Brave New World- iSearch Blog Post #1

The passage I chose is, “Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches…” This passage or a quote appears repetitively in Chapter 3, and I think they symbolize how in the book, people are encouraged to throw things away instead of fixing them. Same with problems, they are encouraged to forget about them, instead of finding a solution, which I think makes their lives very simple. Even further, since they aren’t really given choices of emotion in the book, it made me wonder what they were living for, and the meaning of life for them. Even their choices of career were made for them, and for lower castes, they have no choice but to choose from the list of jobs they are “supposed” to do. Even if they were to try harder than higher castes to apply for a job, it wouldn’t be possible for them. I think it somehow relates to modern society where in some countries, some people are ignored and have no possibility of doing things they want to, even though they try their hardest. Or sometimes, they can’t try hard because of lack of education, which requires money. I think the passage, “The more stitches, the less riches…” symbolizes that the more people try to fix things, the less power and money would be there for them and the government. It would become harder for the government to control the people, if they began to fix things instead of taking ‘soma’, and start to have complains and question about their lives.

Also, in the book, people take soma, that has similar effects as a drug. When they assume that they aren’t able to control their emotions, they take soma, which solves the problem for them. This represents people escaping reality. And with them unable to control their own emotions, it makes it easier for the government to control over them. I think this really relates to one of the themes of the book, which I think might be close to ‘Control’. First I thought that the people had no choice but to follow instructions and the ‘fates’ of what they were supposed to do and be. However, as I was reading, I figured that the people actually let the government, or the ‘World Controllers’ to control them. It wasn’t that the people were being forced, and I think the people might be at fault, too for being too vulnerable. They didn’t question anything about their world (as far as I’ve read), how things were done. Although the government “made” them that way, it made me think about what people were doing when the world was changing. It made me wonder if everyone wanted the world to be this way. And if people knew what would happen in the future, would them have tried to change it?