Aldous Huzley

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Download:	23
Data:	13.02.2001
Numero di pagine:	4
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

Science and faith, two hot issues of our time. Analyse how Huxley develops these two aspects pointing out the different positions of some characters. Say why this book can be seen as a prophecy and state whether it can still teach something to us.

Imagine living in an unnatural world without mothers and fathers, where most people are produced in factories, a place full of faceless human clones. This is the society portrayed in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel entitled Brave New World.
The author describes a futuristic society that has an alarming effect of dehumanization. This occurs through the absence of spirituality and family, the obsession with physical pleasure, and the misuse of technology. In this world, each person is raised in a test tube rather than a mother's womb, and the government controls every stage of their development, from embryo to maturity. Each new human is placed into a certain class, such as Alpha, Beta, and so on. The embryos are manipulated chemically to stimulate or to retard their physical and mental growth. By repeating phrases over and over while the children sleep, the government can condition each person to accept his role in the world around him and to behave in what the government deems to be a "safe" manner. This creates a society full of human clones, completely devoid of personality.
Trough his characters, Huxley analyse two opposite point of views, which are the ones of the two most important characters of the novel:
Mustapha Mond is one of the Ten World Controller; he represents the new society’s point of view. You can synthesize his values and beliefs in the World State's motto “Community, Identity, Stability”, that emphasizes the importance of the group and the subsequent unimportance of the individual.
Community stresses the importance attached to the individual as a contributor to society: "Everyone belongs to everybody else." Reference is made to the contribution the individual makes even after death - the body is cremated and the phosphorus thus obtained is used as fertilizer.
Identity refers to the various classes (castes), their specialized duties, and their distinguishing uniform.
Stability is the key word in the World State. Decanting and conditioning, the abolition of the family, and conformity in thoughts and action - all contribute to a stable society.
The Controller in many ways represents the intelligent, capable individual who uses his intelligence and capability for unworthy ends
John is the Savage; he represents a curious mixture of the "old" world and the "new," but he does not belong to either. He is not accepted by the Savages on the Reservation because he is "different," and he cannot and will not accept the life and values of the Other Place (London).
John is one of the most important character in the book because he acts between the two cultures, and having known both "ways of life" he is able to compare them and comment on them. His beliefs and values are a curious mixture of Christian and heathen, but, most important, he has a strict moral code. His "old fashioned" beliefs about God and right and wrong (his beliefs closely duplicate Christian morality) contrast sharply with the values and beliefs of the citizens of the Brave New World ("God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness"). It is this conflict between the two value systems that ultimately brings about his suicide.
One of the things that makes the society in Brave New World so different from ours is the lack of spirituality. The pleasure-seeking society pursues no spiritual experiences or joys, preferring carnal ones. The lack of a religion that seeks a true transcendental understanding helps ensure that the masses of people, upper and lower classes, have no reason to rebel. What religious ritual they have begins as an attempt to reach a higher level of understanding as a community but quickly turns into a chance to please the carnal nature of man through orgiastic ritual. This denies the human soul, which is usually searching for a pleasure not experienced in the flesh but in the mind, and preserves the society based on happiness which they have established.
This refuse of spirituality and religious is caused by the total devotion to science and technology that have replaced God as a source of value and meaning in life.
As regards this aspect about science and technology I think that we can define this book a sort of prophecy because, although it has been written more than 60 years ago, the technologies introduced in it have, in part, become realities; for example, now we are able to produce children with specific traits based on the gene pool of the chosen donors.
Within the last ten years we have seen tremendous development in science and technology. In any single ten-year period since 1900 the advances have overshadowed the advancement made during any previous hundred-year period. Huxley realized that these advances which were almost universally hailed as progress were fraught with danger. Man had built higher than he could climb; man had unleashed power he was unable to control. This introduce the real theme of the novel: “the advancement of science as it affects human individuals”. I think that this novel is a sort of warning of what could be in the none too distant future. Projecting his novel into the future Huxley offers a picture of the world as it might become if Man becomes subservient to Science rather than Science subservient to Man. Is it possible for a society to neglect individual dignity in the process of worshipping science and machines? What is the purpose of life? Is it, “Life’s short, play hard,”? as the civilized people believed, or is it more than that. Do we have a deeper purpose than just living? I think these are the questions that we pose to ourself after the reading of this book. The purpose of life was not the maintenance of well being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge; not just to live, enjoy life, and die but something more.