The mere thought of a fantastical future brings about a myriad of thoughts, ideas, and outrageous predictions that are capable of instilling fear. Sometimes authors and various writers tend to introduce such predictions or theories into their works, which evidently encourages criticism and further analysis. Aldous Huxley, the influential author of the novel Brave New World, is rather guilty of committing such actions. In Brave New World, there happens to be a multitude of aspects that oddly reflect how society functions today. For example, Huxley incorporates the more complex theme of technology, which ultimately turns the novel 's assumed utopia into an underground dystopia. One may see that modern society is practically mesmerized by the
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These particulars include consumerism, mass production, social media/reality TV, and drugs. Consumerism, for the most part, is when items are purchased mainly to fulfill a person’s wants and increase their level of happiness. Such an idea introduces outrageous prices and continuous advertising. The World State, Brave New World’s government, emphasizes greatly the over-purchasing of unnecessary goods. As a matter of fact, this sounds overwhelmingly familiar. Now, directly linked to consumerism is, of course, mass production. It is well known that when people begin to “spend, spend, spend,” factories and other businesses must “produce, produce, produce.” When both of these factors kick in, leisure time is granted due to the lack of worry and fear that society will not have enough goods to survive. With this, social media and reality TV come to life. The novel speaks of “feelies,” which are movies meant to stimulate an individual sexually, and online platforms that allow people to speak with one another via texting or video chatting. Indeed, today programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Facetime exist – all of which allow a person in New York to communicate efficiently with another in California. However, such forms of communication may be detrimental to society if they begin to ultimately surround and consume each person’s life, and by that I mean spending 20 hours surfing Facebook to find adorable pictures of kittens. Last but not least, Brave New World offers up a form of hedonistic drug that evidently is used solely for pleasure. Soma, the aforementioned hedonistic psychoactive opiate, induces feelings of calm, and successfully rids of any form of sorrow (O’Neill). As one may know, marijuana, legal or not, is being utilized for the same purpose: pleasure. As a fun fact, and a successful quasi-prediction,
These particulars include consumerism, mass production, social media/reality TV, and drugs. Consumerism, for the most part, is when items are purchased mainly to fulfill a person’s wants and increase their level of happiness. Such an idea introduces outrageous prices and continuous advertising. The World State, Brave New World’s government, emphasizes greatly the over-purchasing of unnecessary goods. As a matter of fact, this sounds overwhelmingly familiar. Now, directly linked to consumerism is, of course, mass production. It is well known that when people begin to “spend, spend, spend,” factories and other businesses must “produce, produce, produce.” When both of these factors kick in, leisure time is granted due to the lack of worry and fear that society will not have enough goods to survive. With this, social media and reality TV come to life. The novel speaks of “feelies,” which are movies meant to stimulate an individual sexually, and online platforms that allow people to speak with one another via texting or video chatting. Indeed, today programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Facetime exist – all of which allow a person in New York to communicate efficiently with another in California. However, such forms of communication may be detrimental to society if they begin to ultimately surround and consume each person’s life, and by that I mean spending 20 hours surfing Facebook to find adorable pictures of kittens. Last but not least, Brave New World offers up a form of hedonistic drug that evidently is used solely for pleasure. Soma, the aforementioned hedonistic psychoactive opiate, induces feelings of calm, and successfully rids of any form of sorrow (O’Neill). As one may know, marijuana, legal or not, is being utilized for the same purpose: pleasure. As a fun fact, and a successful quasi-prediction,