Happiness in Brave New World
When we look to define happiness, many different ideas come to mind. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary uses three definitions for happiness: good fortune, a state of well being and contentment, and a pleasurable satisfaction. In Brave New World, Aldus Huxley argues that a society can redefine happiness through the government's manipulation of the environment and the human mind itself. The government accomplishes this by mind conditioning throughout the process of maturing, keeping a caste-based society, and obliterating problems. The government thus defines happiness as the absence of all conflict. This differs from happiness as the American society sees it: the ability to pursue and enjoy individual desires. The conditioning of minds allows the government to impress its ideas upon maturing children. The process used is hypnopædia, or repetition of sayings during sleep. After many repetitions of one phrase, the idea is hardened within the human mind, proving most difficult to undo. Evidence of this method to provide artificial happiness su
Brave New World's definition of happiness only touches upon one of Webster's, a pleasurable satisfaction. The government, in order to accomplish stability, skews happiness to the point that it is not happy anymore. 'Of course it is,' the controller agreed. 'But that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people called high art. We have the feelies and the scent organ instead.'" (226) "...He [savage] insisted obstinately, 'Othello's good, Othello's better than those feelies.' Mustapha Mond, one of the world controllers, explains this society's goal of stability through happiness best in his discussion with the savage after John's revolt: rfaces in both Lenina and Bernard's actions. Huxley states this coldly during Lenina's trip home with Henry Foster, "'What a hideous color khaki is,' remarked Lenina, voicing the hypnopædic prejudices of her caste" (62). Khaki is a color worn by lower castes in the society and the higher castes are taught not to associate with them. Bernard's hypnopædic lessons did not work as well as
Some common words found in the essay are:
Brave World, Aldus Huxley, Brave World's, Henry Foster, Mustapha Mond, Helmholtz Watson, John Bernard, I'm Gamma', Collegiate Dictionary, Lenina Bernard's, brave world, brave world's, society brave, pleasurable satisfaction, human mind, society brave world, world's society, brave world's society,
Approximate Word count = 733
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
