What is Bernanrd's initial reaction when he finds out he is going to Iceland?
When Bernard finds out he is going to Iceland, he feels very confident. He has a sense of indivuilality and is very proud of that. Bernard likes the idea of being different and feels as if he can face the task of going to Iceland.
I guess its not such a good idea to like the idea of being different in this book. It would most likely get you many enemies. I kinda think of this Bernard as like in that one episode of the Fairly Odd Parents, when Timmy wishes everyone would be the same, so everybody on Earth changes into big gray blobs. But then Timmy puts on his pink hat and it makes him so different from everyone else that he has a lot of people angry and criticizing him. (I know, I'm comparing classical literature to a cartoon, but hey, it works..)
Bernard doesn't have many fans. Other main characters in the book make fun of him for supposedly having alcohol in his surrogate. And this has to do with the fact that he is different. This is why Bernard is proud of going to Iceland because he wants to express his individuality, and the fact that he now considers himself kind of like a 'rebel'.
But! I have a question and I was hoping someone could help me...??
It says right in the book that Bernard is proud of his individuality and he is confident in going to Iceland and all that stuff. But if Bernard loves being different and doesn't like the idea of taking soma, then why does he go to those Solidarity Sessions?
The parts about the Solidarity Sessions reallllyyy confused me..
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
thinkin'?
I was thinking a lot about what Mrs. Hoppel was talking about during the book discussion today. Do we really want the future to end up like this??
Like sexuality, for example. In Brave New World, six year olds are having sexual activity. Why?? Because in this world, there is no respect for their bodies and no morality. Nobody in this book has any morals!
The scary thing is, future centuries CAN end up like this. Just think about it, kids are having sex younger and younger now. In the book, there are comments about how horrible it must be to wait until your twenties to have sex. Well, most people don't even wait until marriage now. Like how the Director was making fun of "the old ways" of waiting until twneties to have sex, a lot of people get made fun of right now. I mean, how often do we hear boys, and other girls, call girls "prude" or scared and stuff along that. So, we think we must do these things, which leads to younger and younger ages having sex. Scary to think that in maybe thousands of years sex won't even be important, it will just be an everyday thing that everyone who is "mature" (or older than five years old) will be doing.
And with the caste system also. You walk into school and you have all of your little cliques. Of course there's the jocks, the preps, the geeks, the goths, emo kids and whatever other labels you can think of. In movies and books, the preps are always perfect, pretty, smart and funny. And the jocks? Girls go crazy over jocks. This relates to the caste system in the book. The Alphas are the perfect ones, always look good and do good.
Huxley really does make you think. What if we continue like this? What if our future ends up with embryos being bottled? Now that I view it in this perspective, I'm actually beginning to understand the book. I'm still having trouble with the scientific parts, but I can kind of understand what Huxley is going to try to say throughout the book.
I'm glad I didn't give up with it. You can actually learn a lot from this book :)
Like sexuality, for example. In Brave New World, six year olds are having sexual activity. Why?? Because in this world, there is no respect for their bodies and no morality. Nobody in this book has any morals!
The scary thing is, future centuries CAN end up like this. Just think about it, kids are having sex younger and younger now. In the book, there are comments about how horrible it must be to wait until your twenties to have sex. Well, most people don't even wait until marriage now. Like how the Director was making fun of "the old ways" of waiting until twneties to have sex, a lot of people get made fun of right now. I mean, how often do we hear boys, and other girls, call girls "prude" or scared and stuff along that. So, we think we must do these things, which leads to younger and younger ages having sex. Scary to think that in maybe thousands of years sex won't even be important, it will just be an everyday thing that everyone who is "mature" (or older than five years old) will be doing.
And with the caste system also. You walk into school and you have all of your little cliques. Of course there's the jocks, the preps, the geeks, the goths, emo kids and whatever other labels you can think of. In movies and books, the preps are always perfect, pretty, smart and funny. And the jocks? Girls go crazy over jocks. This relates to the caste system in the book. The Alphas are the perfect ones, always look good and do good.
Huxley really does make you think. What if we continue like this? What if our future ends up with embryos being bottled? Now that I view it in this perspective, I'm actually beginning to understand the book. I'm still having trouble with the scientific parts, but I can kind of understand what Huxley is going to try to say throughout the book.
I'm glad I didn't give up with it. You can actually learn a lot from this book :)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Facism.. again
Because of Maria's blog, I now understand what facism has to do with the novel :) So if you were really confused by reading mine (because it was really bad) then read hers because it clarifies a lot of things. =]
Saturday, October 18, 2008
"Community, Identity, Stability"
In Brave New World, identity is majorly sacrificed. It is sacraficed to guarantee the stability of the community. Once you are an embryo of Bokanovsky's Process, you do not have individuality. You are catorgiezed and stereo-typed by either a Gamma, Alpha, Beta, Delta or Epsilon. The "community" is the potency in which children are created to serve. Every child and all the actions they preform are made to boost the stability of the community.
Anyone agree or disagree?? =]
Anyone agree or disagree?? =]
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Brave New World
What is fascism?
To be completely honest, I had no idea what this word meant until I just looked it up. So I'll try and put together what I learned, but it's probably not going to be the best definition..
But anyway, fascism is a government led by a dictator. If you are under a fascist government, your leader has complete control over what you do or don't do. The dictator isn't always fair ; he is somtimes racist, aggressive and very critical. Even if you don't like your leader, you don't have much of a choice but to listen to him. In a dictatorship, the people have no consent within their government.
Personally, I would hate to have a person who I don't even know control my every move. I believe that each and every human being has an individual part in their society without the influence of others. There has been many dictatorships in history, and most of them have failed (at least the ones I just read about). In America, we practice democracy which is the belief that every U.S. citizen has a voice in government. I think this is the best choice because even if something goes the opposite of what you wanted, you can have a peace of mind knowing that you at least contributed to what you thought was best for our country.
And again, I have no clue what this has to do with the book we're reading, but when I figure out, I'll have to update this :)
To be completely honest, I had no idea what this word meant until I just looked it up. So I'll try and put together what I learned, but it's probably not going to be the best definition..
But anyway, fascism is a government led by a dictator. If you are under a fascist government, your leader has complete control over what you do or don't do. The dictator isn't always fair ; he is somtimes racist, aggressive and very critical. Even if you don't like your leader, you don't have much of a choice but to listen to him. In a dictatorship, the people have no consent within their government.
Personally, I would hate to have a person who I don't even know control my every move. I believe that each and every human being has an individual part in their society without the influence of others. There has been many dictatorships in history, and most of them have failed (at least the ones I just read about). In America, we practice democracy which is the belief that every U.S. citizen has a voice in government. I think this is the best choice because even if something goes the opposite of what you wanted, you can have a peace of mind knowing that you at least contributed to what you thought was best for our country.
And again, I have no clue what this has to do with the book we're reading, but when I figure out, I'll have to update this :)
Friday, October 3, 2008
Guilt
Okay, so let me begin this with that you should only feel guilty if you really deserve to!
Gene deserves to feel guilty. He deserves to have his conscience eat away at him and he deserves to have to live with the fact that he permanently hurt his best friend. But really, who decides if we should really feel guilty or not? Sometimes, I think that people convince us over and over again that we are at fault so we just believe we are guilty. And half of the time, we really aren't.
And yes, Gene did push Finny, but those kids in the basement had no reason to harass him. It probably just added to his guilt even more.
The guilt is very obvious though. If he didn't feel bad about it, then why would he flashback and tell the story? I think he's trying to tell us that we can move on from the past.. but that doesn't mean that we accept it and forget it. There's just somethings in life that you have to live with and take into the future with you. And deep down, you know if you were right or wrong, so don't let other people get to you.
Gene moved on from the past, but he still vividly remembers what happened that summer. Just like if you went through an accident, illness or anything else dramatic, you're going to get better and move on, but that's going to stay with you the rest of your life. So just make the best out of it and don't dwell on what could have been or how you could have prevented it.
I think what the author is trying to get across is that, if you regret something that happened in your past, just try and move on. And even, if you can, find something positive out of it. Because I'm sure nine times out of ten, there's at least one positive thing that can come from a mistake.
alrightyy, night babes :)
Gene deserves to feel guilty. He deserves to have his conscience eat away at him and he deserves to have to live with the fact that he permanently hurt his best friend. But really, who decides if we should really feel guilty or not? Sometimes, I think that people convince us over and over again that we are at fault so we just believe we are guilty. And half of the time, we really aren't.
And yes, Gene did push Finny, but those kids in the basement had no reason to harass him. It probably just added to his guilt even more.
The guilt is very obvious though. If he didn't feel bad about it, then why would he flashback and tell the story? I think he's trying to tell us that we can move on from the past.. but that doesn't mean that we accept it and forget it. There's just somethings in life that you have to live with and take into the future with you. And deep down, you know if you were right or wrong, so don't let other people get to you.
Gene moved on from the past, but he still vividly remembers what happened that summer. Just like if you went through an accident, illness or anything else dramatic, you're going to get better and move on, but that's going to stay with you the rest of your life. So just make the best out of it and don't dwell on what could have been or how you could have prevented it.
I think what the author is trying to get across is that, if you regret something that happened in your past, just try and move on. And even, if you can, find something positive out of it. Because I'm sure nine times out of ten, there's at least one positive thing that can come from a mistake.
alrightyy, night babes :)
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