Conforming to Society in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Conforming to Society
Often individuals choose to conform to society, rather than pursue personal desires because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than create a new one. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, this conflict is explored. Huxley starts the story by introducing Bernard Marx, the protagonist of the story, who is unhappy with himself, because of the way he interacts with other members of society. As the story progresses, the author suggests that, like soma, individuals can be kept content with giving them small pleasure over short periods of time. Thus, it is suggested in the book that if individuals would conform to their society’s norms, their lives would become much happier and also easier in the long run. Consequently, by developing the story this way, the author was able to effectively how an unsatisfied individual might fit in with society. There are a number of reasons as to why Bernard often finds himself on the outside of the society. One of them being his “hardly better physique than the average Gamma” (55). This disadvantage prevents him from being confident in himself, which in turn also makes him seem like he doesn’t fit in because all the other Alphas are incredibly confident, for example Helmholtz and Henry. At the same time, Bernard’s social awkwardness doesn’t help his cause either. For instance, at the Solidarity Services, when he sat down by mistake beside Morgana Rothchild, she asked him what sport has he been playing that afternoon, tongue-tied he didn’t even answer because he was too stunned by the mistake he just made. Finally, the topics which he wants to talk about with others, most people in that society are not interested in discussing them, and therefore he finds himself not having many subjects to talk about with others. For example when he attempted to talk to Lenina about passion, she choose to “stop the ears of her mind”(81). Not only that most do not even
Often individuals choose to conform to society, rather than pursue personal desires because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than create a new one. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, this conflict is explored. Huxley starts the story by introducing Bernard Marx, the protagonist of the story, who is unhappy with himself, because of the way he interacts with other members of society. As the story progresses, the author suggests that, like soma, individuals can be kept content with giving them small pleasure over short periods of time. Thus, it is suggested in the book that if individuals would conform to their society’s norms, their lives would become much happier and also easier in the long run. Consequently, by developing the story this way, the author was able to effectively how an unsatisfied individual might fit in with society. There are a number of reasons as to why Bernard often finds himself on the outside of the society. One of them being his “hardly better physique than the average Gamma” (55). This disadvantage prevents him from being confident in himself, which in turn also makes him seem like he doesn’t fit in because all the other Alphas are incredibly confident, for example Helmholtz and Henry. At the same time, Bernard’s social awkwardness doesn’t help his cause either. For instance, at the Solidarity Services, when he sat down by mistake beside Morgana Rothchild, she asked him what sport has he been playing that afternoon, tongue-tied he didn’t even answer because he was too stunned by the mistake he just made. Finally, the topics which he wants to talk about with others, most people in that society are not interested in discussing them, and therefore he finds himself not having many subjects to talk about with others. For example when he attempted to talk to Lenina about passion, she choose to “stop the ears of her mind”(81). Not only that most do not even