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Barreto Brave New World Essay
Barreto Brave New World Essay
Barreto Brave New World Essay
Mr. Linton
English 11-F
October 3, 2017
North Korea the most censored country world-wide, is also the were its people it’s most
oppressed. Kim Jung-Un, North Korea’s dictator, censors and manages the information inside
the country and the information coming from the outside. Nor Facebook, Instagram, or any
social media are allowed even many internet sites that may have information that decondition
their people is restricted. Kim Jung-Un even created many myths like his supernatural birth, he
invented the burger, he has never used a toilet, the world loved Kim Jong, that the Japanese stole
time, he was a fashion model, internet doesn’t exist and he was a master golfer. All of these lies
are so that the people love and admire Kim Jung blindly but if they had knowledge of who he
really is, and would realize they are being oppressed. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley,
Huxley proposes that knowledge is and gives you power by comparing the high and the low
class, gives you the power to rebel and sets you free from oppression.
Huxley shows in Brave New World how can knowledge give you power by comparing
the erudite (Alpha) class with the ignorant working (Epsilon) class. Alphas are the top erudite
class while Epsilons don’t receive the same education therefore they don’t have the knowledge
that Alpha’s do. When the director is giving the tour, he shows how the Betas are conditioned to
hate all the other classes and they repeat a recording which said: “They’re too stupid to be able to
read or write” (27). This shows how Epsilons are the most uneducated of all social class,
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therefore their jobs are mainly workforce and have less benefits and social discrimination. The
recording also says: “Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because
they’re so frightfully clever” (27). Alphas standing at the top class of the social structure, have
that position mainly because they possess knowledge, which gives them the power of making
decisions. Alphas and Epsilons both form part of the social structure in this world, they are
opposite poles in the social structure but mainly variate on the knowledge they both have. This
shows the social approach to this two classes, and how while some are praised others are
discriminated. This is the power of the Alphas, because they have that knowledge then they can
control the system and they are the decision makers so the rest of the classes like the Epsilons
have less power on those decisions which benefits Alphas. As a general rule, the person in
charge of making decisions have power over the others. Finally, Brave New World by Huxley
Huxley portraits in Brave New World how knowledge leads to power and that’s
detrimental for the society system. It’s exposed at the beginning of the book were the narrator
says: “One of the students held up his hand; and thought he could see quite well why you
couldn’t have lower- caste people wasting the Community’s time over books, and that are always
the risk of their reading something which might undesirably decondition one of their reflexes…”
(22) this manifest the importance of conditioning the babies to reject books so that they don’t
have a life based on seeking knowledge. If they get deconditioned they will pursue knowledge
and this will give them power which threatens the political system. Another approach to this
ideology is evidenced on the society’s conditioned discrimination to knowledge. When they were
molesting John because of his cloth he thought “But I can read,’ he said to himself,’ and they
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can’t. They don’t even know what reading is.’ It was fairly easy, if he thought hard enough about
the reading, to pretend that he didn’t mind when they made fun of him. He asked Linda to give
him the book again. The more the boys pointed and sang, the harder he read” (131). Books, by
far, the most common way of transmitting knowledge in human history. People in this society of
the lower casts are conditioned to discriminate books because they possess knowledge. This
repugnance for books shows how Alphas (erudite class) fear that power goes to other hands and
the only way to get power is by possessing knowledge. So, we may conclude knowledge leads to
Lastly Brave New World by Aldous Huxley shows the power of knowledge by showing
the power of decision that John has by not taking soma because it takes out his freedom. John
says “Don’t you want to be free and men? Don’t you even understand what manhood and
freedom are? Rage was making him fluent; the words came easily in a rush. “Don’t you?” he
repeated, but got no answer to his question. “Very well then,” he went grimly. “I’ll teach you;
I’ll make you free whether you want it or not,” (218-219)- John said this to the Deltas when they
were waiting to take their soma reason. John criticizes the fact that everyone is a submissive of
the drug. Like Hobbes said, humans distinct from creatures because we’re able to think and
reason. In this society, they present to us people that don’t think, don’t care about what they do,
or the way they feel. They’re slaves of this fake feeling of security, without actively feeling it.
Therefore, John knows what’s life without soma and sees how it controls us therefore he has the
power of making the decision of being free and not ingest it. In a conversation of John and
Mustapha Mond about how the world used to work. Mustapha Mond says: “knowledge was the
highest good, truth the supreme value; all else was subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to
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change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty
to truth and happiness. Mass production demanded shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels
steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t,” (234). Mustapha compares Brave New World with what
it used to be and because of this shows the chasm that could destroy the society caste system they
are living nowadays. This chasm is the idealized, supreme value of knowledge.
Knowledge our power and our freedom. These past comparisons of high and low classes,
people with knowledge and people without it and their freedom restates knowledge importance.
Now as a universal fact knowledge is one of the most precious and dangerous possessions as we
may see Huxley demonstrating it in his book. Remember to stay alert and never belief one point
of view because the lack of knowledge of the other point of view is what shows you the truth.
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Works Cited
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.
www.thecitizen.in/index.php/OldNewsPage/?Id=5195.