Brave New World Allusions
Period 2
“Infant nurseries. Neo-Pavlovian conditioning rooms, announced the notice board” Pg 19
Ivan Pavolv was a well know scientist born in Russia who was known for his work with conditioning of dogs. He taught dogs to salivate at the sound of a chime because he would feed them shortly after. This conditioning showed that animals and people can be taught behavior through repetition.
The allusion shows the inability of the characters in the book to think by them. They can only think by recalling what they were taught in their sleep as children. Free thought is impossible in their twisted world.
“Our Ford-or Our Freud, as, for some inscrutable reason he chose to call himself whenever he spoke of psychological matters” Pg 39
In this quote, the controller references himself as our Freud relating to the ideas of Sigmund Freud. He does this because he believes that he is the natural thought process that all of the individuals go through. He controls their reasoning and behavior much like the id, ego, and superego in Freud’s theory
The controller trains the minds of everyone that is grown at the facility so he basically serves as the trainers of their minds. He controls their reactions to stimulus and ideas that they are given just because he has taught them everything that they know. He is the master of their psychology.
“Had she not been invited to the Annual Dinner of the Aphroditeum Club?” Pg 165
This quote refers to the legend of Aphrodite being the goddess of love and affection. Aphrodite is not known for being someone of full commitment, but someone who loves on a whim much like relationships in the book. She is a good example for the women of this time period.
The women of this time period are trained for love without affection much like Aphrodite. They are supposed to have multiple lovers at the same time and not to pursue anyone.
“One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, and will divide.” Pg 6
The idea of the Bokanovsky process comes from the ideas of Maurice Bokanovsky who was a French bureaucrat who envisioned governmental intervention and social efficiency.
The Bokanovsky process in the book is created around the ideas believed by Maurice. Each worker is made to serve a specific purpose in the community to have the biggest efficiency. They created a society around the ideas of governmental intervention and social efficiency.
“One of the numerous things in heaven and earth that these philosophers didn’t dream about was this” Pg 232
In Christianity, heaven is the ultimate prize for people to imagine. It is what people spend their whole lives working towards and the common goal that they all have set for themselves.
In the world, people imagine a whole world that they base their lives around, but they cannot imagine a world as complex yet simple as the society in Brave New World. The society is beyond anything that people have ever dreamed of.
“The introduction of Our Ford’s first T-Model” Pg 52
The model T was the first mass produced car to be released to the market in the start of the 20th century. They used exchangeable parts and an assembly line to crank out the best products on the market.
The society in Brave New World produces people like Henry Ford produced the model T. They are produced quickly, efficiently, and they are a model product that always beats the competition. Human growth is being mass produced.
“she had wondered more than once whether she shouldn’t change her mind about the New Mexico holiday, and go instead to the North Pole with Benito Hoover” Pg 82
Benito Hoover in the novel relates to Benito Mussolini and his ideas about socialism and fascism during the 20th century. Mussolini always offered a better idea for government and leading his people than what was currently the social norm. He improved on the
