Creating a sustained idea for Module C essay

[ccarolineb]

Question: “Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse for the absolute truth”

Evaluate this statement with detailed reference to I Met the Walrus and Brave New World.

I have yet to include I Met the Walrus but already struggling with how to write a paragraph that doesn't seem disjointed and messy with ideas. This is my essay so far, any feedback will be greatly appreciated


Representation of events, people, and situations are constructed and manipulated to convey ideas, and project these perspectives to an audience. The depiction of an idea depends on an author’s individual political, religious, and personal views, along with their experiences, ‘which they confuse for the absolute truth’. Thus, the plausibility of this quote becomes clear in explaining how representation is unique to the individual and their own perspectives.

Brave New World is a prose fiction novel written by Aldous Huxley. The nature of this novel alone suggests the validity of the above quote, in that it is a futuristic text which combines theories of psychological manipulation, reproductive technology and sleep conditioning to create an ideal society. This notion of an ‘ideal’ society is, in itself, a representation of how the world is from the point of view of the author; Aldous Huxley.

Huxley presents the truth behind the ‘perfect’ world. Through his development of the artificial reproduction system, the realisation that the society in Brave New World is highly subjected to the beliefs of the World Controllers becomes very evident; the citizens have very little to no control over their representation. The ideas of the World Controllers that all humans must belong to a very specific group in society have shaped the way that the world in Brave New World functions. A major feature of the society Huxley speaks about is sleep conditioning and psychological manipulation. Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons are played repetitive teachings to condition the respective caste to view themselves and other castes in a particular way. These recordings have been determined by the 10 World Controllers, who have envisioned the world in a particular way and constructed a society where everyone around them adheres to their vision, and fears veering otherwise. The methods used in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre extend to more than just sleep conditioning the artificially produced fetuses, with a more confronting method of teaching Delta infants to associate roses and books with terror and pain. In the tour taking place in Chapter Two, the Director very proudly shows off this method to the students, whereby young unsuspecting infants are placed in a room with an electrified floor, and when they approach a book or rose purposely laid out on the floor to invite them, they will undergo up to 200 lessons with loud noises and electric shocks to teach them to beware of the objects. “A love of nature keeps no factories busy”, the D.H.C very evidently sees society to be one large machine, with the sole purpose of achieving efficiency in manufacturing and maximum consumption, evident by the line "But simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport.”. However, his ill-judged belief that a synergy between the social classes will only be achieved by presenting the world in a different way to each caste has lead to the conclusion that each representation he manipulates in the conditioning process has become his own interpretation, not the individual understandings of the social classes. This is his own work, from his own point of view of how the world should work. Very simply put, the castes are conditioned to view themselves how the government within BNW want them to be represented.

Examining a different aspect, this statement can be viewed in terms of Huxley’s writing. Brave New World is essentially, a representation of an anti-utopian world manipulated by Huxley for the purpose of illustrating to his readers the fate of the world when populations are subconsciously conforming to trends of mass consumption and physical gratification. Aldous Huxley delves beyond the surface of appearances, and creates meaning and depth to what really happens in a society where everything appears to be perfect and uniform. His decision to utilise representation as both a disguise, and insight into the truth behind it creates a multidimensional understanding. At the time of writing and publishing, the Great Depression was well underway. At a similar point in time, Henry Ford made consumerism history by introducing the concept of the assembly line. The constant reiteration of ‘ending, not mending’ in Brave New World was very deliberately included to mirror the historical context of the novel. In addition to this, the period now dubbed ‘the roaring twenties’ saw excessive wealth and extravagant parties, characterised by dancing flapper girls and artistic dynamism. Sexual pleasure and alcohol became the numbing reality of instant gratification and relaxed morals in this time. Huxley experienced this first hand and this evidently played a great role in inspiring him to write his novel. During their time together in the elevator, Henry Foster notices Bernard’s glumness, and offers him a gramme of Sona. This interaction brings to light the heavy dependence on the drug Soma that the population of the World State has come to have, “One cubic centre metre cures ten gloomy sentiments”. The consistent references to ‘erotic play’ and sexual activity also demonstrates the ability of the World State to condition the population to accept and treat things that may have generally been considered as immoral and taboo, into more relaxed topics of conversation and a necessary part of life. The ability of the World State to take things like sexual activity and drug use, and represent them to be nothing more than a natural part of life, shows their political ability in taking their own point of view and representing differently to sway the perspectives of others. Soma and physical gratification in the novel constituted what was becoming completely normal in the society Huxley wrote of. He parodied the historical context of his time within Brave New World to show how life would be if man absently went along with everything that he was exposed to in his life by others around him, through the vision he portrays to be the futuristic reality of rigidly controlling government and heedless conformity. 

[jamonwindeyer]

Question: “Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse for the absolute truth”

Evaluate this statement with detailed reference to I Met the Walrus and Brave New World.

I have yet to include I Met the Walrus but already struggling with how to write a paragraph that doesn't seem disjointed and messy with ideas. This is my essay so far, any feedback will be greatly appreciated


Representation of events, people, and situations are constructed and manipulated to convey ideas, and project these perspectives to an audience. The depiction of an idea depends on an author’s individual political, religious, and personal views, along with their experiences, ‘which they confuse for the absolute truth’. Thus, the plausibility of this quote becomes clear in explaining how representation is unique to the individual and their own perspectives.

Brave New World is a prose fiction novel written by Aldous Huxley. The nature of this novel alone suggests the validity of the above quote, in that it is a futuristic text which combines theories of psychological manipulation, reproductive technology and sleep conditioning to create an ideal society. This notion of an ‘ideal’ society is, in itself, a representation of how the world is from the point of view of the author; Aldous Huxley.

Huxley presents the truth behind the ‘perfect’ world. Through his development of the artificial reproduction system, the realisation that the society in Brave New World is highly subjected to the beliefs of the World Controllers becomes very evident; the citizens have very little to no control over their representation. The ideas of the World Controllers that all humans must belong to a very specific group in society have shaped the way that the world in Brave New World functions. A major feature of the society Huxley speaks about is sleep conditioning and psychological manipulation. Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons are played repetitive teachings to condition the respective caste to view themselves and other castes in a particular way. These recordings have been determined by the 10 World Controllers, who have envisioned the world in a particular way and constructed a society where everyone around them adheres to their vision, and fears veering otherwise. The methods used in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre extend to more than just sleep conditioning the artificially produced fetuses, with a more confronting method of teaching Delta infants to associate roses and books with terror and pain. In the tour taking place in Chapter Two, the Director very proudly shows off this method to the students, whereby young unsuspecting infants are placed in a room with an electrified floor, and when they approach a book or rose purposely laid out on the floor to invite them, they will undergo up to 200 lessons with loud noises and electric shocks to teach them to beware of the objects. “A love of nature keeps no factories busy”, the D.H.C very evidently sees society to be one large machine, with the sole purpose of achieving efficiency in manufacturing and maximum consumption, evident by the line "But simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport.”. However, his ill-judged belief that a synergy between the social classes will only be achieved by presenting the world in a different way to each caste has lead to the conclusion that each representation he manipulates in the conditioning process has become his own interpretation, not the individual understandings of the social classes. This is his own work, from his own point of view of how the world should work. Very simply put, the castes are conditioned to view themselves how the government within BNW want them to be represented.

Examining a different aspect, this statement can be viewed in terms of Huxley’s writing. Brave New World is essentially, a representation of an anti-utopian world manipulated by Huxley for the purpose of illustrating to his readers the fate of the world when populations are subconsciously conforming to trends of mass consumption and physical gratification. Aldous Huxley delves beyond the surface of appearances, and creates meaning and depth to what really happens in a society where everything appears to be perfect and uniform. His decision to utilise representation as both a disguise, and insight into the truth behind it creates a multidimensional understanding. At the time of writing and publishing, the Great Depression was well underway. At a similar point in time, Henry Ford made consumerism history by introducing the concept of the assembly line. The constant reiteration of ‘ending, not mending’ in Brave New World was very deliberately included to mirror the historical context of the novel. In addition to this, the period now dubbed ‘the roaring twenties’ saw excessive wealth and extravagant parties, characterised by dancing flapper girls and artistic dynamism. Sexual pleasure and alcohol became the numbing reality of instant gratification and relaxed morals in this time. Huxley experienced this first hand and this evidently played a great role in inspiring him to write his novel. During their time together in the elevator, Henry Foster notices Bernard’s glumness, and offers him a gramme of Sona. This interaction brings to light the heavy dependence on the drug Soma that the population of the World State has come to have, “One cubic centre metre cures ten gloomy sentiments”. The consistent references to ‘erotic play’ and sexual activity also demonstrates the ability of the World State to condition the population to accept and treat things that may have generally been considered as immoral and taboo, into more relaxed topics of conversation and a necessary part of life. The ability of the World State to take things like sexual activity and drug use, and represent them to be nothing more than a natural part of life, shows their political ability in taking their own point of view and representing differently to sway the perspectives of others. Soma and physical gratification in the novel constituted what was becoming completely normal in the society Huxley wrote of. He parodied the historical context of his time within Brave New World to show how life would be if man absently went along with everything that he was exposed to in his life by others around him, through the vision he portrays to be the futuristic reality of rigidly controlling government and heedless conformity.

Hey Caroline! I've had a read of your essay so far and I'll give you some general feedback  I'd be happy to go into more depth, just post the essay into our Advanced Module Marking Thread and I'll jump on it! It does have a minimum post limit of 5, but you aren't far off that at all, hang around a bit and it will build up in no time 

The main piece of feedback I'd give would concern textual analysis. Essentially, what you are doing at the moment is recounting details from the text, and linking them to the theme you want to explore. This is not quite what is required here. What you need is analysis, which has four main elements:

- An example from the text
- A technique associated with this example
- An explanation of how the technique demonstrates/accentuates the theme you are exploring, and/or is linked to the context of the composer
- An analysis of what the audience learns about the theme as a result

Right now, you are only really ticking one, maybe one and a half, of these boxes.

Right now you are probably thinking, "Great, even more to try to squeeze into these paragraphs." The thing is, if you remove much of the plot detail you are going into (which is not necessary), you actually get much more room and you might find things get much less messy! You essentially set up the theme (similar to how you do at the start of that first big paragraph, but with greater detail), then say how each text demonstrates the theme, using the scaffold above. EG (I'm not adding a quote because I forget them from when I did this in Year 11, but...):

Huxley's juxtaposition of the emotive expression of the Savage, and the reserved sophistication of Mustafa Mond, offers the reader a metaphorical interplay of key aspects of humanity. A similar effect is achieved in "I Met the Walrus," where... . Further, Huxley's world space is undoubtedly reminiscent of context, as the impact of societal divisions in the text is heightened by allusions to... etc etc

Again, rusty because I don't know the text as well as I did in Year 11, but you get the idea. Short, punchy, no unnecessary plot details. It might seem a little messy, but if it is tied together with a clever topic sentence, the flow should be natural, based only on the concept you are exploring.

I hope this helps a little!!  You may also want to give this article a read, I wrote it about a month ago, it gives a run down of how to structure an essay. It might be helpful for you!

[ccarolineb]

thankyou for the tips! i took these into consideration and i just posted a longer and revised version on the thread you advised