The motto of the “Brave New World” was “Community, Identity, and Stability.” In the following essay the actual meanings of these terms will be addressed.
The term “Community” really did not have the meaning that we are accustomed to hearing and speaking in the modern day and age (1996). Instead it stands for almost a lack of “Community”, meaning that there is no choice of where one ranks in the “Community”, instead you are assigned even before production (natural birth is non-existent) your place in society and a person could never know what are the differences between being an Alpha or a Gamma. A person in the community is shared by everyone in the “Community”, everyone belongs to everyone every person is shared sexually with one another, and there is no emotional bond because are breed not to have them.
The term “Identity” is a complete opposite from the way that we are accustomed to seeing it and feeling it, in other words it is non-existent no one has any feelings, and no one posses any of their own personal characteristics, they are all alike. If a person were to try and find their own identity they were looked down upon and had to take a soma holiday (soma was a legal drug that took away all of a persons feelings or individualized idea’s). The soma holiday was everyone’s way out of having to deal with anything unpleasant or their way of having a good time.
The “Stability” in the “Brave New World” is a different sort of “Stability”, the “Stability” in “Brave New World” is economic stability, clothes were not to be mended, instead new ones were to be purchased to support economic stability and growth. Nothing was allowed to be produced or purchased that was not very expensive and did not require money to keep it in good running condition. If the society let cheap things onto the market or things were fixed easily what would happen to the vast economic society, it would develop cracks and eventually fall to the ground with a thundering crash.
The entire society in “Brave New World” was based solely on science and technology and not on the social aspect of people, personal freedoms, and feeling differently from your fellow man. Science and technology was not only the basis of their being, and the way they lived it was also the sole reason that life seemed so different than it does in the present day and age (1996).
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
A poet does not achieve the highest levels of success until generations and generations after his death have critiqued and recognized his works of art, as seen by the revered poet William Blake. He lived and crafted his finest masterpieces during the era of Romanticism, which is marked by the earliest poems of William Blake in 1783 (Anthology, pg 3). Along with Wordsworth, modern poetry was created (Anthology, pg 8). During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, poetry that described nature and landscapes emerged. Blake was a somewhat ambitious artist who questioned the world and rebelled against tradition and customs. He saw these aspects of life troubling because he did not always agree with the way in which society pressured him to conform. Although Blake did eventually marry, his marriage went through tumultuous periods, sometimes filled with sexual jealousy. This can be interpreted in the “Sick Rose”. William Blake could be characterized as an antinomian. He was a person who based his own religion and morality based on personal experiences with God, or a higher power (Notes, 6/27). His individualistic approach to life can be seen in his modernizing work Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
One of the more difficult works of Blake to assess is the pair of poems Holy Thursday. The first and most obvious difference between these poems is the way in which they are constructed. In Songs of Innocence, Blake is telling a story that merely explains the irony behind Holy Thursday, which is the fortieth day after Easter. The children he is referring to that are wearing red and blue and green are actually chimney sweepers. The irony is that the Church, who in an ideal society has a moral obligation to assist …
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…. Although these sets of poems contrast each other, they do enrich and compliment the other by taking the same feelings and manipulating them. For instance, the exploitation was seen in Songs of Innocence as sad and depressing, while in Songs of Experience the same exploitation was seen as angry, bitter, and deeply questioned by Blake. Ultimately, I believe these poems reflect different times in William’s Blake’s life when he could have been at peace and also frustrated with life in general and its meaning.
Works Cited
Kermode, Frank, and Hollander, John. The Oxford Anthology of English Literature: 1800 to the Present. Oxford University Press: London, 1973.
Poet’s Corner. www.theotherpages.org/poems/blake02.html. Accessed: 12 July 2007.
Shelson, John. Engl 212-British Literature II: Class Notes. Professor Craig Laird: Drexel University, 27 June 2007.