Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Brave New World
By the time i'm up to the general questions for BNW, some of the things asked are still confusing: I dont see how john is like a biblical character, I dont really see why Ford is such an appropriate name for their god. Also, a question such as "what is the purpose of human life" is kind of complicated to answer as well; especially since the answer for characters in BNW and somebody in our world would differ greatly. Its just that these arent exactly answers that you could go back and look up in the text and to some extent, i dont realy know what they're asking.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Brave New World was compared to 1984 which makes a lot of sense, for the soul reason that both were stories of what the future may bring. Life was "simpler" when the book was written hence the phrase "After Ford."
In this story, people considered Henry Ford to replace God because he invented the building block towards the thought of mass producing humans, and that idea was the assembly line. Of course back in the times of Ford, he had humans do most of the work, now...well in the time period the book is held, machines do most if not all the work.
What is then called "humans" do the conditioning. This process teaches the twins and/or clones things that will make it very easy for them to fit into society. The main idea behind the mass production of humans is to stabilize the society.
to answer your question about "the purpose of human life."
Every person was made with a specific job in mind, so their purpose is to do that job. Alpha-plus govern the society right... how come no betas govern? that is because they have a different purpose.
Of course their answer and our answer would be different that is because their entire lives were laid out before them, even before they could speak. For us it is very different, we have opportunity to be whatever it is we want to be. We also need a sense of "Family" a word these clones are not supposed to know or like.
John could be seen as a biblical character most likely because he is the only one of his kind. He has a mother, and a father (DHC), and he walks around with the other clones however is not one. In a sense his existence could be paralleled to (I dont want to start an argument about this) Jesus. Jesus was said to be a man without sin and a son of a virgin. So, their lives could be paralled in a sense however of course the simple fact that John throws kids and shoves them to the ground was nothing like Jesus because he loved children.
So I hope that helped you out, I'm not exactly a scholar of any sort, I'm trying just as hard as you are to understand this book. Alright, I'll see you tomorrow.
In my opinion, it would make perfect sense for John to be a biblical character:
1. He different from everyone else(being born naturally, and how he doesnt enjoy doing the things other "normal kids" like to do)
2. He isn't afraid of speaking out to be different.
3. He loves shakespeare, and was very interested in the Bible
I have a question of my own....Is John some sort of savior? Is he the person to change the world again?
Kevin Tumulty
thats i very good question. In almost every story like this, there is someone who is different from everyone else.
For example: I-Robot if you've seen it, "Sonny" the robot that was made to help was different and was considered a savior in a sense.
another example: Lord Of the Rings: trilogy: In this story everyone knows that Frodo is the main character but the actual savior was the Fellowship especially if you consider the trouble Frodo would have been in if he had started out alone.
Just like Laz spoke about in the first week of school, the mythical archetype is the same in all of these stories. there is always a heroic being involved who is different from everyone else. In this case it is John.
The difference he makes is an attack at stability. In a balanced society there are no murders, no crime, and definitely no suicide. So, when he kills himself he basically shows the governing people that everything they have been doing isn't working. Their attempt at acheiving the "perfect world" was good but there is still a lot of work to be done.
I hope that helped you understand his role in the story.
okay, i agree with everything dan is saying. good job dan! haha
what are everyone's thoughts on questions 13: Debate the following: Individual freedom is more important than social stability.
i feel that in the plot this concept of individual freedom is less important than social stability. the society is trying to maintain a state with everyone happy and all the castes calm and stable. John is arguing, i thought, that being free to do whatever you want is more important than having everybody happy in a society. i think this discussion could go back and forth so many times and everyones oppinion is important. so let me know what you think.
Post a Comment