Transcript Brave New World - AP English Literature and Composition

BRAVE NEW WORLD
By Aldous Huxley
Introduction Lecture
GENRE: DYSTOPIA
Utopia:
an ideal society possessing a
perfect social and political
system
Dystopia:
a society where the condition of
life is extremely bad, as from
deprivation, oppression, or
terror
Often futuristic
 Often under the guise of being
a utopia
 Often totalitarian

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POPULAR DYSTOPIAS
Earliest Literary Dystopia:
Plato’s Republic
 Government had a deep
suspicion of literature
 Viewed educated men as
potentially subversive
Genre became extremely
popular in the 20th
century…
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POPULAR DYSTOPIAS
20th century popularity
Attempts to put utopian
ideals into place resulted in
real-life dystopias:

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Soviet Communism
German Nazism
Western Consumerism
Modernism
Technological mass
production
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SOVIET COMMUNISM

Political system of social
engineering working for a
classless society of
equals

Individual liberties were
taken away from citizens
because the government
thought people could not
be trusted to make
decisions for themselves
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
Atheist worldview:
GERMAN NAZISM

Movement led by Adolph Hitler
to lead Germany out of its
post-WWI depression

A pure race (Aryans) were
thought to be superior

“Final solution” included
eliminating whole races of
people (e.g., Jews) and religion

The Aryan military class
executed Jews, disabled
people, the elderly, Catholic
priests, an all dissenters

Doctors carried out
experiments on non-Aryan
patients (including pregnant
women), treating them as subspecies animals
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WESTERN CONSUMERISM

A social and economic
order that is based on the
systematic creation and
fostering of a desire to
purchase goods and
services in ever greater
amounts.

People purchasing goods
and consuming materials
in excess of their basic
needs

Characterized by
propaganda and
advertising everywhere
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MODERNISM
A group of movements in
the 20th century that sought
to break with the past
 To eliminate traditions
 To live without
dependence on the family,
the Church, and the
community
 Only novel and innovative
ideas were considered
worthy
 Technological
advancement was
worshiped without
questioning the possible

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MASS PRODUCTION

Product of the Industrial
Revolution

Production of large
amounts of standardized
products, including and
especially on assembly
lines

Contributed to
consumerism

Henry Ford’s Model T was
the first Mass produced
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THE DYSTOPIAN WRITERS
Reacted against one or
more of the many 20th
century movements to
alter human society
 Believed “the more man
controls nature, the less
he controls himself”
 Warned against the “evil
ends” that our
technological advances
would be used.
 Created futuristic worlds
that showed the potential
dangers of the new 20th
century movements.

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METROPOLIS, THE MOVIE
German silent film, 1927
 Credited as the first
dystopian movie.
 Depicting a mechanized,
rigid society with a
mindless, self-indulgent
upper class benefiting from
the brutal exploitation of the
working-class masses.
 (Ironically, the screenwriter
of this hymn to equality and
love, Thea von Harbou,
went on to work with the

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THE TIME MACHINE
H.G. Wells thought
society was splitting into
two castes that would
eventually evolve into
separate species because
of their different
conditions of existence.
 The owners of capital
were doomed to be
physically weak
 The workers were made
increasingly amoral and
angry by the harshness of
their work.
 Created the Eloi (owners)
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1984 (GEORGE ORWELL)
Orwell portrays the
potential effects of Soviet
Communism
 Totalitarian state, where
everyone is watched by
Big Brother
 TV cameras capture
everyone’s movements
 No one has any freedoms
 Children spy on their
parents and turn them in
for any kind of political
dissent
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1984 (GEORGE ORWELL)

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Parents lose moral authority
over their children
Children raised by the state
(“It takes a village”)
Doublethink: to hold
simultaneously two opinions
which cancelled out, knowing
them to be contradictory and
believing in both of them.

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War Is Peace, Ignorance Is
Strength, Freedom Is Slavery
Newspeak: the attempt to
make certain thoughts
inexpressible through the
reform of language.

Example: Ethnic Cleansing
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BRAVE NEW WORLD
Portrays a society that
has been socially
engineered for a mindless
happiness.
 No need for a totalitarian
state because everyone is
so “amused” and
entertained by sex and
drugs.
 Technology drives the
culture and takes away
one’s humanity
 A critique of
consumerism, technology
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BRAVE NEW WORLD

Human beings are treated
like different model cars
trundling off the Ford
assembly line.

Babies are bred in bottles
for designated roles in
society comparable
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The family is seen as
unnecessary and
revolting.
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FAHRENHEIT 451
Bradbury was influenced
by Brave New World and
1984
 Provided a critique of the
“information society”
 Predicted many current
trends:

the “dumbing down” of
popular entertainment and
education,
 our growing addiction to TV,
video games, and the
Internet,
 the rise of random violence

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