Controversial Issues in BNW

Another controversial issue besides cloning and human reproduction that is highlighted in Brave New World is the question of whether technology hinders or helps the progression of the human race. In the world state, technology becomes such an overpowering role in society that it rules society and humans become controlled by technology rather than humans controlling the technology. "'Yes, everybody's happy now," echoed Lenina. They had heard the words repeated a hundred and fifty times every night for twelve years.'" (75). For instance, here we find the technology of Hipnopaeda controlling the citizens of the world state rather than helping them. Brave New World also arises various controversial philosophical issues. Huxley subtly sends questions such as "What is freedom?", "What is happiness", "Is life something that can be managed and maintained like machinery?" to the forefront by means of his story. Clearly Huxley's dystopia would not be so philosophically controversial if it weren't for its' various themes.

For instance, In the world state, the citizens all agree that they are happy and never hold opinions that conflict, however, Aristotle claimed in his Metaphysics: "If, however, all beliefs and appearances are true, then everything must be at the same time true and false. For many men hold opinions contrary to those of others and call deluded whoever does not think just as they do." "So, if everybody were sick or everybody insane and only two or three were well or sane, the latter would be thought sick and insane but not the majority."

As far as the issue of "What is happiness?" goes, in Huxley's World State, everyone is happy because they are predestined for what their role in society is. Aristotle claimed that happiness is the end in which men live their whole lives for; the end which they strive for, but he claimed that since "there are various actions, arts, and sciences, it follows that the ends are also various". Which means that although those in the World State may believe they are happy, they are in truth not, because they do not strive to attain their own happiness, but rather a happiness that stems from actions that they are predestined to do.

Utopia

In his Republic, Plato constructs his own utopia not so much on the foundation of fiction and exaggeration, as Aldous Huxley does, but rather on that of philosophy and logic and speaks of how an ideal state must be ruled by Philosopher Kings in order to thrive. I would agree with Plato's approach in that everyone in a utopia should be educated and wise, although I would not go so far as to say that the leaders of the utopia should be philosopher kings, but rather polymaths. If the leaders are polymaths then they would be well versed in all fields of knowledge, allowing them to answer questions from all fields of knowledge as well, allowing them to be the wises of leaders. The leaders would most definitely not be able to work in a dimension of unlimited power, but in similar restrictions to the citizens.

In my utopia, education would be promoted as often as companies who promote their products. Autodidacticism would be considered as a hobby to citizens, and video games would not be a popular form of entertainment. Citizens would travel by the most efficient transportation means possible, by magnetic trains and hydrogen-powered cars, and everything would be recyclable, resulting in a utopia not only considering all of the people that live under it, but considering Earth's role in harboring humans. Earth's genetic variety would bloom and all the obstructions that humans have caused the earth would be washed away. Earth at last would be a clean place to inhabit and humanity would live in its' modern world without causing any environmental issues.

On The Glass Castle

The story of Jeannette Walls' past is not the type of past i'd usually believe a writer and contributor to MSNBC would have. Gaining insight into one's life is always a luxury, especially a stranger's, because it proves that even though you may not know somebody personally, they carry a past. Jeannette Walls shares with the reader in impressive detail the memories that she felt compelled to compile in a work such as The Glass Castle and shows the reader that the passerby on the street may have one of the richest pasts that one has ever encountered. Walls particularly shares with the reader terrible memories, and a great majority of her memoir is comprised of these masochistic and calamitous recollections.

Somehow I feel as if the memoir would have been more satisfying if the story line completed a full circle. The beginning of the memoir is particularly compelling and luring with the scene of Walls leisurely sitting in her limousine, on her way to a party; it is at that point that she peers out of the window only to see "Mom rooting through a dumpster". With this opening scene Walls begins the tale of her life with her earliest memory: being burned at three years of age (a horrific event, going back to what I said earlier). When the story begins the reader tends to wonder how Walls' experiences eventually lead to the opening situation in which Walls is well off with an apartment, husband, college education, and stable yearly income. If the story would have also ended with the opening scene of walls in her limousine, the story would have been slightly more satisfying.

But as far as Walls' storytelling skill, she recreates her past by creatively molding the multitude of recollections that she contains from the experiences of her life. One particularly detailed and emotional scene is when she leaves for New York City, gazing out of the window as her father, Rex Walls, is shrinking in succession with the bus beginning to lift off: "Dad was lighting a cigarette. I waved, and he waved back. Then he shoved his hands in his pockets, the cigarette dangling from his mouth, and stood there, slightly stoop-shouldered and distracted-looking. I wondered if he was remembering how he, too, had left Welch full of vinegar at age seven and just as convinced as I was now that he'd never return." (241).

The whole metaphor of the glass castle signifies that the memoir focuses not only on the life of the author but also of the father, Rex Walls. Rex teaches Jeannette tender and unforgettable life-lessons by many different means, and these lessons grow on Jeannette to the point in which she becomes the only one in her family amongst her brother, two sisters, and mother who has hope for Rex even after he transforms into a raging alcoholic. The Glass Castle in its' finality serves as the metaphor that relates to her father in the way that the lives of the Walls family had the potential to not have a poor and run-down life if Rex hadn't turned to alcoholism. The glass castle was completely designed and planned out by Rex but eventually subsided into a theoretical dream only due to the fact that Rex's emotions were unstable and also his personality. Walls lets the reader know that Rex was a compassionate, intelligent and enigmatic man who desired to unlock the mysteries of the universe, and he probably could have done so if alcohol hadn't won the battle with his life and mind. "Dad said he was damned if Feigenbaum didn't make a persuasive case that turbulence was not in fact random but followed a sequential pattern of varying frequencies. " (261)