Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Brave New World

In the text, the people of the story rever mr Henry Ford because of his invemtion, the assembly line.  They worship the idea of the assembly line because of its ability to produce more than ever before in a much more efficient way.  Throughout the story the idea of humanity seems as if it is being compared to a machine.  The people are encouraged to love their work, work efficiently, and not let their emotions affect their actions (much like a machine).  Because many people are swayed by their emotions, they discourage becoming too close with any persons thus trying to end the ideas of family.  The author illustrated this point in the quote, "Crying: My baby, my mother, my only love; groaning: My sin, my terrible God...how can they tend the wheels?".  In saying this, the author shows how the people are emotionally attached to one another and thus cause them to become emotional if something were to happen to somebody else.  Therefore, emotional ties are not present in this ideal society so that no one would ever be affected by their emotions, thus making the community very stable and productive. 
To manipulate how people think, the society uses a method called hypnopaedia.  This method allows the creators to choose what the children will grow to be like and all of thier personal interests such as hobbies, favorite color, etc.  Not only this, but because they control these people in almost every facet, they are able to give them a social class that they are very content with abd creates a sens of place in their community.  This method is ultimately successful because the members of the community are happy with where they are at.

1 comment:

  1. Very insightful blog post Matt. I can see you really grasped the meaning of this quote. I believe that Ford’s assembly line technology is extremely significant in Brave New World. Not just necessarily because it was brand new revolutionary technology that changing manufacturing standards, but because it represents the loss of individuality. Emotional ties, like you mention, end up being bad for the “machine” and the whole process of identical assembly and therefore are eradicated. I think that hypopaedia is also a very important part of this quote. I believe that if one is brainwashed at an early age, their identities become malleable. Their future social positions can be planned out from birth. If the society requires certain dumbed down individuals to do all the mindless jobs, it is possible under this new society. I believe this is exactly what the quote alludes to. The wheels are the working class people who are needed, and the moving vehicle is the society in general.

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