Huxley's Vision and Nightmare
This is a compare and contrast essay I wrote for my College English 1010 class. I received a perfect score on this essay, and decided to share it for anyone who's interested in reading it. Please give me proper credit if you decide to cite my paper. Thank you!
Joshua Monk
English 1010 Online
Ms. Bell
03-02-2019
One of the great authors of the twentieth century, Aldous Huxley, wrote about many contrasting subjects in his body of literature. Two of his best known works of contrast, Island and Brave New World, explored two starkly different fictional worlds. Brave New World was Huxley’s breakthrough novel, written about a futuristic dystopic society. Island was his final novel, written at the end of his prolific career, as a counterpoint to Brave New World. In Aldous Huxley’s own words, “It’s a kind of fantasy, a kind of reverse Brave New World, about a society in which real efforts are made to realize human potentialities.” (Beauchamp, 1990). Island explores the possibilities of a seemingly perfect utopic society on an isolated island, as the name would suggest. Both novels were written from the perspective of an outsider, and they share many other similarities, in spite of their ostensibly incompatible storylines.
Biotechnology is a common thread between both stories. In Brave New World, the government has a highly advanced eugenics program, which carefully controls the genetics of all its citizens. Children are not born in hospitals, but rather in specialized laboratories, where they are raised by government scientists and staff. They will never know their parents, or their siblings, or have any comprehension of a family unit. In Island, there is also an advanced eugenics program, whereby the eggs and sperm of the most brilliant citizens are harvested and stored, to proliferate their superior genetics throughout society. The key difference is that instead of raising the children in the sterility of a lab-setting with no parent/child relationship or understanding, the children in Island are raised by the entire village by multiple parents.
In their efforts to influence and control the outcomes of society, both systems of government have developed elaborate programs of behavioral modification. In Brave New World, we are presented with a future in which psychological conditioning forms the basis for a scientifically determined and immutable caste system that grants all control to the World State. (Aldous Huxley, 2019). The citizens are forced to listen to recordings while they sleep, to program certain behaviors and thoughts into their psyche.
In Island, this same effect is accomplished by repetitious reminders throughout the day from their fellow citizens, and even from the local fauna. A certain species of the birds that live on the island have been trained to say, “Attention!” and, “Here and now, boys!” Although both societies are actively manipulating their citizens, they have very different reasons for doing so. The people of Brave New World do not realize they are being manipulated because they were never taught how to think independently. The manipulation in this case is necessary to maintain control over the free will of the people, lest they figure out how to think for themselves. However, the people in Island were raised to be independent thinkers from birth. They are free to choose their own beliefs and live their lives accordingly. Thus, the manipulation of the people in Island is more prosocial than restrictive.
Perhaps to reinforce the effects of behavioral modification, both societies encourage the use of certain mind-altering substances. In Brave New World, the people are given a drug called “soma”, which produces intense ecstasy, but numbs the senses. It keeps the people in a constant cycle of apathy and mindless distraction. In contrast, the people in Island are allowed to partake in the “moksha medicine” on special occasions, which is a hallucinogenic mushroom that produces intense visions and spiritual revelations. This experience is intended as a rite of passage. Each time someone takes it, they are metaphorically reborn into the world with a deeper understanding and awareness. Whereas, the people in Brave New World are given soma to make them less aware of the world, and even more importantly, less aware of themselves.
The similarities and differences between Huxley’s vision and nightmare, upon careful examination, reveal a deeper truth about the human condition. In Brave New World, he showed us a world of perfect conformity. In Island, he showed us a world of boundless freedom. Both societies believed they were creating a better world. Neither realized the ultimate hubris of their endeavor. The final lesson of Brave New World is that it is better to live freely as a savage in the ungoverned parts of the world, than to live comfortably under the oppression of the government. While, the final lesson of Island is that no society can exist in isolation forever. Eventually the tanks roll in, and the people are delivered from their freedom and given shopping catalogues.
Aldous Huxley (February 06, 2019).
Encyclopaedia Brittanica, para. 4. Retrieved March 02, 2019 from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aldous-Huxley
Beauchamp, G. (1990). Island: Aldous Huxley’s psychedelic utopia.
Utopian Studies, 1(1), 59-72. Retrieved March 02, 2019 from