Commentary On Brave New World Essay, Research Paper

COMMENTARY ON BRAVE NEW WORLD

In chapters four through six of brave new world Christianity is shown to be unnecessary.”People,” as Birnbaum states, “are never taught religion, and are conditioned

so they’ll never be alone and think about the possibility of God?” (3). The

creation of a religion is almost similar to an act of artistic expression; as

it requires an enormous amount of emotion and individual belief. With an

idea of a higher being and consequently an idea of a more important aspect

of life than just remaining stable would be detrimental to the utopian

world. Instead of pondering an afterlife, the citizens remain true to their

society which is shown when a character states, “Fine to think we can go on

being socially useful even after we’re dead,” (49).

In chapters seven through ten Emotions are thus controlled in Brave New World.

Control and stability can best be achieved when everyone is happy. The government does its best to eliminate any painful emotion, which means every deep feeling, every

passion, is gone. Huxley shows that the government recognizes the dangers of

negative emotions when the controller states, “Actual happiness always looks

pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery” (150).

In chapters fifteen through eighteen the society in Brave New World lacks of spirituality and Christianity. 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.

In chapters fifteen through eighteen John, the Savage, has no other choice than to commit suicide. It is of course a sin, but John either doesn’t know that since he’s had no real formal religious instruction, or he knows it and chooses to take his life anyway. He has no place in the society he lives in which is based on pleasure and happiness. The society in which he grew up was a traditional society with fundamentally different values, including the idea of sacrifice. One would like to see John return to his home on the reservation, but even there he was an outcast because of his illegitamate birth and his mother’s loose morals, so this is

Impossible.