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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A Utopia?

I don't believe the World State in Brave New World should be considered a utopia. As I read the book it shocked me when I read how the Delta babies were being shocked and traumatized into disliking flowers and books based on their caste. Each caste system is genetically engineered with specific physical traits. They are also taught to dislike people in other castes at an early age. Erotic play is encouraged for young boys and girls to engage in but it would be frowned upon in our society. Another thing that surprised me is when I read that people can have sex with whoever they want, and it is normal for someone to be seeing more than one person at a time. They live by this motto which is, "Everyone belongs to everyone else." The civilians in Brave New World are addicted to a kind of drug called Soma. They take this drug to feel happy and to forget about their worries. To them it seems to be the answer to everything when they are feeling down. Although the civilians in Brave New World have everything handed to them, there are many flaws in this "perfect world." So my question is, is this society really a utopia?
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 24, 2013 at 11:43 AM

    They do not see anything wrong with their world, they think they are doing perfectly fine. They look back on our world as if we did everything wrong, I'm not saying we do everything correct, however I do think our world is much better than theirs. So in our minds it may not be a utopia, but to them it is.

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  2. UnknownJuly 25, 2013 at 2:00 PM

    In our eyes their world is nowhere close to being a utopia. To the civilians in the world state they live every day "happy" but they really don't know what true happiness is like. They believe everything is perfect because what they do in the world state is all they know and they feel they get many luxuries. Our world has it's flaws but I feel that we have many more benefits over the world state. Their everyday lives are controlled by people and they really have no freedom what so ever. Ultimately I agree with you that it is not a perfect place to live.

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  3. UnknownJuly 28, 2013 at 4:24 PM

    Being trained from a young age with sleep teaching and a corrupt state, it's pretty much burned into their brain to be happy with their lives. They are taught to love their class, and also to take soma if they have any other troubles. Even if they wanted a change, like Bernard, it is still in the back of their head that it is wrong and goes against all they have learned. We, just like them, have been taught things from a young age, and we would never think of going against them. It doesn't seem like a utopian or even a good life, but neither would our world to them.

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