1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.). Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
1. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is a dystopian novel. It portrays a world, that Huxley believes will be a result of present human actions today, in the future where the government (centered in London) has complete control over the willing population, conditions them into believing, living, and doing weird, cruel inhuman things. The individuals of the New World State are conditioned so much that it leads them to thinking they live in a perfect, flaw-free society. People are no longer born; they are cloned/mass produced. During the reproduction process, a variety of chemicals and processes are applied and utilized to the developing clone individuals. In this, the "eggs" are already installed with the social class they will be in, their role in society, etc. From most to the least intelligent, clones can be Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, or Epsilons, with a plus or minus which further indicates intelligence level. Each of these social classes have different roles in the community, personalities, and and are conditioned to enjoy who they are whether it be an alpha or beta, etc. and bash the other social classes. The key aspect of the dystopia in Brave New World is that the inhabitants are not oppressed. They very willingly abide by what they have been forced and conditioned to perceive as the social normality. They are forced to neglect their internal morals, views, and beliefs and conform to the cruel, inhuman ways of the society that surrounds them. Huxley makes the core of the plot surround Bernard, an Alpha plus who, due to some defect in decanting, has a weird, unwanted, unattractive physique that makes him look of a lower class. Eventually in the story, Bernard befriends John, also known as the Savage, while visiting the “savages” (other Native Americans that inhabit the same reservation John and his mother do). Bernard brings the Savage back to the world state which sparks a craze, infuriates people, but also turns the entire plot around. By the end of the novel, John leaves civilization, living as an freaky psychopath in an abandoned lighthouse. He is terrified of how unusual and cruel the World State is run, how it conditions its inhabitants, and overall, how disturbing its realities are. However, his isolation only serves to enhance the public’s interest, and he once again becomes the show of the town. Sickened after a moment of personal failure in which he had given in to the nasty civilization and conformed to their freaky ways, John hangs himself. His hanging is when the Savage dies, John dies when he finally is influenced by the World State and conforms by having sexual relations with Lenina.
2. The theme of the novel is "Don't sacrifice your individuality in pursuit of social acceptance." In the story, characters frequently are forced to question inwardly while conforming outwardly due to the strict, harsh pressure and influence for the civilians of the world state. Such characters include Bernard, John, and Hemholtz. All of these three men throughout the course of the novel struggle with the concept of sticking to their own personal morals and values or to conform and unite with society and its weird, cruel ways of living. This theme is what makes the book such a unusual, appalling, and such a cliffhanger.
3.For most of the book, Huxley’s tone deploits distant disappointment. He, although the one who predicts this weird, nasty world, recognizes the happiness-obsessed society poorly, but also inserts his own views distantly, in ways that the reader isn't quite too sure that he for sure is claiming his opinion/views. “But in Epsilons, we don’t need human intelligence.” However, at very specific points, Huxley's tone switches immediately to heroic and frenzied, commonly when he is referring to the Savage. An example of this is “’But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.’” Or, “’Free, free!’ the Savage shouted, and with one hand continued to throw the soma into the area while, with the other, he punched the indistinguishable faces of his assailants. ‘Free...Men at last!’”
4. Satire: Satire is doubtlessly the most dominant literary technique in the novel. The entire basis of the plot is a criticism of values that Huxley believed and though the society of his time was in the direction of/ heading towards. An example of this is the obsession with efficiency which was represented by the World State's idolization and obsession over Henry Ford, the creator of the assembly line. “Cleanliness is next to fordliness,” is one of the essential lessons of hygiene. Similarly, Huxley also sarcastically comments on consumerism. “Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness. Nowadays the Controllers won’t approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games.”
Allusion: There are few examples of allusion in the novel, but it is a contributing factor to Huxley's mission and purpose. As mentioned earlier, many of the slogans implanted into the citizens minds are twisted versions of things that are commonly stated in society today. Some examples are: “A gramme in time saves nine,” or, “A doctor a day keeps the jim-jams away.” The Savage makes several references to Shakespeare. “Outliving beauty’s outward with a mind that doth renew swifter than blood decays.” The title of the nocel itself is an allusion to Shakespeare. “O brave new world that has such people in it. Let’s start at once.”
Personification: page 6: "The pencils were busy."
Restatement: throughout the entire novel, this is how Huxley makes it obvious to the reader that the Brave New World is a master manipulator/conditioner on its citizens. "Charming, Charming." Can't you see? Can't you see?"
Simile: "thousands of petals... as pale as death."
Symbolism: the whiteness of their uniforms symbolizes the blankness of their humanity.
allusion: page 35: "History is bunk." Huxley also continuously refers to and names things in the new world after Russian names/backgrounds.
On page 26, Huxley goes on to state the opposite of today's societal life and education. "You can't learn a science you know nothing about." Huxley makes it a novel of science not "moral education."
Everything Huxley provides with concerning Benito is antithetical to all of the other characters Huxley characterizes.
Fanny is a foil to Lenina in which Fanny declares that Lenina better not get attatched to just one boy and needs to see several while Lenina thinks that is wrong and that she needs to give all her attention and energy to only one.
One interesting quotation i came across while reading the book that really intrigued me was,"Those who meant well behaved in the same way as those who meant badly."
Some other input I found on other literature analyses written on this novel:
Dark Humor: Going hand in hand with Huxley’s satire is his use of dark humor to carry it across. Situations in the book are humorous because of the social implications, not because of inherent comedy. One character, who is among the more open-minded in the story, cannot help but laugh when told of Tybalt’s death in Romeo and Juliet. After all, “the reference to Tybalt dead, but evidently uncremated and wasting his phosphorous on a dim monument, were too much for him.” Early in the story, a character responds to hearing a comment during a helicopter ride about a switchback. “Do you know what that switchback was? It was some human being finally and definitely disappearing. Going up in a squirt of hot gas.” At the story’s climax, Huxley does not drop his attack on consumerism. With tension mounting, man exclaims, “Have a few magnesium-salted almonds. They’re really very good, you know. And the magnesium slats will help keep you young.” At the height of the story, with violence about to break out, the man’s salesmanship is both hilarious and depression.
Repetition: Repetition is an important part of both the story and the literature itself. In the novel’s universe, developing youths undergo sleep learning, in which a phrase is repeated multiple times, imprinted onto their brain. “They’ll have that repeated forty or fifty times more before they wake; then again on Thursday, and again on Saturday. A hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months. After which they go on to a more advanced lesson.” Huxley uses repetition in his own writing, typically to drive home the importance of a phrase or emphasize distortion of time. “Drop, drop, drop. To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow…” The most significant instance of repetition is found in the last few pages, as the mob gathering outside of the Savage’s lighthouse chant, “We—want—the whip!” over and over again. The painfully ironic aspect of this is that the whip, to the Savage represents self cleansing, purification from the corruption of society.
Symbolism: Brave New World is ripe with symbolism. Soma represents the will to live for present happiness alone: “Was and will make me ill, I take a gramme [of soma] and only am.” Even Romeo and Juliet is used to symbolize a normal society. “The Savage was reading Romeo and Juliet aloud—reading (for a all the time he was seeing himself as Romeo and Lenina as Juliet)…” Most striking is the symbolism of the whip—the “right to be unhappy.” This is seen evidently in “’Strumpet! Strumpet!” he shouted at every blow as though it were Lenina (and how frantically, without knowing it, he wished it were).”
1. Direct characterization examples: page 36: "Fanny worked in the Bottling Room, and her surname was also Crowne." On page 57, "..Lenina's entry was greeted by many friendly nods and smiles. She was a popular girl and, at one time or another, had spent a night with almost all of them." On page 71, "Hemholtz Watson listened with a certain sense of discomfort. Poor little Bernard! he said to himself. But at the same time he felt rather ashamed for his friend. He wished Bernard would show a little more pride."
Indirect characterization: on page 92, "Thank Ford," she said to herself, "he's all right again." This indicates the society's obsession and infatuation with Henry Ford and his assembly line. On page 64, "..Bernard's physique was hardly better than that of an average Gamma." This quote indicates the poor, embarassing structure of Bernard's body and how he is so ashamed and insecure about it. Huxley uses both indirect and direct characterization to give the reader an oppertunity to fully understand, meet, and relate to his characters. Using both characterizations provides the reader with depth, background, and personalities that help them better understand each of the characters, their roles in the novel and society, and also their importance to the plot
2. Personally, I did not see too much change in syntax or diction when ranging from character to character. Although there was little, there was not much at all. I thought Huxley's little use of ranging diction helped him achieve his mission of the novel and provided the reader with a neutral, easy to understand language/dialogue throughout the entire novel.
3. Almost all of the characters in Huxley's novel are dynamic and round characters. They change both inwardly and outwardly throughout the course of the novel due to the society's harsh influence/conditioning. For example, John the Savage, struggled for a good period of time with resisting the temptation of conforming outwardly to the cruel, inhuman society and sticking with his own personal beliefs and morals. Unfortunately, in the end of the novel the Savage was strongly influenced by the society, went against his own morals and conformed to the society. He changes from being an individual who is strictly "normal" to one who was persuaded by the New World to be conditioned and follow their ways of living.
4. After reading the novel, I can honestly say I feel like I met and know the Savage, not John, very well. As an individual in any society, it is nearly impossible to resist society's influence and to act like someone you're not. Like the savage, i have faced similar situations like this and let me tell you, it is very hard to stick to what you know and think is right rather than conforming to what society wants or thinks you should do. While reading the novel and seeing how the savage reacted and responded to the society's pressure and influence, I felt as if I was living within John. I instantly alluded back to those tough times in my life where i struggled with questioning inwardly but conforming outwardly. Overall, I had mixed feelings about the novel. I loved that I was able to be exposed to Huxley's unusual, awesome techniques in which he used to create and structure the novel, but i also got a feeling of fear from reading the novel. The cruel, inhuman world he predicted/portrayed in his novel makes me so scared of how civilization will be in my future and several generations ahead of my future.
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