Double Entry Journal - Brave New World

literary devices are used to explain that the machines of the World State must be turned in order for the people to survive. It is also mentioned that with the old custom of natural reproduction and religion, it would not be possible for the people to keep turning the machine, which is used to represent the World State society’s developed technology. The author wrote this part of the novel to criticize the World State and its dependency on machines, and to explain the necessity of the machines in order to avoid the disastrous consequences when they are stopped. The very beginning of this excerpt makes it clear that the machines of the World State have significant connection to the survival of the people in it. Through the first two sentences, ‘The machine turns, turns and must keep on turning-forever. It is death if it stands still,’ Aldous Huxley emphasizes the necessity of machines in the World State by using symbolism and repetition. The word ‘machine’ in the first sentence symbolizes the highly developed technology of the World State, which is the basis of the three mottos of the society, ‘Stability, Identity, and Community.’ Then, the word ‘turn’ is repeated several times in the sentence, emphasizing the importance of the operation of machines. In the second sentence, it is said that the machine ‘must’ keep on turning ‘forever’. This diction of using distinct words emphasizes the necessity of machines and implies that the result of stopping the machines would be very negative, perhaps a disaster. In the following sentence, ‘it is death if it stands still,’ a metaphor is seen. The ‘death’ mentioned in this sentence refers to the death of the World State’s people, showing the significance of the machines by stating the consequence of stopping them. The purpose of using a metaphor instead of a simile may be to highlight the importance of the machines in a more direct and explicit way. By starting this passage with the solid information about the relationship between machines and the people of the World State, the author endeavors to depict the crucial rule of machines that they must keep on turning to avoid what might happen if they don’t. The idea that the people of World State are highly dependent on the machines is suggested through the following sentences. The author moves straight on to a short story of what happens if the machines are stopped. He uses the word ‘scrabbled’, which is often used to describe a scratching action, to depict the great population of the World State. Then, in short sentences it is listed what occurs when the machines are turned and stopped. A short sentence leads; ‘The wheels began to turn.’, ‘Stop all the wheels.’ And the results follow it; ‘In a hundred and fifty years there were two thousand millions.’, ‘in a hundred and fifty weeks there are once more only a thousand million;’ This style of listing short sentences excludes all of the detailed explanation of the process between the cause and effect, effectively emphasizing both. From the sentences, ‘Stop all the wheels. In a hundred and fifty weeks there are once more only a thousand millions; a thousand thousand thousand men and women have starved to death,’ it is noticeable that the author is trying to purport the disastrous consequence if the machines are stopped. This shows that the people of the World State cannot survive without the machines turning. Repetition is used once again with the word ‘thousand’ emphasizing the number of people who lost their lives due to the halt of the machines. Therefore it is notable that Huxley is alluding his criticism toward the over-dependence on machines. In the last paragraph of this extract, the author mentions some factors that the people of World State had to abandon in order to keep the stable society of operating machines. In the first few sentences, Huxley’s use of syntax is prominent. For instance in the sentence, ‘Crying: my baby, my mother, my only, only love,’ the words after the colon, ‘my baby, my mother, only love,’ are what do not exist in the World State. This sentence is followed by the phrases, ‘groaning: My sin, my terrible God,’ mentioning ‘God’ which is another factor the World State had given up. Then, words such as ‘screaming’, ‘muttering’ and ‘bemoaning’ are used to form a desperate voice in explaining how these emotions and practices of the past interfere the people from tending the wheels. The people of World State had chosen stability, which is gained through the consistent turning of machines, over having ordinary families and eternal love. And by repeating the word ‘my’, the author maximizes the contradiction between the two concepts of ‘everyone belongs to everyone’ and ‘one can only have one eternal love and family’. Point 1: necessity of machine Point 2: people’s dependency on machines, how their survival is related to them Point 3: how people had to abandon old customs of religion and ordinary family