Toward the end of Aldous Huxley’s Brave
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Need a paper on the following: Toward the end of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Mustapha Mond, one of the controllers of the brave new world, says:
Civilization has absolutely no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can arise. Where there are wars, where there are divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted, objects of love to be fought for or defended—there, obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But there aren’t any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving any one too much. There’s no such thing as a divided alliance; you’re so conditioned that you can’t help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren’t any temptations to resist.
Part of what Mustapha Mond is saying is that the brave new world is made up of happy people and that humans have been modified (partly by biotechnology, partly by conditioning, and partly using pharmaceuticals) so that almost everyone is happy. Now, if happiness is the goal of human life and human activities, then it appears that the citizens of the brave new world have attained (or nearly attained) human perfection. However, is happiness really the goal of human life and human activities? Is it possible that the attainment of human perfection could lead to unhappiness, discontent, and even despair? Selecting any three of the authors from the Unit 1 readings, how do you believe that they would respond to the claims of Mustapha Mond about human happiness and human perfection? Based on the Unit 1 readings, what is your opinion about the claims of Mustapha Mond? Why?
The written assignment should:
1. Clearly identify and describe the views of three authors from the Unit 1 readings concerning the claims of Mustapha Mond about human happiness and human perfection.
Example:
a) Summarize the main points of all three readings (for example, summarize the main points of Hawthorne’s story).
(b) Identify the principal ideas/concepts in both readings and briefly explain them.
(c) Identify the arguments in the reading that relate to the principal ideas/concepts (for example, wow would Hawthorne reply to the claims of Mustapha Mond about human happiness and human perfection
2. Make use of and reference the appropriate readings in the text.
This indication of mastery requires you refer to the required readings or make judicious use of quotations from the required readings. It also requires that you provide the appropriate page numbers from those readings (either in support of your interpretation or to indicate from where the quotation came). For example, suppose that you write, “In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story The Birth Mark, Aylmer is able to remove the birth mark from Georgiana’s face, but only at the cost of her life.” You are correct that this event does occur in Hawthorne ‘s story. What you now need to add is the year of publication and the page number where the event in Hawthorne ‘s story occurs. Thus, your final sentence should be, “In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story The Birth Mark, Aylmer is able to remove the birth mark from Georgiana’s face, but only at the cost of her life (1955, p. 20).”
One word of caution here: Sometimes people write answers that are nothing but a string of quotations from the readings (or even worse, nothing but one, two, or three long quotations). Do not do this. Using two or three short quotations is fine and will often enhance your answer. However, the majority of your answer should be an explication and analysis of the reading(s) in your own words.
3. Use critical reasoning to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the views and arguments of the selected authors concerning the claims of Mustapha Mond about human happiness and human perfection.
4. Clearly express your own opinion and explain why you hold this opinion, based on the analyses captured in the previous indications of mastery.
1. Description. Identify the relevant views and arguments (and be certain to include the page references that support your interpretations of the readings). Since the question from Unit 1 asks you to discuss three authors, think of each author having his or her own paragraph:
• Paragraph 1 should be a description of the relevant views and arguments of the first author.
•Paragraph 2 should be a description of the relevant views and arguments of the second author.
•Paragraph 3 should be a description of the relevant views and arguments of the third author.
2. Analyses. Critically assess the views and arguments of the authors in the context of the question. Identify both strengths and weaknesses of the views and arguments in the context of the question. Thus, for the Unit 1 question, you will want to identify and state both the strengths and weaknesses of the views and arguments for each of the three authors about whom you are writing.
3. Opinion. Your opinion in the last paragraph of your answer. State your own opinion with a sentence that begins with “In my opinion,” where you then fill in the rest of the sentence with a clear statement of your opinion. Once you have done this, the rest of the last paragraph should be an explanation of why you have the opinion that you do, to support your opinion.
The authors are Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Birthmark); Lewis Thomas (The Wonderful Mistake); C. S. Lewis (That Hideous Strength)
