Student Handout

Regress from Progress

A Study of Dehumanization in the Works of

Aldous Huxley

Objectives:

After completing this session, the attendee will be able to identify effects of repetition beyond emphasis, recognize the importance of dialogue and narrative structure in building the motif of voice, analyze the irony of inhuman figurative language used to describe humans and vice versa, and an understanding of how these elements create paradox in Aldous Huxley’s works.

Literature and Poetry Discussed:

·         Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

·         Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley

·         “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman

·         “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg

Most Relevant Literary Devices:

·         Repetition, Dialogue, Personification, Metaphor

·         Omniscient Third-Person Narrative: narration is a means through which the author is able to communicate their perfect knowledge of the events and characters of the novel

·         Paradox: a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth (Dictionary.com)

Things to Consider

• Repetition mimics propaganda—once an idea has been heard over and over and over again, it begins to sound like the truth
• Huxley criticizes the dangers of unconsciously believing in propaganda not for its content but for its ability to linger in the mind
• Repetition continues as a message for individuality: even words, when repeated consistently, lose their meaning
• If humans are to do the same, and conform to one another, we will lose our meaning and our sense of self as well
• Because the narrative structure is third-person omniscient, most of the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings are expressed within the narrative, not within the dialogue by their own voices
• In fact, aside from the dialogue of the powerful government officials Mustapha Mond and the Arch-Vicar, dialogue remains painfully lacking in depth or personal thought
• Implies that assertions based on one’s own life and perceptions will fade if the trend to conformity continues—no longer used as the basis for opinions, the human experience will become unnecessary
• Humans consistently termed and identified as animals, whether by an actual species name or by “ape” or “primate”
• clear degradation of the line between humanity and the animal kingdom, notes that as humans submit more to their primal urges and abandon self-control from temptations, the more bestial they’ll become
• On the contrary, scientific technologies are given human characteristics through personification, calling into question what—or rather, who—really has control in the relationship between man and machine

 
 

                     Interested in learning more about the works of Aldous Huxley? Visit

http://aldoushuxleybyamulyajoseph.blogspot.com/

for in-depth analyses of stylistic devices, multiple choice learning guides, and links to relevant literary criticism.