Sunday, November 15, 2015

Identify rhetorical features in Brave New World. (allusions, imagery, allegory, symbols and motifs)

The title of the novel itself is an allusion, an ironic reference to Shakespeare's play The Tempest. It is ironic because this "new world" of the World State is anything but "brave": people seldom have to face pain or fear, and if for some odd reason they do, there is soma handy to blot out the unpleasantness. John the Savage also frequently alludes to Shakespeare, quoting The Tempest, for instance, during an encounter with Lenina when he refers to his passion for her by saying:

The strongest oaths are straw to the fire i’ the blood.

The imagery of the World State is of modernity, cleanliness, and consumption. Huxley offers vivid description of Lenina, for example, in her modern zip-up jumpsuit and white cap, which underlines the comedy (and pathos) of Lenina and the Savage's moral differences on the subject of sex. The Savage is horrified by what he sees as her loose behavior:

Zip! The rounded pinkness fell apart like a neatly divided apple. A wriggle of the arms, a lifting first of the right foot, then the left: the zippicamiknicks were lying lifeless and as though deflated on the floor.
Still wearing her shoes and socks, and her rakishly tilted round white cap, she advanced towards him ...

The World State is an allegory or parallel to our own society, which even in 1930 was veering towards mindless materialism over wrestling with matters of the soul.
A symbol of the Brave New World is the image of masses of identical Deltas marching off to work together in khaki: this symbolizes the dehumanizing conformity of the World State. A motif, or set of images, that underlines the theme of the novel would be the cleanliness and order of the World State placed next to the mess and bloody ritual of the Savage Reservation. Lenina and Linda are appalled at the dirt and ugliness of the reservation, but Huxley uses this to show that being fully human can be a messy business, while a sterile society might rob us of something vital.

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