Brave New World and Utopia
Brave New World & Utopia Essay
Composers of Dystopian Literature not only critique personal and political values but also manipulate textual forms and features in response to their times. This is apparent in Thomas More’s Utopia, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Andrew Niccol’s In Time and Turn On/Turn Off composed by Anonymous. These types of literature create a society that goes against responders’ morals and ethics. These Dystopian societies are characterized by human misery.
More uses Utopia to criticize the world in which he grew up in. This is evident in the quote “Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich – for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom of anxiety”. This quote uses the irony, nobody owns anything but everyone is rich which in turn illustrations to the responder that More is criticising his society’s monetary value. Additionally to this the rhetorical question that is, “for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom of anxiety?”, expands on this idea of More’s criticism and allows the responder to understand from which points he is criticising as he suggests to us that monetary value deprives cheerfulness, peace of mind and freedom of anxiety.
Conversely the society in which Thomas More has envisioned, whilst indeed criticising his own society, More has created a society which is not entirely appealing. The quote from Book Two illustrates this “all with the same language, laws, customs and institutions. They’re all build on the same plan, and, so far as the sites will allow, they all look exactly alike.” This is in reference to the fifty-four big towns on the island and evokes a picture of conformity and tasteless in the responder. The use of the repetition of the term same and also the term all exemplifies this idea of conformity. It suggests to the responder that there is no sense of freedom which in turn goes against most responder’s morals and ethics.
Composers of Dystopian Literature not only critique personal and political values but also manipulate textual forms and features in response to their times. This is apparent in Thomas More’s Utopia, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Andrew Niccol’s In Time and Turn On/Turn Off composed by Anonymous. These types of literature create a society that goes against responders’ morals and ethics. These Dystopian societies are characterized by human misery.
More uses Utopia to criticize the world in which he grew up in. This is evident in the quote “Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich – for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom of anxiety”. This quote uses the irony, nobody owns anything but everyone is rich which in turn illustrations to the responder that More is criticising his society’s monetary value. Additionally to this the rhetorical question that is, “for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom of anxiety?”, expands on this idea of More’s criticism and allows the responder to understand from which points he is criticising as he suggests to us that monetary value deprives cheerfulness, peace of mind and freedom of anxiety.
Conversely the society in which Thomas More has envisioned, whilst indeed criticising his own society, More has created a society which is not entirely appealing. The quote from Book Two illustrates this “all with the same language, laws, customs and institutions. They’re all build on the same plan, and, so far as the sites will allow, they all look exactly alike.” This is in reference to the fifty-four big towns on the island and evokes a picture of conformity and tasteless in the responder. The use of the repetition of the term same and also the term all exemplifies this idea of conformity. It suggests to the responder that there is no sense of freedom which in turn goes against most responder’s morals and ethics.