I am trying to understand what is meant by "distorted," but I will take a stab at this. Huxley has characters in the novel present the ethics of the World State as positive and beneficial when, in fact, he want us to understand they are not. Therefore, we are immediately thrown into a world in which we watch, for example, babies being given electric shocks, and this is presented as a good thing. We learn that in this upside down world, the words mother and father are obscenities, while uninhibited sex among young adolescents is described as healthy and good. We are immediately thrust into a world where all our normal assumptions are turned on their head.
This continues throughout the novel. For example, John the "savage" is actually arguably the most civilized person in the story, because he knows Shakespeare and is capable of deep emotions: so why is he the "savage?" As you read through the novel you will find many more examples of such distortion. These help make the work effective because they force us as readers to morally evaluate the concepts that underlie this brave new world.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Analyze how important elements of Brave New World are “distorted,” and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment