Analysis of Conflicts in Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' and Lois Lowry's 'The Giver'.

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ii Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Di dalam penulisan tugas akhir ini, saya menganalisis konflik psikologis dan

konflik sosial yang dialami oleh tokoh utama dalam novel Brave New World karya

Aldous Huxley dan The Giver karya Lois Lowry. Analisis konflik-konflik tersebut

memperlihatkan bagaimana kedua pengarang menggunakan konflik untuk

mengangkat suatu tema mengenai kebebasan, yaitu adanya pembatasan kebebasan

dalam suatu masyarakat atau kelompok yang dilakukan oleh pemerintah.

Konflik sosial dan konflik psikologis di dalam Brave New World ini berkisar

pada bagaimana Bernard Marx sebagai tokoh utama memiliki perbedaan cara

pandang mengenai kebebasan dengan tokoh-tokoh lainnya. Di dalam The Giver,

konflik terjadi di antara tokoh utama Jonas dengan the Giver sebagai perwakilan

pemerintah karena mereka memiliki cara pandang yang berbeda tentang kebebasan.

Konflik dan keadaan dalam novel ini lebih mengarah pada fiksi sains yang

menggambarkan sesuatu yang terjadi di masa depan.

Kebebasan sebagai tema yang diangkat dalam kedua novel ini mungkin

merupakan hal sepele tapi sangatlah berperan dalam kehidupan seseorang. Disadari

ataupun tidak, pembatasan kebebasan terhadap seseorang ataupun kelompok tertentu,

baik dalam sebuah negara, kelompok maupun keluarga sering terjadi. Jadi melalui

tema tersebut, pembaca diharapkan dapat menyadari pentingnya kebebasan

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30 Maranatha Christian University

APPENDICES

Synopsis of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

Brave New World is a story about people who live in future London of year

2495. All people in this world are divided into five castes, which are Alphas, Betas,

Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Each caste is used as a measure of each member‟s

intelligence and physical growth. Everyone in this world is forced to consume soma,

a kind of drugs which can make the users enjoy sexual activity.

Bernard Max, the protagonist, has an inferiority complex Alpha Plus. He

wants to go against the social norm in his society, because he knows that it is bad for

the community. Bernard dislikes soma because it is different from his principles.

Thomas Ford as the leader of society punishes Bernard by reassigning him to Iceland

as a result of Bernard‟s disobedience about antisocial beliefs.

When Bernard and Lenina are in New Mexico, they meet John, who is known

as Savage Reservation. They finally find out that John is Thomas‟ son. Bernard

realises that New Mexico is the real proof of the bad condition of the society.

Bernard and John decide go back to London and take revenge to Thomas with their

anti social beliefs. They have philosophical arguments, which results in John‟s

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31 Maranatha Christian University Synopsis of Lois Lowry’s The Giver

The Giver is a story about Jonas, who lives in a futuristic society that has

eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. In that place there is no competition and

everyone looks and acts basically the same, because the society is the one who

establishes all the choices. Everything has been arranged by the society from infancy

until in the end the people will be “released” from the society. In the community,

release is the same as death, but most people think that after release there is another

life. Citizens who break the rules or fail to adapt properly to the society's codes of

behavior will also be released.

When Jonas celebrates his 12th birthday, he is given an assignment of

receiving memory at the Ceremony of Twelve. The Receiver is the sole keeper of the

community‟s collective memory. Jonas receives all the memories of the past, good

and bad, and also learns about color, feeling hurt and happy from the current

Receiver, who is called the Giver. Jonas does not take the „pills‟, which enable

people to repress their feeling, and also the reason why he is different from the

others.

Meanwhile, Gabriel, who has trouble sleeping through the night is about to be

released by the society. Jonas wants to change the condition in the community so he

runs away from that place, taking Gabriel with him in order to give back the

memories to the people in the community. They run away from their place until they

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32 Maranatha Christian University Biography of Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born on July 26, 1894 in Godalming, Surrey,

England. He was an English writer. In 1911, Huxley almost went blind because of

the illness of keratitis punctata.

Huxley graduated from Balliol College, Oxford in 1916 with first class

honors. He completed his first (unpublished) novel at the age of seventeen and

started writing seriously at early twenty. His earlier works Brave New World (1932)

and Eyeless in Gaza were strongly influenced by F. Matthias Alexander, an

Australian actor who developed educational technique, and included him as a

character in Eyeless in Gaza.

In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, California together with his family. In

Hollywood Huxley wrote several novels like After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

(1939) and The Perennial Philosophy (1945). He also became a Hollywood writer,

which put him in touch with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

In 1960 Huxley was diagnosed with cancer and in his deteriorating health, he

wrote the Utopian novel Island. In early 1939 he had an extensive association with

the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded and headed by Swami

Prabhavananda. Aldous Huxley died in 1963.

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33 Maranatha Christian University Biography of Lois Lowry

Lois Ann Hammersburg, known as Lois Lowry, was born on March 20, 1937

in Honolulu, Hawaii. The death of Helen, her older sister in 1962 made Lois write

her first book A Summer to Die, which was published in 1977. Lowry needs to move

to several places because of her father‟s job as an army dentist.

In 1950 Lois attended Curtis High School and in 1952 she entered Packer

Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights, New York to finish her high school. In

1954 she entered Brown University. In 1956 she got married with Donald Lowry, a

U.S. Navy officer. They had four children, 2 daughters and 2 sons. She completed

her degree in English literature from the University of Maine in Portland in 1972.

In 1977 Lois and her husband decided to divorce. In 1979 she began her

Anastasia series of books with Anastasia Krupnik. She wrote several more books,

including Number the Stars in 1989 and The Giver in 1993. Many of her works deal

with somber topics, but she managed to mix the comic and tragic elements skillfully

in a way that made them enticing to readers both young and old. Her son Grey was

killed in the crash of his fighter plane in 1995. It was the most difficult day of her life

and gave her some pressures.

Today Lois Lowry remains active by not only continuing to write and speak

at appearances, but also enjoying her time with her companion Martin Small at her

homes in Massachusetts and Maine.

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1 Maranatha Christian University

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Freedom is an important part of human life and it is always related to

happiness. People need freedom to achieve happiness. Aldous Huxley in Brave New

World and Lois Lowry in The Giver deal with this issue. In the two novels, freedom

is something that the protagonists try to achieve as freedom is being limited by the

government.

In Brave New World and The Giver, the protagonists are directly involved in

the government so that they know how the government limits and controls the

people. Both governments in the novels want to make a perfect world although in

reality a perfect world is an impossibility. Drugs are also used in both novels to

control people. Although both novels seem pessimistic, actually the novels teach

people to be watchful and they reveal how important freedom is.

The author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, is famous for works of

utopian and dystopian genre and Brave New World is his most famous work. “In

Brave New World Huxley portrays a society operating on the principles of mass

production and Pavlovian conditioning” (“Aldous Huxley”). His literary goal is to

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2 Maranatha Christian University analyse (Bakke). I agree with Bakke that “in his most popular of novels, Brave

New World, Huxley shows a grim and bleak view of a future utopia, most likely

reflecting his personal interpretation of where the world was going in 1932.”

Huxley’s work is an illustration of what may happen in the future and to warn

people about it.

The second novel that I am going to discuss is The Giver by Lois Lowry.

“Some of Lowry's works have been controversial because they tackle difficult

subject matter” (“Lois Lowry”). The Giver is one of her most famous works. The

novel is known as “rich in levels of meaning, so daring in complexity of symbol

and metaphor, so challenging in the ambiguity of its conclusion, that we are left

with all of our neat little everyday categories and judgments hanging useless”

(Lord). The Giver is also criticized as “the book was a real eye opener and really

made you think of the possibilities for tomorrow” (“A Critique of The Giver”).

In my major thesis, I am going to analyse the social and inner conflicts in

Brave New World and The Giver using formalism. Conflict itself is defined as

“the opposition of persons or forces upon which the action depends in drama and

fiction” (Shaw 91) and Stewart states that “Conflict is not limited to physical

altercation, but involves any plot twist, turn or ploy that causes emotional,

spiritual or physical distress” (Chaze). There are three kinds of conflict which are

elemental or physical, social, and internal or psychological conflicts. Elemental or

physical conflict is defined as “a struggle between man and the physical world”

(Shaw 91); social conflict is defined as “a struggle between man and man” (Shaw

91); and internal or psychological conflict is defined as “a struggle between

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3 Maranatha Christian University conflicts in these novels are I personally think that analysing conflict is something

interesting for me and I would like to analyse it deeper in order to find out how

social and inner conflicts of the protagonist could emphasize the issue of the

author in both of the novels. On top of that, I would analyse the conflicts that have

happened to the protagonists, the cause of the conflicts, and the resolution of the

conflicts.

Statement of the Problem

The statements of the problem are as follows:

1. What are the social and inner conflicts found in each novel?

2. What are the causes of the conflicts?

3. How are the conflicts resolved?

Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study are as follows:

1. To show the social and inner conflicts found in each novel.

2. To show the causes of the conflicts.

3. To show how the conflicts are resolved.

Method of Research

The method of research that I use in my thesis is library research. First of

all, I read the two novels which are going to be analysed. Then, I browse some

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4 Maranatha Christian University search for literary criticism. Finally, I draw some conclusion of what has been

discussed.

Organization of the Thesis

The thesis consists of four chapters, preceded by the Acknowledgments,

the Table of Contents, and the Abstract. Chapter One is the Introduction, which

consists of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the

Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis.

Chapter Two is the Analysis of Social and Inner Conflicts in Brave New World,

followed by Chapter Three, which is the Analysis of Social and Inner Conflicts in

The Giver. Chapter Four is the conclusion of the two previous chapters, followed

by the Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain the synopsis of each

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

Having analysed The Giver by Lois Lowry and Brave New World by

Aldous Huxley, I conclude that all conflicts are related to freedom. There are

three social conflicts and two inner conflicts in both of the novels that involve the

protagonists. All conflicts concern about freedom and are related to the

government or the society. Both novels reveal that freedom is an important thing

in people’s life. Without freedom, people’s life will be restricted and yet to get

freedom, one sometimes need to make sacrifices, as to what happens to Jonas. He

gets his freedom but he cannot meet his family and friends again.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the social conflicts show that it is

difficult to have freedom. Later, some social conflicts are resolved because the

protagonist agrees with the other party but some others are not resolved because

both parties hold on to their beliefs. An example of a resolved social conflict is

when Bernard Marx and Lenina Crown are having a social conflict concerning

soma, and it is resolved because Marx gives in to Lenina and finally takes soma.

An example of an unresolved conflict is when Bernard Marx and Thomas Ford

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26 Maranatha Christian University The inner conflicts show that the protagonist experiences dilemmas in achieving

freedom but finally all inner conflicts are resolved. An example of an inner conflict is

when Bernard Marx experiences a dilemma concerning his obedience towards

Thomas Ford. However, in the end he decides to disobey Thomas Ford.

The same as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Lois Lowry’s The Giver

shows that it is difficult to have freedom. Later, some social conflicts are resolved

because the protagonist and the other parties can reach an agreement, but some

others are not resolved because both parties hold on to their own beliefs. An example

of a resolved social conflict is when Jonas and the Giver are having a social conflict

concerning memory. In the end, the social conflict is resolved because the Giver

finally gives in to Jonas. An example of an unresolved conflict is when Jonas and his

father are having a social conflict concerning Gabriel’s release. This social conflict is

not resolved because they cannot reach an agreement. The inner conflicts show that

the protagonist experiences dilemmas in achieving freedom, but finally all inner

conflicts are resolved because the protagonist decides to go against the other parties.

An example of an inner conflict is when Jonas experiences a dilemma concerning his

decision to keep his job as a memory receiver or not. The inner conflict is resolved

because Jonas finally decides to keep his job.

Other than similarities, there are also differences between Brave New World

and The Giver. In Brave New World, in fighting for freedom, the protagonist,

Bernard Marx depends much on a friend, John, which results in the defeat of the

protagonist by the government. However, in The Giver, the protagonist, Jonas fights

for freedom by himself, which results in his success in obtaining freedom. Another

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27 Maranatha Christian University ideas about freedom. It is shown in all social conflicts, in which Jonas, the

protagonist never gives in to other parties, whereas Bernard Marx in Brave New

World sometimes gives in to the other parties, for example when he finally gives in

to Lenina Crown and decides to take soma. The differences show that the

protagonists’ actions have a great impact on the result of what they fight for.

Another difference between Brave New World and The Giver is that Brave

New World is categorized as a dystopian novel, in which the society might seem to

be perfect because all the inhabitants are well fed or healthy or seemingly happy, yet

they are revealed to be profoundly flawed because they limit the intellectual or

emotional freedom of the individual, which then trigger the social and inner conflicts

among the characters. The novel features characters that awaken to the richness of

experience possible outside the confines of the society, but they are either destroyed

by the society before they can make any significant changes. I believe that this novel

functions as a warning to the reader: do not let this happen to your society.

On the other hand, The Giver is categorized as a utopian novel, in which the

society Lowry depicts in the novel is a perfect world as envisioned by its creators. It

has eliminated fear, pain, hunger, illness, conflict, and hatred, and all things that most

of us would like to eliminate in our own society. But, in order to maintain the peace

and order of their society, the citizens of the community in the novel have to submit

to strict rules governing their behavior, their relationships, and even their language.

Individual freedom and human passions add a chaotic element to society and even

the memory of freedom and passion, along with the pain and conflict that human

choice and emotion often cause, must be suppressed. In effect, the inhabitants of the

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28 Maranatha Christian University pleasures that our own society values, which trigger the social and inner conflicts

among the characters.

Finally, I am of the opinion that it is better to depend on oneself than

depending on others, just like what Jonas does in achieving freedom. I also believe

that anything is going to be possible when one has strong principles and holds firmly

to what one believes in. Finally, I conclude that any conflicts regarding freedom

might take place anywhere: at work, among friends and even in the level of

government. Resolutions may happen only when the parties finally agree with each

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Cobuild, Collins. Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary. 5th ed. Glasgow: HarperCollins. 2006

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literature Terms. New York: Mc.Graw-Hill: Inc. 1972.

Internet Websites

“A Critique of The Giver.” 123 help me!. 2009. 22 Aug. 2009 < http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=16440>

“Aldous Huxley.” Wikipedia. 2009. 9 Oct. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley>

Bakke, Brock. “Themes in Aldous Huxley’s Life and Literature.” Somaweb. 2009. 22 Oct. 2009

<http://somaweb.org/w/sub/ThemesInHuxley.html>

Chaze, Theresa. “Writing Tip: Creating Conflict by Theresa Chaze.” A. F. Stewart's Blog. 2008. 24 Oct. 2009

< http://afstewartblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/writing-tip-creating-conflict-by.html >

“Lois Lowry.” Wikipedia. 2009. 9 Oct. 2009

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Lowry>

Lord, Elyse. “The Giver (Criticism).”Answers. 2009. 22 Oct. 2009 < http://www.answers.com/topic/the-giver-novel-7>

Primary Texts

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Essex: Longman, 1932.