Analysis of Brave New World Essay Example

An Analysis of the Government’s Opressive Regime in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Isn’t it amazing to live in a world where we all possess the right to do whatever we want? Living in 21st century, we are experiencing freedom at its best. We live our lives the way we want to and we are not dependent on anyone for anything. We even possess the freedom to sob over a breakup or to feel contented when we receive birthday presents. If all these things were taken away from us, what would our lives be like? We don’t pay much attention to freedom, and often don’t respect its existence among us. It's a blessing to be free and to make our own choices because not everyone gets to taste this amazing power. One such set of disenfranchised people is the citizens of the New World in Brave New World. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New world, ideas of freedom and individuality do not exist. The Government establishes the rules that everyone has to follow, and acts like an authoritarian government dictating its captives. The government in the so called Utopia in Brave New World forces its citizens to forfeit their rights, indulge in inappropriate behavior and sacrifice their mental and physical capabilities just to incorporate “Stability” into the society. Before a child even absorbs the fresh air of the world, the government manipulates God’s creation and develops a life plan for its victim. Such actions contaminate the minds of the people, and consequently create an oppressed society, suffering under the control of malevolent figures such as Mustapha Mond, one of the World Controllers. Although the authoritarian government in Huxley’s Brave New World heavily conditions children in an attempt to build the perfect society, the act is not justifiable, as this endeavour destroys human rights, and enslaves people. This community, we can easily conclude, is a dystopian one, as proven by AAA Farag, Peter Firchow, and Huxley himself.

One of the main issues with the Brave new world is its immoral conditioning of people of the society. The beginning of the book introduces the Hatchery and Conditioning Center where all the magic happens. Children in the Brave New world are not born; instead, they are created. Not just into one, but into five different castes. One can compare this to the manufacturing of robots in a factory. The Government that Huxley shows “aims at the destruction of man as a human being, and seeks to replace him with a monster hatched and conditioned by a machine” (Farag 60). The Government develops a hierarchy that divides people based on intelligence and social status. It acquires the power to change the genetic structure of people which makes it physically, mentally and emotionally either defective or a perfect human being. The “Monster”, as explained by AAA Farag, is then used as a slave to do Government’s work. This act by the Government is unethical as it destroys a person’s future, his destiny and manipulates their skills which could have been used to create a promising future. The World State Controllers perform actions that are contradictory to the state’s motto “Community, Identity, Stability”, exterminating people’s identities, enslaving them and binding them to an oppressed life.

The government exercises total control over its citizens with the goals to create the perfect, stable society; however, they destroy the fundamental rights of people. By suppressing basic human rights and denying its citizens, the government renders the benefits it supplies (such as food, a good environment, and a perfect, stable society) worthless. As millenials we are blessed with rights such as those of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, right to education, etc. In the Brave New World, children are stripped of all these rights and are discouraged to use books and learn. Instead, Government makes them indulge in the most peculiar ways of learning like sleep teaching and erotic play. One would never even mention these words in front of a child but Mustapha Mond’s government exercises these methods everyday on children. These techniques destroy their intellectual capabilities and prohibits the children from having independent thoughts and expressing their minds. Citizens of the Utopia sacrifice their creativity and uniqueness just to acquire materialistic amenities which don’t make up for what they lose in the bargain. As stated by William W Matter, “a man must give up his freedom, his individuality, and his creativity for the honor of living in Utopia” (Matter 155). Along with that, Helmholtz, a character in the story, experiences something similar to this when he indulges in a meaningful conversation with John about Literature and Shakespeare. Helmholtz says “I've got something important to say and the power to say it—only I don't know what it is, and I can't make any use of the power.” ( Huxley 59). Helmholtz is a passionate writer who wants to express his mind on topics that have always interested him. He is not able to accomplish his dream as the government has restricted education and creativity. Education is crucial to the enhancement of an individual’s personality, and greatly impacts the growth and future of a society. If the society is not able to express itself and its ideas, and receive a proper education, how is the society expected to run? One never knows about the Shakespeare plays affecting stability of the society, but Mustapha Mond’s ignorance of education and fundamental human rights will do it without a doubt.

Another way in which the Government in Huxley’s Brave New World reveals its true colors is by it’s use of Soma, a drug built to control citizens. Soma is a drug created by the scientists to cure everything at once. It is considered to be a big part of people’s lives as they are hugely dependent on it. Soma does its job by sending the consumer into a lunar world after consuming. People are forced to use Soma after a situation of emotional or physical instability because that’s the only choice they have. In other words words, that’s how the government controls them. The Government is able to to alter anyone’s emotion or action with the help of Soma. For example, when Bernard Marx begs Mustapha Mond to not send him to an island, Mond simply asks the guards to ”Give him a good Soma vaporization and then put him to bed and leave him” (Huxley 199). This evidently shows that the Government retain the lives of people with the help of Soma bu using it as a remote control. According to AAA Farag, “there is no need for spiritual activity, scientific curiosity, artistic creativity, or exploration of cultural heritage. These are replaced by the consumption of Soma Pills” (Farag 61). No one should be dependant on any kind of drug for happiness. It’s quite strange how on the one hand, in the 21st century, the government is prohibiting and banning drug usage at all levels; but on the other, the government displayed in Brave New World is forcing its citizens to make use of a drug just so that the society is stable. Using the drugs destroys the quality of life and even reduces the physical and mental capabilities of the people. For instance, Linda, a character in Brave New World, dies from an overdose of Soma, and the doctors do nothing about it.. A person’s value stands for nothing in the New World. Sensitive topics like death are brushed off like dust. Soma is nothing but the synonym of fake happiness; people are expected to take half a gram each day in order to attain a momentary escape, but actually brings everyone closer to loneliness and death. In other words, Soma is a one way trip from which coming back is impossible.

As discussed earlier, there are plenty of mistakes and complications in the New world, and the only one to blame is the government. People like Mustapha Mond are wicked: they not only oppress the current generation but also lead the society to a path of self-destruction. The Government uses a common tool - technology - to accomplish its iniquitous motives. Technology is abundant in the New World. With the help of technology, the government influences enslavement, violation and conditioning of humans beings, and consequently converts them into machines. Peter Firchow explains that the new world is “a society in which the values of scientific technology are dominant, and which has therefore reduced a man to a species of machine” (Firchow 301). Aldous Huxley shows the importance of freedom and what an enslaved society can do to humankind. In today’s world, the government is supposed to promote equality, abolish discrimination, improve the quality of life and provide its citizens the life of their choice. However, in the Brave New World, the government does the opposite. Mustapha Mond’s government is contradictory, in every single way, to today’s US government. In addition, Huxley presents the use of technology by the Government and how it plays an important role in the Government’s motives.

“Huxley foresaw the development and dangerous abuses of technology……….. He also understood the power of technology to not only enable government to control the populace, but also as a way to control the human mind” (Farag 60).

Technology has been successful in innovating new medicines, drugs, methods to influence various controls over human life. Furthermore, it has helped the government even more by forcing loneliness into everyone’s lives. The important thing about this issue is that the government doesn’t realize what it is doing. Although, the Government appears to be saint like, it is actually creating a ruckus in the society. Although the government appears to be saint-like, it actually creates a ruckus in the society.

In reality the Government is just doing the devil's work. The only solution to this problem would be limiting government’s involvement in people’s personal life and letting the citizens of the new world decide their future. Along with that, every element of the society which places the citizens in government’s control should be removed. Soma is a sin. The Hatcheries is a sin. Restriction of rights is a sin. The sinful government has to be overthrown to bring prosperity in the world and transform the society from a dystopia to a Utopia.

In order to understand the true hardship faced by the new world people, one has to be a part of the society. The government’s dictatorship has worked its way for years since the rise of Ford Motor company. People in the Huxley’s Brave New World are distracted from the path of life. The Government is not ashamed of its actions and has not benefited the society in any way. It has exploited humankind by its invidious methods and has mislead the people throughout their lives. In a true sense, Aldous Huxley has depicted two societies: one in which we are living right now, and another, in which the story was written. The author himself foresaw the dangers of the future world and illuminated how Government and Technology are always responsible for it. The motive is not to convey that Government should be eradicated, but to explain that Governments like the one depicted in Brave New World should not exist If they did, society wouldn’t be any different from Hell.