Tuesday, October 19, 2010

We Will Always be Mending

"Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending, ending is better..." (Huxley 54)

This particular line immediately caught my eye while reading. Although it is intended to be a reference to throwing out old clothing, there is no doubt that more lies beneath the surface. This is only one of the disturbing mottos being ingrained into the younger generations of society in the Elementary Class Consciousness.

Just the mere fact that a room full of children are being brought up together, yet so alone, not bound by any familiar characteristics such a family, with just a general primitive need for promiscuity to fill the voids of  their barren souls, is a powerful image in itself. One cannot imagine a world which such a life exists, yet Huxley describes it so eloquently startling. Although it is all but an utopia of splendor, it is clearly a warning to future generations, and it is meant to fire a red flag in one's head as soon as the unsettling  concept is fully processed.

In regards to the words being repeated countless times so that the young minds must soak in every syllable,  they are no more comforting than the situation they are presented in. Huxley emphasizes these five words to identify the problem, and provide a solution.  Ending something completely, as in how the very social structure of the world has been abolished in the novel is troubling, and is no way to live. The human race is constantly mending itself socially, and always will be . Although the people of the novel believe that they have ended the social ways of society, in reality they have only mended it temporarily, for it will always change, and not even with the removal of the basic provisions of a social network, will the human race falter. Therefore "ending is better than mending" is a faulty statement, that Huxley uses to show the pure ignorance of the people, for they do not realize that they can never put a limit on their own potential.

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