The Satisfaction of Naïve

Naivety is a mask we often use to avoid facing reality. We prefer to be ignorant to the facts in order to preserve our instilled ideals and avoid change. Naivety however is often lead by the illusion of happiness and is precisely the case in Brave New World. The characters avoid reality with drugs, false conceptions, and the idea that they are satisfied with who they are. They fail to desire more and lack ambition to get ahead. They are forever condemned to be mediocre and predisposed to be ok with it.

The majority hasn’t seen the savage world with their own eyes, and the desire to do so is abnormal if not punishable. They know only to fear the outskirts of their futuristic utopia and to be ok with knowing nothing about them. Their satisfaction and ultimate happiness is based on ignorance of the unknown. They have no desire to learn beyond what is fed to them and thus never learn more, “The D.H.C. looked at him nervously. There were those strange rumors of old forbidden books hidden in a safe in the controllers study. Bibles, poetry--- Ford knew that…. “It’s all right, Director.” He said in a tone of faint derision, “I won’t corrupt them.”” The government keeps works of literature and other works of intellect that encourage free thought hidden from the citizens and uses a drug to keep the citizens non-craving of the knowledge. This all goes towards maintaining the government’s goal, stability.

The characters are also naïve in the fact that they don’t understand the extent of dehumanization they are being put under. The mere fact that women are not allowed to have babies is proof that the people live without basic human rights; the right to create a family, “out of the realm of mere slavish imitation of nature into the much more interesting world of human invention.” The citizens however don’t know any better so they accept their instilled innate fate. They don’t seek love because they haven’t ben predisposed to get pleasure out of the feeling. They don’t have the ability to love or to be loved.

Naivety drives the characters happiness and allows them to accept their dehumanization. They are thus able to live happily in complete ignorant bliss.