Aldous Huxley
Alyssa Castro, Emily Weible and
Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
Island
Table
of Contents
I. Biography of Huxley
II. Summary of Brave New World
III. Summary of
IV. Huxley’s Style Elements
V. Reader-Response Critical Read
VI. Historical Critical Read
VII. Biographical Critical Read
VIII. Freudian Analytical Essay-
Alyssa Castro
IX. Archetypal Analytical Essay-
Clinton Ibarra
X. Feminist Analytical Essay- Emily
Weible
XI. Multiple Choice Quiz
XII. Works Cited
XIII. Relevant Links
Biography
of Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was born on
July 26, 1894 into an upper class English family at a time when social hierarchy
was a defining factor in the lives of many people. It was most likely because
of his hereditary greatness that Huxley felt the pressure to 
perform intellectually most of his
life. As a long time friend said, this family history “brought down on him a
weight of intellectual authority and a momentum of moral obligations"
(Aldous Huxley: The Author and his Times para. 1). Of his young life, his
teenaged years had the most profound effect on his writing. He lost his mother
to cancer at the age of 14 which lead to his belief in the impermanence of the
human life and his scathing rejection of the extremities of both fear and joy.
His dystopian novels, like Brave New
World and Ape and Essence are
both reflective of these feeling. An eye infection at 16 rendered him nearly
blind, and took from him the glories of fighting in World War One and the
abilities to do the scientific research he had long dreamed of doing since
childhood (Aldous Huxley: The Author and his Times para. 3). The scientist in
Huxley emerged in his writing nonetheless.
Huxley married his first wife in
1919, his son Matthew was born a year later in 1920. The family traveled around
Europe during the early twenties and made visits to the 
Brave New World.
Perhaps the most marked change in
Huxley’s life (and the most apparent in his writing) came in 1954, when he
first began to experiment with hallucinogenic drugs, specifically LSD and
mescaline. His short essay The Doors of
Perception, delved deep in to his experimentation with drugs and made him
an icon in the hippie counter-culture movement (Aldous Huxley para. 2). Jim
Morrison of The Doors, famous for his own drug experimentation drew the name
for the band from Huxley’s essay, showing his profound influence in counter-culture.
At this time he also became deeply involved with Eastern religious and
spiritual idea’s like Buddhism and Hinduism, which were reflected in the
meditative nature of the Palaians in his last novel
In 1955 his first wife passed away, he was remarried to Laura Archera a year later
(Biography para 11). He died November 22 of 1963; however, his death was
overshadowed by the assassination of John F. Kennedy the same day, leaving his
passing relatively unnoticed. According to a History channel documentary
“Hippies” Huxley was severely medicated with LSD on his deathbed, true to his
iconic stereotype. Aldous Huxley had a profuse career, producing more than
forty pieces of literature in his lifetime. He is and will be considered a
literary icon for his bold statements and startlingly true predictions of the
world.
Summary of Brave New World
Aldous
Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, is a
story of a utopian society based on the widespread instilled belief in the
current social order and brainwashed ideas of consumerism and how to react to
day to day situations. This all adds up to a society and world that is
dependent on the “ignorance is bliss” system that benefits those in power and
those making money. While it is true to say the people living within this
society are content and that wars, disease, and other evil things do not exist,
other things have disappeared with them, religion, innovation(aside from ways
to further brainwash), and things as simple as the family unit. These are a few
of the any things by which human beings collective identify themselves, both
for unity and division.
The
ideas core to our society have been eradicated or greatly changed. But what is
really shocking about the novel is that though the world depicting within
Huxley’s novel is far from the society in which he lived in the early 1900’s or
the time in which we live, it is still possible to see that our ideas and
motivation for consumerism are so close to the extreme shown, that it is scary.
Is it really that absurd to show a whole population of people bent on
fulfilling their roles to be able to buy more nonstop or to use drugs and sex
to motivate themselves to work and live. It is true that today’s society will
not likely evolve into the one seen in Brave New World, but by creating a giant
hyperbole, Huxley is able to show his view on how ridiculous the consumerism
based system is, and showing where it can lead to when consumerism is so highly
valued.
Summary of
Island was
Adlous Huxley’s last book and was published in 1962. Many people consider this
to be a counterpoint novel to Brave New
World. It tells the story of will Farnaby, a journalist who was shipwrecked
on the utopian
As Faranby learns, the Palanese culture is based off of
eastern philosophies. These philosophies are culminated in the characters of
Dr. McPhail and the Raja. McPhail and Raja work with their generations in an
effort “to make the best of all worlds-the worlds already realized within the
various cultures, and beyond them, and the worlds of still unrealized potentials”
(180). Faranby is interested not only in understanding the Palanese culture,
but in negotiating a lease agreement between the Palanese government and his
company,
At the end of the novel, it is the Eastern beliefs of pacifism
that leads to the destruction of Pala. After a neighboring island attacks, Pala
surrenders without a struggle. Even though Faranby believes that Pala is the
ideal society, he betrays the civilization by arranging an oil deal. Many
believe that Huxley wrote this novel because, in his old age he saw some
redemptive qualities in society. However, Huxley’s cynical nature appears once
more in
Style
Elements
- Appeal to Authority- emphasizes
Huxley’s message and uses other respected individuals to back up his
points.
- Brave New World
- Shakespeare-“Oh brave new
world…”
- Freud- “Our Freud”
- Ford-“Our Ford”
- Island
- Appeals to Eastern
philosophy, via meditation, yoga, moksha (a sect of Buddhism)
- Allusion- Draws from well known
sources to make the text more relatable to the audience
- Brave New World
- Names are allusions to
totalitarian leaders, ie: Bernard Marx, Lenina, Benito
- Island
- Oedipus- Will watches a bizarre
version of Oedipus, which is an uplifting comedy, rather than the
traditional tragedy.
- Dystopian/Utopian setting-
creates a context for the story and tells the reader about the authors
ideals and dislikes.
- Brave New World
- Dystopia
- Island
- Utopia
- Irony- Emphasizes the argument
by making the reader further inspect the text to point out inconsistencies
and unexpected happenings.
- Brave New World
- Title is taken from The
Tempest, the world is not brave or new; every detail of life is
controlled and dogmatized.
- John is called “the savage”
but in reality he is the most civilized of all the characters and
understands more about the world than anyone else.
- Island
- The more the reader begins to
understand the ways of Pala, the closer it moves to destruction and
exploitation of its people, due to Will’s presence.
- Aphorisms- Create the dogmatic
or enlightened mood to the story. Short sayings are easily understood by
most readers and simplify deep thoughs.
- Brave New World
- “A gramme is better than a
damn.”
- “Ending is better than
mending.”
- “When an individual feels,
the community reels”
- Island
§
Parrots
chant uplifting slogans such as “Here and now, boys.
Reader Based Response
When reading “Brave New World” and “The Island”. I was
constantly reminded of psychological aspects. The entire novel is centered on
conditioning and human complacency, making it difficult if not completely
impossible to ignore the psychology behind Huxley’s literary genius. Because of my desire to one day become a
psychologist, I found both these novels complex and intriguing but also as a
constant reminder of the power of manipulation.
In Huxley’s “Brave New World”, the entire population is born
from test tubes and then constantly conditioned throughout their childhood and
early teen years. This is a direct reference to Pavlov’s experiments concerning
human conditioning, stimuli and responses. Freudian beliefs concerning the id,
ego and superego are also apparent throughout this novel. Huxley’s references
to the newly burgeoning psychological techniques are also made painfully
obvious when directly referring to the World Controller as “Our Freud”.
While not directly stated within “The Island” Huxley’s use
of psychological control is also apparent, although it is used to enlighten the
population rather than to subdue them. Will Faranby, the protagonist in “The
Island” was first introduced to the positive reinforcement used in the utopian
civilization when a young child seeking to help him mend his wounds forced him
to relive the painful memories Faranby sought to repress. Parrots surrounding
the island constantly shout out inspirational phrases reminding all who inhabit
this ideal island to “live in the now”. This optimistic attitudes coupled with
copious drug use enabled the utopian civilization to thrive.
Due to my passion for Freudian and Neo-Freudian studies,
both “Brave New World” and “The Island” offered enlightening perspectives into
the frightening truth of psychological power. All my previous misconceptions
about the beneficial attributes of conditioning were stripped away when faced
with these horrifying, if drastic, truths which would inevitably happen if one
group of people were given absolute and total control.
Historical Analysis
·
The
idea of historical read is that the literature benefits from being read in its
own historical time period. It is important to note the perspective of the
era’s political, economic, and psychological Influences of the era that
produced the literature and its author. It is also necessary to look at the
audience for whom it was written and how its purpose and the connotations of it
language have changed or remained the same over time.
·
Aldous
Huxley grew up during the 1900s, he lived through both world wars, and
everything in between. He lived in war torn Europe as well as in
·
Huxley
uses the idealized consumer driven social order to create a population that is
constantly being pushed and molded into becoming the perfect utopia by
establishing ideas that all point to buying more and more. Having material
products to fulfill their needs, money can buy happiness here. This is clear
when we look at the Brave New World sayings that embedded in each “person”.
Sayings like “ending is better than mending” and “the more stitches, the less
riches” these all point towards replacing rather than repairing. This idea is
used for people too, we see that instead of having meaningful relationships, it
is about sex, purely physical, and when something goes wrong, not to fix the
relationship, but get a new one.
·
We
can also look at
Biographical Analysis
When one inspects the works
of Aldous Huxley, they can be easily divided into two separate styles,
coinciding with a very profound event in his life; his discovery of psychedelic
drugs. To further this argument, one only has to look at early Huxley novels
(in the case of this paper, Brave New
World) in comparison to the later ones (Island).
While his earlier novels present a dismal dystopian view of society, the later
are significantly more optimistic given the influence of religious philosophies
and mood elevating drugs.
Huxley’s most famous
novel Brave New World presents his
serious disillusionment with human life and the structure of totalitarian
regimes. The death of his mother when he was fourteen years old lead Huxley to
be deeply cynical about the nature of life and like the citizens of
Following
1954, the year in which Huxley first began to experiment with LSD, his writings
take a more uplifting and optimistic turn. Island,
his last novel, is the utopian counterpart of Brave New World. Island
is filled with Eastern philosophy and heavy drug use but this time for the
purpose of enlightenment. As Huxley neared death his cynicism was replaced with
a fervent hope for redemption which he found in hallucinogens.
Freudian Analysis
Born 1894 in
Huxley takes the reader to a world
where “everyone belongs to everyone else” and innovators of technology and psychology
are seen as deities. The plot of “Brave New World” is dominated by Freudian
theories. Children are free to engage in “erotic play” and due to the extensive
conditioning each member of society undergoes, every person is emotionally and
psychologically stripped down to their most basic carnal desires. The most
prominent Freudian theory seen throughout Brave New World is the Oedipus
complex, which manifests itself in the character of John the Savage. Unlike the
other characters in the novel who were grown in a test tube with no knowledge
of their biological parents, John’s mother gives birth to him. This allows John
to form a bond with his mother which borders on obsession. The Savage becomes
jealous of the men his mother has sexual relations with which ultimately throws
him into a murderous rage. As his mother developed a frequent relationship with
one of the native characters pope, John claims “he hated Pope more and more”
until his jealousy throws him into a fit of murderous rage (156). The character
of John may also be seen as Freud’s super-ego; the part of the psyche that
rejects physical pleasure and acts as a conscience. John’s severe sexual
repression is especially evident when he fails to integrate into the sexually
liberated “brave new world”. The rest of this futuristic society may be seen as
the id, Freud’s theoretic part of the psyche that is impulsive and acts solely
on what they desire. If one is not familiar with Freud’s psychoanalytic
theories, one may see Freud’s influence on “Brave New World” simply by the
reverence of him as a god. The masses are often quotes as saying “Out Freud”
instead of “Our Lord” (44).
While not as apparent in “
Huxley
was condemned for his liberal views concerning sex and drug use. Many of his
novels, including “Brave New World” and “
Archetypal Analysis
Imagine growing up in a
world surrounded by war, destruction, and loss. Such experiences were then
followed by the breakdown of the status quo and an artistic reaction against
realism and the established, unsteady world order. Many new ideas exploded into
this society as people looked at the values that their governments and those in
power held, while they saw devastating loss of fellow humans, property, and
most importantly, a clear identity of who they were. Propaganda and the
influence of political machines seemed to be pressing on everyone. From such
circumstances sprang modernism. Modernism was entwined in all forms of art, but
manifested itself particularly within literature as a means of social
commentary-or perhaps complaint-and as a way for the enlightened thinkers, such
as Huxley, to present their arguments and views on the very foundations of
society. Within Huxley’s novels, particularly Brave New World and
Within
Brave New World, Huxley creates a
“perfect” society in which all people are happy with their lives. This is
because they have been brainwashed since birth to fulfill their predetermined
social roles. Along with this, they use sex and drugs-known as soma-to distract
them from any perceived problems. It is clear that the people in this society
are in fact happier for not facing the problems of the day, such as war,
disease, etc., they are also not living with their cultural identity.
Throughout the novel, we see recurring motifs, or archetypes, one of which is a
satire of consumer society by looking at the negative effects of consumer
driven people taken to the extreme to show the evils of such mindset clearly.
Another is the idea that happiness cannot coincide with truth and
knowledge-ignorance is bliss. This can be seen in the constant reminder of how
little the characters know about their society or the history of the human
race. They know only what those in power deem is necessary for them to know.
This complete control over the lives of the masses leads to the erasing of
cultural identity, something valued within Huxley’s generation, yet it is easy
to see why Huxley feared the creation of the “civilization” in his novel because
the possibility of reaching such a state of consumer driven life was/is
possible. Within
With
Huxley’s powerful views on the society he lived in, and the possibilities that
he saw for it, he was able to successfully and believably create his own social
utopia to help contrast it to the present day. By using the motifs and other
archetypes, such as the idea that the Savage in Brave New World is like Oedipus, with how he is obsessed with his
mom, unintentionally ends his father’s life(social outcast), and continues to
punish himself at the end. Because of such connections that are seen throughout
literature, Huxley creates a timeless piece as many aspects in his society,
today’s society, and future societies will be able to see the comparison and
relations between the books and themselves in order to fully understand Huxley
motives.
Feminist Analysis
Aldous Huxley is well
known for his dystopian fiction, the most famous being his novel: Brave New World. His novel showcases the
degradation of humanity in a totalitarian world one hundred and fifty years
after Ford. The society praises indoctrination, mechanization, and
sterilization, all for the maintenance of order. Though everyone suffers (unbeknownst to
them), the greatest victims are women. They are forced into sexual slavery,
forced to mutilate their bodies and perpetuate stereotypes much like the women
under the rule of modern totalitarian governments.
Women
in the world of Huxley’s novel are denied rights basic to womanhood.
Reproduction is a scientific process; millions of identical children are
produced and genetically modified from “birth”, and in order to do so
effectively, a woman’s reproductive system may be removed to be used by
scientists, denying women their biological right to motherhood. It rings of the
modern tragedies of female circumcision that occurs in third world countries
even today. Conversely in his last and more utopian novel,
In Brave New World, promiscuity is rewarded while monogamy is treated as sexual deviancy. Lenina is chastised for being involved with only one man for 4 months, this is very rebellious as a member of the society, as David Leon Higdon points out, yet Huxley under plays Lenina’s rebelliousness and treats her as a pariah, furthering the misogynistic tendencies in the novel (The Provocations of Lenina… para. 8). In order to pacify the masses, sexual rejection has been eliminated from the society. Children are taught “everyone belongs to everyone else,” instating what is basic sexual slavery (. The intimate notions of sex are discarded in favor of mass orgies. Women in World State While the subjugation of women is evident in “Brave New World” by use of sexual slavery, physical mutilation and indoctrination, “The Island” presents a much more desired alternative possibility for women. These novels represent our fears and desires for ourselves and our posterity. Multiple Choice Quiz
1. What era was Huxley prevalent in?
-Victorian
-Gothic
-Neo-Freudian
-M Little Pony
2. In what ways did Huxley’s writing
influence counter-culture?
-unhappiness with the gov. and drug use
-appeasement
-hippie music
-conservatism
3. What main themes does Huxley address
in Brave New World?
-happiness
-family
-consumerism/control
-coming to reality with death
4. What main themes does Huxley address
in
-freedom/living in the now
-democracy
-Evil in society
-relaity of death
5. What affect did the World Wars have
on Huxley?
-insanity
-pro-war
-pro-americanization
-disillusionment
6. How did Huxley gain insight into the
settings of his novels?
_he read travel brochures
-he learned about them in school
-he traveled to foreign lands
-he made it up
7. Which religious philosophies
impacted Huxley’s later writing career?
-Christianity
_judaism
-Buddhism
-he was not impacted by religion
8. What type of society did Huxley
create within both novels?
-fantasy
-western
-science fiction
-utopian/dstopian
9. What differences are present in the
societies of both novels?
-one is in the past/one in the future
-one is dystopian/one is utopian
-one is boring/one is entertaining
10. What similarities are present in the
societies of both novels?
-drug use and sexual lberation
-behavior modification and totalitarianism
-democracy
-oligarchy
11. What connections can you draw from
today’s society and the society present within Brave New World?
-technological advances and gov. control
-freedom of people and no control
-reverence for religion
-totalitarianism
12. What two psychologists was Huxley
influenced by in Brave New World?
-Freud and Pavlov
-Freud and Maslow
-Maslow and Pavlov
-Jimmy and Timmy
13. Aldous Huxley died on the same day
as what famous historical figure?
-J.F.K
-Arthur miller
-John Steinbeck
-Nixon
14. What famous band was influenced by
Huxley?
-The Doors
-The Shins-Death Cab for Cutie
-Rolling Stones
15. Huxley’s visit to two places
influenced his perception of the society in Brave
New World, what were they?
-
-
-
-
16. What was Huxley’s drug of choice?
-opium
-LSD
-Marijuana
-heroine
17. Huxley had what views on
consumerism/materialism?
-it helped the economy
-It made people happy
-it was bad and it ruined our lives
-it taught us life lessons
18. How did Huxley view the perfect society?
-under world control
-democratic
-enlightened
-suppressed
19. Would Huxley prefer to live in the
society found in Brave New World or
the society in
-Brave new World
-island
-neither
20. In Brave new World, John the savage
can be an allusion to what literary character?
-Hamlet
-oedipus
-Medea
-Caeser
21.Whic of the following does Huxley NOT use?
-irony
-allusions
-imagery
-rogerian strategy
21. “A gramme is better than a damn” is
an example of:
-aphorism
-exposition
-allusion
-irony
22. The title “Brave New World” directly
references a famous literary work written by:
-Sophocles
-Aristotle
-Shakespeare
-Jack Keroauc
23. Island is a _____to Brave new World.
-counterpart
-sequel
-prequel
-nothing
24. Aldous Huxly was born in:
-1894
-1880
-1843
-1919
25. What name is not an allusion to a
prominent leading figure in history?
-Benito
-Bernard Marx
-Lenina
-John
Works Cited
"Aldous Huxley." The
Literature Network. 204 Feb 2008. 15 Apr 2008 <http://www.online-literature.com/aldous_huxley/>.
"Aldous Huxley: The Author and
his Times." Soma Web. 2008. 15 Apr 2008
<http://somaweb.org/w/huxbio.html>.
"BIOGRAPHY." MIREIA
FERRANDIS PRADAS . 1994. 15 Apr 2008
<http://mural.uv.es/~mifepra/biohux.htm>.
Daniels, Margaret
J., and Heather E. Bowen. "Feminist implications of
anti-leisure in dystopian fiction." Journal of Leisure
Research 35.4 (Fall
2003): 423(18).
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS>.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World and Brave New World
Revisited.
Huxley, Aldous. Island.
"The Provocations of Lenina in Huxley’s Brave
New World."
<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS>.
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