Brave New World and W.H Auden Comparative Study
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- Date Submitted: 11/22/2010 09:38 PM
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To what extent do the composers (Huxley and Auden) hold the reader as an individual, rather than society as a whole, accountable for losses of individuality and freedom in the modern world?
The composers have both created texts that depict a society ridded of freedom and individuality. The society itself is so often held responsible for the faults of the individual. To an extent however, both composers shift liability onto the individual, an accountability that cannot be averted.
In Brave New World, liability is evidently placed with the society in most instances. “We don’t want change. Every change is a menace to stability. That’s another reasons we are so chary of applying new inventions.” The irony in this statement is transparent, as we are subjected to countless uses of jargon and fantastical inventions and processes throughout the novel, however this quote delineates that the battles against freedom and individuality is clearly fought by all of society.
It is this avoidance of duty and change, in favour of comfort and stability that the individual is accountable for. “But where would Edmund be nowadays? Sitting in a pneumatic chair, with his arms around a girls waist, sucking away at his sex-hormone chewing gum and looking at the feelies” The individual is portrayed as entirely liable in this situation, subdued by adversity, Huxley implies that it is man’s prerogative to ELECT comfort and stability in favour of heroism and nobility.
In W.H Auden’s Unknown Citizen this same theme of moral avoidance is expressed. The diction in the poem includes words such as “satisfied”, “normal”, “sensible”, “content” and “proper” and the narrow parameters that the unknown citizen CHOSE to live his life within become apparent. The poem also contains repetition of the word “never” further emphasising the aversion of the Unknown Citizen’s moral duty, that ultimately places the liability with the individual, accountabalises the individual, if you will.
The rhetorical...
The composers have both created texts that depict a society ridded of freedom and individuality. The society itself is so often held responsible for the faults of the individual. To an extent however, both composers shift liability onto the individual, an accountability that cannot be averted.
In Brave New World, liability is evidently placed with the society in most instances. “We don’t want change. Every change is a menace to stability. That’s another reasons we are so chary of applying new inventions.” The irony in this statement is transparent, as we are subjected to countless uses of jargon and fantastical inventions and processes throughout the novel, however this quote delineates that the battles against freedom and individuality is clearly fought by all of society.
It is this avoidance of duty and change, in favour of comfort and stability that the individual is accountable for. “But where would Edmund be nowadays? Sitting in a pneumatic chair, with his arms around a girls waist, sucking away at his sex-hormone chewing gum and looking at the feelies” The individual is portrayed as entirely liable in this situation, subdued by adversity, Huxley implies that it is man’s prerogative to ELECT comfort and stability in favour of heroism and nobility.
In W.H Auden’s Unknown Citizen this same theme of moral avoidance is expressed. The diction in the poem includes words such as “satisfied”, “normal”, “sensible”, “content” and “proper” and the narrow parameters that the unknown citizen CHOSE to live his life within become apparent. The poem also contains repetition of the word “never” further emphasising the aversion of the Unknown Citizen’s moral duty, that ultimately places the liability with the individual, accountabalises the individual, if you will.
The rhetorical...