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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

We're All the Same



Brave New World was weird. That was the main idea in my head going into the novel and when I finished as well. I had been introduced to some dystopian type novels in the past like The Hunger Games, Delirium, and Divergent but this one takes the cake. I had gotten this book first because I didn’t see the little disclaimer saying that I should read it last because it was so odd. I only finished it recently because when I first read it I had no idea what was going on. When I finally got into the book I realized that Huxley explored some very meaningful themes. From chapters 7 to 9 we were introduced to The Reservation, an area of natives much different from the World State and much different from our own civilization.
Interestingly enough there was one trait that I could readily identify that was evident in both society and even ours. This trait was the tendency to separate or disregard those who are different. This was evident in the cases of the two paralleled characters John and Bernard. John the “Savage” wasn’t accepted because his mother came from the World State. Although he learned to live like them, the natives did accept him officially. As for Bernard, his stature along with his inferiority complex alienated him from the others in his hierarchy. This concept was used by Huxley to show human nature. I know many of us learned the idea of human nature through Lord of the Flies. The characters in that novel were left to their own doing and their human nature took over and resulted in chaos. I thought it’d be interesting to tie those two together. As for our own society which claims to be modern and innovative, we are also prone to this act of casting others out as well. If you look at your group’s dynamic you realize that it’s mostly people who you like and relate too. I think it’s highly likely that we all have someone or could imagine someone that we wouldn’t like to include in our group. If this person exists we avoid them or don’t associate with them not necessarily because they’re different but maybe their behavior or tastes conflict with our own. But that’s just human nature whether or not we’re even aware of it. I think it’s just an aspect of life that we’re prone to. It’s a gloomy one but still an aspect nonetheless.

1 comment:

  1. Unfortunately, human are not perfect, and a perfect society is out of our reach. With this I agree. I just wanted to advise you to change your title. We are not all the same; we are all equal. It was explained quite well in the movie Lincoln. Some of us are less intelligent, less moral, and less manageable, and this is, unfortunately, a fact. Although, another fact is that we all think differently, act differently, and learn differently, so our preset differences can be a good thing. The things that need to change are the things around us that promote discrimination, and parents, teachers, and role models need to heed the fact that they influence us. I guess we just need to be more moral.

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