Meriah+F.

__Satire Blog Response__ Brave New World is a satire because it exaggerates the faults of our society to create a 'perfect' world in which the inhabitants are willing slaves to happiness, consumerism, and conformity. Huxley created his juvenalian satire by using exaggeration, mockery, and reductio ad absurdum to shock his readers into realizing their own moral weaknesses.

Our society's willingness to allow government to take care of us is exaggerated to the extreme in the Brave New World's system where government controls thought processes, behavior, and desires of its citizens. Just as many people in our society sacrifice their independence in return for expected, tax-funded comforts, the citizens in the novel rely on the government to make every choice- and that is the way they want it. The Brave New World citizens also depend on governmental guidance to rule their thoughts. This was apparent as Lenina and others would recite their sleep-taught advice, reinforcing their dependence.

Mockery of our society's government is apparent when the World Controller, Mustapha Mond, wished they could think of things other than happiness, revealing how leaders //themselves// do not fully believe in the policies they enforce. This satire is included to urge readers to not simply assume our leaders are correct, and to challenge and critize faults in government action.

A third satirical technique, reductio ad absurdum, was used when Mustaph Mond answered the Savage's questions about 'why society couldn't pursue truth' by making extreme conclusions by following a somewhat logical chain of arguments. The controller claimed that truth threatened stability, but the readers know that truth can be pursued while maintaining a safe degree of societal stability. The absolute stability of the Brave New World requires the banning of truth; hence satire is used.

Huxley used satire to scorn our dependence on governmet, our obsession with new products, and our willingness to sacrifice rightousness and challenges for the convenience of happiness. He hoped to alter our focus from these negative pursuits by harshly exposing to us where those paths could lead.

__Prompt 1 Essay__ Aldous Huxley's //Brave New World// leads readers through a society of extremes. But the radical nature of these extremes is still not as shocking as their source; our own society. John Savage contrasts these two worlds in his quote, "But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin." Juvenalian satire is apparent in this quote through the sources of human weakness, institutions, and accepted beliefs.

John Savage is wise to society’s weaknesses and rejects their ‘comfort’ in his statement. Brave New World citizens guiltlessly fall into a routine of temptations: escaping burdensome choice by following sleep-taught anecdotes, occupying themselves with explicit feelies and sex (Ch. 10, 169), and swallowing soma to escape any problems not already eliminated by Fordian law. Huxley holds these outrageous actions up to be criticized by his readers, thus intending to correct the weaknesses within the readers themselves. While our society is not lulled to sleep with government-sanctioned advice, our weakness is evident by our willingness to follow media, education, and government claims without a second thought. And while we hold some degree of sexual loyalty and morality, Hollywood is ceaselessly lowering the standard of behavior that countless mimic. And while there are no sanctioned soma dosages, illegal drugs, alcohol, and material goods are rampantly being used to escape from troubles. The Brave New World’s bitter extremes are a warning of what could come if we were to continue along our current path.

In addition to moral weaknesses, institutions provide another source of satire in John Savage's quote. The Savage wants to experience freedom from the constraints of government control. The Brave New World government provides every comfort desired to promote happiness and maintain stability. Our own government finds new ways to encroach on our civil liberties with each piece of legislation. Decreased civil liberties lead to increased government control, and in a worst-case scenario, a Brave New World system of living. Furthermore, much of our society demands that government provides various services, increasing our dependency on the decisions of policy makers. Yet public aid is often beneficial, so how is it a problem? With each governmental service, we allow a few impersonal officials to make choices that effect our actions and abilities. This form of satire was used to encourage independence and personal choice.

Huxley's criticism of accepted beliefs is a major source of satire in this novel. The Brave New World citizens are products of quietly accepted beliefs, taught to them since birth. Consumerism and waste is the focus of much of their lessons, and their greed habits fuel their consumer-driven society. The savage rejects this consumerism by declaring the fallacy of "comfort" and "happiness" when fulfillment is sacrificed. It was not necessary for Huxley to greatly exaggerate the greed of our society to reach the level created in Brave New World. A mockery was made of our capital-centered world when sleep-taught advertisements were played that could have easily appeared on or television screen. Our desire to continuously have “nicer things” may help our economy, but when others are struggling to feed themselves, our wants seem sinful. The focus of mass-consumerism fuels other immoral behaviors by powering its enforcement. This shocking link between greed and misused power should create a change in the desires of our society.

Brave New World was created as a reaction to the moral weaknessess, institutional control, and false, but accepted beliefs of society. Huxley’s goal is to exaggerate the prevalence and immorality of our shortcomings to expose a harsh world that we are headed towards in hopes of altering our destination through encouraging personal change.