Fact Or Fiction

Satires are made to ridicule society and Brave New World is a classic example. Several elements are ridiculed in Huxley's novel that were true then and are still very true today. Huxley ridicules by acceptance and standard which I find to be original. He makes you stop and consider how you live your life and how you affect others. Aldous Huxley's satire proves to be successful.

There are many things wrong with society today and in Huxley's day and he doesn't seem to forget any problems. Huxley manages to cover vanity, social prejudices, social conditioning, instant gratification, hygiene and religion versus science. Vanity is apparent in the way that society only buys new things, throws out the old and can hardly wait to buy the newest fad. We hardly have any of that. I mean it's not like little girls all over the world are trying to be the next Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan. No, our world is just full of children and adults who are completely satisfied without having designer clothes, handbags and/or luxury cars. Social prejudices include alienating those who are different in stature, behavior and beliefs. Everyone today believes they are the йclat and epitome of class in society. If you are anything but the socially elite or are not equivalent to your own class we snub our noses at them. Social conditioning is mocked by the hypnopeada at a young age. Our society conditions by persuasion and upbringing. Instant gratification is personified in soma, having who you will when you want and leisure activities such as feelies. Today we are a determined bunch. If we want something we try to get it and aren't satisfied until we have it. Hygiene is shown through constant showering, sanitation, the extinction of diseases, excess of perfumes and scent organs. We view cleanliness as a staple to your social standing if you are dressed immaculately then you must be high society, if you are grungy you must be a bum or close to it. Ford has also thrown out religion and he himself is worshipped and adorned. The only similarity I can draw is that we worship celebrities like they are the messiah and they commit no actions that are noteworthy, other than donating large amounts of money to organizations.

Huxley's satirizes society through making our faults the norm in his society. It is accepted for you to have casual sex, be materialistic, not like someone of your class and to believe what you are told. He fills the New World with people who cannot think for themselves because they have been conditioned so much and from such an early age that all the thoughts they have and think are original are completely robotic and expected. This society is expected to have sex with different people everyday, they're expected to fulfill their needs, wants and desires when they feel the urge, they are expected to be thoroughly sanitized, to believe everyone is happy now and to believe this is the way things should always be and if you do not fit this criteria and do not agree with every belief then you are forever an outcast in society. If you can think for yourself, have emotions and not want to be happy one hundred percent of the time you are thought to be a "kook."

When you realize that this society is purely