Conformity In Brave New World

535 Words3 Pages
Imagine a society without choice, freedom, individuality, religion, or diversity. There would be no risks to take, crimes committed, or unhappiness to bear. Although this may seem like an unproblematic alternative to today’s ever-changing world, would it erase the very purpose of life? In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, we see the affect of this type of society on characters accustomed to it and those that are not. In this society, all humans are decanted from the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre. Here they produce hundreds of nearly genetically identical offspring that are conditioned from the embryo to simply accept their “inescapable social destiny” (16), for example as a laborer. This type of predestination not only contradicts…show more content…
Although the Hatchery provides a secure and peaceful lifestyle, it simultaneously takes any intuition and uniqueness from the humans produced there. People are defaced to the level of machines produced on an assembly line. Reading this novel has really made me appreciate the freedoms that we have come to automatically assume. Non conformity and inventiveness, two traits that are completely abandoned by the Hatchery, are highly encouraged in today’s times. It is surprising that the future is depicted this way by Huxley because it seems like more of a degeneration of mankind rather than an advancement. The drug soma is used excessively to take away any amount of discomfort or anger experienced by anyone in the New World. They use soma as a way to prevent the people from becoming curious and acting according to human nature. Serious emotion like pain is suppressed to avert them from following their natural inclinations to seek refuge in others. Personal relations and bonding have been replaced by this artificial drug. John “the savage”, who has been raised outside of the confinement of the Hatchery, has an extremely different view of things than those raised in the captivity and has a difficult time trying to inform and convince the others of their society’s foibles. There is a lacking of art and creativity that John perceives as fatal to their humanity. This causes great confusion in John’s mind because he doesn’t understand or agree with the principles that the others have been conformed
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