Allusions in Brave New World

Last Updated: 18 May 2021
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Henry Ford served as the inventor for the assembly line. He believed that the idea of independently manufacturing products was too inefficient and cultivated the idea to move the product instead of the people building it. Ford also pioneered technological research in developing products. Ford served as the turning point for technology; introducing and utilizing break-through ideas. Not only did he change how automobiles were manufactured, he changed the way people thought about technology. He made new technologies readily accessible and set the standard for the 20th century.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Huxley makes Ford the center-point for why the new society was created, the old one was un-happy and inefficient. Replacing God with Ford, Brave New World, showcases how Ford’s ideas could have been implemented.  Vladimir Lenin was the first person to make a country completely communist. With his uniting of the Soviet Union, Lenin integrated his communist ideologies into its member countries. Lenin derives many of his beliefs from his time when he was a member of the Bolshevik faction. This is where he accumulated Marxism fundamentals. Unlike in Brave New World, Lenin believed in a single class.

Brave New World, invasions a perfect society with multiple social classes. In these classes, all of their members are perfectly fit with where they stand in society. There is neither backlash nor hatred among the population against the other classes. Lenin, however, believes that having different classes arouses hatred amongst a society’s citizens.  Thomas Malthus was an English economist that is much acclaimed for inventing modern-day rent as well as sparking awareness of population growth. The father of Malthusianism, he believed that economic factors were to be held above all else in a society.

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He also believed that England’s out-of-control population growth would eventually hurt the economy. He believed that the government should play a role in determining population growth. He was also, however, a firm believer in natural selection. Brave New World follows many of Malthus’ ideas. The primary being his belief of population growth control. Huxley implements this by having the government control all factors of the population and essentially removes bad-traits through natural selection. The society only produces people that have few DNA imperfections, allowing them to be the strongest.

This essentially removes natural selection as a problem for the society.  Thomas Hunt Morgan was an evolutionary geneticist. He is praised with having found that genes are carried on chromosomes. Morgan also found the significance of sex-linked traits and was able to prove Darwin’s sex determination theory incorrect. Brave New World demonstrates Morgan’s genetic heredity theories by utilizing genetics to artificially create people. Lewis Henry Morgan was an acclaimed anthropologist. He theorized that society in general is much greater than the need for a family.

He stressed that kinship must be attained by all of the societies members. He also believed that people must sense belongingness within a group in order to feel happy. Brave New World demonstrates Morgan’s fundamentals by embracing the need to belong, in order to feel happy. Citizens in Brave New World are made to feel happy by having a sense of belongingness within their own social class. They put down other social groups and only feel good about theirs. Each member is happy where he or she is in the class system. Benito Mussolini was an Italian fascist dictator. Mussolini believed heavily in the national or group based identity.

He wanted his citizens to act as one, having extreme pride for their nation and hiding their personal identities. He demanded that foreign influences be eradicated. Brave New World embraces Mussolini’s ideas by having its citizens share a mass-identity within their class. Individual identity differences are put aside and people only classify others past upon their class. Herbert Hoover, a former U. S. president, believed that efficiency was the solid backbone of an economy. He theorized that the U. S. economy was heavily inefficient and as a result was beginning to slow down.

He instituted many new government policies that were built upon this idea. Brave New World demonstrates this efficiency policy into the society’s main economy. The government controls most enterprises and believes that inefficiencies would slow down the economy. Automation and technology are utilized whenever possible.  Leon Trotsky was a Russian communist leader in the early 20th century. His beliefs, called Trotskyism, stated that the working class should have supreme power in government control. Brave New World implements Trotsky’s ideas through social classification with a cast system.

Although there is a working class and wealthy class, the majority are working class members. Socialism is also used throughout Brave New World by the distribution of wealth and control.  Charles Darwin was the father of evolution and natural selection. Darwin brought about the idea of genetic evolution by theorizing that only the strongest in a population will survive and be able to carry on their genes. Brave New World takes on these ideas by utilizing genetic engineering to ensure that the society members have the best genes and have few DNA imperfections.

This ensures that the members of a class will not be able to become stronger than the high class. It also ensures a broad single identity amongst a class’s members. 1Napoleon Bonaparte was a military ruler and dictator of France and eventually most of Europe. Bonaparte used many tactics in order to control his population. He introduced Napoleonic code, which stated that men were superior and outlined a new French government. He also heavily utilized propaganda by controlling the press and restricting access to historic publications. Brave New World shares many parallels with Bonaparte.

The government uses censorship in order to control public opinion. They ban texts such as Shakespeare in order to alleviate artistic interpretations and opinions.  Hermann von Helmholtz was a German physicist that introduced the conservation of energy and electrodynamics. Helmholtz believed that technological innovation within science was lacking but the information in order to so was. He presented that technology could be used to grow society and make it more efficient. Brave New World takes some of Helmholtz’s ideas about technological innovation and efficiency. The society pushes itself to keep innovating.

The society also embraces science as a way of life through shared concepts such as thermodynamics. John B. Watson was a psychologist of the behaviorism philosophy of psychology. Watson regarding everything that humans do, such as thinking, acting, or sensing, can be regarded as behaviors. These behaviors can be altered through classical or operant conditioning. Brave New World uses these ideals in order to shape how the society members think and act. Classical conditioning is used in order to change people’s behaviors. These are as simple as thinking a pant color looks good or bad.

Karl Marx was a German communist philosopher. He presented his ideas through Marxism, a sub-unit of communism. Working with Friedrich Engels, he believed that capitalism was a corrupt economic policy, stating that it would eventually lead to socialism, followed by communism. Brave New World encompasses his ideas by separating classes but having each class feel good about itself. Alphas look down upon epsilons, but epsilons also look down upon the alphas, instead of having jealousy. Brave New World shares the ideas of Marx but does everything possible in order to avoid them.

Friedrich Engels was an industrialist and co-founder of Marxism. Engels believed in a single working class with quality. Brave New World takes Engels ideas and tries to do everything possible in order to avoid a Marxist based situation. Although there are different classes, they all share similar working types and although there are higher classes, there is not a classic cast system of the haves and have-nots. Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Noble Savage depicts the idea that society corrupts the good natural state of a person. Brave New World shows the noble savage as John. Not correctly anticipating the new society makes him loose his values.

It shows how society changes a person’s personality in order to fit within the society.  The quote “God’s in his heaven – all’s right with the world” in the poem Pippa Passes is modified in Brave New World. The words God and heaven and substituted by Ford and flivver respectively. Ford is used instead of God, as modern-day religion does not exist within the new society. Ford is referred to as the cultivator of the society. Flivver is used instead of heaven as flivver referrers to something unsatisfactory or low in quality. Flivver is also used to describe old cars, notable since Ford created the modern automobile.

When stating that Ford is in his flivver, this indicates that Ford has changes the world forever. Basically stating that Ford is happy where he is, the state of flivver. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is used within Brave New World as an ironic symbol for the new society. When John of Brave New World and Miranda of The Tempest say “O, Brave New World”, they do not what the new society is like. They both incorrectly mistake the new world as perfect with no imperfections. Unlike Amanda, John eventually realizes the imperfections of the new world. Amanda never finds out the truth. Soma is an ancient Indian herb drink.

It was used to give energy to the consumer and is considered a spiritual drink. Brave New World citizens consume soma in order to relax anxiety and stress. Mustafa Kemel Ataturk was the first ruler of modern-day Turkey following its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Kemel was a liberal-progressive who introduced a new Turkish alphabet and introduced many reforms under Kemalism. These included the removal of religious law and introduction of women’s rights. Brave New World encompasses several of Kemel’s beliefs such as the belief of socialism and government-controlled entities.

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Allusions in Brave New World. (2018, May 20). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/allusions-in-brave-new-world/

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