A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Snowpiercer by Bong Joon-ho Comparative Essay
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Course
English
Institution
5
A comparative piece of writing which answers the following quetion: "How do composers construct texts which highlight the need for people to protest against conformity?
In your response, make reference to your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing"
How do composers construct texts which highlight the need for people to protest against conformity?
In your response, make reference to your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own
choosing
A text, through its unique mode of production and perspective, will reveal the political motivations of
their creators, shaping how audiences perceive meaning link to the question. Aldous Huxley’s satire
Brave New World (1932), creates a state driven by innovation and conditioning: boundless
consumption, officially endorsed promiscuity and genetic engineering are all implemented to force
individuals to conform and eradicate individual expression. By presenting political resisters such as
Bernard Marx and John the Savage, Huxley portrays the power of distinct social views in a copy-cat
hedonistic society where control restrains independence, reflecting his on secular milieu. Director
Bong Joon-Ho in his post-apocalyptic film Snowpiercer presents a comparable world driven by a
hierarchical system of monopoly capitalism- the last of humankind abide by progressive societal
conventions on a train which abuses every aspect of their lives following a global warming
catastrophe. It is only once the train and hence the capitalist system is destroyed, in part of the radical
revolution lead by resistor Curtis Everett, that the train’s tenants can start a new existence and move
“laterally” into a new worldview. Each composer, through exhibiting future realistic worlds and
political ideologies, shape meaning and highlight peoples need to act against existing foul play. Need
to fight against the loss of individiduality and the need to conform.
Indoctrination through propaganda and pre-ordained caste systems are instruments utilized by
administrative bodies to create a fabricated truth that prohibits their habitant from rehearsing their
human rights. Restricts independent thought In Huxley's world state, control is manifested through
overly used and amusing mottos of "Community, Identity, Stability” irony between identity in the
motto because and the thoughtless reiteration of sexual propaganda, "Orgy-Porgy, Ford and fun".
Regular adages satire how the world state has created an idealism toward their "unescapable social
destiny" and the belief that “everyone belongs to everyone else”, where infect genuine feelings are
denied and individual emotion controlled. Further, Huxley’s emotive metonymy “…droning twilight
of the well, the twilight of his own habitual stupor” illustrates the Epsilon elevator guard as a prisoner
of his stratified status and compelled Bokanovsky conditioning.more importantly he has no
individuality, force him to conform. Also in Snowpiercer, a symbolic portrayal of industrial society
the hierachiral system prevents the majority of their individuality as they are exploited by the
domineering high classes, This is represented through tail section of the train which is an austere DIY
mismatch of steel, timber material in the compartment which surrounds them. With the inhabitants
dressed in a way that is cliché of vagrants, the viewer is given a sense that they are trapped in the
space which has become their entire world. Joon-Ho's clever use of the profile shot, conveying the
complexity of Curtis' ethical choices, physically depicts the linear reality which typifies his and the
tenants’ entire lives. As in Brave New World, indoctrination from birth has been fully entrenched and
life outside the train has been labelled as a frivolous antic, a pre-ordained obliviousness which
conceals the genuine manageability of the outside world. Clearly, the manipulation of thought and the
truth through caste systems forbids citizens from practising their essential human rights.
In turn, both texts explore the power of individualism and protest to conformity through
characterisation, representing distinct social views which threaten their respective paradigms of
control. In Brave New World, Bernard is characterised as a political prisoner due to his genetic
engineering and the “alcohol they put in his surrogate”. In a system where boundless indulgence leads
each individual to succumb to complacency, Bernard rejects such activities, asserting he’d rather be
unhappy than to be controlled, “I’d rather be myself…myself and nasty.” This defiant tone indicates
his desire to protest against conformity. Bernard additionally shows this thought as he compares
society to a human body as he proclaims “More on my own , not so completely part of something
else. Not just a cell in a social body". Huxley delineates Bernard's yearning to be autonomous from
the hypnopaedic traditionalist system which forces him to conform. Through these revolutionary
ideals, Bernard may inspire the same notions in other conformists such as Lenina, which will lead to
protest. Alternatively, Jong-Ho portrays Curtis as the resister, with the political motivation of
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