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Essay / The End of the Individual - 1220
In today's world, millions of young people around the world are constantly bombarded with advertisements on billboards, in magazines and on television. These influences shape the way we live our lives and affect our habits as consumers and individuals. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Huxley examines the idea of mind control from a governmental rather than a commercial perspective. His utopian society, in which babies are created chemically and each social class is predetermined, seems perfect. However, this is only perfect for the majority who simply live in the false world that has been so forcefully created. For those like Bernard Marx, individualism is an isolating thing – something that triggers a rebellious impulse. With his eerie portrait of societal indoctrination, Huxley explores the repercussions of a civilization devoid of individualism. Huxley begins the novel by giving the reader a sense of supposed perfection within the World State. It begins with an in-depth analysis of the hatchery and packinghouse in central London, the place where all members of the World State are created and predestined. Beginning with birth, Huxley shows the reader the most important aspect of global state society: control throughout life. Rather than a natural cycle, birth is a mechanized and automated system. The director explains Bokanovsky's process as "growing ninety-six human beings where only one grew before." Progress” (6). Immediately, the reader is immersed in a world of repetition. This so-called “Process” creates sameness rather than individuality, its goal is to make “standard men and women; in uniform batches” (7), explains the director. From this foundation of creation, the Process moves to Social Predestination... middle of paper... and the stability it has carefully constructed, whatever the cost. In the end, no matter how hard Bernard, Helmholtz, and John fight, they are immediately crushed by the overwhelming social system. While achieving a new understanding of their own individuality, they failed to enlighten a conditioned population. Once society has been so brainwashed that only scattered remnants of individuality remain, there is no hope of enlightening the majority. Brave New World tells the story of the cliche “too little, too late” for the World State. Citizens, fully indoctrinated, have neither the desire nor the intelligence to act as individuals. Even when given the opportunity, they let it pass without realizing what just happened. Huxley uses his novel to warn future generations not to be brainwashed, to stand up for individualism and uniqueness before it is too late..