Transcript Brave New world The Conclusion - CCSD Blogs | 21st Century

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BRAVE NEW WORLD
THE CONCLUSION
CHAPTERS 17 AND 18
Chapter 17
 Focus is on the discussion of religion, in abstract and metaphysical levels.
 We finally get to the heart of Huxley’s dystopia…
 What is at the heart of this?
 The lack of religion
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Page 240 – What is John the Savage really claiming? How can we classify this list–
put them all in one basket – what would you call it?
Free will
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PERSONAL EXISTENCE & THE LACK OF GOD
People see no purpose of life past instant gratification – there’s no need for
a religion or a God
Mond suggests that people only need religion when they are in complete
chaos; they need religion for a “larger purpose” like growing old and
worrying about an afterlife.
CHAPTER 18
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Focus is on John’s departure from society, the self-flagellation, the need for
truth above slavery, and pressure.
He attempts to recreate his life on the reservation (in touch with nature) with
disastrous results.
LENINA CROWNE
Acts as the pressure John consistently fights against (his sexual attraction to
her is overwhelming) – she’s the key to push him over the edge
Her arrival is the last straw.
He loses all resolve, and then succumbs to what he was most against, which is?
 What drives him to take his life?
 Shame and the fact that there is no where for him to go.
LANGUAGE
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A mixture of satire, farce, and Shakespearean language.
The final image is deeply ironic.
WHAT IS FARCE?
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A comic dramatic piece that uses highly
improbable situations, stereotyped characters,
extravagant exaggeration, and violent
horseplay. Farce is generally regarded as
intellectually and aesthetically inferior to
comedy in its crude characterizations and
implausible plots (Encyclopedia Britannica).
LET’S LOOK AT THE LAST FEW SENTENCES…
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What do we make of this image?
FOUR DIRECTIONS
The four directions are integral to native
spirituality.
 When a Native American prays to the four
directions, it is a prayer to the spirits of the
world, to life and the Great Spirit that
encompasses the four directions and
everything that is.
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HUXLEY’S VISION
Aldous Huxley's writings express
 the disillusionment of the 1920s,
 the cynicism of the 1930s,
 and the questioning of the 1940s.
Huxley was the product of the times, and his novels
and essays are the expressions of his beliefs and
concerns (Monarch).
The questions is, does his work still speak to today’s
audience?
SOME CONSIDER…
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Huxley to be a more accomplished essayist than novelist.
Some critics have insisted that his characters are characters are
spokespeople for particular ideas and beliefs.
They feel his plots are “rigged” and his characters salespeople for his
version of truth.
Some feel that Huxley is too didactic a novelist and his preaching is
overbearing.
Opinions?
What does Huxley’s want us to see?
Perhaps that science and technology should be the servants of man man should not be adapted and enslaved to them.
What do we think? What do we expect and require from our novels?
(If you like the “novel of ideas” you may enjoy Ayn Rand’s The
Fountainhead..)