Imagine a world where all of your fantasies can become reality. Imagine a world without violence or hate, but just youth, beauty, and sex. Imagine a world of perfect “stability†(42) where “everyone belongs to everyone else†(43), and no one is unhappy or left out. This sounds like the perfect world. But it’s not. Looks can be deceiving as proven in Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World. In his novel, he introduces us to a society that strives to satisfy everyone’s wants and needs by inflicting pleasure in order to bring stability. However, in order to truly achieve this stability, old world ideas relating to art, history, and religion are abolished, and are replaced by new age technology. As a result, the people of the Brave New World now worship Henry Ford instead of God, use test tubes instead of natural birth, and use a hallucinogenic drug called soma instead of facing reality and the everyday responsibilities of adulthood. Although the appeals of this world are alluring and attractive, they are only a distraction to cover up a hidden truth that can even be seen in today’s society. The fact of the matter is, as technology advances, people are becoming increasingly more dependent on it, resulting in the loss of their own individuality as they inevitably fall to conformity. In turn, society inevitably succumbs to the oppression of what it has come to love, all to achieve stability.      But is stability worth the cost of individuality? No. Withou...
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12/16/2019 0 Comments Modern and Contemporary Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 wordsModern and Contemporary Poetry - Essay Example
The post World War 1 Western society according to Elliot is not an integrated unit of individuals. In fact, it is just “a heap of broken images†(22), which suggests that the individuals are detached from one another and fail to form a functional society. It is like “the dead tree†(23) that cannot provide shelter to anyone. It reflects an awry state of society whose foundations have crumbled and its individuals are left alone. This line evokes an innate desire of individuals to break away from the oppressive traditions of society and seek refuge in the mountains, where one can exercise the freedom of self. The effects of the First World War on society and individuals were irreparable and it has been portrayed by the gloomy imagery in this poem. “Unreal City, / Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,†(60-61) A quite depressing state of society that survives under “the brown fog†has been portrayed in these lines. It is quite possible that Elliot is metaphorically representing the society as the brown fog, which gives a sense of oppression and stagnation because this blanket of “brown fog†doesn’t let in light or fresh air. It is suffocating for the individuals to live in such society that doesn’t give them the freedom to grow. In the second poem, “rats’ alley†(115) could be a reference to modern society that has turned into a narrow place with no light or fresh air. It gives a sense of a place where the characters, values and lives of human beings are decaying. One also gets an impression that the society Elliot is talking about is so cold that it dampens the spirit and will of the individuals to move on in their lives. “But at my back in a cold blast I hear/ The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.†(185-186) However, the individuals are still hoping and waiting for a response from the society they are living in |