Brave New World 6

"Yes, everybody's happy now." pg. 75

This quote reiterates the conditioning each person undergoes in World State. The controllers program each "class" to appreciate their own particular ranking in society. Each class, no matter how high or low they are ranked, are perfectly content where they stand. The reasoning behind this is perhaps to avoid social rebellion. If the lower ranked classes are conditioned to be happy with their placement, they have no reason to revolt. This just enforces the power the controller has over each human being. I think that this power is symbolized by the "drug" soma. When the people take soma, they are reminded of the social structure of the World State and are more freely promiscuous and willing to be with others, which is highly accepted in this society.

This quote is also rather misleading. Bernard, who would be included in everybody, is not happy. He is still an outcast and can not seem to accept the structure of society. He does his best to fit in by participating in his Solidarity Service and then lying about how fulfilling of an experience it was. Instead of being wonderful, Bernard felt more isolated and separated than ever before. Its as if the void between Bernard and the others is continually growing more and more, leaving Bernard to be more frustrated by the social customs of the World State.

Brave New World 5

"What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals." pg. 67

Throughout this chapter, Bernard Marx came to realize how different he truly was from everyone. However, he also realized he was not alone. He had a friend, Helmholtz Watson, who was also unlike the rest of the robotic humans. During a meeting together, Watson pondered a series of rhetorical questions such as, "What is there more important to say?" and "Can you say something about nothing?" I think that these rhetorical questions were asked in seeking to find the meaning to why they are different. These questions show how differently their mind's work in comparison to the others. Bernard and Watson represent a deeper intuition to knowledge and curiosity.  They understand that they have been set apart from the other people, yet they do not understand why. These two characters seem to have more complexity to them and also reflect a nature of care and concern, where as the rest of the society does not. Watson hopes that Bernard may have an answer to why they are different, but he is wondering the same thing. I think that being outcasts will form a union between these characters and that their curiosity will cause conflict with the head of their society, resulting in a major turn of events.

Brave New World 4

"After all, every one belongs to every one else." pg. 43

The quotation above displays an aphorism about the lifestyle of the World State. In the years After Ford (A.F.), people are subconsciously programed to not "attach" to other  people. I think this belief stems from the creator of the World State. My theory is that sometime during this person's life, he or she was severely hurt and betrayed by someone of trust. This person was unable to recover from the tragedy and as a result created an alternate universe where people are trained from birth to never grow attachment to anyone. If this is done, no one will get hurt. The creator must have feared being alone above anything, because the mere utterance of the word alone horrified Fanny and everyone else in the World State. I think its kind of ironic how here the ultimate fear is being alone when these people are conditioned to distance themselves emotionally from everyone. To me, I think that this would cause more loneliness than becoming vulnerable with people. However, it is clear that not all people in the World State agree with this method. Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne seem to stand out from the normality. It seems that they would each rather be with one person than with everyone, which is the ideal scenario in today's world. I think that this different mindset will result in major conflict later on in the book.

Brave New World 3

"They'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an 'instinctive' hatred of books and flowers." pg. 22

The second chapter introduces us to the allusion of Pavlov's Dog. This was an experiment done by Ivan Pavlov in which he trained a dog to produce saliva at the sound of a bell. At the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, infants are trained to associate books and flowers with hatred. The author alludes to this experiment to help develop the dynamics of the factory. This allusion helps to describe the types of programing and conditioning that take place at the factory; however, the reason for why they take place is unclear to me. I am really not seeing the point to the entire factory or it's dynamics. To me, this seems to be huge cult with an evil dictator. The author writes, "A love of nature keeps no factories busy." (pg. 23). What is the purpose of the factory and why does it need to be busy? Is it to mass produce a desired society? If so, why is this social structure so desired? Hopefully my questions will be answered as I continue reading.

Brave New World 2

"Singapore has often produced over sixteen thousand five hundred; and Mombasa has actually touched the seventeen thousand mark. But they have unfair advantages." pg. 9

When I started these blogs, I was just going to do one for each chapter. But, there's only eighteen chapters, so I'm going to do two for chapter 1. As I was reading, I noticed how competitive the director and Mr. Foster were with other countries when it came to the number of human adults produced from a single ovary. Singapore and Mombasa were currently beating London, but they were not giving up. This reminded me of the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union beginning  in the 1950's. This race consisted of space exploration and sending man to the moon. The race ended when the United States became the first country to send men to the moon. Apollo 11 landed on July 20, 1969, with Neal Armstrong being the first man to step foot on the moon. The competition between the United States and the Soviet Union is very similar to London's competition with Singapore and Mombasa.

Brave New World 1

"A troop of newly arrived students, very young, pink and callow, followed nervously, rather abjectly, at the Director's heels." pg. 4

First of all, I think that this book is really strange and hard to follow. So, I think I'll start of with something I know, (or think I know): Indirect characterization. The author, Aldous Huxley, portrays the director in an intimidating and controlling manner. By the way the students nervously responded to him and viciously wrote down every word he said, I concluded that the director was a rather frightening man. The director's characterization showed he is a figure of authority.This authority is definitely needed in this place of such intellectually and technologically advanced processes. I think that the director was indirectly characterized to separate him from the humans that are being mass produced, who were directly characterized. These humans are developed with little individuality, making them almost robotic. By characterizing the director in a different way, the author is distinguishing a difference between the true humans and mass produced humans.