Brave New World - Plot Question
In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, different sexes are treated in different ways. Discuss the many relationships between the sexes in the World State. How do the men and women interact? Who holds the overall power in communal situations, in the working environment, and in the government?
In the novel Brave New World, men have the superior power in their world. While in the real world, the world we live in, we try to have women and men at equals. In Brave New World the men can have basically all of the women that they want to have, but in the real world we are only allowed to have 1 per person. Well at least that is how it is supposed to be like. And since the men can have all of the women that they want, they are basically superior because they have all of the control they want over the women. This can also be referred to the alpha group how stand above all of the other groups. When we talk in government terms, the men also have more power over the women. A quote that shows this is in chapter 8 that says “’Are you married to her?’ he asked. "Am I what?" "Married. You know-for ever. They say 'for ever' in the Indian words; it can't be broken." "Ford, no!" Bernard couldn't help laughing. John also laughed, but for another reason-laughed for pure joy. "O brave new world," he repeated. "O brave new world that has such people in it. Let's start at once.”"You have a most peculiar way of talking sometimes," said Bernard, staring at the young man in perplexed astonishment. ‘And, anyhow, hadn't you better wait till you actually see the new world?’” This shows the men have more power than women.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Poptart. I think that in Brave New World that men and women are equal. The men can have any women they want but the women can also choose which men they want. They are automatically placed into a social class so it's not like the men are superior to the women in that way because they have no choice. The men and women can talk to each other freely and no body is really awkward to each other. The government that we saw in the book was men, but we do not know for sure that it is all men in the government. And I know in chapter two they mention that only thirty percent of the women get to keep their sexuality and the rest they add male hormones so that they are kind of become a nothing. Yes that may not be equal but it does show that they are against people reproducing and its only a safety precaution. Yes some men said that Lenina was meat in chapter three but that's because she put herself out there like that so I don't think that it shows that males are dominant in this case. Overall I think men and women treat each other equally in this world.
ReplyDeletei belive the quote you are refering to is when bernard thought that the men treated lenina like meat however no individual said that lenina was in fact meat
Deletebesides that i agree completely
I in some ways with each of your disagreeing views. Poptart, i agree with you because in many ways throughout the book woman are taken advantage of and in some ways talked down upon. I got this overall sense throughout the book in a way that the main characters are men, the main leaders are men, and the New World State government was all men. But, then in many ways i agree with Madeleine. Men and women do share many characteristics all throughout Brave New World.They are both in the position of being under drugs, not getting to have children, being manufactured, etc. So, both the men and women are in the same sort of boat. Madeliene, your example from chapter three when the men called Lenina meat, i think that just shows how the men are able to easily disrespect the women in may situations. Though this is just a small comment, i feel as though this shows a greater impact and attitude towards the entire population of women as a whole. In conclusion, i feel that both of you guys brought about some very good points, but in my opinion i feel as though the men were the major rulers and controllers in this book, and the women much rather follow their lead and listen to almost everything that they say and are told to do.
ReplyDelete