The Effects of Satire

A detailed Summary of The Effects of Satire

Often authors use satire to put a point across in their writing. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley; Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury; and The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood are all good examples of such satire. Each of these authors mock society in the way they feel it will be in the future if some of the actions that society takes go too far. They all do this by describing a different kind of "Utopia." There are forms of brainwashing, censorship, control and fear in each novel which then lead to some sort of rebellion because of personal conflicts.

Huxley uses satire in his novel to describe what he is thinking about technology today. In Brave New World there is a convention where babies are artificially produced. There is no such thing as reproducing humans sexually. There is still such a thing as sex, yet it is strictly for pleasure only. There are so many new ways to produce humans technologically today and Huxley is stating that if society doesn't control such technology that the technology will soon take control of us. Our society could turn out to be that of a Brave New World. In Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury is satirizing technology also. Bradbury uses a thing called the "Parlour Family." This

What Huxley is describing is called Eugenics. Eugenics is often described as false science. It is about the selective prevention or encouragement of births for social, racial, or political ends. It said to secure that the future will have good health, high intelligence, and noble character (Africa). This is what Bernard doesn't believe in and attempts to rebel. There is a form of rebellion in Fahrenhiet 451 and The Handmaid's Tale. All of these rebelious acts were done with the influence of one or several people. These are good examples of conformity between people. When people conform they can make a big difference. It just may be hard to get those people to conform because of different beliefs. This is what these authors are satirizing. There must be conformity between all humans so that technology doesn't take over.

Throughout these three novels all of the authors are describing a different way of life than today's. It seems that all of these novels are based on what is predicted to happen in the future. The authors are afraid of what society will turn out like in the future. These novels are based on technology taking over. They write about this because they are trying to stop technology from taking control of the way society is run. The authors are making people aware that technology that is growing. They don't want society getting brainwashed from technology . To get through to the audience they use satire. They show how there is no freedom and no real relationships. Hopefully the satire used is a useful technique at proving to people how out of control our society could get and the consequences that could be established if humans don't realize what they are getting themselves into.

This conformity breaks the links of control that is forced upon the people in these novels. Eugenics is not about reproductive freedom. There is a control of how you must produce humans in Brave New World. There is a fear of having a relationship with the opposite

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Approximate Word count = 1327
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels