Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or
geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character.
Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect
this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not
merely summarize the plot.
To conform to society means to restrain the brain
from extending its full potential growth of knowledge and experience. In Brave
New World by Aldous Huxley, society is meant to be restrained and restricted
from unleashing the true natural wonders of the mind to gain an order of unity.
In didactic terms, unity is beneficial and can accomplish things because
“together we stand, divided we fall”. But in ideal terms, the more unity there
is, the more entropy is caused. The idea of having less entropy has left
Bernard Marx in a rut. Marx, which alludes to a German philosopher, lives in a
dystopian community where the caste system separates and predetermines the
fates of all individuals. Through his eyes, readers are able to understand the
corruption of being an individual and the sheer consequences acted upon people
because of what they naturally are.
Aldous Huxley presents readers a world full of
controversial topics of today. Having polygamous relationships and being
sexually active at young ages is a social norm. But what is even more odd is
the fact of having parents, which is slurred as an unspeakable word. Lenina
Crowne, another character, is criticized for her monogamous relationship with a
guy named Henry, which in today’s society would be socially acceptable. Lenina
is then talked “sense” into by her friend Franny and says to go out and enjoy
the gifts given by other men. This indirectly infatuates her mind that what
Lenina is doing is morally wrong. Huxley’s purpose of doing so is to create a
contrast between a worlds that is currently making history to a world that
could be the next history. Huxley wrote about theories that were fifty years
ahead of his time. With him portraying his theories through caste systems,
soma, mass production and etcetera, a dystopian community is not far from what
history could become.
Though, not everyone is easily influenced by their
predetermined faiths. Bernard confronts an elder about what he is experiencing
and how he thinks it’s a fluke in the system. This corrollates to how even in a
uniformed society such as the government in the United States, not everyone is
going to agree on terms on what high officials determine. Even though there was
a great gap between the time periods of now and the future setting of this
novel, what Huxley predicted is on the verge of becoming reality.
I like how you included Huxley's own thoughts and allusions he made when writing the story
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