Brave New World
Bryan Ryu
1-2. What is the meaning of the World State’s motto “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY?”
The World State is like a gigantic manufacturing factory, where everyone has their own assigned job to do. In order to operate the factory, the workers are only allowed to do their given job. If they change or create other sequence, the whole system won’t work and the factory losses its ability to produce a certain product. Like factory, the World State work as a group. Peoples have a given identity when they are born and have to work for community for the stable society. Therefore, the World State’s motto is ““COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY” to control its people.
1-7. Why don’t the Epsilons “need human intelligence?”
The World State needs someone to do something that no one wants to do. It is same in our world. No one wants to do difficult, dangerous and dirty job. Therefore, the World State made the Epsilons to use “as future sewage workers” (11). The World State gives Epsilons less oxygen than any other caste because it is unnecessary to give human intelligence to Epsilons. If Epsilons realize the unfairness than they might rebel so the World State keeps them less intelligent than human, which remains me of our world. People with power usual want to hand over it to their own children. So, they send their children to private schools to make them an “Alpha plus.” It is not that noticeable, yet it does exist in our World.
2-1. What work does the conditioning do? Who gets conditioned?
Conditioning is basically brain-washing. The World State uses conditioning to control their people. They make people to think the way they want. During conditioning, children are electrically shocked when they have books or flowers. They are conditioned to hate them; however, on the other hand, they are conditioned to love sport to spend money on it. Everyone in the World State gets conditioned whether they know it or not. This portrays our world. We also get conditioned without realization. When we watch movie, drama, TV, etc, we are conditioned to like or dislike something by vivid images and repetition. Few thousand years ago, plump women are considered attractive, but nowadays TV and magazines are showing skinny women and condition us to think skinny as beautiful and admirable. We also get conditioned like people in the World State.
3-4. Why are strong emotions dangerous? Family relationships? Romance? Religion? Art? Culture?
In the World State, people do not have to think about family relationships, romance, religion, art, or culture. Those things do not exist in the World State. They do not have parents and everyone belongs to everyone else. Strong emotions are dangerous because when “the individual feels, the community reels” (84). When people start to feel, they start to think. Therefore, society became unstable. So the World State conditions its people to not to feel emotions except happiness. The World State just wants people to be satisfied with their life.
3-9. What is soma? What are its uses?
Soma is a pill that makes people happy. Yet, it is also described as “Christianity without tears” (217). People in the World State always take soma when they start to feel loneliness, sadness or anything. Its use is to control people and make them not to think. They do not have to worry about their problems. They just need to eat soma and forget about it. Soma remains me of games, drugs, alcohol, sports, and even movies. Unfortunately we do not have soma, so we use other things. Some people try to hind from reality by playing computer games. When we play it, we are so focused that makes us to stop worry about our problems. Soma is just a drug. It might help them for few hours but it would solve their problems.
3-10. How do people age in this society?
People do not really age in this society. They do get old, but their body is still kept in good condition by chemical treatment. People in the World State do face death, but they do not fear or afraid of it. Unlike us, World State’s people do not have to worry about diseases or job. They have given identity and no need to think about their future. Therefore, age does not mean a lot in this society. On the other hand, we value age quite importantly. As we grow older, we become more independent and responsible. However, we do not have clear future like them. We have to ponder about our future and it makes age more meaningful and precious.
6-1. Why is being alone a bad thing?
How you ever went out for a walk at night by yourself? As we walking down the empty street, all kinds of thoughts go through our mind. It might be meaningless thoughts but it still made us to think. Being alone is a bad thing in the World State because they do not want people to think. That is the reason why the World State keeps its’ people constantly occupied and gives them soma. The World State also conditioned people to think that spending time by oneself is a horrible thing to do. They do not want people to think.
6-3. What does Bernard say about freedom? What does he mean?
Bernard says that “wouldn’t you like to free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way”. (82) Bernard is the one, who refuses to take soma and likes to send time alone. He knows that the happiness he feels is just a temporary and he is aware of the conditioning. Bernard wants to be different from other people. He wants to be free from those conditioning and find his own way to feel happy rather than just eating soma.
8-4. What does John want in his life?
John wants to go to the World State, which is like a dream land according to his mother’s description. John is a character, who does not fit in either society. He felt isolated and rejected in Malpais due to his mother’s promiscuous lifestyle. He was unwanted in the village and had to spend a lot of time by himself reading books. Yet, his life does not change in the World State. Like Linda, who could not adapt to the village culture, John also faces difficulties as he goes to the World State. This reveals how hard it is to adapt to a different culture. John does not belong to either part of the society, which reminds me of my friend. He moved to U.S. when he was grade 6. Like John, my friend also had hard time to adapt himself to another society. It was even worth than John because he did not know how to speak English. He stayed in U.S. for few years, yet he still could not fit, so he came back to Korea.
11-1. Why does John become popular, but not Linda?
John becomes popular because he is a young man, who is in a good shape while Linda is an old woman, who is ugly and obese. No one cares about Linda just because she lost her external appearance. In our world, we also treat people differently based on their outward appearance. If some charming guy walks in to the coffee shop, everyone’s attention is on him. However, if some fat, bad-looking guy walks in, no one cares about him. We do not know their personality or background, but we do judge other people by their appearance.
11-3. How does Linda spend her time?
Linda spends her time by herself in the room. She takes more soma than she needs, which ruins her body, yet it does not matter to her. By taking soma, she forgets about her miserable situation and feels happiness. Linda is portrayed as a drug addict, who lost her reason to live. Even the doctor knows that soma is going to kill her, but he still give it to her because there is no other way. Linda is going to die anyway so why not make her happy until she is dead, and they did. Instead of try to help Linda to recover, the World State gives her soma and pays no attention.
11-8. How do the children respond to dying? Why?
Children are not afraid of death due to their early conditioning. The World State gives children treats when some people dies and condition them to think death as just another step in their lives. Therefore, children do not feel sadness on other people’s death. Furthermore, they even do not have parents or blood relation. They do not understand John’s sorrow over Linda’s death. They just cannot understand it because they won’t have a chance to actually love someone more than themselves.
12-8. What does Helmholtz think of Shakespeare? Romeo and Juliet?
Helmholtz is an intelligent Alpha plus, who is “a little too able” (60) and wants to write “something much more important” (62), yet he still cannot understand or appreciate Shakespeare. It reveals about how bright and genius people still cannot overcome their background or stereotype from childhood. Helmholtz is conditioned to think about parents or true love as immorality. No matter how deeply John expresses his feeling, Helmholtz cannot understand it. Romeo and Juliet is just a dirty joke to Helmholtz, while it means everything to John.
15-2. Why does John decide to interfere with the soma distribution? Why does he say it is poison?
After Linda’s death due to over use of soma, John strongly feels that soma is a poison that the World State made to control its’ people. John wants people in the World State to realize the reality instead of taking soma and forget about it. He wants people to see the truth and real human relationships. It might be painful but John wants people to stop use soma to escape all pain and responsibility. Soma is a poison because it makes people to stop thinking. People are becoming like a slave of soma.
16-8. What would happen with an entire society of Alphas?
They did have an entire society of Alphas; however, it did not end up well. Twenty two thousand Alphas were sent to an island to build a new civilization but all they did was six years of “a first-class civil war” (204) and “nineteen out of the twenty-two thousand had been killed” (204). After that, they asked the world controllers to resume the government of the island. It is depressing to admit that an entire society of Alphas portrays our society. When we look back at our history, we always had a war. People like take away other peoples’ goods just because they are stronger. Our greed, which cannot be fulfilled, made us to kill each other and even use same human as a slave. It is more tragic that this is still happening in our World, and it might not stop forever until all humans extinguish.
