Question Everything & Be Happy
Happiness is the root of all problems but happiness is a state of mind that you get to check off if you are really happy or not. I believe that we all can really be “happy” if we want to and that’s our problem. We conflict unhappiness on ourselves. I believe the topic of how we can’t conform ourselves to society is because all we do is question while we are inside of it and that is essentially all of us.
In the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, the character Bernard is a perfect example of someone who is outward conforming while inwardly questioning. I believe Bernard and many other people are just a-like, like you and I. I don’t know one person who doesn’t question one thing. Whether we ask these questions out loud is the difference between all of us. Bernard is just a person who stands out in this particular book because of him being in society while questioning it. So is Bernard happy?
Bernard is certainly a questionable person. Huxley wrote this book with much symbolism and confusing details, if you don’t really analyze the story one piece at a time. The story line is a futuristic world where people take a drug to feel happy, but Bernard knows something is missing and he stumbles across an Indian like civilization that is not controlled by the states. This area is not technologically advanced and the people seem to be happier even without this drug. Another interesting twist is that women do not get pregnant in this brave new world, instead there is a place where they make babies on an assembly line that all look the same but are sorted into different classes just like social classes and their lives are basically predetermined for them. This brave new world is certainly different because this book was published in 1932; it shows the past and foreshadows the future.
Huxley mentioned Ford being their leader or god and the assembly line of how everyone is made and what categories/classes they are put in, like Henry Ford and his political past and business. This is a fine example of how we are raised today, we all grow up in a different social class and that means we are all raised and learned a different way. Huxley also writes about technological advances can certainly wreck us and it certainly makes me question whether all these new technology is coming about is a good thing. Birth control, casual sex, and consumerism are also other examples that Huxley mentioned in this story and we have all of this in our world today and it’s crazy to think that Huxley saw this coming.
Bernard questions his existence in this brave new world because he doesn’t know whether this place is a utopia. These people take this drug called “soma” to be happy and carefree but Bernard doesn’t know if this is real happiness. In this utopia, it seems emotions are for the weak but happiness is wanted. It doesn’t make sense to portray no real love but casual sex is okay because of what we are taught outside of this book. We are taught love before sex but in this book there is no love but sex. It confuses me on what we are taught outside of this book because what we are reading in this book contradicts life but also goes with what is happening in this real world.
Bernard is a primary character in this story and he is certainly does not fit in with this brave new world but is certainly trying to but is getting caught within him because all he does is question. Even though we all seem to not ask our important questions out loud, we can’t seem to not question at all. I think that is okay because we should all be questioning everything. If we didn’t then this world would be a boring place. Remember we are not robots and we can’t just check it off our list if we are happy or not. That is why the meaning of this book is crucial to understand that happiness is a state of mind, don’t stop being “happy” but also don’t stop questioning.
No comments:
Post a Comment