Brave New World: Title

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"There was a yell of ironical applause," (Huxley, 255).

John, the savage, makes references to the works of William Shakespeare often throughout the novel, but none so impactful or prevalent than that of the title "O brave new world." Miranda from William Shakespeare's The Tempest exclaims:
"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't."

How ironic. Author Huxley uses this irony to highlight the sadness that becomes of John's collision with the civilized, modern culture. The stories of Miranda and John are parallel in many ways; both are disillusioned by the truth of society and are "baptised by fire" as they are thrown into a new society with new dynamics that they have to make sense of. But, as Miranda's reflection on humanity reveals, she adjusted well to the society that was presented to her (the play follows her first encounter with mortal men) while John rejected the society he was forced into.

I watched an interview with author Aldous Huxley where, at about 11 minutes in, he describes the use of propaganda and drugs (such as Valium which was popular among women during this period) as potentially threatening to society, bringing up Adolf Hitler's effective brainwashing of an entire nation as a warning to modern society as not to be "taken by surprise." The interview was conducted in 1958 and concludes with the statement that "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." I wonder sometimes, if we have kept up this necessary vigilance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TQZ-2iMUR0

Brave New World: Insanity

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"...it was not to sing and enjoy himself that he had come here. It was to escape further contamination by the filth of civilized life; it was to be purified and made good; it was actively to make amends," (Huxley, 247).

What do you do when everything in your world has been destroyed by powers far outside your control? Each individual has their own ways of dealing with grief and insanity. For those in civilized society it's simple: take a soma holiday, but for John, the baseness of this response disgusts him. He instead returns to the customs that he knows: to self purify through suffering and self-denial. Because these concepts are so foreign to the civilized people, they again claim him as a novelty and send media crews to catch footage of the savage harming himself in strange ritual that he can't explain. In the end, it becomes too much and John can no longer live with himself in the knowledge that he has been a part of the society and can't escape from it.

Brave New World: Them All

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"'I claim them all,' said the Savage at last," (Huxley, 240).

Them all; everything. John claimed everything about life. The good, the bad, and the ugly. He saw what life looked like whittled down to the most basic it could be and hated it. A world without disease, without pain, without struggle, without death even could not satisfy him because it came at a high price. Relieving the world of disease eliminates the heroism that comes from suffering; removing the causes of pain comes at the price of intoxication; no struggle means no reward; and no understanding of death means no understanding of life. Fully knowledgeable of both sides of life, John chooses to have everything in order to have the good. Literally and figuratively, he refuses to swallow the pill that the Controller offers him.

Brave New World: control

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"The Voice of Reason, the Voice of Good Feeling. The sound-track roll was unwinding itself in Synthetic Anti-Riot Speech Number Two (Medium Strength). Straight from the depths of a non-existent heart..." (Huxley, 214-215).

Controlling the masses has been the object of civilized societies since the start of organized living; the hand of rational society that reigns us back in when we succumb to our most base desires. The Romans accomplished this with bread and circuses and those of this society accomplish it with soma. Citizens are dependent on the release from even the modified reality they live in. The quote I chose was extracted from the scene where the police dissipate the riot against the Savage and use the recording to calm the subconscious unrest of the angered citizens. It reveals how mechanical and planned the society is. Huxley chooses to add that the recording comes "straight from the depths of a non-existent heart," saying that the supposedly well-intentioned, sweet words about happiness and harmony really have a sinister purpose of absolute control.

Brave New World: Limits

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"I mean, when a child asks you how a helicopter works or who made the world - well, what are you to answer if you're a Beta and have always worked in the Fertilizing Room?" (Huxley, 122).

How often do we allow our surroundings define who we are and what we know. Here, Linda claims that she doesn't know how to answer her son's questions because, as the saying goes, they are "out of her pay grade." Adaptability is the essence of human innovation and survival. The creators of the utopia have reduced their citizens to not needing the skill of adaptability, as proven by Linda's odd experience getting left on the reserve to fend for herself, and pregnant at that. Limits are supposedly drawn where we set them and while that may not be totally true in our society, our freedom and democratic government ensure it to a great degree. But, in Bernard's world, people's limits are pre-determined through manipulation of embryo development and subconscious conditioning.

Brave New World: Adults All The Time

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"'It suddenly struck me the other day,' continued Bernard, 'that it might be possible to be an adult all the time,'" (Huxley, 94).

Bernard's statement seems paradoxical, but the idea is actually novel to someone with his carefully planned conditioning. He is beginning to discover that the free way that people use one another in his society may be irresponsible and base (he describes this as how a child would act). His attempts at self control are not easily understood or accepted by Lenina and she ponders turning him into the psychologists or authorities for his refusal to follow the mainstream way of doing things. Often, novel thinkers are responded to like this because their ideas are so contradictory to what we have been conditioned to accept and prefer.

Brave New World: The Wilderness

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"The mesa was like a ship becalmed in a strait of lion-coloured dust," (Huxley, 107).

This simile describing Bernard and Lenina's vacation home points out the dissimilarities the savage reserve has from the society from which they came. For the first thing, there's dust. Lenina continuously points the uncleanliness of the savages, having never experienced it herself. They, in many ways were like the "ship" out of place in the middle of a desert; visitors, not unwanted, but strangely mechanical and out of place. During their stay, the pair also experience the horrors of the elderly. Growing old similarly holds a sense of fear and dread for our society. The young fear senility and the senile dread the declination of the bodies. This society thinks that they have found the solution but their system of disposing of the elderly carries a high, but invisible, price.

Brave New World: Sex

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"He was utterly miserable, and perhaps (her shining eyes accused him), perhaps it was his own fault," (Huxley, 86).

But he shouldn't be miserable, according to society he was doing everything right. In the aftermath of a soma-induced orgy, Bernard feels the opposite of what he should: empty. Unknowingly, Bernard is challenging the rules by which he has been conditioned to play the game of life. In this modern and structured society, sex has been reinvented as a manner of occupying citizens' minds and hands. Children are deemed "queer" if they don't participate in "erotic play" and adults are monitored to ensure that they are sleeping with multiple partners. People are conditioned to loath the idea of procreation and childbirth because society leaders don't want strong bonds to form between individuals or families. It's really all about control; individuality breeds thought and thought breeds revolution. A fabricated proverb is whispered to children as they sleep: "Everyone belongs to everyone else." But, as Bernard begins to realize, the ways of sleeping around and polygamy of  relationships don't bring him happiness when the drugs wear off.

Sorting Laundry

Sorting Laundry - Elisavietta Ritchie

A long poem in the form of a list symbolizes a woman's typical day filled with to-do lists and jobs always left partially done. But, the female speaker in the poem is not complaining, she actually finds a comfort in piles of laundry because it means she isn't alone. "If you were to leave me, if I were to fold only my own clothes...a mountain of unsorted wash could not fill the empty side of the bed." We complain about the work other people create for us, especially people we live with, but in reality, the sharing a life requires tedious work that only goes unnoticed when it isn't done. Like the cleanliness of a grocery store is only noticed if no one has swept the floor, the woman recognizes that she will only notice the amount of laundry she does if it decreases. Because then, it means that her lover has gone.

Dover Beach

Dover Beach - Matthew Arnold

Comparing three bodies of water, Arnold invokes the feeling of misery and sadness by describing in detail the sounds of the sea with "the eternal note of sadness in." The speaker claims that in order to survive the misery the world has become we must turn to one another. He says to abandon faith because there is none left. Using diction such as "full" and "long" to describe the sea filled with sadness, he uses the similar words "full" and "round" to describe how the "Sea of Faith" used to be. In this way, he implies that the substance that used to fill the sea of faith now makes up the seas of misery, possibly saying that the same actions and concepts that lead us to faith can lead us to misery.

I taste a liquor never brewed

I taste a liquor never brewed - Emily Dickinson

Billowing clouds, sweet nectared flowers, butterflies, and glowing saints - Emily Dickinson's manner of intoxication seem more like a dream than drunkenness. She also employs figurative language and imagery to further her point of the magicalness of the "endless summer days."
The title in this instance "a liquor never brewed" refers to the purity the speaker sees in nature. It does not require the typical brewing associated with real liquor because the nature the speaker refers to cannot be tainted.

The Convergence of the Twain

The Convergence of the Twain - Thomas Hardy

Contrasting imagery adds to an overall sentiment of mismatched disbelonging connected to the disappearance of valuable passengers and expensive objects upon the sinking of the Titanic. The line "The sea-worm crawls - grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent" shows the squander and lavishness of the vessel lost to sea. In this manner, the author points out that the pride and materialistic nature of the Titanic's creators and how it ultimately led to nothing. The ruin of the Titanic could be the ruin of society.

My mistress' failures

"My mistress' eyes" by William Shakespeare

 

Pointing out his mistress' imperfections, Shakespeare initially comes across as a jerk, but in reality, he aims to humanize his mistress. He places her feet firmly on the floor, "My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground," (Shakespeare, 885) and by pointing out her flaws and her less-than-perfect qualities, he makes her real. In this way he can appreciate her as a woman, not as a fantasy. Rather than being swept away in lust by her beauty and perfection, he proves that he knows better than to set her on this pedestal and is able to see her and love her for who she really is.

Baby Girl to Barbie

"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy

Unattainable perfection defined by the Mattel company has been chased by generations of girls and women. But, to be the Barbie doll, Piercy points out, comes at a heavy price. For some, the quest for Barbie-like perfection ends in tragedy. Piercy concludes her tragic poem with an ironic toast "To every woman a happy ending," (Piercy, 836). She says we are fulfilled or "consummated" by looking pretty. The author also explores the influence that other people and society have on us. From the point of birth, the "girlchild" is inundated with the notion that she should play with dolls, kitchen tools, and makeup. Then, in the vulnerability of puberty, her faults are brought to the front of her mind and she is advised to be something she isn't. Yet, the effect these words drives her to the tragedy of early death. Piercy's purpose is straightforward: the price of perfection is not worth the price of your life.

A Jury of Her Peers

"A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell

Guilt and innocence. Only one or the other. But sometimes, the verdict doesn't matter so much as the motives behind the action. Glaspell's story creates suspense by inching through pieces of Mrs. Foster's life in order to find the reasoning behind her guilt. A delicate canary with a wrangled neck points to her guilt and symbolically tells the story of how Minnie's husband broke her. The Fosters' home paints the picture of a lost life. Mrs. Hale, Minnie's peer in position, feels Minnie's presence as they sift through rooms touched by her personal life, feeling the stress worked into her kitchen, her sewing, and her furniture, and ultimately the canary that they would hide to save a woman they found justified in her actions. "Then Martha Hale's eyes pointed the way to the basket in which was hidden the thing that would make certain the conviction of the other woman - that woman who was not there and yet who had been there with them all through the hour," (Glaspell, 425). You can tell so much about someone by their house and the way they live. Minnie's presence through her home compelled the "jury of her peers" to claim her guilty, but justified.

Hunters in the Snow

"Hunters in the Snow" by Tobias Wolff

"Now we're going to the hospital,(Wolff, 199)" promised Frank. But he lied. He and Tub weren't really taking their friend to the hospital because they didn't care enough to get him there. The main theme of the piece is each person's individual focus on their own problems that overshadows their care for those around them. While Kenny lies, bleeding out, in the back of the truck, Frank and Tub explore their personal struggles with overeating and a romantic scandal. The author purposely leaves the story unfinished (we do not know if Kenny reaches the hospital in time) to point to the greater meaning that the issues we face as humans are never fully resolved. The story is filled with symbolism such as Kenny's life-threatening accident that reveals that no matter the extremity of another person's situation, it is difficult for us to look past our minor issues to help another.

 

The Best Laid Plans

Othello - William Shakespeare

"This is the night / That either makes me or fordoes me quite." (V.i.132-133) says Iago. Well, Emilia spilled the beans. As predicted, her innocence and honesty saved the play in the end by spoiling Iago's plans. Had she not been treated like trash the whole play, she may have held a stronger loyalty to her husband in the end. Instead, she claims that she hopes he rots in hell for the lies he told and the crimes that were committed as a result of them. The webs that Iago wove so eloquently around his lies crumble with a single telling of the truth and he must admit defeat, "Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.

From this time forth I never will speak word." (V.ii.316). Now, the two honest characters have lost their lives for the evil workings of a single other. Othello, overcome by the horror of the situation and the actions he has committed, takes his own life so that he doesn't have to live with what he has done.

Shakespeare at his uplifing best.

Tainted Love

Othello - William Shakespeare

 

"For, of my heart, those charms, thine eyes, are blotted. Thy bed, lust-stained, shall with lust’s blood be spotted." (Act V.i. 35). In the first part of the quote, Othello describes how he perceives that Desdemona's love has been tainted by her unfaithfulness. But in the second, we see love gone wrong as he swears to kill her on the very sheets where lust overtook her. He claims that she has to die or she'll continue down the path of cheating. Still, before killing her he asks her if she has prayed for forgiveness of all her sins, revealing that a part of him really does not want to kill her. He manages to draw it out for almost the entire scene then finally decides to pull the trigger and murder the woman he loves all for the sake of jealousy, the tainter of love.

Pawns and Players

Othello - William Shakespeare

"If thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world with treachery and devise engines for my life," (Act IV.ii.208-211). The villain Iago has a sweet way with words. Once again, Roderigo has fallen prey to Iago's evil plan and is a pawn in his hands. As Iago continues to move his pieces around the board, the women (Emilia, Bianca, and Desdemona) are also treated as pawns, but their discussions towards the end of Act IV hint that they may become players in the game in the last Act. I think that things are starting to slip out of Iago's control because eventually the people he is playing have to come together and confront one another. Up to this point, Iago has done a good job of making sure they all stay away from one another, but, in order for this to be a tragedy, something is going to fall apart, and I think that Iago's time as ringmaster is almost up.

Appearances vs. Reality

Othello - William Shakespeare

At this point, each individual (besides the ringmaster Iago) has a different perception of reality. They all play into a reality predetermined for them by Iago. He has Othello asking his wife "Are not you a strumpet?" (Act IV.ii.84). Iago ensures that every situation that falls upon Othello's eyes appears exactly as he wishes it: to point to an affair between Cassio and Desdemona. In reality, there is no proof that suggests that this is going on, but Othello's reality has been so tainted by Iago's lies and innuendos that he believes it. Desdemona and Emilia are mostly in the dark, as Iago wishes it and their innocence is the only hope for reality to penetrate the minds of Othello and Cassio as the play progresses. Cassio is also definitively outside of "the know" and cannot understand why Othello carries added resentment for him.