Just Like John example essay topic

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, was a very odd book. It portrays many of the moral dilemmas that we now are approaching in our society. I really enjoyed the book, it had just enough science fiction content to keep the reader interested in the book. It also had a very interpretive content in it to mesmerize, and elude the reader.

I related myself to, two of the characters. During the opening quarter of the book, I related Bernard Marx to me. I am much different from the average teenager, I am sort of an outsider much like Bernard Marx. Bernard Marx was someone who was regarded as an outsider because of his height, mentality, and originality of ideas. I am an outsider because I enjoy indulging my mind in science and math, but I also enjoy being alone. I do not like being around other people constantly like the people in A Brave New World.

They are taught at a very young age that it was wrong to be alone for an extended period of time. Later in the book when John the savage was introduced, I related myself to him. He was a stranger to a planet that he had always lived on. I am beginning to feel the same way. The closer I come to graduation, the more foreign my world is becoming. I have lived on this planet for seventeen years, and I am just now beginning to learn what it is all about.

The book taught me that it is O.K. to be different. If you are not, the world would be a very boring place. Everything would be the same, there would be no surprise. There is almost no reason to live.

When people are different, it adds a variety to society. An almost infinite number of possibilities to everything, which adds an element of surprise, because you do not know exactly what to expect. The point of view that Aldous Huxley chose, was a third person, or omniscient point of view. Thi point of view was vital to the book. Had he not used this point of view, the book would have been almost impossible to write.

Or it would have taken him a much longer amount of time to illustrate what was happening in the book. He uses many of the thoughts of the various characters to give a feeling of the over all book. If he had used a different point of view, you could not get this feeling from the characters as well. But the point of view he did use, did make it a little confusing. Aldous Huxley would begin to jump from person to person, and sometimes it was hard to follow. Since the narrator was in third person, he used some terminology that was either made up, or not commonly known, because he was all knowing.

The title of the story was stated by John the savage many times after he visits the outside world of his reservation. He got it from one of Shakespeare's works called The Tempest. He used this quote to portray the similarities of society he sees, and the play The Tempest. Aldous Huxley used the opening pages to set up a parameter for what the society of the story is like.

He describes the method of creating life without a mother or father. He also answers some questions such as why the society was created, what is socially acceptable, and what isn t. He spends the entire first forty pages describing what this brave new world are like. The major characters of the story were: Lenina Crowne, Henry Foster, Hemholtz Watson, John the savage, Linda, Bernard Marx, Mustapha Mond, and Thomas. A description of each is listed below. Lenina Crowne.

Lenina Crowne was a freemartin who was a pretty girl who was just like any other girl in this society, she believed in having sex with anyone she wants. It frustrates her much when John would not do it because he loved her. Lenina did not understand what love was, she believed that everyone belongs to everyone else. She was a little different than normal girls, because she had dated one man for a fairly long time, but since that was socially unacceptable, she decided to go on a holiday with Bernard Marx.

Henry Foster. Henry Foster was a scientist in the Hatchery. He was the ideal person of this society. Although he does not do much in the story, he does help set up the parameter for the society during the first part of the book. Hemholtz Watson. Hemholtz Watson was a man who began to realize that there was something more to life than just sex, drugs, hypnop dia, and work.

When John the savage comes along and introduces him to the work of Shakespeare, he begins to learn more about what things should be. Although in the end, his conditioning keeps him from going any deeper than that. He only scratches the surface. John the savage. John the savage, was raised by a mother which was unheard of in this culture. He was raised on a reservation in New Mexico, in which Lenina and Bernard take a holiday to.

Before Bernard takes him back to London, John gets a hold of some works from Shakespeare. These works of Shakespeare, enlighten him beyond what he had learned from his mother and from the savages on the reservation. John was troubled deeply by the death of his mother. She dies by an overdose of soma, which was really planned. John could not understand why everybody thought of her death as no big deal, and that just added to his pain.

And Lenina wanting to have sex with him also hurt him because he wanted love, and she just wanted sex. Both of these factors are what initially drove him to suicide. Linda. Linda was John's mother. She becomes pregnant by Thomas.

That was quite ironic for today, because I always here about someone using a condom and birth control, and yet still becoming pregnant. That just illustrates that man was meant to bare children regardless of all the precautions taken. Living quite some time in this savage reservation, she grows old and fat, because she did not have the drugs with her to keep her looking young. Bernard Marx.

Bernard Marx was one of the most original men in this entire society. He has original ideas, which as a result, gets him sent to Iceland. Bernard was the man who makes arrangements to have John go to the brave new world. Bernard was also excluded from a part of the community because people hypothesize that too much alcohol was added to his bottle during fetal development, which stunted his growth. So was considered of someone of a lower caste.

He was enjoying being unhappy which is part of his freedom, but socially unacceptable. Mustapha Mond. Mustapha Mond was one of ten controllers in the world. He is an incredibly intelligent man compared to the rest of the people in the society. He uses his intelligence, and deductive reasoning for the good of this society. He makes the rules so therefore he can break them, so he has read all of the forbidden books such as the bible, and works by Shakespeare.

When he was Bernard's age, he also had a chance to go to one of the remote islands, but he decides to take the job of a controller. Which made him a very powerful man that is also intelligent, the most dangerous of combinations. This helps this society flourish. Thomas.

Thomas was the director of hatcheries and conditioning. He does not have a real major part in the story, but he was John's biological father, and when John came back to London, Thomas was completely humiliated, and was forced to resign. The ending of the story was strange. Although you anticipate that John will commit suicide, you do not really expect it. But all-in-all, I though the ending was very satisfactory. The ending appealed to real life.

Many people commit suicide because they are unable to deal with real life situations such as John's. The setting of the story played a major part of the story. Primarily the time of the story was the most important, and from that came the sub-settings. The time is about 534 years in the future.

From time, came futuristic buildings, flying machines, drugs, and a twisted society. Such as when Lenina and Bernard are in the helicopter over the ocean. The ocean symbolizes a loneliness, which is what they are programmed to hate, that is one example why the setting was important to the story. The society of the story, much of which has already been explained, is a very bizarre twisted one. To start of, people have no mother's or father's.

They are all hatched out of bottles so-to-speak. There are several social class ranks. Each of the ranks, or castes, are adapted to do a certain job at the beginning of development. They may add a sickness to the bottle, or add alcohol to stunt growth.

After they are ready to be hatched, they start the hypnop dia, or sleep teaching. They are taught not facts, but morals, and emotions. They are taught to like only one's caste, hate solitude, be insensitive to death, want sex, want drugs, and so on. All of these things create a very strange society where everybody has sex with everybody else, and when anything bad happens, they just go on a soma (drug) holiday (high or stoned).

So they never have to deal with any painful reality. The themes of the book, are very direct. The major one would be: With the advancement of science, we need to be careful with it. It may someday turn against us, and without us knowing it, change our lives in a very bad way, but most will not even notice or care. With the recent advancement in cloning, this theme plays a particular role to us as a society today. : Without a mother and a father, it is difficult for most to learn how to behave and act, and that is a main reason why promiscuity is such a big part of the people's lives in the society.

Happiness and freedom are also the subject of a theme: Happiness is not always the same for all people. The same as freedom. Some people may see their freedom as the freedom to be happy, and unhappy. In this society, people for the most part do not have a choice. They have happy, or they have a soma holiday. Sex is also a subject of a theme: Love is a virtue, you should live it and love it, because in this book, sex is thought of as nothing more than a drug.

Love has nothing to do with sex in this book, which is part of the reason why John is hurt so bad by Lenina when she practically throws herself on John. Genetic engineering, and other scientific advancements are explored thoroughly in this book, but I hope politicians do not view this book as what could happen if cloning experiments continue, because I do not believe that anything like this would ever happen as a result of these experiments. But it does raise some moral issues about cloning that are currently on the hot plate in political offices. Bill Clinton has banned all federal aided, or funded programs that deal with cloning, because the issues still have not been resolved, such as: Will the clone have a soul In this book, it is almost portrayed that they do not have a soul. And the only one in the book who has been born by a mother, John, actually acts as if he does have a soul.

I believe that the author's purpose for writing the book was to warn us that science may begin to destroy what we value most in life such as love. He is trying to get us to reevaluate what we are actually doing to out world, and what it may become. Some cause effect relationships include: The nine years war, caused this Utopia (literal meaning: land of no place), because people after the war just wanted a stability, so science created this utopia to satisfy everyone, and no one objected, because they were happy. Another relationship includes: Fanny's argument with Lenina caused Lenina to go to Bernard, and accept his offer to take a holiday to New Mexico. If she had not gone on this holiday, Bernard may not have gone, and then most of the book could not have been written. And yet another relationship includes: Foster went to New Mexico with Linda, and Linda got lost and injured, which caused her to stay in the reservation and have the baby.

Had she been in London, the baby would have been aborted, because it is socially unacceptable to bare live young. One of the statements that the narrator made was especially prominent to me, and that was Straight from the horse's mouth. Although not original, it does portray that the society is almost unable to generate an original idea by themselves. Another statement is Electro-magnetic golf was a waste of time. Then what is time for This illustrates, that time has not any real meaning there, and yet in a sense it does, when the rocket is a few minutes late, it is scandalously late.

Another one is Ford. They often use the word Ford in place of Christ or God. This symbolizes the replacement of God with science and technology. The author's style in this book is simple, he uses a fairly equal balance between dialog, and description. But he also uses either made up words, or scientific words such as hypnop dia, caste, surrogate, viviparous, and flivver.

But other wise, his book is fairly easy to read and follow. Why did the author have John kill himself I believe that Aldous Huxley did it to illustrate, that in this world, you can either give in to the horrid Utopia, or die, and I think that Linda also chose to die because of the condition. Would you or I enjoy living in this Utopia I would not enjoy it, perhaps it is the way I have been conditioned, but none-the-less, I could not because I enjoy unhappiness in a sense, I also enjoy love, hate, and the feeling I get during solidarity. Will Bernard, in the long run, enjoy, and be truly happy in Iceland I think he will enjoy the rest of his life in Iceland, because that is where he can be truly himself, and not what hypnop dia created him to be. I am sure he will find a true love, and get married.

But this might be my escape literature side speaking also. Do you think that cloning or genetic engineering is morally and ethically acceptable I believe that I am what I make myself to be. My genetics play a part in my make up, but it is not all of me. Half of what people are, are their experiences, their environment.

And from that, I believe that their soul is created. Do you think that this Utopia could ever exist I think that something close to this could exist, but the overall experience of the book, is just to far great for it to ever exist. People enjoy their freedom to do whatever they choose, including, being happy, unhappy, mad, furious, vengeful, and all of the rest of the feelings that can be defined. If these freedoms were taken away, people would then be unhappy, and people generally like to be unhappy all of the time.

Author question: Did you write this book to actually warn us, or did you write it to astound us I believe he would say he wrote it to astound us, because he has written many science fiction novels. I think that he added the warning part in on purpose, but that wasn t the real reason for writing the book What were your personal reasons for writing this book I cannot answer this question, because I have not read enough of his books, or essays to really understand why he writes at all. If I would have been the author, I would have ended the book by letting John go to Iceland with Bernard. There they begin a revolutionary group that strikes at the Utopian culture, and changes it back into something more reasonable. No more babies in a bottle, no more everyone belongs to everyone else. Women begin to have live birth again, marriage becomes a common thing again.

And they could do all of this through the hypnop dia. The primary reason I would do this, is because I am and escape reader. I understand interpretive literature, but I like escape literature when I read for pleasure. The main character is not quite definable, because half of the story was Bernard, and the other half was John, so I am going to tell how I am like John. I am different than other people, I know things that most teenagers do not, just like John knowing Shakespeare.

Another is that I am venturing into college territory, and it is kind of frightening, much like John is frightened by the new society he is in. I wish to love a girl but cannot for personal reasons, Just like John, he cannot because Lenina just wants sex. I enjoy to talk to people about knowledge and science, just like John likes to talk to Hemholtz, about Shakespeare. I desire to change politician's views about cloning, just like John wants to change the views of everybody about taking soma. This book is very relevant to our day in age. It brings out the dilemmas of cloning, and genetic engineering, but I think that it is a step back for those of us who want to continue in the research of cloning.

If politicians take this book seriously they may believe that this could actually happen, when in reality it is just fiction, and it will never happen. This book gave me a perspective on life, especially the part on love. It made me realize that love is one of the true great things in life that are truly worth living for, and it may stay with me for the rest of my life, and then again, it is fresh in my mind and I may forget about it in a few days. One thing I will remember about this book it the statement Straight from the horse's mouth. That statement tells me that my originality is what is truly great about me. I do not have to be straight from the horse's mouth, I can be original, I can be me.

This book reminded me of something that happened to me in A.P. Biology last year. I said something, that seemed bizarre and odd, and of course the kids laughed, but the next day I brought proof that I was right. Why it reminded me of that, is because John tried to convince the people that soma was bad, and they should change, and they did not like that.