Rough Draft

Hey so im quite sick but i put together this so you guys will have something to work with, hopefully i will be better by tomorrow but please forward all advice to me so we can get the final in on time

In many traditional religions, God is a figure that gives comfort, is trustworthy, is the Creator of mankind and has many other supernatural characteristics. He is the only thing or being that can bring true fulfillment. While many people believe in God, believers are lessening all the time. People have but their trust is material items, leaving their religious beliefs behind. We are persuaded by media that superficial things are able to bring comfort while this is truly, only temporary. In Brave New World, Huxley uses symbolism, word choice and contrast to show the concept of God being replaced with Ford to warn the reader about the negative effects of replacing religion with superficial pleasures. This occurs due to the materialism that is represented by Ford.

Huxley uses both God and Ford as symbols. God represents old religious customs that are no longer part of the World State. The people on the reservation still worship God, because their culture still values spirituality and emotion. But in the World State, Ford has replaced God as the accepted deity. Because Henry Ford was the inventor of assembly line production, Huxley uses him to represent industrialization and the concept of efficient manufacturing. The World State’s society is very focused on efficient production of material goods. They use the assembly line concept in every aspect of life, even the creation of life – “The principle of mass production at last applied to biology” (Huxley, 6). Ford is their deity because he represents these principles. The assembly line principle represents materialism. Ford first applied it to cars, which were a luxury item. In the World State, it allows people to lead perfectly conditioned, content lives, without families or the need to question their situations. It turns them away from emotional needs, and makes them more focused on material items. By using Ford as a symbol of the assembly line principle, and showing how the principle causes materialism, Huxley makes Ford into a symbol of materialism.

Huxley uses contrast between the society in the world state and the savage reservation to show directly how materialism has replaced religion. The savage reservation is a very primitive form of standard American life as far as values are concerned, religion is a huge part of the society and the source of purpose for the people living in it. This is put in stark contrast to the World State that has no religion, instead they worship the industial ideas of Henery Ford and that lives can be manufactued and maintained just like a Model T assembly line that Mr. Ford is most famous for. These two lifestyles contrast eachother in almost everyway, where on the reservation pain and suffering are thought a natural part of life the World state has eliminated it compleley. This contrast is best expressed by the conversation between John the Savage and Mustapha Mond the controller, John expresses what he values, "I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger" (Huxley 240). Mustapha Mond replys to this by saying that, "God isn't compatatible with machinery...we prefer to do things comfortably" (Huxley 234,240) This shows that the contrast between the reservation and world state is chaos verses organization, each has there value but they cannot coexist, just as the two worlds cannot.

Through the replacement of God with Ford, Huxley demonstrates his negative view towards superficiality. He warns of the risks our society is facing when becoming part of this materialistic world. Huxley uses symbolism, word choice and contrast to show the possible outcome of a society that has leaned more onto the temporary fulfillment of material items rather than leaning on God's power, comfort and undying love for his creation. In the end, the reader is faced to question their life, are they headed to a depressive downfall as the materialistic characters in Brave New World? Or are they heading towards the eternal life only God can bring?