Group Double U Topia

     In a strike of something that could be called either unlucky or highly lucky, earlier this year I came across a TV show airing on Hulu called “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I saw that it had won many awards, so I proceeded to watch the trailer. That same night, I logged on to my account with the Champaign Public Library, and immediately requested the TV show, and after a couple of weeks of waiting, I picked it up from the library. Within five minutes, I was absolutely addicted. The show, starring Elizabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, and Joseph Fiennes had won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for a reason. The combination of a great plot, great acting, and great cinematography was unmatched (save for Game of Thrones and Vikings) compared to anything I had ever watched before in the realm of television.     When I came back to school following winter break, Dr. Majerus mentioned that we would be reading the Handmaid’s Tale. My first thought was, “Oh great, no need to do the...

Almost all of the books we are reading in this class are Dystopian fiction, and in general, there is just more dystopian fiction than utopian fiction. This made me think about the reasons for this, and why dystopias are so much more interesting than utopias. Firstly, I tried to determine a central theme or connection between various dystopias, and one thing that most, if not all, dystopian fiction takes one, or a few, elements of modern society, exaggerates them, and combines them to make a new type of society, a dystopia. For example, Huxley did this in Brave New World, with the increasing consumerism and industrialization, as well as the Freudian ideas, of the early 20th century. Additionally, Margaret Atwood has also said that she only drew on real events when writing The Handmaid’s Tale. After seeing this pattern in dystopian fiction, why does it make for a compelling story, and why is there a lack of utopian fiction that follows the same pattern? I think this way of drawing u...

Brave New World was an interesting look into a “futuristic” dystopian world in which nothing was left to chance. Everything had been predetermined by the alphas of the society, ridding the world of feelings and spontaneity, ensuring the uninterrupted flow of tasks without distraction. The approach they took, however, is what struck me as bizarre. Having gained inspiration from Henry Ford, these people above the rest of society developed a system of automated reproduction via industrial means, that took the responsibilities of the person being “manufactured” into account. Instead of allowing everyone an equal chance to succeed and prosper, some were made intentionally worse than others; in terms of looks, intelligence, and more. The alphas created castes and trained everyone made after the New World State was established from birth until the time of maturity at which they could work. Knowing the society would not be able to maintain itself in the way it was designed to, by result of h...

As a class, we have finished reading Brave New World. However, I would like to look back at the Islands of the world. The author, Aldous Huxley, did not write anything regarding how Bernard or Helmholtz lived their lives at the island after they were exiled. Instead, he mainly focused on John.  Previously in chapter 15-16, we learned quite a bit about the islands. The Islands of the world were seemingly disconnected from the rest of society and served as a prison-like area for people who did not conform to the social norms of the "civilized" world. For example, Iceland and the Falkland Islands were mentioned in the book as punishment islands.  We can see that the typical person of Brave New World is absolutely terrified of being sent to an island, in the early chapters when the director threatens to send Bernard to Iceland, he expresses his concerns to Lenina and is terrified of being sent there. Later on, when the world controller Mustafa Mond talks about his pa...

In Huxley's Brave New World , Bernard Marx is known as an Elite Alpha, working below only the Director and Controller. He is engineered to be one of the most intelligent and cultured individuals in society, but we quickly realize Bernard is not like his peers, being abnormally secretive about his thoughts and actions. Fortunately, the novel is narrated from a third person perspective, giving us access to Bernard's unfiltered thoughts in real-time. From these glimpses, it is possible to infer a lot about his character. We are first introduced to Bernard through the thoughts of others. Described as having "...that unsavory reputation" (25) and spending "...most of his time by himself-alone" (32), Bernard is already set as an outcast in a society where everyone is engineered to not be one. The idea of being alone is almost non-existent, so when Bernard is portrayed as someone who deviates from that ideology, he is called out. He reinforces this idea when aske...