Stylistic devices and other strategies in Brave New World:

• Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley****, written in 1931 and published in 1932.

• Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist.

In the book, there are several stylistic devices and pragmatic strategies:

• IRONY:

• Situational irony:

Situational irony is when a character's behavior is completely opposite of what you would expect.

EXAMPLE 1: During the Director's student tour of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, the group steps into the garden to observe children at play in an example of situational irony.

EXAMPLE 2: The young children are outside playing sexual games with one another. When the Director asks why one of the boys is screaming, the nurse's response is shocking from our cultural perspective. 'Nothing much,' she answered. 'It's just that this little boy seems rather reluctant to join in the ordinary erotic play. I'd noticed it once or twice before. And now again to-day. He started yelling just now.'

• Dramatic irony:

Dramatic irony happens when the reader knows more than the character in the story.

EXAMPLE: The reader is aware that John has fallen passionately in love with Lenina, but her doubts on whether or not he even likes her provide dramatic irony. Having been raised in a different culture at the Savage Reservation, John behaves very differently from the other men Lenina has known. Pondering whether or not John likes her, Lenina tells Fanny:

'Sometimes I think he does and sometimes I think he doesn't. He always does his best to avoid me; goes out of the room when I come in; won't touch me; won't even look at me. But sometimes if I turn around suddenly, I catch him staring; and then-well, you know how men look when they like you.'

John and Lenina's lack of communication creates an ironic standstill.

SYMBOLS AND MOTIFS:

The World State is built upon the principles of Henry Ford****’s assembly line****: mass production, homogeneity, predictability, and consumption of disposable consumer goods.

“While the World State lacks any supernatural-based religions, Ford himself is revered as the creator of their society but not as a deity, and characters celebrate Ford Day and swear oaths by his name (e.g., "By Ford!"). - has become a messianic figure to the World State.

"Our Ford" is used in place of "Our Lord", as a credit to popularizing the use of the assembly line.”

THE MAIN CONFLICT:

The conflict of the novel is developed on the eve of Lenina and Bernard’s trip, when the Director tells Bernard about his own visit to the Reservation, raising further questions about how successful the society really is at creating an ideal existence.

The Director describes being separated from the woman he was with, hurting himself, and having a painful and arduous trip back to the Reservation.

The physical and emotional difficulty of the experience make it one of his most significant memories, and he admits that he still dreams about it. This recollection introduces the idea that pain is necessary for meaning, and also foreshadows John and Linda’s relationship to the Director.

At the Reservation, John and Lenina witness several scenes directly contrasting the two ideas of civilization presented by the novel: the Native American-like civilization of the Reservation, and the futuristic civilization of World State.

Unlike in World State, residents of the Reservation grow old, have disease, hunger, and treat each other with cruelty.

At the same time, they create art, experience love and marriage, and have a powerful religious system.

IN CONCLUSION: Brave New World explores the dehumanizing effects of technology, and implies that pain is necessary for life to have meaning.