Brave New World Reading Assignment 2 Chapters: 4-6

Bernard's main problem, and the thing that he is troubled by most is his size. Whenvever he is around a lower caste he feels that he needs to express himself if bigger ways such as yelling to get them to do what he wants. I think Bernard is 'much more alone' and 'utterly miserable' during the solidarity service than anyone else because he went into it with the attitute that he was not going to fit in. That is the way he goes through life. Because of this, yes in some regards I do believe that Bernard is responsible of his own problems and unhappiness.

In a world of happiness true happiness means very little. Being happy in the World State is being under the affects of soma. With someone like Bernard his happiness will need to come from becoming who he wants to be. He will never be happy by just doing what is 'normal.' I think that in the book only he knows what can be done to ensure his happiness.

Both Helmholtz and Bernard feel that their lives are somewhat meaningless. They are both successful at things but something is missing for each of them.

Bernard and Lenina interact in a strange way. Bernard is backward and more to himself when around Alphas other than Lenina because that he is so different. When around Lenina Bernard is more outgoing doing what he thinks is right rather than what is accepted. This represents the idea that there is almost always another side. Even in a world that seems to be completely the same where everyone feels, acts, and does the same thing people are different. When it seems as though there presonatlities have just one aspect Bernard shows that this is not the case, and that he can be a different person depending on who he is with.

When Bernard learns that is actually going to Iceland he becomes more reserved. He starts to rethink his rebel attitudes and all the times it outwardly went against his conditioning.

Brave New World Reading Assignment 1: Chapters 1-3

The Hatchery uses the Boskonovky process to produce, on average, 96 embryos from one egg. The word hatchery means a place for hatching eggs usually of hens, fish etc. Especially for a large commercial or government site where the young are hatched, cared for, and sold or distributed. This is exactly what the Hatchery in the book is like only instead of eggs of hens or fish it is humans. The Conditioning Center is where the newly produced humans are put through strategic tactics so that they will fulfill their role in the World State as best they can. The lower castes such as Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons cannot think. They are put through things such as hypnopaedia when they sleep and electric shock when they touch pedals from a rose or a book. These practices and others are done from infancy until adulthood. Conditioning is defined as a process of changing behavior by rewarding or punishing subjects each time an action is performed until the subject associates the action with pleasure or distress. This is a perfect definition of what goes on inside these centers so the World State can form each caste to do exactly as they want.

The five categories of people are Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons.

The Director's and Mr. Foster's definitions are very rarely definitions at all. They try to explain something in a scientific way that may be related or may not be. The answers are not very direct and the Director makes it obvious that it is a bother to try and answer these questions. Possibly, because he himself does not know the real answer. This makes the Director's and Mr. Foster's explanations very annoying.

The Boskanovsky process is a major instrument in social stability because the clones are preconditioned to perform identical tasks that keep the World State running just as it should be.

Huxley's presentation of the Director is saterical because the Director often laughs at ideas and morals that are prevelant in today's society.

In this world state the primary functions of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centers is to prepare the people for what they will be doing for the rest of their lives. The Hatchery is to ensure the continuation of the World State.

This society has "all but solved" the problem of the maturation process. There are plenty of other issues that are revealed that are not solved but this is the one the Director points out to his students.

For the future, Huxley sees a world with very little morality. This society is all about doing things the way they are supposed to be done and when life gets a little difficult you can be removed from it all by taking soma. When the soma wears off you don't remember what happened so you just avoided your problem. Another idea that is very obvious is instant gratification. You want something, you get it right away.

To achieve the goals of community,identity, and stability people are giving up themselves. They no longer do what they think is right, to follow the set ways of the World State. Most can't even think or they refuse to think that there may be more than this way of living.

Huxley is mocking religion by referring to Henry Ford as "his fordship", the characters say things like oh my ford, and instead of A.D. Huxley uses A.F. when referring to dates. Also, crosses have the tops removed, so a 'T' shape is formed. This is to represent Henry Ford's Model T car.

Henry Foster is an Alpha, he is the man Lenina was with exclusively for several months. He spoke about their relationship casually which aggrivates Bernard Marx.
Lenina is a young Alpha, she is wanted by many characters but sometimes her thinking becomes unconventional. At one point Lenina questions the accepted behavior of having relationships with several people but is quickly corrected by her friend Fanny. Lenina does not require much convincing and eventually gives in to conformity with the World State's ideas toward relationships.

Hypnopaedia can be used to instill beliefs and emotional attitudes but cannot be used to learn science because after hypnopaedia the subjects don't really know and understand what they were told. They can just repeat what was played while they were sleeping.

The name Mustapha Mond suggests a powerful character since the word 'mond' means world. I think this word relation has alot to do with how Mond is regarded in the World State. He has a very strong position in this society and people look up to him similar to a ruler.

The next paragraph holds the idea that in this modern society history, art and all of the accumulated wisdom of man means nothing. Only the new society and its strict conformist beliefs matter.

The contradiction between what Mond is saying and what Lenina, Henry, Fanny, and Bernard would be that Mond is speaking from his own free will. He is using his actual knowledge while the rest are simply speaking from conditioning and hypnopaedia.

Soma is needed because they need to forget that they were made to think a certain way. They are not supposed to have emotions and knowing something goes hand in hand with feeling something so they need to be taken away, into this empty space. Felling something is wrong but once you take soma it's okay.

I noticed that the shifting of speakers is done very quickly and without any warning. I think this is done because it really doesn't matter who is talking, they are all conditioned, taught, and conformed to say the same things.

The controllers of the new world define happiness with stability.

So much effort is put into conditioning people to be consumers because this ensures the continuation of stability, one part of their motto. Huxley is satirizing his own society in the idea of wanting nothing. The Great Depression affected us as consumers because we went for year without so many things. Now we go without nothing, instant gratification.

Fascism

Fascism relates to the novel because of "his fordship" Mustapha Mond. He decides what will be acceptable in the community. The people have no rights and nothing left up to personal decisions. He does not want people to read because that might expand their minds and of course people should not think. Also, he wants people afraid of certain things so indirectly he can control what they do and don't do. These tactics allow "his fordship" to control every aspect of these people's lives. This is pretty much a dictatorship. All the people look to Mustapha Mond almost like a god.
As scary as it sounds this almost relates to certain parts of the United States government. Not in the form of a dictatorship obviously but in certain things such as trying to control what we think. By instilling fear in citizens the government can get us to agree or go along with almost anything they want. Sometimes that even means lying to us or taking away basic liberties. An example of this is wire tapping, infringing on a basic right such as privacy.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
--Benjamin Franklin

Brave New World 2

I agree with Carrie's blog about losing your identity as an embryo. The Bokanovsky Process does not have anything to do with individuality, the only care is making as many babies from one egg as possible. This is to ensure the controlled and strict existance of the community. People don't think for themselves, that is absolutely unheard of. They are trained from infancy to do everything the way “his fordship” Mustapha Mond wants it to be done. The actual creating of children to ensure the stability of the community is where I disagree. I think the stability of the community comes in by the categorization of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. This is the main sturucture of the community.

Brave New World continued

The Great Depression did not just have a national affect but a global affect. In 1929 nearly half of the banks crashed causing depositors to lose 2 billion dollars. Both stocks and national trade plummeted. Stocks went down 80% and trade fell 66%. This led to loss of jobs, meaning lower incomes and less spending. From there businesses collapsed and the economy reached a historic low.

Brave New World Blog 1

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.
--Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Aldous Huxley was born in England on July 26 to an upper-middle class intellectual family. His father, Leonard Huxley was a poet, editor, and biographer. He was also the son of a famous leader in Darwinism when it was first becoming accepted. Aldous's mother, Julia, was the niece of a poet and critic.
Aldous originally wanted to become a doctor. This was not a realistic possibility after he contracted a sickness that almost caused him to become blind. When one eye healed just enough to be able to read through a magnifying glass he followed through with a degree in English Literature and philosophy. He lived in California for the later part of his life.
Aldous Huxley wrote not only novels but also poems, essays and short stories.


Satire (n): 1- a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2- trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

Fascism (n): a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition



sources: Merriam-Webster online dictionary
bookrags.com/biography/aldous-leonard-huxley/

Reading Assignment 3: Chapters 6-7

"Quackenbush was studying me to see if he could detect a limp. But I knew that [he] would never detect my trouble"

This is said because Gene even almost starts to feel that maybe his guilt is so great that he is showing it physically. Perhaps he was trying to say that Quackenbush would never understand the way he was feeling so he could not yell at Gene for small things such as being late for the meeting.

Quackenbush reflects Gene's feelings about himself by telling him that his actions are unacceptable. He even gets into a fight with Gene very similar to the one he is suffering inside himself.

The students at Devon have lost a few luxuries due to the war. First and most noticeably men (other than the students) are in very few numbers. Maids are also missing because of the war effort. The realization of the war, although it is a much more positive view than reality, is really made clear when Gene is shoveling snow off of the railroad tracks and he sees the soldiers. This heroic feeling that Gene gets makes him even want to serve his country.

In this section for the first time Gene is the nonconformist. For one of the first times in the novel Gene blatantly disagrees with Finny. He does not cave when Finny talks about the realness of the war. Gene dares to go against Finny and hold his point of view.

Reading Assignment 2: Chapters 4-5

Gene comes to the conclusion that Finny is not concerned about school like he is. He feels that Finny is only cares about sports and having fun.

Gene decides to set aside his school work and go to the tree with Finny because he feels almost like he owes it to Finny. He feels that perhaps in interest of their friendship he put their fight behind them and go have fun at the tree.

Gene puts on Finny's pink shirt because he misses Finny being around all the time and he wants to become more like Finny. He feels like Finny, or the person Finny is, completes him. Finny is almost everything Gene wants to be. Finny is popular, easy-going, naturally good at things. Maybe Gene almost even wants to replace Finny.

Finny does not want to believe that Gene would possibly cause him to fall but he had thought about it. Finny even felt bad for suspecting his best friend of causing him to fall. Because of this Gene feels even more guilty than he had before because his friend fells bad for suspecting something that was the truth.

In the hospital room Gene comes to the conclusion that he has very little confidence and faith in his friend while Finny has complete faith and trust in Gene. Just one more thing to make Gene feel guilty.