Brave New World essay

I'm in the process of writing an essay over Aldous Huxley's Brave New World for my english class. Would anyone care to look it over and give me suggestions? If you haven't read the novel, it would really be a waste to read the essay, as my 'audience' is people that have read Brave New World. We write weekly essays, this is my eleventh this year. I'm not particulary fond of this one, I think it's rather bad, but regardless, I thought I would show everyone up here. If you don't want to read it, thats fine. I do have other editing sources, and I know it is rather long.


CAUTION: There are spoilers within it, if you care.

Edward Bellamy wrote, “as an iceberg, floating southward from the frozen North, is gradually undermined by warmer seas, and, become at least unstable, churns the sea to yeast for miles around by the mighty rockings that portend its overturn, so the anti-quity, undermined by the modern humane spirit, riddled by the criticism of economic science, is shaking the world with convulsions that presage its collapse”. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World resembles the structure and life of an iceberg. To any outsider, the iceberg appears to be a stable object; no problems or major flaws are outwardly visible. However, if one were to examine the society of Brave New World, it, much like an iceberg, has problems which eventually lead to its certain collapse. As a reader of the novel, one is supposed to feel like the society of Brave New World is much like an iceberg, with the appearance of stability on the outside, though with many internal complications which make the society a dystopia and undesirable to live in, at the end of the novel.


Brave New World lacks freedom, which is an ideal and principle which many people have come to want and request. “I want freedom” (240) are words spoken to World Controller, Mustapha Mond by the Savage. He is looking down on the idea that all freedom is taken out of the society. In American culture, one is allowed to choose what they do in their life. Even if one was born into a lower-class family, they can work hard, and one day, become rich and famous; however, in the Brave New World society, this element of ‘freedom’ has been completely removed. In the new society, one’s intelligence, job, and lifestyle have been determined at the start of the novel, due to advances in genetics. Everyone in the world, regardless of where they are born, has some ability to choose elements in their life, yet, in this society, that freedom of choice has been completely removed.

The new Brave New World society also excludes works of art and literature and good science, which is undesirable condition for most people to live in. When Mond is rejecting ‘bad’ papers, he thinks, “what fun life would be… if one didn’t have to think about happiness” (177). Mond is referring to the idea that life is much more fun, when one has art, literature, and science. While several societies around the world examine the literature that is placed in circulation throughout the society, many do not. This would result in a general dislike of the Brave New World society, again due to the removal of privileges that many people enjoy and take part in.


Brave New World also constantly reiterates the idea that everyone is allowed to have sex with anyone else without any social repercussions and could make the majority of readers have a general dislike for the society. In many countries throughout the world, people are taught that they are to belong to only one sexual partner, and they are to become married and remain that way for the rest of their lives. Brave New World preaches the opposite: “everybody belongs to every one else” (121). Many deeply religious societies would scorn the novel for simply stating that. It is against many people’s beliefs and would turn many people against the novel. In fact, when Bernard and Lenina visit the reservation, they even learn of the ‘Indians’ beliefs: “nobody’s supposed to belong to more than one person” (121). This is a reiteration of today’s majority belief, and it would once again, cause a reader to examine the society as a dystopia.


Many societies and peoples across the world, once reading this novel, would see the society as an iceberg. It appears to be stable on the outside. It functions and runs, making small advances, yet underneath, in the inner workings, it eventually runs into warmer waters, which reveal its weaknesses. However, everyone’s views are completely subject to their mental conditioning. Just as the children in Brave New World undergo sleep teaching and mental conditioning, so do the people in today’s societies. Children in America are taught that one deserves basic rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and children in countries such as Afghanistan are often taught that Islam is the only true religion. This conditioning effects how one views everything, and determines one’s future. Huxley’s Brave New World is an excellent example of how influential this conditioning is, and perhaps that is the true reason John kills himself, he understands he cannot beat the teachings of one’s childhood.

It's been a long time, but I remember being kind of blown away by the rigidity of the class system of BNW and the drugging of the masses.

I like your conclusion. I think you should more thoroughly explore the fact that it's one's own conditioning that would determine how open a person might be to the ideas in BNW.

I've read BNW several times, at various ages.

I could only quick scan your essay, but at a glance, I'd put your 2nd sentence (which describes the main premise of your essay) first.

The quote is only supportive. Find a later place to put it, preferably when you are about to make a direct comparison b/t BNW & Bellamy's quote. And shorten the quote into its component parts. There are too many separate ideas in it, take them one at a time.

FWIW

Yeah, indi's on the money. First thing that came to my mind was this quote is entirely too long. Break it up.

I need to read BNW. I read it once in the eighth grade but I couldn't truly appreciate it then.

Okay, I read it a bit more carefully. Overall, its a decent essay but its structure could be better.

I would drop the Bellamy quote altogether (or if you really want, just use the first part up to 'unstable'). But be prepared to make direct analogies to the 'warm waters' etc. in your points in the subsequent paragraphs. Same for the 'unseen' problems re: iceberg vs. BNW.

Generally, an essay should be one idea per paragraph. To make this essay stronger, you need to develop each of the ideas, in greater depth, much like your iceberg idea. Start w/the things in BNW that are just 'under the surface' and make your first analogy, then go deeper in the next paragraph/idea & so on until your last paragraph, which should describe the critical flaw in the structure of the society.

Then sum it up w/a strong closing paragraph w/some indication of the lessons that can be learned from the work.

Each of your 2nd, 3rd & 4th pgphs could be a standalone essay, btw you might want to focus on just one of those ideas.

BTW, you probably haven't read it, as its a rare book to find but Huxley wrote a book called 'Island' that is the antithesis to BNW. In it, he basically describes a utopian society w/strong leanings towards buddhism.

And here's a bit of a gimme, but an interesting one: in contrast to Orwell (1984) who was concerned with the suppression of information, Huxley was primarily worried about 'information overload', to the point where ppl were so overwhelmed by data they lost the ability to critically assess it and desire to seek it (hmmm... modern internet? CNN?). Hope this helps. Good luck.

BTW, I got kicked out something happened to the forum, so hope this repost made it...