A Review of Brave New World Essay Example

A Review of Brave New World Essay Example A Review of Brave New World Essay A Review of Brave New World Essay Essay Topic: Brave New World A life truly lived What is a life truly lived? Can one be happy all the time? To truly experience all that life has to offer, one must be able to compare the good and the bad. To know what happiness is, one must know sadness and to appreciate the highs, one must overcome the lows. In Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, we can see that a life without both good and bad experiences is a flat line and does not complete a person. Bernard was not happy though he was a member of Brave New World, Helmholtz was incomplete though seemingly happy and actually chose a ‘less-than-ideal’ life while Linda thought she was happy, but when she tried to apply her lifestyle in a new environment, she was unsuccessful and eventually died of overdosing on the one thing she felt was making her happy. Bernard is an excellent example of the flaws in Brave New World’s philosophy. Brave New World prides itself on happiness, â€Å"Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. (Huxley, p 234) Though he is part of Brave New World, Bernard does not feel happy because of his height. â€Å"’He’s so ugly! ’ said Fanny. [†¦] ‘And then so small. ’ Fanny made a grimace; smallness was so horribly and typically low-caste. † (46) So we know Bernard was short but why should this make him unhappy? Is there not more to life than being tall and ‘perfectâ₠¬â„¢? â€Å"’He does look glum,’ said the Assistant Predestinator, pointing at Bernard Marx. † (53) Bernard feels inadequate and therefore feels sad and unfulfilled. He feels like he is not truly living so he rebels against his own society in different ways like, â€Å"[†¦] to say ‘No, thank you,’ and fend off the proffered tube of [soma] tablets. † (54) Eventually, Bernard becomes popular and feels happy however this is a superficial happiness that does not last very long. â€Å"In the end Bernard had to slink back, diminished, to his rooms and inform the impatient assembly that the Savage would not be appearing that evening. The news was received with indignation. The men were furious at having been tricked into behaving politely to this insignificant fellow with unsavory reputation and heretical opinions. † (173). This is, however, a different emotional time for Bernard so he is able to see another side of life and appreciate different circumstances for what they were. Life cannot be lived in a constant state of one emotion because then we would not know what other emotions feel like at all. Bernard could not truly live and experience life until he knew what both happiness and sadness were. To truly live life, we must appreciate it and to appreciate it, we must experience all of it. Helmholtz is another example of a life that has not been truly lived. Helmholtz, by every right should be exceedingly happy because he has everything going for him; he has good looks, he has great intelligence, he is very popular and he is, â€Å"[†¦] every centimeter an Alpha-Plus. † (67) However Helmholtz does not feel fulfilled even though he is happy. Helmholtz feels incomplete and even asks Bernard, â€Å"’did you ever feel, [†¦] as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out? Some sort of extra power that you aren’t using – you know, like all the water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines? ’† (69) He feels like there is something more to life; something more than just being good at everything or being happy all the time. When it was decided that Helmholtz could no longer be part of Brave New World, he CHOOSES to go to a dismal place where, â€Å"[he] should like a thoroughly bad climate. † (229) Helmholtz understands that life is not all about perfection and asks for imperfection. He asks for hardships to fulfill his life. Helmholtz is a perfect example of a perfect life not being a life truly lived. One needs to know both the good and the bad to feel complete. Linda is yet another example of how a ‘perfect’ world view really is not perfect at all. Linda grew up in Brave New World and when she was left behind during her visit to the savage reservation, she did not know any other way of life so she tried to maintain her lifestyle. She believed, â€Å"the way they have one another here. Mad, I tell you, absolutely mad. Everybody belongs to every one else – don’t they? Don’t they? † This lifestyle did not make Linda happy at all. She was not living her life the right way and by extension was not living life at all because she only thought she was happy. Her lifestyle did not fit in with the culture in which she found herself and this made her unhappy since, â€Å"’nobody’s supposed to belong to more than one person. And if you have people in the ordinary way, the others think you’re wicked and anti-social. They hate and despise you [†¦]† (121). She also tried o continue in her consumerism mentality but this made her angry because, â€Å"it never used to be right to mend clothes. [†¦] Mending’s anti-social. But it’s all different here. It’s like living with lunatics. Everything they do is mad. † (121) Linda tried to keep her ‘happy’ lifestyle but realized she was not really happy and then felt li ke life had left her no reason to live. She turned to mescal when she did not have the option of soma and when she finally did get back to her own world, she killed herself by overdosing on a happiness substitute while trying to escape her unhappiness. All Linda wanted was, â€Å"the return to soma, was the possibility of lying in bed taking holiday after holiday, without ever having to come back to a headache or fit of vomiting [†¦]† (154). Linda â€Å"took as much as twenty grammes a day [,] [†¦] [w]hich will finish her off in a month or two. † (154) Linda did not truly live her life and therefore felt like ending it was fine. You cannot live your life in one constant state of happiness or unhappiness and those who do, cannot cope with any changes. A life truly lived, is a life fully experienced. A life truly lived requires one to appreciate all the facets of life, love, happiness, sadness and all emotions, experiences and circumstances one could possibly know. Bernard, Linda and Helmholtz were all supposed to be happy but through their life experiences, found out they were not truly complete. Life needs excitement and excitement includes something changing; something different. We must all experience every emotion to appreciate all of life and all it has to offer. To truly live, we must experience and appreciate all that we can.