Postmodernism

Narratives define a culture without having to be justified.Why and how are completely eliminated. For example, if someone were to say that dogs could talk everyone would just believe this outlandish statement. While, a grand narrative is a focal point of a discourse that contains lesser, smaller narratives. In the postmodern land of Brave New World, citizens believe in the narrative of forbidding emotional attachments to follow the Grand Narrative of progression.

In the novel, the citizens put up an impenetrable wall from one another. For instance,the Director recalls how the death of a girl he once hooked up with affected him more than it should have. "Because , after all, it's the sort of accident that could have happened to any one and , of course, the social body persists although the components cells may change"(97). This is really sad and disturbing to me. How can a living, breathing person be insignificant? Another person cannot inhabit the same characteristics as another and replace them. Death is distorted to eliminate anger and sadness ,so people can constantly be efficient to industry. By not having love or compassion for others, death becomes meaningless. Not having to mourn a loss promotes infinite happiness; however, true joy only comes from learning from past sorrows. The director is marganilized into neglecting the pain of death so he can be productive in his work.

In the postmodern world depicted in Brave New World, there is a vast nothingness. People accept fiction as facts with no evidence. Citizens have no goals ,or ambitions, or even thoughts of their own. People only know of the narratives that they are breainwished with in their sleep. Naturally, hhey have the urge to conform to their discourse. Ironically, by conforming, people are isolating themselves from the world with their apathy.

Power To The People

Whoa! "Brave New World" is freakishly scary. Could our society ever become this demented? I feel that Huxley thought so and wanted to forewarn readers to protect their rights lest history should repeat itself.

Freedom is a right like no other. Often times we take freedom for granted and forgot the hard work our Founding Fathers devoted themselves to. For example, Mustapha Mond says, "Freedom to be a round peg in a square whole" (46). We tend to forget in the pre-revolutionary days that freedom was only an unattainable dream. Today we have an infinite number of freedoms; yet, we always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. It is hard to imagine a society where freedom is incompatible with day to day life. The characters in the novel are forced into promiscuity and isolated from love; they don't realize it but they are slaves. The citizens in the depicted society are confined to being efficient robots who are deprived of the freedom of being living, breathing humans with emotional ties. Without the freedom of every man/woman being treated as an equal we would not have the president we have today. By using scare tactics, Huxley is frightening readers to abolish a corrupted government if they should ever have the unfortunate occurance of being oppressed by one.

Acceptance of Imperfection is Perfection

What would happen if we all could accept that we are not perfect and never will be? Would people be happier? The world will always move on and no eraser can erase the ink smudges of past transgressions. Therefore, why should history books and people themselves falsify humanity as perfect.

History books should convey the absolute truth. Future generations need to learn from the imperfections of the past, to make reference of what could be improved or left unchanged in future war and economical situations. History books need to illustrate the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If the Bible, the most holy book of all, can discuss the mistakes of past kings such as David, then so can history books. King David once stole another man's wife ,and then had that man killed by sending him to the front of the battle;yet, he also defeated the Philistines and help strengthened Israel . All human beings are both good and evil. God intended for all human beings to be full of sin and seek forgiveness, to know one day that they can be in a perfect, glorious heaven. The Founding Fathers produced the Constitution knowing that society has fallacies, that freedoms and rights need to be protected. Students need to see the whole spectrum of history and read supplemental books to further educate themselves of the establishment of the lives they are living today.

The acceptance of infallibility can also apply to the life of an individual. If people accept their own mirror image, personality, and talents then they can experience true joy. By not succumbing to the inner devil of condemnation, people can focus on self-improvement in a non-stressful way. While pessimists may argue that lack of self criticism takes away ambition, in reality, by not fretting over past mistakes ,people no longer have an obscured dream covered by their own errors. Instead, they have a clear focal point of the attainment of their goal without the obstructions of guilt from the past. The ability to take ownership of one's imperfection becomes a perfection of it's own.