Brave New World: Can Humanity and Perfection Coexist?
Tori Leiweke
English Honors
Brave New World Paper
April 1st, 2015
The uncomfortably blunt Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was published during a time in which mankind was already searching for a palpable utopia. With the ideas of Socialism and Dictatorship as the emerging concepts of the day, surrounding world governments believed that having total power was the secret ingredient in the formulation of a utopia. Through his characters ‘Karl Marx’ (Bernard Marx), and ‘Nikolai Lenin’ (Lenina), Huxley attempts to demonstrate that any government that attempts to exert complete control over a nation will fail. Although technological advances, sexual promiscuity, and conformity contribute to the success of a Utopian society, in, “Brave New World”, these aspects are also the reasons for its downfall. Humans are by nature imperfect, thus anything they create will inevitably carry it’s own faults. The idea of a Utopia is not a realistic reality. Even if Brave New World is considered ‘the utopia to end all utopias’ as long as humanity is involved it can never truly be considered a flawless society.
Throughout the novel, Huxley uses Bernard Marx, a young man who is “deformed by the government” (Huxley, page #) to accentuate the idea that a Utopian Society cannot and will never exist. The advancement of technology has enabled this “Utopian Society” to create human life, and although the entire society is based on technology, it remains supervised by humans. No matter how advanced this technology may be, if humans are involved in the day-to-day direction, mistakes will be made, “They say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the bottle... and put alcohol into his blood- surrogate. That’s why he’s so stunted” (Huxley, 46). The overall outcome of what happened to Bernard forced him to see that human imperfection is the over bearing reason as to why a Utopian Society could never exist. Bernard is an example of human deficiency, not because he was referred to as
English Honors
Brave New World Paper
April 1st, 2015
The uncomfortably blunt Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was published during a time in which mankind was already searching for a palpable utopia. With the ideas of Socialism and Dictatorship as the emerging concepts of the day, surrounding world governments believed that having total power was the secret ingredient in the formulation of a utopia. Through his characters ‘Karl Marx’ (Bernard Marx), and ‘Nikolai Lenin’ (Lenina), Huxley attempts to demonstrate that any government that attempts to exert complete control over a nation will fail. Although technological advances, sexual promiscuity, and conformity contribute to the success of a Utopian society, in, “Brave New World”, these aspects are also the reasons for its downfall. Humans are by nature imperfect, thus anything they create will inevitably carry it’s own faults. The idea of a Utopia is not a realistic reality. Even if Brave New World is considered ‘the utopia to end all utopias’ as long as humanity is involved it can never truly be considered a flawless society.
Throughout the novel, Huxley uses Bernard Marx, a young man who is “deformed by the government” (Huxley, page #) to accentuate the idea that a Utopian Society cannot and will never exist. The advancement of technology has enabled this “Utopian Society” to create human life, and although the entire society is based on technology, it remains supervised by humans. No matter how advanced this technology may be, if humans are involved in the day-to-day direction, mistakes will be made, “They say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the bottle... and put alcohol into his blood- surrogate. That’s why he’s so stunted” (Huxley, 46). The overall outcome of what happened to Bernard forced him to see that human imperfection is the over bearing reason as to why a Utopian Society could never exist. Bernard is an example of human deficiency, not because he was referred to as