At first glance, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World seem pretty much irrelevant to each other, except for their classification as Modern novels. For example, The Metamorphosis deals with a man, Gregor Samsa, who awakes one day transformed into a giant insect and the effects (and repercussions) of the transformation on those around Gregor. Brave New World, on the other hand, deals with the looming threat of the future while showing what is already, or will become, wrong, morally and otherwise, in the present and future. However, both texts have something in common. This linking factor is the manipulation of language, as in the inclusion of specific details, sentence structure, and diction, by both authors in their narration, and sometimes in their dialogue, to create a satire about the fact that the world has become heartless, monotonous, and robotic, with little or no consideration towards actual human life.
In the very beginning of The Metamorphosis, Kafka exhibits several ideas: he uses a great deal of pronouns in place of Gregor’s name, which creates a sense of ambiguity and anonymity, such as when “he wanted to leave…but…he hadn’t seen yet and…he couldn’t…at the moment.”, (Kafka 14) to show that humans become faceless as they begin to adapt to the new world order; Kafka also uses a syntactical style known as a ‘freight train’ as Gregor “lay on his back, which was hard as armor, and, when he lifted his head, he saw, his belly…was just barely perched” (Kafka 11).
The Essay on Gregor’s Metamorphosis as Allegory
Think of a realworld situation that relates to this/these idea(s). The isolation of an individual results in a spiritual death that dehumanizes the lonely person. In what ways is Gregor “dehumanized” by his isolation? What about his life leads him to feel isolated? “He found it difficult to bear lying down quietly during the night and soon eating no longer gave him the slightest pleasure. So for ...
While the connection seems somewhat obscure, Kafka uses this syntactical device to convey a sense of desolation because it seems that society has begun to go down a one-way track, so to speak, with little hope of stopping. Also, Kafka includes a connotative statement when Gregor exclaims, “My God, what a strenuous profession I’ve chosen!”(Kafka 11).
The connotations of the phrase “My God”, exclamatory and somewhat cursing a situation, in addition to the statement “…what a strenuous profession I’ve chosen,” convey a sense of irony because Gregor shows even more concern about his work, and his line of work, than he conveys for his own physical predicament (possessing the physical and mental characteristics of an insect), which conveys that since Gregor has been following the same exact routine for so long, that routine eventually becomes the only thing that Gregor knows: work.
In the beginning of Brave New World, although displaying some of the same ideas, the novel begins with two fragments, “A squat grey building of only thirty feet.” (Huxley 3) and “Over the main entrance the words…STABILITY.” (Huxley 3) This use of fragments comments on the opinion that humans are being fragmented and dehumanized by the mechanical age; hence, the inclusion of the name of the conditioning center. Also, the World State’s motto, “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY” (Huxley 3) conveys satire and irony when related to this assertion of humanity’s fragmentation and dehumanization by means of machine because dehumanization and fragmentation typically do not achieve an end result of unity, individuality, or stability. Also, the capitalization of the motto itself creates a sense of disconnection because the motto exists as one of the only group of words capitalized in the sentence. This shows that mechanical aspects create disconnection from ‘reality’.
In The Metamorphosis, much of Gregor’s life takes place in the Samsa household. More specifically, most of Gregor’s life occurs in a “real room meant for human habitation, though a little too small, lay peacefully within its four familiar walls” (Kafka, 11).
Irony exists in this quote because Gregor possesses, at this point, little to aspects similar to a human. The inclusion of this ironic, specific detail generates a sense of unoriginality and a feeling of conformity, which relates to the satirizing of the modern machine age by making a statement: The monotonousness of this epoch causes Gregor to lose touch of his individual ingeniousness and become nothing more than a tedious, mindless pawn to the will of society, and a slave to industrialization.
The Essay on Aldous Huxleys Brave New World And George Orwells 1984
Neil Postman once stated; Huxleys vision is more relevant today than is Orwells, Neil was of course refering to Aldous Huxleys Brave New World and George Orwells 1984, both chilling prophecies of the future of humanity gone terribly wrong. Although one could agree with Neal's view of Huxleys Brave New World, where life is taken down to only the most trivial of entertainment, lack of family, love ...
In Brave New World, in the Hatchery Centre, a process exists where an egg undergoes a “bokanovskified” (Huxley 6) alteration and is then divided so “ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before.” (Huxley 6) This mechanical mass production of humans conveys satire because Huxley shows that humans have become so intertwined into the mechanical aspects of our world that humans are now, essentially, created in labs. Another example of specific detail in Brave New World occurs as Lenina, one of the main characters, notices that while a shift change occurs, that “like aphides and ants, the leaf-green Gamma girls, the black Semi-Morons swarmed round the entrances, or stood…among the crowd” (Huxley 63).
The inclusion of this scene creates a manifestation of, once again, the dehumanization of the human race by machinery by having several “races” being described as aphides, flocking around monorails. Also, the “races” act like cattle, being drawn in by their rancher (in this case, the conductor of the monorail), herded off until they have a purpose in life again.
Both Kafka and Huxley comment on human qualities and the importance of, at least trying to, maintain those qualities. Towards the end of The Metamorphosis, Kafka’s inclusion of scenes involving the relation of music to the Samsa family show that Kafka believes that the arts possess powers that allow a person to maintain some of their humanity. For example, after Gregor hears Grete play, he wondered “was he an animal if music stirred him that way?”(Kafka, 45) Kafka uses this scene to show that Gregor still has some human qualities, but they only surface when around music. Kafka also makes Grete display a change of heart towards Gregor when she states that “We have to get rid of it…eventually it’ll kill both of you…” (Kafka 47).
This change of heart illustrates that in this mechanically-driven society, compassion is lacking for those that outlive their usefulness. Huxley, however, uses an asyndeton when describing Lenina’s reaction to the whipping of a young boy. Lenina “did not move, but sat with her face in her hands, unseeing apart” (Huxley 116).
The Essay on Aldous Huxley Brave New World 2
Aldous Huxley was born in Surrey, England on July 26, 1894 to an illustrious family deeply rooted in England's literary and scientific tradition. Huxley's father, Leonard Huxley, was the son of Thomas Henry Huxley, a well-known biologist who gained the nickname 'Darwin's bulldog' for championing Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. His mother, Julia Arnold, was related to the important nineteenth- ...
Huxley’s inclusion of this detail states that as long as humans witness brutality, they will maintain some of their human qualities. Also, the use of an asyndeton creates a sense of displacement.
Huxley uses repetition in several areas to mimic a monotonous droning that machines can sometimes make, in order to make a comment on how industry turns humans into pawns. For example, Huxley describes the Native lands as “Queer—yes.
The place was queer, so was…nothing specifically queer about that” (Huxley 113).
The repetition of the word ‘queer’ also conveys a sense of displacement and confusion felt by Lenina and Bernard by showing how they both see the Natives as odd, neither can relate to the Natives (at this point in time) and both Lenina and Bernard question the lifestyles of the Natives. Later on in the novel, as The Savage asks the crowd what they want from him, they reply, “…in unison, and on a slow, heavy rhythm, ‘We–want–the whip,’ shouted a group at the end of the line… ‘We—want–the whip’” (Huxley, 256).
Huxley used the phrase “slow, heavy rhythm” to describe a bleak, monotonous atmosphere where the inhabitants are robotic and ‘follow the leader’, so to speak, possibly because they do not know any better. While Huxley uses repetition alone to convey and mimic a monotonous droning made by machinery, Kafka uses periodic sentences, along with run-ons sprinkled with repetition, to accomplish a similar goal. For example, while Gregor thinks about repaying Grete, possibly incestuously, for her violin-playing skills, “he was resolved…he would repay her.” (Kafka, 45) This comment displays how even familial love becomes tedious and callous when mixed with the industrial age, the industrialization of the world and the materialism that sometimes comes with this industrialization.
Aldous Huxley and Franz Kafka write about different topics in their respective
Modernist works. However, both use manipulation of language in Brave New World and The Metamorphosis, respectively, to satirize how the world has become heartless, robotic and monotonous with little to no consideration to human life, possibly because of industrialization. The fact that both of these authors subconsciously plant these satirical critiques of our society into their works shows that Kafka and Huxley both possess a strong inclination for displaying the flaws of society and state, by satire, that our world and lives, unless something drastic occurs, has a very high likelihood of ending up barren, emotionally and spiritually.
The Term Paper on Brave New World Cloning Human People
Even since a little lamb came forward saying that cloning of mammals is possible the world has been in a state of bewilderment. This means that if cloning a sheep is possible, how far away are humans Is there a new generation of Dr. Frankenstein's coming I hope to answer this question, the process of cloning, the positive and negative aspects, ethical aspects, and an authors view of cloning all ...
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