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Monday, August 18, 2014
Strange Kids
When reading Brave New World, I have to say chapter 3 was really strange to me. In the book it describes hundreds of children playing naked outside together. I ended up reading the first part of that chapter a couple times bewildered. Why would Aldous Huxley mention this in the book? As far as society goes it seems that everything is done to ensure and have stability ,but I don't understand why they have kids play outside naked. It also mentions children playing erotic games but one boy is crying because he does not enjoy it. Since he does not enjoy these games the director sends him to a psychologist for evaluation and tells the little girl to find other children. This is extremely confusing to me because it seems obvious why he doesn't enjoy it but in this society apparently this is abnormal. I would really love to hear what others think about this or could explain it.
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I put this act of kids playing erotic games in such a young age because sex in that society is seen as fun and instant gratification. The World State wants to make the children think of sex as an everyday common thing instead of what sex was originally was: procreation. As these children age they use this everyday erotic games as entertainment and a form of release such as how we use video games for entertainment and a form of release from everyday tasks. Another reason that I think Huxley put this in was to show and prove that the statement, "Everyone belongs to everyone else," is adamantly true and rooted in from the moment the children are born.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great explanation I really see your point about making sex just a form of entertainment and representing how everyone belongs to everyone. Its a great introduction to the chapter when you think of it like this and makes much more sense.
ReplyDeleteThe world they live does not see humans as an individual intelligent and emotionally driven species- what they are trying to do is to make humans into animals as they once were. As people, we think of sex as a kind of love-making, as a connection to you and a significant other, or an expression of passion. Huxley's world takes sex for what it is- reproduction (unless of course that's not your belief system.)The animal kingdom does not have marriages or adultery, they have as many sex partners as they want, because sex is just reproduction. For a majority of animals, it isn't even a mean of pleasure, it's just as necessary for them as drinking water. Those who made The World State strive for dehumanization, and dehumanization rids us of our human views, one of which is the meaning of reproduction. If the children in the book were taught that sex was something that wasn't for them, then they would gain a belief that it actually *meant* something, and in the brave new world, that would be unnecessary. To them, it means nothing, because if it did, there would be less sex partners, meaning there would be less people, meaning less consumerism. And we all know the role of consumerism in The World State.
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