Brave New World Literary Device Question
"Mustapha Mond shook hands with all three of them; but it was to the Savage that he addressed himself. 'So you don't much like civilization, Mr. Savage,' he said" (Huxley 224).
The quote above marks beginning of an intellectual and insightful debate primarily between John and Mustapha Mond. In Chapters 16 and 17, Aldous Huxley exhausts the use of the literary devices of dialogue and tone as a medium to portray both concrete and abstract ideas/concepts about the World State's society. What ideas (or themes) does the dialogue and tone of this debate develop pertaining the functioning of the World State? What does the dialogue and tone mentioned reveal about the relationship of happiness and truth?
There are many themes and ideas within the book, the dialogue used in the book represents the idea that a perfect world is full of flaws is portrayed in their conversation to me. This is present when Mustapha states “there are temptations to be resisted, objects if love to be fought for or defended—there obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But there aren’t any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving any one too much.” Love for anything is what drives people to achieve things. The tone set by the dialogue is serious, but also relaxed as Mustapha is expressing the functioning of the world. Although it is a civilized conversation now, near the end the savage is getting frustrated with the fact that they are controlling people’s happiness with lies, but Mustapha points out that they have happiness, and all he wants is the thrill of loss. This is exemplified in this quote “all the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences. But I like the inconveniences.” The Savage only wants to have these feelings and emotions, but no one else does so he has no place anywhere. This is what the tone of the discussion is implying which reveals his relationship to happiness through truth, compared to the simplistic minds of the rest of civilization of which these people are conditioned not to care. They only do what they are told. Being this way, John has lost interest in this Brave New World, the truth to him is worse than not having his own happiness, showing the relationship of the two just creating a distraught world. This is why the Controller is so intent on hiding it from everyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree that in this conversation the author points out the flaws in the society through the use of dialogue and tone. The following interaction between Helmholtz and Mustapha illustrates an issue in the way society functions: “’And all the science propaganda we do at the College…’ ‘Yes; but what sort of science?’ asked Mustapha Mond sarcastically. ‘You’ve had no scientific training so you can’t judge’” (Huxley 231). This dialogue and tone represents a part of society that even Mustapha disagrees with. It shows that the people care about; one could even say worship, something that they do not know of. This suggests the idea that government is an all-powerful entity, that can force people to value something that they are not completely aware of. I also agree with the idea that through this heated debate we find out that John believes life is not worth living if it is lacking passion or struggle. This is apparent when John says “’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’” (Huxley 246). This rant John goes on shows that he believes that the World State society does not allow people to live with true passion and that passion is necessary for one to live a fulfilling life. Lastly, I agree with the notion that is somewhat mentioned in Derek’s comment that the dialogue shows an incompatibility between happiness and truth. This can be seen when Mustapha says “’God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness’” (Huxley 240). Despite the fact that it groups science and machinery (which could reveal truths) and happiness, this happiness does not really mean individual happiness, but the common good. People normally look to religion when seeking for happiness and the truth and by stating there is an incompatibility between God, a symbol for religion, and the other things listed, it shows that happiness and truth are not compatible in this society. Something that I would have mentioned was the clear signs of complete consumer society illustrated by the dialogue. Mustapha says “’Particularly when they’re beautiful. Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted to old things. We want them to like the new ones’” (Huxley 225). This shows the true signs of a consumer society because the controller is worried that new things will not be consumed if the public is given access to older things. By prohibiting the access to older things, such as poetry, the people are forced to consumed new, freshly produced things.
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