The phrase is embedded so deeply into the consciousness of each person that they take its meaning to be truth. "The more stitches the less riches." Brave New World, 51.Įvery person repeatedly hears this hypnopaedic phrase from an early age. Anytime individuals feel unhappy, they remember this phrase. To do this, individuals receive a gramme of soma, a narcotic that puts them into a state of unfeeling unconsciousness. The greatest good for the greatest number of people, according to Huxley, is to minimize any negative emotions or feelings. This phrase signifies the maximization of happiness and good feelings in Huxley's utilitarian society. "A gramme is better than a damn." Brave New World, 54. Such things are no longer part of the human experience and, according to Mond, have no place in a society built around maximizing happiness. History is "bunk," as Mond says, because it revolves around human frailties and emotions such as love, anger, vengeance, and temptation. Society disregards history because if people understood what came before, they might not be willing to put their trust in science and progress. This saying, quoted by Mustapha Mond, instructs his citizens to disregard the painful lessons of history and to ignore the past in order to focus on future progress. ".you all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford's: History is bunk." Brave New World, 34. Finally, "Stability" is the ultimate goal of society because only through stability can happiness be maintained and all unpleasant feelings and emotions be eradicated. Some are alphas, betas, gammas, etc., but each person is supposed to be happy with their own identity. "Community" means that all persons must work together to maximize the greatest happiness for society as a whole, and it occurs through the artificially implanted ideas of "Identity" that each person has. These words comprise the slogan for society. These three words hang in a sign over the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, which creates and conditions new human life. At the end, for the confused, angry woman, death comes as a release, despite her terror.".COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY." Brave New World, 1. The strange quality of his mother's feelings for him obviously has an effect on John himself, especially in his relationships with women.Īfter her long years of struggle and shame on the Savage Reservation, Linda throws herself into soma holidays, shortening her life by her addiction. For John, she feels an intense mixture of love and revulsion, complicated further by her obsession with Popé. Filled with shame for having a baby and longing for her home, Linda wraps herself in a blanket of mescal and peyote, remaining intoxicated and barely aware of John and his needs as a growing young man. As a result, she remains isolated, condemning her son John to a marginal existence as well.Īs Linda herself points out, she has no training for the life she has had to live as a mother. Beyond finding the rough equivalents of her own world's social occupations - peyote and mescal for soma, for instance - she never seriously engages the culture she lives in. But Linda's sense of the normal moral world - drilled into her by her early conditioning - consists of equal parts recreational sex and soothing drugs. A thoroughly conventional brave new world women dropped unexpectedly in a very different society, Linda faces the challenge of understanding traditional morality.
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