Babies are produced by means of the Bokanovsky Process which involves shocking an egg and splitting it so it forms up to ninety-six identical embryos, which transform into ninety-six human beings. This cloning process predestines the caste of each of the babies, thus discharging the freedoms of each individual. This “cookie cutter” society is similar, but not equal to the in vitro fertilization process, which occurs in today’s society. However, there is no such thing as a family, and babies are only produced to meet the economy’s standards. Children play erotic games in order to view sex as routine.
Discus the theme of the incompatibility of happiness and truth in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Aldous Huxley’s skilful characterisation and creation of an apparent utopia are used effectively to explore the theme of the incompatibility of happiness and truth. Set in the World State of AF 632, or 2540 AD, using our calendar, everyone is content with his or her life. However, the World State is actually a dystopia with many dark secrets. One of these secrets is that although every citizen believes himself to be happy, he has been genetically engineered to think so and is a government ploy to maintain “social stability”.
Sociologists say that childhood socially constructed (which means that it is created and defined by society). They say that the position children have in society is not permanently fixed, it changes over time. This is obvious by looking at how childhood is seen in other cultures and the past. It is accepted in our society now that childhood should be a special time of life, children are seen as being different from adults so should be treated differently because they are physically and psychologically immature and are not able to be dependent. So they are seen to need a lengthy period of time where they are nurtured and socialised before they are seen as responsible adults in society.
Murphie and Potts identify dichotomous attitudes toward technological change depicted within works of science fiction. Such attitudes can be described as celebration and fear. Where celebration or hope are evident the scene set is one of ‘technological utopia’. The utopia is achieved by using technological advancement for the betterment of both moral and material. Star Trek is a good example of this utopia; a seemingly infinite abundance to draw upon the society seeks to discover, catalogue and understand the elements within the universe with peaceful mission that forbids the Federation’s advanced Star Fleet to interfere with any world or civilisation it comes into contact with.
This personification creates a clear link between human achievement (a technologically wondrous house that replaces human servants) and humanity. Bradbury uses the ‘human’ house as a metaphor for humanity. The tone of cheerful efficiency – despite the fact that there are no humans on the receiving end – conveys to the reader the false idea that even without human involvement, human achievement will go on and on. However, because Bradbury wants to send us a clear warning about this illusion, the tone shifts. Using hyperbolic, violent verbs to describe the house’s destruction creates the doomed tone that is so effective in delivering Bradbury’s warning
Frankenstein was being written in a time when philosophers and writers such as Rousseau and John Locke where developing their ideas on the human condition. Rousseau’s Theory of Natural Human, which acknowledged that morality was not a societal construct but rather “natural” and “innate”, is questioned throughout the novel. Shelley examines the effect of society and knowledge on the innate goodness of the Creature, suggesting that he has become the monster that Victor sees him as because of the unwillingness of his creator to accept him and nurture him. The idea that humans’ innate goodness is tainted and polluted by society is present when the Creature expresses that his “sorrow only increased with knowledge” and this “increase of knowledge only discovered to [him] more clearly what wretched outcast [he] was”. The relationship between Frankenstein and the Creature is also paralleled with that of Lucifer and God and this is shown when the Creature, a symbol of humankind, acknowledges that “I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed”, suggesting that had it been nurtured/educated, it would have become an
Aldous Huxley was either a psychic or God because whatever he wrote in the novel, is actually happening in today’s society. Even if he was imagining these things, he had a commendable imagination. Today, imagination and creativity are diminishing because people are too busy in catching up with television shows, shopping during sales etc. After reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and learning about the World State, I have started to notice some of the themes in my own surroundings. West Hill Collegiate shares a lot of similarities with the World State.
The democratic form of government is most familiar to the modern western citizen. However, there are many forms of communism and dictatorships which exist around the world today. The ancient philosopher Plato protests that a monarchist oligarchy, which calls upon an elite group for governance, is the best possible form of government. However, based on vagueness in terms and overgeneralizations Plato creates a flaw in his argument and weakens its validity. Through the elimination of social class systems and based on the separation between Government and economy it may be seen that the platonic ‘drone’ will not lead to tyranny.
The world that Huxley has fashioned is one of castes, ubiquitous sexuality, mindless drug use, sleep hypnosis (hypnopaedia), and conditioning. All of these combine to discourage any possible individuality. In Brave New World, people are not born. Instead, they are created through Bokanovsky's Process, "a series of arrests of development" by which millions of eggs bud and form a nearly endless supply of human embryos (Huxley 6). Before a person is even contrived, workers at the Conditioning Centre determine his appearance, his level and function in society, and even his intelligence.
Murdock saw the family, the nuclear family in particular, an absolute need for society and he considered the four basic functions of the family to be the sexual, the reproductive, the socialisation and the economic. He carried out a study all over the world and said that the family is a universal thing and these are universal functions that everyone else follows too. Without the family, we wouldn't have food and shelter otherwise life itself would cease. Parsons believes that without the family we would have primary socialisation and stabilisation of the adult personality, furthermore, without culture and the shared values passed on from generations to generations- society wouldn’t exist