Discus the theme of the incompatibility of happiness and truth in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Aldous Huxley’s skilful characterisation and creation of an apparent utopia are used effectively to explore the theme of the incompatibility of happiness and truth. Set in the World State of AF 632, or 2540 AD, using our calendar, everyone is content with his or her life. However, the World State is actually a dystopia with many dark secrets. One of these secrets is that although every citizen believes himself to be happy, he has been genetically engineered to think so and is a government ploy to maintain “social stability”.
In the novel, Anthem, by Ayn Rand, society is supposed to be a perfect place where everyone lives by a set of rules which are not to be broken, and everyone has accepted the concept of “we” rather than “I”. Everyone has their job chosen for them and everyone is equal. In this novel, the two main characters, Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One fall in love with one another and develop feelings for each other. The love that these two share violates the fundamental beliefs that their society believes in by them developing feelings, ideas, and self sufficiency which is what their society is against. The first reason I feel that their love violates their society’s beliefs is because in this society, everyone has a tight schedule of what to do and when to do it.
Winston cannot do this by himself. He wants equality and justice for all people. He knows that if he wants to overthrow the Party, and achieve his goal O’Brien is the person he trusts to help him do it. Winston is very quick to trust O’Brien when their eyes first meet. “I am with you,” O’Brien seemed to be saying to him.
All of the people in the brave New World believe they are the best they can be which means there is no desire to achieve anything or try harder. This also furthers the gap between real human nature because it is just basic instinct for people to make things better for themselves. When the world controller makes John stay as punishment it’s clear that the world is not a utopia because John hangs himself. By acknowledging the dystopia, Aldous Huxley demonstrates how one man's heaven is another man’s hell. Along with many other possible themes, “A perfect world is unachievable without imperfection” fits quite nicely.
In the World State, people are encouraged to take soma whenever they start to get sad. Soma is one of the key components that keeps the society stable by increasing the group identity. Soma also portrays the incompatibility between truth and happiness because by consuming soma, they avoid the truth whenever they are sad. It conceals their sadness and fills it with fake happiness. Mustapha Mond sees soma as a perfect tool to maintain the stability.
With the Brave New World society, they used soma as a replacement for both depression and religion. Using soma gave the taker instant gratification and kept everyone in check with the society. No one would question what was happening, nor would they question why they were taking soma - stability at its highest level. In Lord of the Flies, a leader could act as the soma in order to maintain solidity. Unfortunately, there were two leaders and this created indecision among the boys on the island.
The more advanced are respected and intimidating to the main character grou, but the less advanced are just as respected since the world needs them and what they do. They are perfectly content with where they stand. This is caused by the use of drugs and conditioning. Causing happiness over their life span as it also limits their thought process to what they are made to do. They also believe sex is a natural thing and should be done amongst each other as a sort of no strings attached type of thing to induce pleasure.
Helmholtz is extremely intelligent and understands things that many people in his world do not. He is angry that he cannot escape his caste and he wants to be greater than he already is. The world shown in the novel is set up in such a way that no one can be greater or more powerful than others. The utopian society shown in the novel Brave New World presents a world that is supposed to be perfect in which everyone is happy. This may be true in some cases, but as shown by evidence in the analysis of three different characters, we can state that the perfect world is in actuality not a prefect world.
Innocence in the life of a child is as important to them as the very air that they breathe. When they are young, they only believe in the naïve views that they have on the world, and will always follow the ideals that they were born with. The same ideas that give them a beautiful, pure, and peaceful mind set, that has not yet been tainted by the atrocities of mankind. We must do all we can in order to protect the loved ones and the children of our society so that they do not grow up repeating our own terrible mistakes. “I kept thinking about Jane, and about Stradlater having a date with her and all.
In both stories the people of the towns are alright with sacrificing one so that everyone else can be happy. We as moral human beings know that this is wrong, but that is exactly a Utilitarian, whatever brings the most overall happiness even if that means sacrificing an innocent. Both stories represent the Utilitarian theme in their own way and are very powerful moral stories. Works Cited Brandt, Bruce E. “Two additional antecedents for Ursula LeGuin’s ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ (essays)” ANQ 16.3 (2003) S/T Literature Resource Center. Web.