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Situational Irony
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Huxley's style is heavily dependent on contrast—whether through irony, oxymoron, paradox, or metaphor, every stylistic choice exists for the purpose of holding a mirror up to modern society. Society's problems in Brave New World reflect the horrors of our own. To further achieve this unsettling style, Huxley will often switch between character perspectives very quickly, or jump straight from dialogue into narration.
Chapter 3 is perhaps the most extreme example of this narrative strategy: in order to simulate the oppressive nature of this society, Huxley alternates very quickly between four different scenes, all occurring in different places at once. The overwhelming nature of this writing style mimics the effects of propaganda breaking down the mind. As the chapter goes on, the number of lines written before switching perspectives dwindles. Take, for example, the following excerpt:
‘Glum, Marx, glum.’ The clap on the shoulder made him start, look up. It was that brute Henry Foster. ‘What you need is a gramme of soma.’
‘All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects.’
‘Ford, I should like to kill him!’ But all he did was to say, ‘No, thank you,’ and fend off the proffered tube of tablets.
‘Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology.’
‘Take it,’ insisted Henry Foster, ‘take it.’ ‘Stability was practically assured.’
In this passage, by alternating very rapidly between Bernard and Henry's conversation and Mustapha Mond's monologue, the reader receives information about soma on multiple fronts: from Mustapha Mond (the classic propaganda lines) and from Bernard and Benito (the real-life effects of this propaganda on the population). The passage is a bit overwhelming and disorienting to read, and that is Huxley's stylistic goal: to mirror the strategies of propaganda while describing its literal effects.
Related Themes:
