"This Escalator-Squash champion, this indefatigable lover (it was said that he had six hundred and forty different girls in under four years), this admirable commitee man best mixer had realized quite suddenly that sport, women, communal activities were only, so far as he was concerned second best." -- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. (67)
Helmholtz Watson is a character that has it all. The problem is that he does not value any of this because is was just given to him. He never had to fight for it, so he just takes for granted. Many people in his society will die for the features that he has been gifted with. The conflict this character has is that he has all this exceptional features, yet he is not happy with himself. He feels as if he is totally empty. He wants to know what he can do, but he does not what to do. I can relate to this because I was given the opportunity to get an education, and maybe sometimes I take that for granted. Sometimes I feel like I have opportunities other kids will love to have. Sometimes I know i am not doing what I was sent to do, but it just sometimes I just do not know how to accomplish this.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Too able
"Yes, a little too able; they were right. A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson effects very similar to those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of a physical defect." (p. 67; Brave New World, Aldous Huxley)
Helmholtz Watson is an Alpha plus in the book meaning that he is at the top of the society; he is very smart. To me it seems that he knows much more than others, maybe even more than he's supposed to. Those kind of people sometimes seem like a threat to society because you never know when they might use that knowledge for something bad. The way this relates to me is that there are people out there who "know it all" and those kind of people tend to be cocky sometimes. I'm not saying Helmholtz is cocky but from a book I've never read before I don't know what to expect. Who knows what Helmholtz will use his knowledge for or if he'll even use it to his advantage or not. In our society the know-it-all's sometimes take advantage of opportunities and I'm just wondering if Helmholtz will be one of those that if he sees an opportunity he'll take advantage of it. Helmholtz also is capable of getting all the women he likes but oddly enough, he does not. He's different from everyone else and in a way he's an outsider. Sometimes I feel like an outsider but I never feel like an extremely smart person like Helmholtz is.
Helmholtz Watson is an Alpha plus in the book meaning that he is at the top of the society; he is very smart. To me it seems that he knows much more than others, maybe even more than he's supposed to. Those kind of people sometimes seem like a threat to society because you never know when they might use that knowledge for something bad. The way this relates to me is that there are people out there who "know it all" and those kind of people tend to be cocky sometimes. I'm not saying Helmholtz is cocky but from a book I've never read before I don't know what to expect. Who knows what Helmholtz will use his knowledge for or if he'll even use it to his advantage or not. In our society the know-it-all's sometimes take advantage of opportunities and I'm just wondering if Helmholtz will be one of those that if he sees an opportunity he'll take advantage of it. Helmholtz also is capable of getting all the women he likes but oddly enough, he does not. He's different from everyone else and in a way he's an outsider. Sometimes I feel like an outsider but I never feel like an extremely smart person like Helmholtz is.
Society Shouldn't be Promoting
I can compare a similar conflict in the novel Brave New World with our world. I notice that Lenina doesn't feel like she fits in society because she's not promiscuous. Huxley writes, "Lenina shook her head. 'Somehow,' she mused, 'I hadn't been feeling very keen on promiscuity lately. There are times when one doesn't. Haven't you found that too, Fanny?' Fanny nodded her sympathy and understanding. 'But one's got to make the effort,' she said, sententiously, 'one's got to play the game. After all, every one belongs to every one else.'"(Huxley 43)
Because society promotes promiscuity and Lenina doesn't want to be promiscuous she is forced to be someone she doesn't want to be. In my world, society promotes sex. In just advertisements, I see men with women all over them, men that don't have to be loyal to women, and it provokes guys to think that women are basically a game. I think that is wrong because more men are starting to being unable to control themselves and end up raping women, and violating them. This is becoming a problem in our world and its hard to stop it because 'sex sells' and men are going to keep getting brain washed.
Because society promotes promiscuity and Lenina doesn't want to be promiscuous she is forced to be someone she doesn't want to be. In my world, society promotes sex. In just advertisements, I see men with women all over them, men that don't have to be loyal to women, and it provokes guys to think that women are basically a game. I think that is wrong because more men are starting to being unable to control themselves and end up raping women, and violating them. This is becoming a problem in our world and its hard to stop it because 'sex sells' and men are going to keep getting brain washed.
Who am I?
Well at first it is difficult to relate to any of the three characters. Helmholtz is a bit too smart for his own good. He excels at his jobs with ease, he gets all the girls he could ever wish for, and he is tall and handsome. I know I am good and all, but this guy is just a little too much. I wouldn't be able to relate with this guy. The second character, Bernard Marx is very intellectual as well, but he is not a hot piece like Helmholtz. Bernard is the short guy who stands out in society, and as you know it, short people are known to be ugly in Brave New World. This sparks him to think about the society in which he lives in, he starts to question why he is different."Yes, a little too able; they were right. A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson effects very similar to those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of the physical defect." I think i could somehow relate Bernard but I'm not really physically deformed. The last character, Lenina is someone who wants to try different things. Things like limiting her sex life with just one male, and in the Brave New World this is considered to be wrong. She should be open with sex with everyone, she is suppose to be like everyone else. I think I can relate with Lenina the most. Reasons such as, me not being like the people that surround me. I feel like my thoughts are always negative and I can be very lazy sometimes. I know some people say that being lazy is just an excuse, but I feel like thats who I am. I know that I'm suppose to be like everyone else, positive in mind and always energetic, some what like Lenina has to be the same as all the other girls, sexually active with everyone. Overall I feel like I'm more of a "Lenina type" of character.
Helmholtz Watson Relation
"This Escalator-Squash champion, this indefatigable lover (it was said that he had had six hundred and forty different girls in under four years), this admirable committee man and best mixer had realized quite suddenly that sport, women, communal activities were only, so far as he was concerned, second bests. Really, and at the bottom, he was interested in something else. But in what? In what? That was the problem which Bernard had come to discuss with him–or rather, since it was always Helmholtz who did all the talking, to listen to his friend discussing, yet once more." (pg. 67 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley)
Helmholtz has realized that he is smarter than the average Alpha plus in the society. He is thinking more and wants more out of life. I'm not saying that I'm smarter than the averaged person, but I do think a lot. Sometimes when I can't sleep, I just lay in bed and think about everything. I even think about how life can be boring and I want more than that. I even think of ways to make life more interesting. I don't think I will never be satisfied because in reality, I don't know what to do or think of. I don't think he and I will be satisfied with the things we have and want more. I think this is due to the fact that society wants us to do something and expects us to repeat the process until we die. For example, I have been at school for the last 12 years or my life and I'm going for 5 more years. I feel like I want something else like he does.
Helmholtz has realized that he is smarter than the average Alpha plus in the society. He is thinking more and wants more out of life. I'm not saying that I'm smarter than the averaged person, but I do think a lot. Sometimes when I can't sleep, I just lay in bed and think about everything. I even think about how life can be boring and I want more than that. I even think of ways to make life more interesting. I don't think I will never be satisfied because in reality, I don't know what to do or think of. I don't think he and I will be satisfied with the things we have and want more. I think this is due to the fact that society wants us to do something and expects us to repeat the process until we die. For example, I have been at school for the last 12 years or my life and I'm going for 5 more years. I feel like I want something else like he does.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Conditioning of babies
In the second Chapter of Brave New World, a book written by Aldous Huxley, the students are being showed how the 8 month babies are being attracted to shiny book and flowers. The babies once they saw the shiny book and flowers began to crawl to the shining objects. Then suddenly the Director gives the signal to scare the babies away from the books. So “The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switch board at the other end of the room, pressed down a little lever.” “There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked... The children started, screamed, their faces were distorted with terror.”(pg 21)
Here the author explains how the babies are being conditioned to be sacred of books, so when they grow up the will not be attracted to books. This will prohibit them from reading and acquiring knowledge. This passage relates to this certain book I read called A Long Way Gone. The reason I think they are similar is because in A Long Way Gone the children are also conditioned at an early age. The children are taken from their families are condition to hate humans. The children have to grab revolvers and begin to shot at people. No matter what person it is they are just trained to kill. Once these children grow up they will become like killers machines because that is the only thing they know how to do.
The Backbone of Society
“For particulars, as everyone knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils. Not philosophers but fretsawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.”(4)
Society is a difficult and complex structure to understand. It has many branches that keep extending and more levels of organization are added. Yet, what truly is the core or the trunk of that ever growing tree which we call society? Most people would say that it is the important humans or the ones known all over the globe such as the president of the United States because he can make a change. In the book Brave New World, the author Aldous Huxley explains through this quote that it is the workers at the bottom who are "the backbone of society", or the most important ones because they do the small jobs that eventually amount to greater works when all are put together. In example, if all the men who work in a construction site for a new building were to stop showing up to work, the men at the top who are in charge of them would be nothing. A society can not function with all leaders. Every particular who has a small roll in society, helps keep it stable therefore maintaining everyone in it happy. The generalities that if you want to be a good citizen in society you must strive to be on the top are, as he calls them, “necessary evils” because a few spots are needed to be filled, but this blinds individuals into thinking that that's the only place they can serve for the good of society and they underestimate the smaller rolls and the common man is never thanked.
Society is a difficult and complex structure to understand. It has many branches that keep extending and more levels of organization are added. Yet, what truly is the core or the trunk of that ever growing tree which we call society? Most people would say that it is the important humans or the ones known all over the globe such as the president of the United States because he can make a change. In the book Brave New World, the author Aldous Huxley explains through this quote that it is the workers at the bottom who are "the backbone of society", or the most important ones because they do the small jobs that eventually amount to greater works when all are put together. In example, if all the men who work in a construction site for a new building were to stop showing up to work, the men at the top who are in charge of them would be nothing. A society can not function with all leaders. Every particular who has a small roll in society, helps keep it stable therefore maintaining everyone in it happy. The generalities that if you want to be a good citizen in society you must strive to be on the top are, as he calls them, “necessary evils” because a few spots are needed to be filled, but this blinds individuals into thinking that that's the only place they can serve for the good of society and they underestimate the smaller rolls and the common man is never thanked.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
