Chapter Five in Bressler’s Literary Criticism was very long, and at the same time
complex. Structuralism and Post-Structuralism both resemble New Criticism in a
way, for they focus on the text and text alone in order to comprehend the
messages conveyed by the author. However, unlike New Criticism, the first two
approaches may lead to other critical approaches, which created this whole new
perception. Aldous Huxley’s popular novel, Brave
New World, may also be approached with this method as it involves Derrida’s
idea of binary opposition and also the narrative functions that Propp proposes.
The novel opens with Huxley introducing numerous binary
opposites of the story. One of such is the caste system; how humans are
separated into Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Though there are
five groups instead of two, the basic idea is the same, for they portray the
contrast between the privileged to underprivileged. Above all, the main
comparison shown in the story is the civilized and uncivilized. According to
the society in the book, there is a distinct line between those who are
artificially decanted and others who still remain viviparous. The first group
of people, living in more scientifically advanced community, stands as the
superior population. The other, such as John the Savage, who was born and lived
in the Reservations exist as minorities. By illustrating the binary opposites,
Huxley conveys how the two groups cannot coexist; that they need to be
separated by a strong force. The existence of binary opposites and its
significance in the story shows how the novel revolves around
deconstructionism.
Additionally, phonocentrism may be spotted everywhere in
the Brave New Worldian society. As infants, Delta populations are trained using
hypnopaedia and are taught to hate books. As a result, in their society,
written leisure and materials do not exist, they live mainly through
conversing. Bressler defines phonocentrism as privileging speech over writing, and
the idea can be seen in the conditioning center in London. Furthermore, this
point is proved as none of the people living in civilized society are willing
to read or write. Instead of reading, they choose to doze off using soma; when
they get spare time, they would rather go to experience feelies. In the end,
only minorities are ones who are willing to read and write. Helmholtz stands as
one of the irregular individual in the Brave
New World as he enjoys working with literature.
The past two points proved how the novel orbited around
the idea of Deconstructionism. The idea of narratology that is available in the
story proves how Brave New World may
also be considered a Structuralism novel. Although the novel does not follow
Propp’s thirty-one points every one after another, it still vaguely pursues the
points. John the Savage lacks multiple things when he first appears in the
story. He desires Lenina’s love and wishes to see the society in which his
mother had grown. In order to fulfill his goals, he abandons the Reservation
life, and commits to leave and join the community. He successfully joins the
community, however, it turns out that his idea of society and reality does not
match, leading to another missing component in his life. If Propp’s method is
directly followed, John is to overcome the quest, prove Mustapha Mond’s idea of
totalitarian state wrong, convince the others, and continue living. On the other hand, John is unable to enforce
his beliefs, and commits suicide. When viewing only the first section of John’s
life, Propp’s thirty-one points are directly followed. It is what happens after
that leads to him death.
Though leaning slightly towards the Deconstructionism
ideas, Brave New World may also be viewed from Structuralist’s point of view. Binary
oppositions exists, some of them are even the direct factors that the conflicts
roots from. Chapter Five was very difficult to understand, however, viewing my
favorite book from a new perspective was fun and inspiring.
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