Brave New World Revisited

I have to be honest.  I've never really liked non-fiction books.  They've just never caught my interest before.  However, Brave New World Revisited interested me, mainly the chapter titled "Quantity, Quality, Morality."

While in Brave New World, the society can pair biologically superior or biologically inferior ova and sperm to create citizens that fit the requirements for each caste.  While there are other factors when creating these people (the Bokanovsky Process, alcohol, protein poisons, etc.), it ensures that the people are to the society's standards.  As Aldous Huxley said, "in our random and unregulated way we are not only over-populating our planet, we are also, it would seem, making sure that these greater numbers shall be of biologically poorer quality."

While in today's society, we can help people born with certain illnesses or defects, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be more careful.  It seems like, everywhere you turn, more and more women are having babies, whether these children were planned or not.  These women have no idea if their children are going to have any birth defects or illnesses.  The only thing that these people can do is hope that their child will be born healthy, if the doctors cannot catch the defect before the child's born.

However, not all of these new lives can be cared for properly.  Some cannot be fed, clothed, or housed properly.  It's sad to think about, since we are fed, clothed, and housed properly.  To think of children, and even people our own age, that can't have basic necessities is almost unthinkable.

Brave New World

My reaction to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was actually somewhat similar to my reaction to Feed.  It felt like a huge wakeup call.  It felt like a mixture of Feed and the aspects from Consumed, both of which the AP Lang class had to read.  The World Controllers control what goes on in their section of the world (though in Feed, I don’t think that there are Feed Controllers or at least ones that stand out) and the infantilization of adults was something that Benjamin R. Barber discussed in his book.

I found the way that they make the people slightly disturbing.  The fact that they are willing and able to split an embryo into 96 human beings is disturbing, though that could be because today’s society probably wouldn’t do that.  I couldn’t imagine if there 95 other people that look like me.  I also find the idea of words such as “mother” and “father” viewed as pornographic or bad words.  It just seems so absurd in this time that it seems unreal.

I think that a world like this one could be a good or a bad thing.  On one hand, the World Controllers make sure that everyone is happy with their place in society and that nothing bad happens.  On the other hand, no one can experience hard times in life that make us better people.  The society also shapes the people in the molds that the World Controllers have set for the people.  These people never have the chance to choose what they want out of life.

Despite the disturbing and crazy parts of the society in Brave New World, I found it a very eye-opening book.

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

I have to say, I really enjoyed "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. O'Connor uses something as normal as a family road trip to Florida and turn the entire story upside down.

In the beginning, the characters seemed, to me, a little plain. It wasn't until the family was on their way to the old plantation that I actually started to like the characters.  They started to feel more familiar as I started to see similarities between the family in the story and a normal family.

I felt that the story started to get interesting after the family stopped at the old diner. After hearing about the escaped convict known as "the Misfit," I knew that he was going to make an appearance at some point in the story.  I car wreck was something that I honestly wasn’t expecting.  However, the appearance of the Misfit was expected.  I did not, however, expect him to kill everyone in the family.  I actually felt bad for the family.  Though this might be because of the connection I felt between the family with, surprisingly, my own (to a point anyway).  I guess the title says it all:  a good man is hard to find.  All in all, I enjoyed the short story.  It was a nice piece that was a quick read.