and the actions of man. In said conflict one takes the world of this story, which is happiness and stability and control and pits it against what i consider natural, mankind's fight for freedom and individuality.

Man vs Man; this conflict has few large examples in this novel but several little ones. The biggest example is again the argument between John and Mustapha Mond "you've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art." (177), a part of the final argument of this story, in which all the points of the book are argued, freedom and happiness as separate ideals John argues culture and freedom while Mustapha defends the stable happy society, perhaps an oddity (although I feel it was the right thing to do) this conflict is not concluded, it is left to the reader to decide the right and wrong of the argument.

Man Vs World; This is the cream of the crop as far as conflicts go, it is in fact eh vast majority of the plot. John the savage vs the Brave new world, John introduced to the world at a different point as a person faces it much the same way someone from our era might. He sees the pros and cons of the world however, and those positives, namely Lennia (at the end of the day Mr. Huxley makes very "human" characters) force this conflict. Should he live as a part of the society of the controllers, as an Alpha or a Beta, or should he live as a savage, these are the only choices presented John and that drives him to the edge of insanity. John does try to escape his limited choices, he does try to create new ones, but that fails, his speech of liberty and freedom falls on death ears and he is left again with two choices, still does he not choose and he loses his sanity and then his life.

Reading Response #1

Reading Response #1

Characters in "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

"A Brave New World" has some very rich characters who play very different roles in the story, although none of the characters are necessary to the story in the way they would be in most stories. The first main character introduced is Lennia although several other minor characters who play an important role are introduced first, Lennia is the first main introduction to the story, although that is not made clear until later. Lennia is an odd character in that none of the archetypes really fit her well, she has no real role in the story, but is always there. She plays the role of a goal more then a person, a kind of foil to the savages as they are a foil to her. An interesting thing about the characters of this novel is that they are mostly just for the setting and the theme, they play a support to a whole that is not the plot but the world.

The second main character, and much more so of one is Bernard Marx, an interesting person in this story. Bernard in a way shows clearly the flaws with the reality of the brave new world. He is somewhat of an outcast in the brave new world, or would be if people being alone was not some great crime in this story, something I find very interesting is that despite being an outcast he loves the world of the story, and he longs to be part of it, he desires the "happiness" of The Brave New World. "What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals." (62), the two men being Bernard and Helmholtz who I will talk about later but in this quote represents what separates Bernard from the world that Lennia fits in so well, he different and as history will tell you humanity has never been good at dealing with the different. Bernard is an "Alpha plus" which is essentially the intellectuals of this world the leaders and such, however he has stunted growth and this created a mental excess of sorts making him smarter then most but he is unable to socialize as others veiw him as something of a freak. This gives readers an interesting point of view into the story were you see the downside that you wouldn't think of in the new world, you think, or I think that its negative side is lack of freedom and individuality. What Bernard allows the reader to see the very human part of what I expected to be a very controlled inhuman environment, he lets the reader see that the world is still very human.

Helmholtz Wattson, is a minor character who plays a major role so I will mention him for the sake of Bernard to whom he plays the role of a foil. Helmholtz is very similar to Bernard in that he is smarter then he is supposed to be, without any kind of physical defects though, Helmholtz has everything he could want in the world so he of course finds himself looking for more. Later in the story when he encounters John, the savage he plays an important role in explaining the world to John who understood things in terms of Shakespeare and the lack of emotion of the world frightens him, Helmholtz becomes a friend of John and together they think which leads great examples of the differences in their respective societies.

The last main character I am going to go over is John, the savage. John is the only character in the story that is really outside the rule of the brave new world, aside from the other savages who don't really have a large role in the novel. John is the person of now's point of view, he sees in the brave new world what the average person of now would see (I think) and has a very liberal world view, which he gets from reading Shakespeare so he finds the faults which if I were in this world, without the brainwashing, that I feel I would see. John to, is an outcast, but not among the people of the brave new world but rather among the savages of the savage reserves. "Anyhow John seems to have caught it from the Indians. Because of course he was with them a lot. Even though they were so beastly to him." (103) The quote is from Johns mother who got lost in a savage reserve some time ago, and she gave birth to John making it impossible for her to go back to civilization as giving birth is some kind of great sin. So John grew up raised by someone form the brave new world and surrounded by people who live like natives off the land, leading him to have some very interesting world views, which he shares with the reader.

Introduction to A Brave New World

Hello, greetings good day to you. Welcome to my English classic novel study blog. For several monthis this blog will be the place to find my thoughts and notes as I complete my study of the classic novel by Aldous Huxley, A brave New World. The final goal of this study is to come to a conclusion on if this novel is a classic or simply a old book, and if so, why? A brave new world is, to me, a truly fascinating read, it is a book steeped in questions, questions so outside the realm of what is that it is what may be. So if you enjoy thinking as much as I join me on this blog where I intend to look as deeply as possible into "A Brave New World".

Thank you and have a good day
Ethan V